Indian Tribes of the American Southwest

The pre-Columbian history of the southwestern United States has been easier to trace than pre-columbian history of other regions for three reasons. 

• The arid nature of the land has made it vulnerable to erosion, exposing a wealth of Indian artifacts.
• The Spanish passed through the region in the 16th century, leaving detailed accounts of the people they encountered 300 years before the U.S. acquired that portion of the continent.
• Most of the pre-Columbian tribes have survived in the same region and have preserved many of the cultural traits of those pre-Columbian societies whom the Spanish encountered.[1] 

In this article, I’ll cover the four main ethnicities of Indians who inhabited the Southwest in the period immediately before European discovery. They included the Anasazi (Pueblos), the Hohokams, the Yumans, and the Athapascans—who include the Navajo and Apache.

The Anasazis

Around 200 A.D., the Anasazi culture began to develop in what is today considered the four corners region, marking the convergence of the states of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. 

The word Anasazi is from a Navajo word meaning “old peoples.”[2] The Anasazis lived at first in caves, but as time went by, they began building large communities in valleys, on mesa tops, and in cliff walls, some of which are in what is now Mesa Verde, CO, Kayenta, AZ, and Chaco Canyon, NM.[3] The Chaco Canyon settlement was the most impressive and may have had as many as eight thousand people at its zenith.[4] Their buildings were massive apartment complexes built congruously, sometimes four stories high and—depending on the size of the village—could contain anywhere from 20 to a 1,000 rooms.[5] This allowed the easy flow of people from one dwelling to the next without having to go outside, which was especially helpful during bad weather or an enemy attack.[6]

This level of cultural success—as with all cultural advances—came about because of a food surplus.  Although the soil was not especially conducive to agriculture, the Puebloans had learned to make the most of it through the advantage of a settled permanent lifestyle. Their staple crops that they grew in abundance were squash, beans, and corn. 

The need for rain and good harvests prompted the Puebloans to be extremely devout and ritualistic.[7] An essential part of their building complexes were kivas, which were round, underground rooms used for religious and ceremonial purposes. In the middle of the room was a hole in the ground, which represented the gateway to the underworld. One of their ceremonies consisted of a type of initiation into manhood. A young boy would be brought into the kiva where he would be confronted with a man in a mask, who would whip him to expunge the evil from him. He would then be let go with a strong warning to never tell anyone what had happened. The boy would later be brought back as a teenager and the episode would repeat itself; only this time, after the whipping, the masked man would reveal himself as the village shaman and the boy would then whip the shaman.[8]

Beginning in the 13th century, the Anasazi culture began to decline and the people slowly abandoned their large complexes. War and disease are usual candidates for civilization decline, but a 13th century drought in the arid Southwest may have contributed to their disappearance.[9] Whatever the cause, by the 15th century, the Anasazis had split into various smaller tribes, prompting the Spanish to call then the Pueblo Indians because they lived in villages. However, they never lost their essential culture or architectural style. Much of the architecture of the Anasazis had been preserved in the villages that the Pueblo tribes such as the Hopi inhabited, although never on as grand a scale.[10]

The Hohokams

The Hohokam culture existed in what is now central and southern Arizona, to the west and south of the city of Phoenix. The word Hohokam means “those who have gone” in the language of the Pimas, who are believed to be their descendants.[11] Gathering anthropological evidence on the Hohokams has proven difficult since they cremated their dead. Like the Anasazis who first lived below ground in caves, the Hohokams’s first homes were in pithouses. As time went by, they began building above-ground homes, which were inter-connected like those of their neighbors to the north. However, these villages never reached the level of sophistication as those of the Anasazi.[12] 

What is remarkable about this group of people is that they were excellent farmers, although they occupied the driest land in all of North America. There is no evidence to show that this area was ever any less dry or hot than it is today when it averages ten inches of rainfall a year and regularly reaches over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer.[13] The Hohokams were able to farm their land only by having massive amounts of canal irrigation. Theirs was the only canal irrigation that is known to have existed in pre-Columbia North America. One Hohokam canal found stretches three miles but is believed to have gone as far as 16 miles at one time based on the distance to the village known as Casa Grande where it is believed to have provided water.[14]

Another interesting aspect of Hohokam culture is the ball court, similar in shape and size to the Mayan ball court. According to Spanish descriptions of the Mayan game, points were accrued by passing a rubber ball through vertical rings without using one’s hands or feet.[15] The discovery of a rubber ball at a Hohokam site in Arizona has shown fairly conclusive evidence that there was cultural contact between the two peoples at least as early as 500-900 A.D.[16] 

It is possible, though, that Teotihuacan exerted considerable cultural control over the Mayan Empire in the same way that the Greeks had enormous cultural influence on the Roman Empire. It would make sense given the technological advancement of Teotihucan for that city to have extended its control—or at least its customs—north of the modern U.S.-Mexican border. 

While this would be difficult to prove conclusively, it is generally accepted among scholars that there was significant influence on the Hohokam culture by the native Mexican societies. Some have even theorized that the Hohokams themselves migrated north from Mexico and displaced the original inhabitants, who would have most likely been Yumans or Anasazis.[17] Whatever may be the case, around 600 A.D. the Hohokams began building their extensive irrigation canals, Mayan-like ball courts, and even pyramid-like earthen mounds that resembled the truncated pyramids of the Mesoamerican cultures. This would have occurred shortly after Teotihuacan’s zenith.[18]

Besides canals, the Hohokams also produced elaborate pottery and ornaments which they used for decoration as well as trade. They used lava to make utensils, tools, and weapons. One thing that sets them apart from the Anasazi is that there is little evidence of basket weaving among the them, which was something that the Anasazi specialized in from the times of our earliest knowledge of them.[19]

Around 1300 A.D., the Salado tribe which was part of the Pueblo culture moved from present-day, east-central Arizona right next to the Hohokams.[20] This produced a unique situation in that the two peoples lived in peace with one another without one dominating or assimilating the other. Furthermore, they also did not create a hybrid culture but maintained their own separate ways of life and cultures—each tribe no doubt maintaining its own separate language as if they had never come in contact with one another.[21] 

Mutual influence was not entirely lost however. The Saladoans worked on the irrigation canals along with the Hohokams. They also brought Puebloan architecture with them and constructed large, multi-storied houses like those of the Anasazi—only they adapted to the environment by using adobe brick rather than stone. The “Great House” at Casa Grande, Arizona was the largest built by the Saladoans, standing 40 feet tall, 40 feet wide, and 60 feet long, with three stories and 16 rooms.[22] Puebloan architectural traits of the Saladoan were picked up by the Hohokams who began building more above-ground houses with multiple rooms. Furthermore, old traits of Hohokam culture, including the ball game, began to slowly disappear.[23]

For unknown reasons, around 1400-1450, the Hohokam-Saladoan society broke apart as the Saladoans moved elsewhere, leaving behind their architectural accomplishments, which were soon abandoned by the Hohokams. By the time the Spanish arrived, the Pima tribe was living in the area in scattered pithouses, much the same way that the Hohokams had lived before achieving their cultural peak. Despite their meager housing arrangements, the pottery and irrigational farming practiced by the Pimas show that the Hohokams did not migrate or vanish into thin air, but simply suffered a decline of civilization much the same as the Anasazi experienced.[24] 

The real reason why the Saladoans left and the Hohokam culture diminished will probably continue to be a matter of speculation. However, the Pimas have an oral tradition that their ancestors destroyed the Hohokam mound villages, including Pueblo Grande, and overthrew their rulers because they had become arrogant. Many anthropologists interpret this to mean the Hohokam culture collapsed from internal unrest and splintered into smaller communities thereafter.[25]

The Athapascans

Today, the Navajo Indians are not only the largest tribe in the Southwest, but in the entire United States.[26]