Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, 1831-1839, part 2Gregg, Josiah
History
Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, 1831-1839, part 2
Gregg, Josiah
Mexico -- Description and travel; Santa Fe National Historic Trail; Southwest, New -- Description and travel
[19] Of these, the Pueblo of Zuñi has been celebrated for honesty and
hospitality. The inhabitants mostly profess the Catholic faith, but
have now no curate. They cultivate the soil, manufacture, and possess
considerable quantities of stock. Their village is over 150 miles west
of the Rio del Norte, on the waters of the Colorado of the West, and
is believed to contain between 1,000 and 1,500 souls. The "seven
Pueblos of Moqui" (as they are called) are a similar tribe living a
few leagues beyond. They formerly acknowledged the government and
religion of the Spaniards, but have long since rejected both, and live
in a state of independence and paganism. Their dwellings, however,
like those of Zuñi, are similar to those of the interior Pueblos, and
they are equally industrious and agricultural, and still more
ingenious in their manufacturing. The language of the _Moquis_ or
_Moquinos_ is said to differ but little from that of the
Navajoes.--GREGG.
_Comment by Ed._ For the Moki (properly Hopi), see Pattie's
_Narrative_, in our volume xviii, p. 130, note 64. The articles by
Frank H. Cushing in American Bureau of Ethnology _Reports_ first
directed attention to the Zuñi; consult also Bandelier, "Outline of
Documentary History of Zuñi Tribe," in _Journal of American Ethnology
and Archæology_ (Boston, 1891-94), iii.
[20] On the linguistic stocks of the pueblos, consult our volume xix,
p. 266, note 90 (Gregg).--ED.
[21] Bandelier, "Final Report," Archæological Institute of America
_Papers_, American Series, iii, pp. 121-136, considers the pueblo
population at the time of the Spanish conquest to have been about
twenty-five thousand. The present population of New Mexican pueblos,
exclusive of the Moki, is about nine thousand.--ED.
[22] The pueblo of Pecos was situated thirty miles southeast of Santa
Fé, and at the close of the seventeenth century had a population of
two thousand, being the largest pueblo in either New Mexico or
Arizona. It was visited as early as 1540 by Alvarado, a lieutenant of
Coronado. In 1598, the inhabitants rendered submission to Oñate, and a
mission was established among them for which a large church was built
in the seventeenth century, its ruins being still conspicuous. In the
revolt of 1680 the Pecos remained neutral; but soon thereafter decline
in numbers set in, and by 1837 but eighteen adults were left. A fever
swept away the majority of these, when in 1840 the remnant of five men
sold their lands to the government, and retired to their kinsmen at
Jemez. A son of the tribe was found in 1880 among the Mexicans of the
village of Pecos, a small, comparatively modern town. Bandelier
discredits the Montezuma myth, which he considers a Spanish-Mexican
importation. See Archæological Institute of America _Papers_, American
Series, i, pp. 110-125. He found among the ruins, however, evidences
of the existence of the sacred fire.--ED.
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