Page:The American Indian.djvu/274

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THE AMERICAN INDIAN

system with society composed of chiefs and four grades of subjects; chiefs regarded as under the sacred influence of the Sun God, reminding us of Peru; political systems developed with strong confederacies; strong development of the calumet procedure; shamanism prominent.

9. Southwestern Area. In the Southwestern are a we have a small portion of the United States (New Mexico and Arizona) and an indefinite portion of Mexico. For convenience, we shall ignore all tribes south of the international boundary. Within these limits, we have what appear to be two types of culture: the Pueblos and the nomadic tribes, but from our point of view this distinction seems not wholly justifiable, since the differences are chiefly those of architecture and social grouping and not unlike those already noted in the Eastern Woodland area. On account of its highly developed state and its prehistoric antecedents, the Pueblo culture appears as the type.[1] The cultures of the different villages are far from uniform, but, ignoring minor variations, fall into three geographical groups: the Hopi (Walpi, Sichumovi, Hano [Tewa], Shipaulovi, Mishongnovi, Shungopovi, and Oraibi); Zuñi (Zuñi proper, Pescado, Nutria, and Ojo Caliente); and the Rio Grande (Taos, Picuris, San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Pojoaque, Nambé, Jemez, Pecos, Sandia, Isleta—all of Tanoan stock; San Felipe, Cochiti, Santo Domingo, Santa Ana, Sia, Laguna, and Acoma—Keresan stock. The culture of the whole may be characterized first by certain traits not yet found in our survey of the continent; viz., the main dependence upon maize and other cultivated foods (men did the cultivating and weaving of cloth instead of women, as above); the use of a grinding stone, or metate, instead of a mortar; the art of masonry; loom or upward weaving; cultivated cotton as textile material; pottery decorated in color; a unique type of building; and the domestication of the turkey. These certainly serve to sharply differentiate this culture.

While the main dependence was placed on vegetable food there was some hunting; the eastern villages hunted buffalo and deer, especially Taos. The most unique hunting weapon

  1. Goddard, 1913. I; Hough, 1915. I.