Prehistoric and History Page 2
At the time of contact, the Puebloan people were largely aggregated along the Rio Grande river in northern New Mexico although some groups, such as the Hopi and the Zuni, were found further to the west away from the major watercourses. These geographical differences resulted in differences in how European contact impacted the people. While the Europeans were drawn to the lush, irrigable Rio Grande river valley, they had little use for or interest in the arid regions where Hopi and Zuni were situated. Thus, the pueblos located in the Rio Grande region were impacted to a much larger degree by contact than were the Hopi and Zuni. In particular, these eastern pueblos received the brunt of the Spanish attempts to eradicate their religion. The eastern pueblos responded by adopting the Catholic religion, but by continuing to practice their indigenous rites in secret (primarily in their underground kivas). This system—where both Catholic and traditional religious systems exist, but are practiced in two totally different spheres- is known as compartmentalism. The western pueblos were less influenced by Catholicism, and after the Pueblo Revolt they discarded most of the Catholic veneer and returned to their indigenous religion.
Langage Groups
There are four different linguistic stocks represented by the Puebloan languages. These are Uto-Aztecan (spoken by the Hopi), Zuni (spoken by the Zuni), Keresan (spoken by several villages located along the Rio Grande and to its west), and the Tanoan languages (Tiwa, Tewa, and Towa), spoken by a variety of pueblos located along the Rio Grande and elsewhere in northern New Mexico. These four different language stocks contain mutually unintelligible languages.
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