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Keresan Indian
Family Tribe History
Keresan Family
(adapted from K'eres, the aboriginal name). A linguistic family of
Pueblo Indians including the inhabitants of several villages on the Rio
Grande, in north central New Mexico, between the Rito de los Frijoles
(where, before being confined to reservations, they joined the Tewa on the
north) and the Rio Jemez, as well as on the latter stream from the pueblo
of Sia to its month. The west division, comprising Acoma and Laguna
pueblos, are situated westward from the Rio Grande, the latter on the Rio
San Jose. Like the other Pueblo tribes of New Mexico, the Keresan Indians
maintain that they had their origin at the mythical Shipapu and that they
slowly drifted southward to the Rio Grande, taking up their abode in the
Rito de los Frijoles, or Tyuonyi, and constructing there the
cliff-dwellings found to-day excavated in the friable volcanic tufa. Long
before the coming of the Spaniards they had abandoned the Rito, and,
moving farther southward, separated into a number of autonomous village
communities. According to Coronado, who visited the "Quirix" province in
1540, these Indians occupied 7 pueblos; 40 years later Espejo found 5;
while in 1630 Benavides described the stock as numbering 4,000 people, in
7 towns extending 10 leagues along the Rio Grande.
According to Loew this stock constitutes two dialectic
groups, the first or Queres group comprising the inhabitants of Santo
Domingo, Santa Aria, Sia, San Felipe, and Cochiti; the other, the Sitsilne
or Kawaiko group, comprehending Laguna and Acoina with their outlying
villages.
The Keresan settlements are as follows, those inarked with an asterisk
being extinct:
Acoma,
Acomita,
Cieneguilla*,
Cochiti,
Cubero*
Cueva Pintada*
Gipuy*,
Haatze*
Hasatch,
Heashkowa*
Huashpatzena*
Kakanatzatia*,
Kashkachuti*, |
Katzinio*,
Kohasaya*,
Kowina*,
Kuapa*,
Kuehtya*,
Laguna,
Moquino*,
Paguate,
Pueblito,
Puerto (?)*,
Punyeestye,
Punvekia,
Pusityitcho, |
Rito*,
San Felipe,
Santa Ana,
Santo Domingo,
Seemunah,
Shumasitscha*,
Sia,
Siama,
Tapitsiama*,
Tipoti*,
Wapuchuseamma,
Washpashuka*,
Yapashi*. |
The following pueblos, now
extinct, were perhaps also Keresan: Alipoti, Ayqui, Cebolleta, Pelchiu
Pueblo del Encierro, San Mateo, Tashkatze, Tojagua
The books presented are for their
historical value only and are not the
opinions of the Webmasters of the site.
Handbook
of American Indians, 1906
Index of Tribes or Nations
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