Page 47 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Southwest USA & National Parks

THE HIST OR Y OF THE SOUTHWEST  45

Hopi Mesas and Acoma Pueblo
The Hopi villages of Old Oraibi and Walpi, and
the Acoma Pueblo perch on high mesas in
northeastern Arizona and northern New Mexico.
Dated to AD 1150, they are believed to be
America’s oldest continually occupied settlements.
The Ancestral Puebloan forebears of the Hopi and
Acoma peoples arrived between AD 1100 and
1300, a period known as the “Gathering of the
Clans.” The first to arrive was the Bear Clan, from
Mesa Verde. Others came from Canyon de Chelly,
Chaco Canyon, the cliff dwellings of Keet Seel, and
Betatakin in the Navajo National Monument. Acoma pueblo, New Mexico (see p221)

tribal lands. Messages came back describing The Colony of New Mexico
villages that Marcos identified as the Without gold, the Spanish lost interest until
fabled kingdom of gold, or Cibola. The Juan de Oñate’s 1598 expedition. Oñate
priest never got there, but the myth of established the city of Santa Fe and the
riches persisted. colony of New Mexico, which included the
A year later, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado present-day states of New Mexico and
(see p220) returned with 330 soldiers, 1,000 Arizona and parts of Colorado, Utah,
Indian allies, and more than 1,000 head of Nevada, and California.
livestock. He overwhelmed the trading Spanish attempts to conquer the Indian
center of Zuni Pueblo and spent two years pueblos led to bloody battles. Governor
traversing Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oñate’s cruelty, the harsh conditions, and
Kansas in search of Cibola. Coronado’s bad harvests caused many settlers to flee
brutal treatment of the Pueblo people,
sacking homes and burning villages, sowed
the seeds for the Pueblo Revolt
140 years later.

Engraving by Norman Price of Coronado setting out to discover a legendary kingdom of gold in 1540

1100–1300 “Gathering 1400 The Navajo and Apache migrate 1540–42 Francisco 1610 Don Pedro
of the Clans” on the from Canada to the Southwest Vázquez de de Peralta founds
Hopi mesas Coronado leads a the capital of
1300 Mesa Verde search for gold in Santa Fe
deserted New Mexico
800 1000 1200 1400 1600
1020 Chaco c.1250 Ancient sites are 1539 Fray Marcos de Niza 1680 The
Canyon is at its mysteriously abandoned; heads first Spanish Pueblo Revolt
height as a trading new pueblos established expedition to Southwest
and cultural center along Rio Grande
1598 Juan de Oñate founds
Juan de Oñate permanent colony in New Mexico

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