Santa Fe Motel & Inn – Santa Fe NM

Zuni Pueblo

Zuni Pueblo

(1985 pop. 7,754), McKinley co., W N.Mex., in the Zuni Reservation; built c.1695.

Its inhabitants are Pueblo of the Zunian linguistic family. They are a sedentary people, who farm irrigated land and are noted for basketry, pottery, turquoise jewelry, and weaving. The original seven Zuni villages are usually identified with the mythical Seven Cities of Cibola, which were publicized by Marcos de Niza. In 1540, Francisco V·squez de Coronado attacked the villages, thinking that they had vast stores of gold. The villages were abandoned in the Pueblo revolt of 1680. The present pueblo was built on the site of one of the original seven villages.

See Aileen Nusbaum, The Seven Cities of Cibola (1926); The Zunis: Self-Portrayals, by the Zuni People (tr. by Alvina Guam, 1972)