The semicivilized native races and their natural enemies require to be described separately. The Pueblo, or town Indians, are the most remarkable and important tribe to be found in any part of the United States or Canada; they are, in fact, the only native race whose presence on the soil is not a curse to the country.

Whilst on the plains, whatever belief we had in the nobility of the red-skin, or the cruelty of the frontier man, quickly vanished, and we learnt to regard the Indian of the plain as the embodiment of all that was cruel, dastardly, and degrading. We were not long, however, in the Rio Grande valley before we encountered a new race, as different from our old enemies as light from darkness.

I first met a small party of these people on the plain a few miles west of the Pecos; they were neatly dressed in buckskin skirt and breeches, which latter fitted tightly to their legs; they wore mocassins on their feet, and a girdle around their waist. Their heads were bare, their black hair was cut square in front almost to the eyebrows, and gathered up behind into a queue bound round with red cord; a narrow band also passed over the hair in front and was fastened underneath. They were short in stature, thickly built, with quiet intelligent faces and large sorrowful eyes. I never, during my residence in their valley, saw a Pueblo Indian laugh; I do not remember even a smile. They carried no arms that we could discover, but each pushed before him a little hand-cart composed of a body of wickerwork on wooden wheels, filled with grapes, the produce of their vineyards. They were on their way to Los Vegas, and seemed so sure of a good market that we had to pay ten dollars for a large basket of grapes weighing from 50 to 80 lbs.

At Santa Fe I watched these people coming and going, bringing their produce in the morning (peaches, grapes, onions, beans, melons, and hay) for sale, then buying what necessaries they wanted, and trudging off in the afternoon quietly and modestly to their country villages. I looked on them with pity, and wondered what they thought of this new state of things, and how they liked the intruders whose presence they bore so meekly. I met Mr. Ward, their agent, who treats them as the kindest father would his children; and often went to his house, where Indian parties from a distance were sure to resort for information and advice. When I left Santa Fe I passed through many of their villages, saw them in their houses, visited their fields and vineyards, and watched them as they assembled on their housetops at sunrise to look for the coming of Montezuma from the east.

The semicivilized Indian of the United States is only to be found in New Mexico and Arizona, south of the 36th parallel of latitude; nor is there any proof whatever, but merely some vague traditions, to show that he ever came from the north, or spread further north than the Rio Grande valley and the accessible branches of the San Juan River. In these two territories (together equal in size to France) only five small remnants of this once powerful nation remain at the present time. These are:

1. The Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande valley; population 5866.

2. The Indians of Zuni, situated about latitude 35°, longitude 108° 50', with a population at present of 1200 souls.

3. The Indians of the seven Moqui pueblos, situated about 150 miles north-west of Zuni; population 2500.

4. The Pimas of the Gila valley, occupying eight villages; population 3500.

5. The Papago Indians of the regions south of it, occupying about nineteen villages, and numbering about not less than 4000 in all.

The Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande valley were early converted to Christianity by the Spanish missionaries. Each pueblo ;ts church, built of adobe, and dedicated to its patron saint." An exact copy of one of their churches was given in the series of illustrations exhibited.

Most of the above villages are in the main valley. Others, such as the Pueblos de Toas, Laguna, Acoma, San Domingo, and others, occupy isolated positions on some of the tributary streams. The villages in the Rio Grande valley differ but little from those of the Mexicans, except that the houses are larger and loftier. They are usually of only one story, but each house is capable of containing several families; the roofs are flat; and at different corners of the village watch-towers rise above the roofs. In the centre of the chief house in the village, a good-sized room, partly formed by excavation into the earth, is usually to be found. This is the estufa, or place of worship, where the sacred fire was formerly kept burning, and where all religious services used to be held before the Indians became Christians. Now it is used in most villages only as a council-chamber; but Colonel M'Leod, of Santa Fe, assures me that in some places the sacred fire is still kept burning, and that on one occasion he was permitted to visit an estufa where it continues to exist.

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adapted from A. W. Bell
"On the Native Races of New Mexico"
1869 (Journal of the Ethnological Society of London)