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The Zuni (also spelled Zuņi by the Spanish and in early 20th Century ethnological texts) or A:shiwi (as the Zuni refer to themselves in their own language) are a Native American tribe, one of the Pueblo peoples, most of whom live in the Pueblo of Zuni on the Zuni River, a tributary of the Little Colorado River, in western New Mexico, United States. Zuņi is 55 km (35 miles) south of Gallup, New Mexico and has a population of about 12,000, with over 80% being Native Americans, with 43.0% of the population below the poverty line as defined by the U.S.
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The Zuni (also spelled Zuņi by the Spanish and in early 20th Century ethnological texts) or A:shiwi (as the Zuni refer to themselves in their own language) are a Native American tribe, one of the Pueblo peoples, most of whom live in the Pueblo of Zuni on the Zuni River, a tributary of the Little Colorado River, in western New Mexico, United States. Zuņi is 55 km (35 miles) south of Gallup, New Mexico and has a population of about 12,000, with over 80% being Native Americans, with 43.0% of the population below the poverty line as defined by the U.S. income standards. However, many of the people do not consider their low income and lifestyle to be poverty. They are known for their unique culture and cuisine.
Culture
Zuni traditionally speak the Zuni language, a unique language (also called an "isolate") which is unrelated to any other Native American language. The Zuni continue to practice their traditional religion with its regular ceremonies and dances and an independent and unique belief system.
The Zuni Tribal Fair and rodeo is held the third weekend in August. The Zuni also participate in the Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial usually held in early or mid-August.
History
The Zuni, like other Pueblo peoples, are believed to be the descendants of the Ancient Pueblo Peoples who lived in the deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, Southern Colorado and Utah for centuries. Archaeological evidence shows they have lived in their present location for about 1,300 years. However, before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Zuni lived in six different villages. After the revolt, until 1692, they took refuge in a defensible position atop Dowa Yalanne, a steep mesa 5 km (2 miles) southeast of the present Pueblo of Zuni. "Dowa" meaning "corn", and "yalanne" meaning "mountain." After the establishment of peace and the return of the Spanish, the Zuni relocated in their present location, only briefly returning to the mesa top in 1703.
In 1539, a Spanish exploratory party under the Moorish slave Estevanico arrived, though the villagers eventually killed him. This was Spain's first contact with any of the Pueblo peoples.
Frank Hamilton Cushing, a pioneering anthropologist associated with the Smithsonian Institution, lived with the Zuni from 1879 to 1884. He was one of the first participant observers and an ethnologist.
A recent controversy involved Zuni opposing the development of a coal mine near the Zuni Salt Lake, a site considered sacred by the Zuni and under Zuni control. The mine would have extracted water from the aquifer below the lake and would also have involved construction between the lake and Zuni. The plan died after several lawsuits.
Zuni life
Zuni crafts
In the earlier days of that age when Native Zuni clans roamed an area that is now the Southwestern United States, they made pottery for food and water storage. Women made pottery according to the clan's tradition of functionality and design. Clay for the pottery is sourced locally and thanks is given to the Earth Mother (Awidelin Tsitda) according to ritual prior to extraction. It is prepared first by grinding, and then sifting and mixing with water. After the clay is shaped into a vessel or ornament, it will be scraped smooth with a scraper. Then a thin layer of finer clay will be applied to the surface for extra smoothness. Next the vessel will be polished with a stone. Then the piece is painted with home-made organic dyes using a traditional yucca brush. The function of the ware is determined by its shape, and its design and painted images. To fire the pottery the Zuni used sheep dung in traditional kilns which had not changed for hundreds of years. However, most contemporary Zuni pottery is now fired in modern, electric kilns. While the firing of the pottery was usually a community enterprise, silence or communication in low voices was essential in order to maintain the original "voice" of the "being" of the clay and the purpose of the end product. The selling of pottery and other traditional arts and crafts is a major source of income for many of the Zuni, and an artisan may be the sole financial support for their immediate family as well as others. They made pottery, clothing, baskets, and Kachina dolls.
They also make fetish carvings and necklaces for the purpose of ritual and trade, and more recently for sale to their avid collectors. The art of silversmithing was introduced to the Zuni by [Anglo#United States|Anglo]] vendors and trading posts, soon after being introduced to the Navajo towards the end of the 19th century.
Beliefs
Life for these agricultural people revolves around their religious beliefs. They have a cycle of religious ceremonies which takes precedence over all else. Their religious beliefs are centered on the three most powerful of their deities Earth Mother, Sun Father, and Moonlight-Giving Mother. The Sun is especially worshipped. In fact the Zuni words for daylight and life are the same word. The Sun is, therefore, seen as the giver of life. Each person's life is marked by important ceremonies to celebrate their coming to certain milestones in their existence. Birth, coming of age, marriage and death are especially celebrated.
Zuni religiously pilgrimage every four years on the Barefoot Trail to Kolhu/wala:wa, also called Zuni Heaven or Kachina Village; a 12,482-acre detached portion of the Zuni Reservation about sixty miles Southwest of Zuni Pueblo. The four-day observance occurs around the summer solstice, practiced for many hundreds of years and is well known to local residents.
Another pilgrimage conducted annually for centuries by the Zuni and other southwestern tribes is made to Zuni Salt Lake for the harvesting of salt during the dry months, and for religious purposes. The lake is home to the Salt Mother, Ma'l Okyattsik'i and is led to by several ancient Pueblo roads and trails.
Coming of age, or rite of passage, is celebrated differently by boys and girls. A girl who is ready to declare herself as a maiden, will go to the home of her father's mother early in the morning and grind corn all day long. Corn is a sacred food and a staple in the diet of the Zuni. The girl is, therefore, declaring that she is ready to play a role in the welfare of her people. When it is time for a boy to become a man he will be taken under the wing of a spiritual 'father', selected by the parents. This one will instruct the boy through the ceremony to follow. The boy will go through certain initiation rites to enter one of the men's societies. He will learn how to take on either religious, secular or political duties within that order.
Miscellaneous
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The Zuni were and are a peaceful, deeply traditional people who lived by irrigated agriculture and now by the sale of traditional crafts. Some Zuni still live in the old style Pueblos, while others live in modern flat-roofed houses made from adobe and concrete block. Their location is relatively isolated, but they welcome respectful tourists. Carved stone animal fetishes, jewelry, needlepoint, and pottery are popular items.
Many Zuni also became master silversmiths and perfected the skill of stone inlay. They found that by using small pieces of stone they were able to create intricate designs and unique patterns. Small oval-shaped stones with pointed ends are set close to one another and side by side. The technique is normally used with turquoise in creating necklaces or rings. Another technique they have mastered is needlepoint.
There is an old Spanish mission, Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission, which is a popular attraction; and a tribal museum, .
Nancy Yaw Davis, in the Zuni Enigma, and Gavin Menzies, have suggested that the Zuni share some affinities with the Japanese people, due in part to genetic, linguistic and cultural similarities. However, it should be noted that much of Gavin Menzies' work has been subjected to harsh criticism as "nonsense" and "unsubstantiated" by experts on the respective topics (see main article).
Zuni in popular culture
- People living the Zuni way play a role in Brave New World (1932), a novel by Aldous Huxley.
- Zuni culture plays a prominent role in the 1973 novel Dance Hall of the Dead, by the American writer Tony Hillerman.
- Tori Amos has said that a Zuni boy in her dream inspired the song "Iieee".
- A Zuni fetish doll called "He Who Kills" is the subject of the short horror story Prey by Richard Matheson. An adaptation of the story for TV (called Amelia) appeared in the Trilogy of Terror special.
- Devendra Banhart is very vocal about his love of Zuni culture, and wears many Zuni pieces of jewelry.
- The Zuni tribe is central to the plot of book #44, Dawn and the Big Sleepover, in the juvenile book series The Baby-sitters Club. In BSC Super Special #14, BSC in the USA, several characters from the series visit the Zuni reservation.
See also
Bibliography of sources on Zuņi
- Baxter, Sylvestor, Frank H. Cushing, My Adventurers in Zuni: Including Father of The Pueblos & An Aboriginal Pilgrimage, , LLC, 1999, paperback, 1999, 79 pages, ISBN 0-86541-045-3
- Benedict, Ruth. Zuni Mythology. 2 vols. Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology, no. 21. New York: Columbia University Press, 1935. AMS Press reprint, 1969.
- Bunzel, Ruth L. "". (1932a); "Zuni Origin Myths". (1932b); "Zuni Ritual Poetry". (1932c). In Forty-Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Pp. 467-835. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1932. Reprint, Zuni Ceremonialism: Three Studies. Introduction by Nancy Pareto. University of New Mexico Press, 1992.
- Bunzel, Ruth L. "Zuni Katcinas: An Analytic Study". (1932d). Forty-Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Pp. 836-1086. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1932. Reprint, Zuni Katcinas: 47th Annual Report. Albuquerque: Rio Grande Classics, 1984.
- Bunzel, Ruth L. Zuni Texts. Publications of the American Ethnological Society, 15. New York: G.E. Steckert & Co., 1933.
- Cushing, Frank Hamilton. My Adventures in Zuni, Pamphlet, ISBN 1-121-39551-1
- Cushing, Frank Hamilton, Barton Wright, The mythic world of the Zuni, , 1992, hardcover, ISBN 0-8263-1036-2
- Cushing, Frank Hamilton. Outlines of Zuni Creation Myths, AMS Press, Reprint edition (June 1, 1996), hardcover, 121 pages, ISBN 0-404-11834-8
- Cushing, Frank Hamilton. Zuni Coyote Tales, , 1998, paperback, 104 pages, ISBN 0-8165-1892-0
- Cushing, Frank Hamilton. Zuni Fetishes, pamphlet, ISBN 1-199-17971-X and ISBN 1-122-26704-5
- Cushing, Frank Hamilton. designed by K. C. DenDooven, photographed by Bruce Hucko, Annotations by Mark Bahti, Zuni Fetishes, , 1999, paperback, 48 pages, ISBN 0-88714-144-7
- Cushing, Frank Hamilton. Zuni Fetishes Facsimile, pamphlet, ISBN 1-125-28500-1
- Cushing, Frank Hamilton. Zuni Folk Tales, hardcover, ISBN 1-125-91410-6 (expensive if you search by ISBN, try for older used copies without ISBN)
- Cushing, Frank Hamilton. Zuni Folk Tales, , 1999, trade paperback, ISBN 0-8165-0986-7 (reasonably priced)
- Cushing, Frank Hamilton. edited by Jesse Green, foreword by Fred Eggan, Introduction by Jesse Green, Zuni: Selected Writings of Frank Hamilton Cushing , 1978, hardcover, 440 pages, ISBN 0-8032-2100-2; trade paperback, 1979, 449 pages, ISBN 0-8032-7007-0
- Cushing, Frank Hamilton. Zuni Breadstuff (Indian Notes and Monographs, V. 8.), AMS Press, 1975, hardcover, 673 pages, ISBN 0-404-11835-6
- Eggan, Fred and T.N. Pandey. "Zuni History, 1855-1970". Handbook of North American Indians, Southwest. Vol.9. Ed. By Alfonso Ortiz. Pp. 474-481. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1979.
- M. Conrad Hyers 1996, Transaction Publishers ISBN 1560002182
- Green Jesse, Sharon Weiner Green and Frank Hamilton Cushing, Cushing at Zuni: The Correspondence and Journals of Frank Hamilton Cushing, 1879-1884, , 1990, hardcover ISBN 0-8263-1172-5
- Elsie Clews Parsons and Ralph L. Beals, "The Sacred Clowns of the Pueblo and Mayo-Yaqui Indians," American Anthropologist, vol. 36 (October-December 1934), p.493
- Newman, Stanley. Zuni Dictionary. Indiana University Research Center Publication Six. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1958.
- Roberts, John. "The Zuni". In Variations in Value Orientations. Ed. by F.R. Kluckhorn and F.L. Strodbeck. Pp. 285-316. Evanston, IL and Elmsford, NY: Row, Peterson, 1961.
- Smith, Watson and John Roberts. Zuni Law: A Field of Values. Papers of the Peabody Museum of the balch American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 43. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum, 1954.
- Tedlock, Barbara. The Beautiful and the Dangerous: Dialogues with the Zuni Indians. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.
- Tedlock, Dennis, tr. Finding the Center: Narrative Poetry of the Zuni Indians. From performances in the Zuni by Andrew Peynetsa and Walter Sanchez. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972.
- Young, M. Jane. Signs from the Ancestors: Zuni Cultural Symbolism and Perceptions in Rock Art. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988.
- Bunzel, Ruth L. (1929). The Pueblo potter: A study of creative imagination in primitive art. New York: Dover. ISBN 0-486-22875-4
- Green, Jesse (Ed.). (1979). Zuni: Selected writings of Frank Hamilton Cushing. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-7007-0
- Hieb, Louis A. (1984). Meaning and mismeaning: Toward an understanding of the ritual clowns. In A. Ortiz (Ed.), New perspectives on the Pueblos (pp. 163-195). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. (Original work published 1972). ISBN 0-8263-0387-0
- Kroeber, Alfred L. (1984). Zuni kin and clan. AMS Press. ISBN 0-404-15618-5
Footnotes and references
External links
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