50 Fun Facts About Zuni

What do the Zuni call themselves in their own language?

The word 'Zuni' is thought to come from a word in the Western Keres language spoken at Acoma.

The Zuni call their homeland Halona Idiwan'a, which translates as what?

The Pueblo of Zuni sits on the Zuni River, a tributary of the Little Colorado, about 34 miles south of Gallup.

The Zuni Pueblo lies about 34 miles south of which New Mexico city?

The tribally run A:shiwi Transit connects the pueblo and Black Rock with Gallup.

How do linguists classify Zuni, the tongue of the A:shiwi?

It has borrowed some religious vocabulary from Keresan, Hopi and O'odham, but nothing more.

For roughly how long do linguists believe the Zuni have maintained the integrity of their language?

By 2018 the pueblo's Head Start programme reported only 16 percent of Zuni children spoke the language.

What is the Zuni name for their own language, translated as 'Zuni way'?

Around 9,500 people speak it, mostly around Zuni Pueblo; the modern alphabet has twenty letters.

Zuni pronouns distinguish three numbers. Besides singular and plural, what is the third?

There are no third-person pronouns at all, and adults are often referred to as 'father of so-and-so' to avoid using personal names.

Archaeology suggests the Zuni have farmed their region for how long?

Ancestral Zuni were irrigating maize plots in the valley by the last millennium BC.

The Zuni settlement built around 1100, named for its ceremonial chambers, was the Village of the Great what?

Zuni ancestors were in contact with the Ancestral Puebloans of Chaco Canyon around the same time.

Before Spanish contact, the Zuni lived in six villages. Which of these was NOT one of them?

Acoma is a separate Keres-speaking pueblo; by the end of the 17th century only Halona was still inhabited.

Which Moroccan-born member of the 1539 Marcos de Niza expedition was killed at Hawikuh, the first outsider to die there?

He was a survivor of the Narváez expedition; the Zuni reportedly killed him as a spy.

Fray Marcos de Niza claimed Hawikuh was one of which legendary seven cities?

When Coronado arrived in 1540 he found the friar's stories of treasure were false.

Which conquistador led 230 mounted soldiers to Hawikuh in July 1540 and captured it from the Zuni?

It was Spain's first contact with any Pueblo people; some residents fled to the mesa top of Dowa Yalanne.

What does 'Dowa Yalanne', the sacred mesa southeast of the pueblo, mean?

The mesa is closed to outside visitors and rises to 7,274 feet.

After the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Zuni took refuge on Dowa Yalanne until which year?

About 48 structures with over 500 rooms were built on the 320-acre mesa top, housing an estimated 2,500 people.

When was the Zuni Reservation created by the US federal government?

An 1848 US Army treaty had promised protection of Zuni 'Private Property and Religion'.

Which Smithsonian anthropologist lived with the Zuni from 1879 to 1884 as the first 'participant observer'?

Some Zuni later said he had exploited them by photographing and publishing sacred ceremonies.

Adopted by Zuni's governor in the 1880s, the Smithsonian's ethnologist got what Zuni name meaning 'medicine flower'?

In 1881 he was initiated into the warrior society, the Priesthood of the Bow.

Cushing's letters defending Zuni land angered which Illinois senator, a vice-presidential candidate in 1884?

The row is thought to have hastened Cushing's recall from Zuni in 1884.

We'wha, the celebrated Zuni weaver and potter, met which US president on a visit to Washington in 1886?

We'wha was a lhamana, taking on roles usually performed by women, and a friend of anthropologist Matilda Coxe Stevenson.

What is the Zuni term for male-bodied people who take on roles usually performed by women?

Some contemporary lhamana take part in the pan-Native two-spirit community.

Matilda Coxe Stevenson, who wrote extensively on the Zuni, holds what distinction in US science?

She was also the first woman hired by the Bureau of American Ethnology and helped found the Women's Anthropological Society.

According to Cushing's report on Zuni fetishes, into how many directions do the Zuni divide the world?

Each direction has a guardian animal; the yellow mountain lion of the north is elder brother to all.

In the fetish tradition Cushing recorded, which animal is guardian of the north?

The bear guards the west, the badger the south, the wolf the east, the eagle the sky and the shrew the underground.

Which two stone-setting techniques using many tiny stones are Zuni specialties?

Zuni are also known for mosaic and channel inlay work, mostly in turquoise, sometimes coral.

Traditionally, what did Zuni potters use as fuel to fire their pots?

Firing was done in silence or low voices to preserve the 'voice' of the clay; pots are painted with a yucca brush.

Which motifs associated with rain and water commonly decorate traditional Zuni pots?

Zuni also produce owl figurines painted in black and red on white slip.

Zuni households are headed by whom, with descent and land traced through her line?

If a wife wants a divorce she places her husband's belongings outside the home, and he returns to his mother's household.

Zuni Salt Lake, sacred as the home of the Salt Mother, fills what kind of geological feature?

It is only about four feet deep in the wet season and has no natural outlet, so salt accumulates.

A proposed coal mine near Zuni Salt Lake was abandoned in which year after lawsuits by the Zuni?

Zuni, Acoma, Laguna, Hopi and Taos people have all made pilgrimages to the lake to gather salt.

The Zuni River is a tributary of which larger river?

It is about 90 miles long; every four years a barefoot pilgrimage is made to Kołuwala:wa, 'Zuni Heaven', at the confluence.

How often is the religious pilgrimage along the 'Barefoot Trail' to Kołuwala:wa, or 'Zuni Heaven', made?

The Zuni tribe also holds trust lands in Apache County, Arizona, near that confluence.

What is the highest point of the Zuñi Mountains, which sit on the Continental Divide?

The range lies mostly in Cibola National Forest between Gallup and Grants.

How is the Zuni Tribe governed?

The reservation lies mainly in McKinley and Cibola counties, about 150 miles west of Albuquerque.

What happened when Zuni Pueblo residents were asked in the late 1980s to lease land for a national historical park?

The complex, including Hawikuh, had been a National Historic Landmark District since 1974.

Which dystopian novel features a character called John who grew up among the Zuni in New Mexico?

Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel calls him 'the Savage' after his upbringing on the reservation.

The Zuni Tribal Fair and rodeo is held on the third weekend of which month?

The pueblo's own museum is the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center.

According to the 2020 census, roughly how many people lived in Zuni Pueblo?

The pueblo is described as an 'artist colony', with fetish carving, inlay silverwork and pottery as its main industries.

Who founded the San Francisco restaurant named after the tribe, famed for roast chicken, in 1979?

Judy Rodgers later ran the kitchen and won James Beard awards for Best Chef: Pacific, Outstanding Restaurant and Outstanding Chef.

Which Spanish mission was established at Hawikuh in 1628-29 with two Franciscan priests?

The Zuni soon destroyed the missions and withdrew to Dowa Yalanne for three years; only Halona's church was rebuilt after 1692.

The all-night Shalako ceremony takes place on or around which point in the year?

Six towering dancers move from house to house blessing homes built that year, and at dawn Saiyatasha offers a final prayer to close the ceremony.

Around 1100, Zuni ancestors were in contact with the Ancestral Puebloans of which site?

The same century saw the Zuni build the Village of the Great Kivas with nine ceremonial chambers, though the region stayed sparsely settled until the 1100s.

An 1848 US Army treaty protecting Zuni property and religion was also signed with which nation?

Lt. Col. Henderson P. Boyakin signed it. A few years later the traveller Balduin Möllhausen described Zuni fields of wheat, maize, gourds and melons 'in all directions'.

At about what age is a Zuni boy initiated into one of the six religious societies?

A ceremonial father sponsors him. Each society is tied to one of the pueblo's six kivas, while a priest called the Pekwin sets the religious calendar.

The word 'Zuni' is believed to come from a word in which neighbouring language?

The Acoma Keres word is sɨ̂‧ni. The Zuni's own name for themselves is A:shiwi, and their language is an isolate unrelated to any other.

How does a Zuni wife traditionally signal that she is ending her marriage?

He must then collect them and go back to his mother's household. A husband who wants out simply leaves his wife's home and returns to his mother's.

Which deity ranks with the Earth and Sun parents as one of the Zuni's three most powerful?

The religion is katsina-based, with major ceremonies at the winter solstice, summer, harvest and again in winter, and honours deities of both genders.

Shalako dancers' outfits can reach roughly how tall?

The dancers represent couriers of the rain deities come to bless new homes. The ceremony is closed to outsiders unless a tribal member personally invites them.

In what year did the Franciscans finally end their missionary efforts among the Zuni?

It was the year Mexico won independence from Spain. Of the three Zuni missions, only the church at Halona had been rebuilt after the Spanish reconquest.

How many Spanish people were recorded living among the Zuni in 1799?

Historian Nancy Bonvillain notes that by the late 18th century Spanish authorities had given up hope of dominating the Zuni and the other western Pueblos.