Zuni
Location:The Zuni (zu-knee) Indians of today are one
of 19 original tribes that once inhabited the area that is now called New
Mexico and Arizona.Language:While many anthropologists
believe that the Zuni are related to the other Pueblo tribes that are scattered
throughout the Southwest, they are unique in that their language, to this day,
is only spoken by them and bares no resemblance to the languages of any of the
other surrounding peoples.Daily Life:Zuni life, much like it was in the past, is still deeply religious. The Zuni believe that everything
shares a common spirit, being interconnected, and gods reside in the lakes
of Arizona and New Mexico. The chiefs and the shamans during religious
festivals carry out two different types of ceremonies. Song and dance accompanies
masked performances by the chiefs while the shamans pray to the gods for
favors ranging from fertile soil to abundant amounts of rain. The shamans
play an important role in the community as they are looked upon for guidance
as well as knowledge and healing. There are different levels of expertise
for all shamans with the goal ultimately being to reach the top level so
they can assist in all aspects of Zuni life.
Women play an important role in Zuni religion. Women are thought of as the life of the tribe. Men do all of the
hunting, building and gathering of necessities, but when they are done,
whatever they have caught, collected or built belongs to the women. The women
are the ones who do all of the trading with different tribes and take care of
financial issues and problems. This is quite a change from most modern
societies.
History:The Zuni tribe is said to have
originated from a tribe that lived in the same area over 1,000 years prior to
the coming of the Europeans. This tribe, the Anasazi, was a large society that encompassed large
amounts of land, riches and many distinct cultures and civilizations. The Zuni
are thought to be direct descendants of the Anasazi.
The Zuni are also distinct in that they have managed to remain quite
unaffected by outer influences. They still claim the same land they always
lived on, an area about the size of Rhode Island. They also mainly reside in
one city, Zuni, New Mexico. Although there are Zuni Indians who live outside of
the city and the general area, they are few and far between. The tribe has
managed to remain intact due to the fact that they were never involved with
problems that didn’t concern their own people. Because they did not fight
in any wars or take sides in any conflicts, they were able to remain autonomous
and were unaffected by the changes around them.
Though this page has been carefully researched, the author does not
claim expertise on the Zuni.
Please send questions, comments, and corrections to emuseum@mnsu.edu and include the
web address of this page.
If you are Zuni, your feedback is appreciated.
References:
The Official Site of the Zuni
Tribe: http://www.ashiwi.org/
http://www.knight.org/advent/cathen/15768a.htm
http://www.sedonawolf.com/
http://www.ZuniLink.com/
Written by: Adam Kittelson |
