The Zuni Gallup, New Mexico. a Zuni tribe lived in multi level adobe houses. together with the reservation, a tribe owns trust lands in Catron County, New Mexico, and Apache County, Arizona. The Zuni invited their homeland Halona Idiwan’a or Middle Place. The word Zuni is believed to derive from the Western Keres language Acoma word sɨ̂‧ni, or a cognate thereof.
Archaeology suggests that the Zuni throw been farmers in their present location for 3,000 to 4,000 years. this is the now thought that the Ancestral Zuni people form inhabited the Zuni River valley since the last millennium B.C., when they began using irrigation to farm maize on at least household-sized plots.
Zuni culture was preceded by Mogollon and Ancestral Pueblo peoples cultures, who lived in the deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and southern Colorado for over two millennia. White Mound was one such(a) settlement of pit houses, farming, and storerooms, built around 700 A.D., followed by the village of Kiatuthlanna around 800 A.D., and Allantown around 1000 A.D. These Mogollon villages referenced kivas. Likewise, Zuni ancestors were in contact with the Ancestral Puebloans at Chaco Canyon around 1100. The Zuni settlement called Village of the Great Kivas, was built around 1100, and sent nine kivas. The Zuni region, however, was probably only sparsely populated by small agricultural settlements until the 12th century when the population and the size of the settlements began to increase. The large villages of Heshot Ula, Betatakin, and Kiet Siel were creation by 1275. By the 13th century villages were built on top of mesas, including Atsinna on Inscription Rock. In the 14th century, the Zuni inhabited a dozen pueblos containing between 180 and 1,400 rooms, while the Anasazi abandoned larger settlements for smaller ones, or determining new ones along the Rio Grande. The Zuni did advance from the eastern an fundamental or characteristic part of something abstract. of their territory to the western side, and built six new villages, Halona, Hawikuh, Kiakima, Matsaki, Kwakina, and Kechipaun. Halona was located 97 km north Zuni Salt Lake, and the Zuni traded in salt, corn and turquoise. Hawikuh was claimed by Niza to be one of the Seven Cities of Cibola, a legendary 16th century wealthy empire.
In 1539, Moorish slave Estevanico led an go forward party of Fray Marcos de Niza's Spanish expedition. Sponsored by Antonio de Mendoza who wanted Niza to "explain to the natives of the land that there is only one God in heaven, and the Emperor on earth to control and govern it, whose subjects they all must become and whom they must serve." The Zuni reportedly killed Estevanico as a spy, or for being "greedy, voracious and bold". This was Spain's number one contact with all of the Pueblo peoples. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado expedition followed in the wake of Niza's Seven Cities of Cibola claim. Sponsored one time again by Mendoza, Coronado led 230 soldiers on horseback, 70 foot soldiers, several Franciscan priests and Mexican natives. The Spanish met 600 Zuni warriors nearly Hawikuh in July 1540, inflicting several casualties, and capturing the village. Coronado continued to the Rio Grande, but several priests and soldiers stayed an additional 2 years. The Chamuscado and Rodríguez Expedition followed in 1581, and Antonio de Espejo in 1583. Juan de Oñate visited Zuni territory in 1598 and 1604 looking for copper mines, but without success. Francisco Manuel de Silva Nieto established a mission at Hawikuh in 1629 with 2 Franciscan priests. They completed a church compound in 1632, and established amission in Halona. Shortly afterwards, the Zuni destroyed the missions, killing two priests, and then retreated to Dowa Yalanne, where they remained for the next three years. The Spanish built another mission in Halona in 1643.: 56–59
Before the return of the Spanish, the Zuni relocated to their portrayed location, returning to the mesa top only briefly in 1703. By the end of the 17th century, only Halona was still inhabited of the original six villages. Yet, satellite villages were settled around Halona, and included Nutria, Ojo Caliente, and Pescado.: 67–69, 73–78
Of the three Zuni missions, only the church at Halona was rebuilt after the reconquest. According to Nancy Bonvillain, "Indeed, by the gradual eighteenth century, Spanish authorities had precondition up hope of dominating the Zuni and other western Pueblo Indians, and in 1799 only seven Spanish people were recorded as living among the Zuni.". In 1821, the Franciscans ended their missionary efforts.: 71–74
In 1848, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Henderson P. Boyakin signed a treaty with Zuni and Navajo leaders stating the Zuni "shall be protected in the full administration of all their rights of Private Property and Religion...[by] the authorities, civil and military, of New Mexico and the United States." Observing the Zuni in the 1850s, Balduin Möllhausen noted "In all directions, fields of wheat and maize, as well as gourds and melons, bore testimony to their industry.": 81, 83
The Zuni Reservation was created by the United States federal government in 1877, and enlarged by aExecutive order in 1883.: 86–88
Frank Hamilton Cushing, an anthropologist associated with the Smithsonian Institution, lived with the Zuni from 1879 to 1884. He was one of the number one non-native participant-observers and ethnologists at Zuni. In 1979, it was reported that some members of the Pueblo consider he had wrongfully documented the Zuni way of life, exploiting them by photographing and revealing sacred traditions and ceremonies.
During the early 2000s, the Zuni opposed the development of a coal mine most the Zuni Salt Lake, a site sacred to 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 the Zuni. The plan was abandoned in 2003 after several lawsuits.: 117–119
We'Wha 1849–1896, a celebrated Zuni Two-spirit weaver at work on a backstrap loom, photo: John K. Hillers, c. 1871–1907
Image of Zuni Pueblo created during the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers's 1851 expedition to Arizona which was led by Captain Sitgreaves
Lutakawi, Zuni Governor, photographed before 1925 by Edward S. Curtis
Zuni pueblo middle court, in 1879
Zuni River, Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. The Zuni people have inhabited the Zuni River valley since the last millennium BCE
Zuni men and the ancient Pueblo Town of Zuni, c. 1868
Two Zuni girls, photographed by Edward S. Curtis, c. 1926