Such was life in Hidden Valley after the conquest of New Mexico by the Spanish. Living in the Tyuonyi at this time was apparently a necessity. It could again have been our Tewa-speaking friends who raised corn, beans, squash and pumpkins in the beautiful and colorful Valley of the Frijoles and who watched the sun, day after day, pass down behind the cliff to the land of Sipapu. But time again had a way of making things right, though not just as the Indian desired it. After the close of the seventeenth century, it seems, Frijoles was abandoned again. The Indians left their cliff homes and moved back to the Valley of the Rio Grande. There was little trouble with the Spanish from then on and the Indian wars were over and all were subdued and the ancient homes in Frijoles continued to crumble and walls continued to fall. A little time was all that was necessary to completely cover the abandoned dwellings. Howling winds beat sharp particles of dirt against crumbling walls and eventually filled them in and covered them. Deep kivas were no more. Small stones, boulders and dust fell from the cliffs covering up talus houses. Huge slides covered many homes and the wind and rain beat against the vulnerable cliff walls and eroded many of the caves almost beyond identification. Indian occupation was ended now but Hidden Valley still remained. The Rito de Los Frijoles continued to cut its course deeper and deeper through the soft volcanic ash as it had done through six hundred years of Indian living. Struggle had ended over the Tyuonyi. It was deserted to the ravages of time. To the south the Keres were settled now, and to the north the Tewas. They were content; and Hidden Valley was left alone.
CHAPTER VII
The Spanish Era
The early part of the eighteenth century saw the Spanish interested in more than Pueblo Indians. There was the actual colonization of New Mexico and the war with France which drew their attention. New Mexican land was divided into tracts or land grants. The Spanish had combed it all. They knew about the canyon today known as the “Frijoles,” the Tyuonyi of the Cochiti Indians. The tract lay just south of the bounds of what is known as the “Ramon Vigil Grant.” It was in litigation much of the time. The land was cleared, broken and put under cultivation during the latter part of the eighteenth century. The valley floor was cleared and no doubt some of the homes occupied by Indians years before were obliterated. This valley was given the name of El Rito de Los Frijoles sometime prior to the year 1780. For years, people have said that the Canyon derived its name from the fact that Indians raised beans here in prehistoric times. True, prehistoric Indians did grow beans at Frijoles but the derivation of its name probably had no connection with any Indian occupation.
With the coming of a new century, Spanish people were accused of living in the caves of the Rito like barbarians. This picturesque Hidden Valley was a rendezvous for cattle thieves and persons whose characters could be questioned. It was a den for robbers who greatly troubled the people around the country, so, in 1811 the Spanish Governor ordered all its inhabitants to move out. The Canyon must have been occupied more or less continuously throughout the nineteenth century by farming groups of Spanish-Americans. And they were troubled by Indian raids from time to time until the latter part of the century.
PHOTO BY GEORGE THOMPSON THE AUTHOR AT AN OLD HIDDEN TRAIL
COURTESY NAT’L. PARK SERVICE A PARTY OF VISITORS AT LONG HOUSE
The walls of ancient caves today are pocked with nail holes. Sheepherders might have camped for a while and left initials and dates picked in the soft stone. Cow bones strewn at the base of the cliff, now dry and white and brittle with age, are the only sad memorials of what went on. And many are the hidden legends. Every little canyon in the locality has a name. Something happened to give them their names. One, Water Canyon, was formerly known as “Diesmo” or “Ten-Percent Canyon,” because a priest collected ten percent of the lambs from sheep owners as a tithe for the church and herded his flocks in this valley. Everything has a meaning in this colorful land. There still exists today a circular platform of blocks of tuff on the floor of Frijoles Canyon. Local farmers claim that it belonged to them and their fathers before them. It was used as a threshing floor. I have heard that it was a dance pavilion or platform and was advised that if I brought over some of the Indian women from San Ildefonso and asked them to do what they were supposed to do, they would begin dancing the ring dance. The stories are many but will the truth ever be known? Time is slipping by.
Within quite recent years the Navaho has used the old trails, just passing through, going to some pueblo to trade perhaps. Even Zuñi Indians have passed through the Valley of the Tyuonyi—resting a few minutes and drinking of the waters of El Rito de Los Frijoles as they might have done in years past when they were supposed to have visited the Stone Lions to the south. And Indians from Cochiti have returned to their Tyuonyi during summer months to raise a little corn. These people religiously return to the homes of their ancestors. Even today, certain of the old Tewa men from northern pueblos trudge south into timbered mountainous country and erect shrines near their ancestral homes. They carve miniature pueblos three and four stories high out of volcanic boulders of soft ash. They build altars and burn ceremonial fires. They dig holes in the soft ground, line them with little rocks and cover the holes with green branches from the juniper tree. Many times I have seen evidences of these ceremonies along dry arroyo banks on the Pajarito Plateau.
CHAPTER VIII
Present Times
In 1880, Adolph F. Bandelier, famous Swiss ethnologist, archivist and historian, entered the Valley of the Frijoles.
At the time, he was connected with the Archæological Institute of America and had been sent to New Mexico to work among the Indians who today live in mud-walled pueblos up and down the banks of the Rio Grande. Bandelier spent a great many days at Santo Domingo and Cochiti seeking out legends and myths regarding the people’s past and present and it was from the Cochitenos that Bandelier learned of Tyuonyi. Bandelier’s descriptions of the surrounding country are thoroughly detailed. He must have possessed a very keen mind to have so well described geographical features in such brief association. He entered Frijoles Canyon, the Tyuonyi of the Cochiti Indians, on October 23 of that year.
It has been said that Bandelier lived in the caves of the Rito de Los Frijoles, and, according to stories passed around by hearsay, he could have lived in a dozen different caves. It would be nice, and perhaps poetic, to say that the famous student hung his coat or his hat on such and such a nail, when wire nails such as are found in these caves probably did not exist during Bandelier’s visits to the Canyon. The general opinion among people who remember Bandelier is that he did spend some time in one particular cave high above the Canyon floor. It was a double-chambered cave overlooking Puwige and the entire broad and open lower end of the Canyon. The view was perfect. It might have been here that Bandelier organized some of his notes which resulted in the never-to-be-forgotten ethno-historic novel, The Delight Makers. People have said that Adolph Bandelier lived for years at Frijoles, but this is not true. His investigation of practically the entire Southwest took only five years to complete. So we might limit his stay to days, but those days counted. It was Bandelier’s intent to portray history and archæology in the guise of fiction and here he laid the basis for his famous novel which brought fifteenth-century dwellers of the Tyuonyi to life again.
The works of Charles F. Lummis will never be forgotten—The Land of Poco Tiempo; Mesa, Canyon and Pueblo. Bandelier and Lummis were very good friends and although their opinions and ideas conflicted at times, this friendship was never broken. Many times has Lummis visited Frijoles and many times has he stayed in the old Indian cave rooms, even in quite recent times, when other accommodations were available.
In 1907, Judge A. J. Abbot settled in the Valley of the Frijoles. He built a ranch house out of the ancient building stones of volcanic ash. The stones came from Puwige, the big community house. Cut and fashioned in the sixteenth century or thereabout, by prehistoric Indians, they were used again. The place was known as “Ten Elder Ranch,” because of the box-elder trees growing nearby. The ranch changed hands three times and was subsequently known as “Frijoles Canyon Ranch” until the old buildings were torn down and replaced by modern unique pueblo style buildings designed by government engineers and known as “Frijoles Canyon Lodge.” It would be an utter impossibility to name all of the famous personages who have visited Frijoles or were entertained at the old ranch place. The Commoners and the Nobility, people from the four corners of the globe came, some of them leaving a little remembrance or token of their appreciation—a poem about the Frijoles perhaps, a card, a thank-you letter, an invitation—they are too numerous to mention.
In 1916, the area was created a National Monument and named in honor of Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier. It has been known as such ever since. But to the “old timers” it is still the “Rito” or “El Rito de Los Frijoles.” They remember the times they either walked or came on horseback from the north rim into the boundary valley—the valley between ancient Keres and Tewa lands—into a Hidden Valley clustered with the works of primitive Indians, the ruins alone being capable of revealing the incidents of a buried and hidden past. Their heads are gray now and they remember with the semblance of tears in their eyes.
From 1916 until 1932, the entire area was under the administration of the United States Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. At this time it was transferred to the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Thousands of visitors go to Bandelier every year chiefly just to look at this magnificent Valley of the Frijoles. A new modern highway replaces the old trail from the north cliff. The visitor now drives down to the valley floor to spend an hour or so on a tour conducted by the National Park Service, to hear the story of how Indians lived in the cliff homes and in pueblos long before Columbus discovered America. They wonder about cliff dwellers while ravens soar above the valley floor and caw just as they did four hundred years ago. They see the visible remains of the great kiva on the Canyon floor and stroll on to Puwige, the big community house. They view over two hundred excavated rooms, four hundred years old. They see the narrow passage through the east side and the remains of obstructions used to slow down the attackers of old. And then they climb to the base of the weathered and sun-drenched cliffs where many an Indian woman swept rubbish from her kitchen out on to the steep slope and ground many an ear of corn on crude metate. Visitors climb into caves, the floors covered with dust and ceilings still blackened with smoke. They push the hands of the clock back to the Stone Age, while the Keres to the south go on living on the banks of the muddy Rio Grande, apparently forgetting that there ever was a Tyuonyi, war or trouble; and while the Tewas to the north, having settled themselves, seem to have forgotten their ancestral home—the “Frijoles,” the National Park Service strives to protect, preserve, and make the ruins in Hidden Valley live again.
SOURCE MATERIAL
- Bandelier, A. F. Final Report of Investigations Among the Indians of the Southwestern United States. Part II, Papers of the Archæological Institute of America, American Series, No. IV, Cambridge, 1892.
- —— Documentary History of the Rio Grande Valley. In Indians of the Rio Grande Valley, Hewett and Bandelier. University of New Mexico and School of American Research, Albuquerque, 1937.
- —— The Delight Makers. Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1942.
- Baumann, G. Frijoles Canyon Pictographs. Writers’ Editions, Inc., Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1939.
- Beals, R. L. Preliminary Report on the Ethnography of the Southwest. National Park Service, U. S. Department of the Interior, Berkeley, California, 1935.
- Bryan, Kirk. Regional Planning. Part VI—The Rio Grande Joint Investigation in the upper Rio Grande Basin in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, 1936-37, VI, National Resources Committee, February 1938, Washington.
- Castetter, E. F. Early Tobacco Utilization and Cultivation in the American Southwest, American Anthropologist, N. S., 45, 1943.
- Chapman, K. M. Pajaritan Pictography, The Cave Pictographs of The Rito de Los Frijoles. Reprinted from Appendix I, The Pajarito Plateau and Its Ancient People, Edgar L. Hewett, Albuquerque, 1938.
- Dumarest, N. D. Notes on Cochiti, New Mexico. Memoirs, American Anthropological Association, VI, No. 3, 1920.
- Hammond, G. P. Coronado’s Seven Cities. United States Coronado Exposition Commission, Albuquerque, 1940.
- Hammond, G. P., and Rey, A. Expedition Into New Mexico Made by Antonio de Espejo, 1582-1583, as Revealed by Diego Perez de Luxan. The Quivira Society, Los Angeles, 1929.
- Harrington, J. P., Ethnogeography of the Tewa Indians, 29th Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, 1916.
- Harrington, J. P., and Freire-Marreco, B. Ethnobotany of the Tewa Indians, Bulletin 55, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, 1916.
- Hawley, F. M. The Significance of the Dated Prehistory of Chetro Ketl, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1934.
- Henderson, J., and Harrington, J. P., Ethnozoology of the Tewa Indians, Bulletin 56, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, 1914.
- Hendron, J. W., The Stabilization of the Large Kiva, Frijoles Canyon, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. Unpublished report, typed copies available at Southwestern Monuments, Santa Fe, and at Bandelier National Monument. 1937.
- —— The Stabilization of the Restored Talus House. The Rito de Los Frijoles, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. Southwestern Monuments Monthly Report Supplement, Coolidge, Arizona, December, 1937.
- —— The Stabilization of the Kiva in the Great Ceremonial Cave, El Rito de Los Frijoles, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. Southwestern Monuments Monthly Report Supplement, Coolidge, Arizona, January, 1938.
- —— Archaeological Report on the Stabilization of Tyuonyi, The Rito de Los Frijoles, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. Southwestern Monuments Monthly Report Supplement, Coolidge, Arizona, February, 1938.
- —— Prehistory of El Rito de Los Frijoles. Southwestern Monuments Association, Technical Series, No. 1, Coolidge, Arizona, 1940.
- Hewett, E. L., Antiquities of the Jemez Plateau, New Mexico. Bulletin 32, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, 1906.
- —— The Excavations at El Rito de Los Frijoles, in 1909. American Anthropologist, n. s. II, No. 4, 1909.
- —— The Excavations at Tyuonyi, New Mexico, in 1908. American Anthropologist, n. s. II, No. 3, 1909.
- —— Pajarito Plateau and Its Ancient People. Handbook of Archæological History. University of New Mexico and School of American Research, Albuquerque, 1938.
- Luxan. See Hammond and Rey.
- Mera, H. P. A Proposed Revision of the Rio Grande Glaze-Paint Sequence. Laboratory of Anthropology, Technical Series, Bulletin No. 5, Santa Fe, 1932.
- —— Wares Ancestral to Tewa Polychrome. Laboratory of Anthropology, Technical Series, Bulletin No. 4, Santa Fe, 1933.
- —— A Survey of the Biscuit Ware Area in Northern New Mexico. Laboratory of Anthropology, Technical Series, Bulletin No. 6, Santa Fe, 1934.
- —— Ceramic Clues to the Prehistory of North Central New Mexico. Laboratory of Anthropology, Technical Series, Bulletin No. 8, Santa Fe, 1935.
- —— Some Aspects of the Largo Cultural Phase, Northern New Mexico. American Antiquity III-3, January, 1938.
- —— Style Trends of Pueblo Pottery. Memoirs of the Laboratory of Anthropology, VIII, Santa Fe, N. M., 1939.
- —— Population Changes in the Rio Grande Glaze-Paint Area. Laboratory of Anthropology, Technical Series, Bulletin No. 9, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1940.
- Morley, S. G. The Rito de Los Frijoles in the Spanish Archives. Appendix II, The Pajarito Plateau and Its Ancient People. Edgar L. Hewett, Albuquerque, 1938.
- Parsons, E. C., Taos Pueblo. George Banta Publishing Co., Menasha, Wisconsin, 1936.
- Reiter, Paul. The Jemez Pueblo of Unshagi. Parts I and II. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1938.
- Shepard, Anna O. Rio Grande Glaze Paint Ware. Reprinted from Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 528, pp. 129-262, 1942.
- Stallings, W. S., Jr. A Tree-Ring Chronology for the Rio Grande Drainage in Northern New Mexico. Reprinted from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 19, No. 9, Washington, 1933.
- —— Southwestern Dated Ruins. Tree-Ring Bulletin, V. 4, No. 2, Tucson, 1937.
- White, L. A. The Pueblo of San Felipe. Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, No. 38, Menasha, Wisconsin, 1932.
- Whitman, W. The San Ildefonso of New Mexico. In Acculturation in Seven American Indian Tribes, Ralph Linton, D. Appleton-Century Co., New York, 1940.
- Winship, G. P. The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Pt. 1, 1896.
GLOSSARY
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
- A
- Acoma (áh-ko-mah). “People of the White Rock”; Keres-speaking village of the western group occupied since prehistoric times.
- adobe (a-dóugh-bay). Thick mud with high clay content; also a sun-baked brick made of clay.
- Alameda (alah-máy-dah). “Cottonwood Grove”; Spanish-American village.
- Albuquerque (al-bu-kér-keh). Largest city in New Mexico; named after the Duke of Alburquerque, Viceroy of Mexico.
- Antonio de Espejo (day es-páy-ho). Leader of the third Spanish expedition into New Mexico in 1583.
- arroyo (ah-ró-yo). Water course or channel seasonally dry.
- awanyu (uh-wan-you). “Plumbed or feathered serpent”; mythological guardian of springs.
- B
- Bandelier (ban-duh-leér). Author of The Delight Makers; student, archæologist, historian and linguist who spent much time among the Keres. Bandelier lived at the pueblo of Cochiti and was very popular among the Indians.
- Bernalillo (bear-nah-lée-yoh). Apparently a diminutive of Bernal; founded by Vargas in 1695; present-day Spanish-American village.
- bigotes (bee-gó-tes). “Whiskers.”
- buckskin. The tanned hide of a deer.
- C
- canyon. A deep valley with high steep slopes.
- Canyon del Alamo (del á-lah-mo). “Cottonwood Canyon.”
- Cachiti (ká-chee-tee). Keres-speaking village of the sixteenth century; of obscure etymology.
- Cañada de Cochiti (ka-nyá-da day kó-cha-tee). “Cochiti Canyon.” Cañada refers to a shallow and wide canyon.
- Capulín (ka-poo-léen). “Chokecherry.” Chokecherry Canyon.
- Chaco (chá-ko). A canyon in northwestern New Mexico. Chaco Canyon National Monument.
- cibola (sée-bo-lah). “Buffalo.”
- Cochiti. Spanish for Cachiti.
- cacique (ka-cee-ke). Chief religious officer in a pueblo. There are usually two town chiefs in each pueblo representing two separate moities either Turquoise or Squash.
- Coronado (koro-náh-tho). Leader of the first Spanish expedition into New Mexico in 1540.
- cronies. Old people; friends; chums.
- Cuapa (coo-áh-pa). Prehistoric village of the Keres-speaking people; meaning unknown.
- D
- diesmo (diéz-mo). “Ten percent”; tithe; refers to present-day Water Canyon.
- Don Diego de Vargas (don deeáy-go day vár-gas). Leader of the reconquest of New Mexico in 1693 after the Pueblo Rebellion of 1680.
- Don Juan de Oñate (hwan day o-yná-te). Leader of the colonizing expedition into New Mexico in 1598.
- Don Pedro de Peralta (páy-dro day pe-rál-tah). Successor to Oñate as Governor of New Mexico in 1610.
- E
- El Rito de Los Frijoles (el ree-toe day los free-hó-lays). “The little river of the beans”; bean creek.
- F
- Franciscans (fran-cis-cans). Religious order established by Saint Francis of Assisi.
- Francisco Sanchez Chamuscado (fran-cées-co sán-chess chamoos-cáh-tho). Leader of the second Spanish expedition into New Mexico in 1581.
- friar (fryer). Member of a male religious order.
- H
- Haatze (ha-áht-say). “Earth”; “World”; a ruin of the Keres southwest of Tyuonyi.
- Hanat Cochiti (há-not kó-cha-tee). “Cochiti Above”; Potrero Viejo.
- Hemes (háy-mess). Indian pueblo thirty odd miles west of Bandelier National Monument.
- Hernando de Alvarado (er-nán-do day al-var-áh-tho). Captain under Coronado during the expedition of 1540.
- I
- Isleta (ees-láy-tah). “Little Island”; modern Indian village located about thirteen miles south of Albuquerque on the banks of the Rio Grande.
- J
- Jemez (háy-mess). Spanish for Hemes.
- K
- katsina (cot-sée-nah). Supernatural being.
- Keres (care-es). Language spoken by the people at Cochiti, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Santa Ana and Sia; there are also the western Keres villages of Acoma and (historic) Laguna not included here.
- kiva (key-vah). Ceremonial chamber; men’s club house.
- Kotyiti (cóat-yi-tee). Of obscure etymology; Old Cochiti; Hanat Cochiti; Potrero Viejo.
- L
- La Bajada (lah bah-háh-tha). “The steep slope”; a hill between Albuquerque and Santa Fe was given this name.
- La Cueva Pintada (lah cuáy-vah peen-táh-tha). “The Painted Cave”; located southwest of Tyuonyi in Capulin Canyon.
- Los Confiados (los cone-feeáh-thos). “The Trusting Souls” (people); a mythical town near Cochiti named by the Spanish in 1583.
- M
- mano (máh-no). “Hand”; hand-piece of flat stone for grinding corn.
- manta (mán-ta). “Dress”; “Blanket.”
- Marcos de Nisa (már-kos day née-sah). A Franciscan friar.
- mesa (máy-sah). Flat-topped high hill or table land.
- Mesa Verde (vér-they). “Green”; now a National Park in southwestern Colorado.
- Mesita Huerfano (may-sée-tah weár-fa-no). “Orphan Mesa”; Black Mesa.
- metate (may-táh-tay). Flat stone for grinding corn. Base stone.
- moccasins. Heel-less shoe of soft leather worn by Indians,
- moiety. A division of a tribe in which the cacique, either Summer or Winter, has charge of the ceremonials during his respective season.
- N
- Navaho (náh-vah-ho). Semi-nomadic Indians living west of the pueblo area.
- Navawi (náh-vah-wee). “Place of a hunting trap”; “pit-fall gap”; ruined pueblo northeast of Tyuonyi.
- neolithic (nee-o-lith-ik). New stone age.
- O
- olla (ó-yah). Pottery jar for water.
- Otermin (o-ter-méen). Governor of New Mexico at the outbreak of the Pueblo Rebellion of 1680.
- P
- padre (páh-dray). Monk or priest.
- Pajarito (pah-ha-rée-toe). “Little Bird”; Pajarito Plateau.
- Pecos (pay-kos). “Place down where the stone is on top”; Indian village east of the Rio Grande.
- Perage (pear-áh-gay). “Small rodent which jumps like a kangaroo”; “place of a species of kangaroo rat”; a ruined pueblo across the Rio Grande from San Ildefonso.
- pinto (peen-toe). A type of bean grown by Indians in prehistoric times.
- piñon (pee-ynón). Edible seed of pine; pinus edulis.
- plaza (pláh-sah). “Inner court”; area in the center of a town for public gathering.
- potrero (po-tré-roh). High, narrow mesa-top between canyons.
- Potsui’i (póte-su-wee-ee). “Gap where the water sinks”; prehistoric pueblo northeast of Tyuonyi.
- Pohoge (po-hó-gay). “Where the water cuts down through”; Tewa name for San Ildefonso.
- prehistoric. Referring to times before the Coronado expedition of 1540.
- pueblo (pwé-blo). “Village”; “Town.”
- Puwige (poo-wí-gay). “Where the bottoms of the pottery vessels are wiped or smoothed thin”; ruined pueblo on the floor of Frijoles Canyon; the big community house. Sometimes called Tyuonyi.
- Q
- Quirex (keer-esh). Province of five Keresan villages on the Rio Grande in 1540.
- R
- ramada (rah-máh-tha). Open flat-roofed porch built of poles and brush; a shelter.
- Ramon Vigil Grant (rah-móan vee-híll). Huge tract of land north of Frijoles Canyon.
- Rio Chama (ree-oh chá-mah). “Chama River.”
- Rio Grande (ree-oh grán-day). “Big River.”
- S
- Sandia (san-déea). “Watermelon”; also a modern Tiwa-speaking Indian pueblo twelve miles north of Albuquerque occupied since prehistoric times.
- Sangre de Cristo (sán-gray day crées-to). “Blood of Christ”; refers to a mountain range rising to great heights.
- San Felipe (san fay-leé-pay). “Saint Phillip”; modern pueblo of the Keres group occupied since prehistoric times.
- San Gabriel (san gah-breeáyl). First capital of New Mexico; in the vicinity of San Juan Pueblo.
- San Ildefonso (san ill-day-fáhn-so). Modern Indian village speaking the Tewa language; twenty miles northwest of Santa Fe on the banks of the Rio Grande.
- San Juan (san hwán). Modern Indian village speaking the Tewa language; about thirty miles northwest of Santa Fe. Not to be mistaken for the San Juan area in northwestern New Mexico.
- Sankawi (sáng-ka-wee). “Gap of the sharp round cactus”; “place of the round cactus”; prehistoric pueblo northeast of Tyuonyi.
- Santa Ana (sán-tah ana). Modern Indian village speaking the Keres language.
- Santo Domingo (sánto do-míng-go). Modern Indian village speaking the Keres language.
- Shipapolima (she-pa-po-lee-ma). Place where the Zuñi people entered this world; spiritual entrance to the underworld.
- Sia (see-a). Modern Indian village speaking the Keres language; occupied since prehistoric times.
- Sipapu (see-pa-poo). Spiritual entrance to the underworld of certain Pueblo Indians; an opening is generally found in the kiva floor and is called Sipapu; similar to Shipapolima.
- T
- talus (tay-lus). A slope formed at the base of a cliff by material falling from above.
- Tanos (táh-nos). Applied to various groups of people who inhabited the country east of the Rio Grande south of the San Ildefonso-Tesuque Tewa region.
- Tewa (tay-wa). Language spoken by certain Pueblo Indians; they are: San Ildefonso, Nambe, Tesuque, Santa Clara and San Juan.
- tewatu (tay-wa-too). “Tewa beans”; pinto beans.
- Tiguex (tee-wesh). Province of prehistoric Indian villages on the banks of the Rio Grande between Bernalillo and Albuquerque, a distance of about seventeen miles.
- Tiwa (tee-wa). Language spoken by certain groups of Indians; Taos, Picuris, Sandia and Isleta.
- Towa (toe-wa). Language spoken by Jemez Indians and by those of Pecos before its abandonment in 1837.
- Tshirege (ser-i-gay). “House of the Bird People”; prehistoric pueblo northeast of Tyuonyi.
- Tyuonyi (q’own-yee). A word having a signification akin to that of treaty or contract; Frijoles Canyon, Hidden Valley.
- V
- viejo (veeáy-ho). “Old”; old man.
- viga (vee-gah). “Roof beam.”