People of the Legends
Indigenous People of North America - Early History
Changes in the Southwest and Mexico
In Mexico and other parts of South America, the Maya and Aztec peoples built huge cities, with aqueducts that carried fresh water to the houses.
In the Southwest several cultures grew in what is now called New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah.
These cultures included the Hohokam who were irrigation farmers, the Mogollon and the Anasazi.
The Anasazi built adobe (mud brick) villages, with the houses placed on top of each other in layers.
You can see what is left of these ancient pueblos (villages) today.
Scientists think the Hohokam were the ancestors of tribes like the Pima and Tohono O’Odham, and the Mogollon and Anasazi were the ancestors of Pueblo tribes like the Zuni, Hopi and Acoma.
The tribes in the Southwest lived peacefully until the Navajo and Apache peoples moved down from Canada about 1000 years ago, and the land had to be shared.
