Plaza - Heart of the Pueblo / Plaza - centro del pueblo

In the 1500s, the central plaza of the Jumano village of Cueloze was a busy place where people cooked, made pottery, fashioned tools, performed ceremonies, and traded their wares. Located at a gateway between Rio Grande Pueblo and Plains indigenous worlds and near valuable salt lakes, Cueloze was a regional trade center where hundreds of Pueblo and Plains indigenous people gathered during trade fairs and religious ceremonies. The plaza had several kivas, including a smaller one probably used by an individual clan and a larger one likely used for events involving the entire pueblo. In 1598 Don Juan de Oñate elicited this pueblo's obedience to the Spanish crown and called it Pueblo de Las Humanas for the striped-faced Indians he encountered there.

Deer Canyon, New Mexico · United States