Zuni, or Zuñi, pronounced ZOO-nee or ZOO-nyee, is the name of both a people and a pueblo, or village. It is derived from the Keresan word sünyitsi, the meaning of which is unknown. The Zuni Native name is A:shiwi, meaning “the flesh.” Zuni people originally lived in seven pueblos along the north bank of the upper Zuni River, flowing out of the highlands of the Colorado Plateau.

Zuni territory has since become a part of the state of New Mexico and lies in the state’s western region near the present-day Arizona border. They are classified as SOUTHWEST INDIANS. The Zuni language is unlike that of any other PUEBLO INDIANS. Some scholars now place this distinctive dialect of Zunian in the Penutian language phylum. Archaeological evidence indicates that two diverse cultural groups— one from the north and the other from the west or southwest—merged in prehistoric times to become the Zuni.

Their ancestors might have been of the Mogollon culture and the Anasazi culture (see SOUTHWEST CULTURES). Much later, Indians from Mexico who served as bearers for the conquistadores, especially the Tlaxcalan, deserted the Spanish to settle among the Zuni.

Lifeways
The Zuni, like other Pueblo Indians, lived in multistoried houses interconnected by ladders. They used stone covered with plaster in their architecture, unlike the Rio Grande Pueblo Indians to the east who used adobe bricks. Farming provided the primary source of food for the Zuni. They also hunted, fished, and foraged for wild plants. As is the case with the Hopi, another western Pueblo people living on the Colorado Plateau, kachinas, benevolent guardian spirits, played an important part in Zuni mythology.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES
THIRD Edition
CARL WALDMAN