Pueblo Indians

This is a report I wrote on the Pueblo Indians. It is from the perspective of a girl in the Hopi tribe.

Haw! I'm a member of the Hopi tribe. Hopi Indians are one of the four main pueblo tribes. I lived in 1300 A.D. My parents often tell me stories about the easy times in the Hopi tribe. I will now pass on the stories to you. My people and I are descendants from the Anasazi tribe, my mom used to say. People lived in mud-brick houses called pueblos. Oh. Did I tell you my dad is the chief? Dad always told me 1 A.D his tribe started growing pumpkins and corn. He also told me back then they didn’t use pottery instead they used baskets. My older brother told me, about 500 A.D maybe 600 A.D pueblo people learned how to grow beans. They also started making pottery like other tribes. Then he quickly would ask, “Why did Hopi Indians start farming?” I always answered, “Because they knew how to grow plants already so they started farming pumpkins, corn, and beans.” Then he would say, “Very good.” Grandma would say around 700 A.D pueblo Indians began to build bigger houses out of mud-brick or sometimes even out of stone on top of high cliffs called mesas. She would talk about how pueblo people started to grow cotton for their clothes and started to make more complicated pottery with different shapes like cups, jugs, jars, plates, and bowls. These are some of the things I don’t remember who told me. Years and years ago the Hopi tribe traded turquoise for pretty parrot feathers and other things. There are four main groups of the pueblo tribe Zuni, Hopi [The one I’m in], Tanoan, and Keresan. It was very dry where they lived so they learned how to build dams and stone cisterns to store water. The water was not just for drinking but for irrigating their corn, beans, and pumpkins. By 1200 A.D People stopped living on top of mesas and moved to pueblo houses built halfway up the cliffs, in caves. Some people moved back up to the mesa tops [unlike me and my family] because they thought it was safer. But around 1300 AD, Pueblo people stopped building houses altogether and moved away from their homes. They lost all their power, and they stopped living in their fine houses, and they stopped farming. They traveled south-west, into southern Arizona and New Mexico, looking for new homes. That's when the Pueblo people first met the Navajo, who are moving south into Arizon and New Mexico at about the same time. I hope you like the facts about the Pueblo Indians. Bye!