Tano

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The Tano belong to the Pueblo Indians and did not form a tribe in the strict sense of the word, but each Pueblo consisted of a village that functioned as an autonomous political unit. But that did not mean that these groups were isolated. They traded with other pueblos, were aware of their common origins, shared similar values, and occasionally married partners from another village.

Residential area and language

The Tano lived in northern New Mexico and formed the largest language group among the Pueblo Indians who belong to the Kiowa-Tano language family . The Tano consists of three main languages, Tiwa , Tewa and Towa . Tiwa is spoken by the residents of Taos , Picuris , Sandia and Isleta . Tewa is the language in the pueblos Nambe , Pojoaque , San Ildefonso , San Juan , Santa Clara, and Tesuque . Jemez is the only pueblo in which toba can still be heard today.

The Pueblo Indians can be divided into two groups according to the location of their villages. The Eastern Pueblo (Tano and Keres speakers) live on the Rio Grande and its tributaries and thus have a permanent water source that allows them to cultivate irrigation. The western pueblo ( Hopi , Zuni , Acoma and Laguna ) are dependent on dry fields due to a lack of constant water supply.

Cultural roots

The Tano culture has its roots in the prehistoric Anasazi culture. Anasazi is a Navajo word and means the ancients . Between 100 BC In the south-west of today's USA, prehistoric settlements consisting of pit houses and mud huts emerged. From here the Anasazi hunted, collected wild plants, grew pumpkins , beans and corn and kept everything fresh in pits under stone slabs.

Around AD 700 the Anasazi began building unearthly stone houses. The kiva , an underground space that was used for rituals , developed. During this time the most important territorial expansions of the Anasazi fall, whose territory now extended far into Utah and even extended to the south of Colorado and to northern Mexico.

In the classical Anasazi period from 1050 to 1300, the majority of the villages, as in Mesa Verde , consisted of compact multi-storey communal buildings with several kivas. To this day it remains a mystery why many large settlements were abandoned at the end of the era. For decades, made a devastating drought from 1276 to 1299 responsible, but today this is thesis no longer generally maintained. Nevertheless, it is certain that the Anasazi fell victim to an obvious emaciation process around 1300 . Only then did the invasion of foreign tribes take place. Until about 1500 there is little evidence of attacks by Apaches and Diné . But it took a few decades before the Spaniards subjugated the Indian villages of the southwest to their rule.

History after 1500

In 1539 the Spanish missionary Marcos de Niza was the first European to come across Tano. Francisco de Coronado explored the area of ​​what is now New Mexico in 1541 and 1542, penetrating far east and north. As they advanced, Coronado's men tried in vain to subjugate a people they named Pueblo after the structures they had built. At the beginning of the 16th century, New Mexico, especially the valley of the Rio Grande, was densely populated and intensively farmed. In 1598 the country was finally occupied by the Spaniards and built around 1630 in almost all pueblos missions.

A mass uprising of the Pueblo Indians in 1680, the so-called Pueblo uprising , initially drove the Spaniards out. It was especially the Indian priests who organized the uprising. At the head was a priest chief from San Juan named Popé . But in 1692 the Spaniards returned and reduced the number of pueblos from 90 to 30. Still, the uprising was a long-term success for the Tano. The Spaniards never again tried to force their religion and culture on the Indians with such brutality as they did before the uprising.

Until the end of the American-Mexican War in 1848, the Tano were administered by Spanish or Mexican governments and then subordinated to the United States. Despite this foreign rule, the Indians managed to preserve most of their traditions. The western villages in particular successfully resisted Spanish influence, while the pueblos in the east incorporated some Spanish elements into their culture.

Way of life and culture

The water resources affect of food procurement to religion to many areas of life from. In economic terms, many Tano are field farmers. Some also keep small flocks of sheep and cattle and make handicrafts, for example woven goods, silver jewelry, kachina dolls, ceramics and wickerwork. Today, like many other residents of the Southwest, the Tano are also wage earners and go to the nearby large cities such as Albuquerque and Santa Fe . However, they all return when there is a need to attend important ceremonies .

Religion permeates all areas of life. Based on the insight that people must live in harmony with nature, the Tano have developed rich cultural traditions that are expressed in their poetry, legends , songs, dances and in their art. The ceremonial center of the village is the kiva . Private and communal religious rites take place here daily and at appropriate times of the year . Often there is an annual feast day, which is celebrated on the name day of the Roman Catholic saint. In addition to Christian masses and processions, there are traditional ceremonies, consisting of dances, accompanied by singing and drums.

Secular and spiritual authorities are sharply separated in the pueblos. Every village is a well-structured theocracy headed by a cacike . In the eastern pueblos, secular organization is in the hands of a governor who is appointed or elected annually.

The pueblos of the Tewa are divided into two social halves or moieties , whose affiliation is determined by the paternal line. In one half of the year, the political and ceremonial duties are in the hands of one moiety, the sun people , while the winter people take over the other half. The most important religious ceremonies take place at harvest time. They mainly consist of prayers with which one thanks for good yield or for rain. The ancestral spirits and other good spirits, the kachinas, are especially venerated by the western Pueblo Indians. During the rituals, masked dancers embody these spirits and children receive kachina dolls.

The pueblos of the Tano are considered to be the oldest continuously used settlements in North America. Low income, inadequate health care, poor schooling and the high unemployment rate among Pueblo Indians have increased social tensions in recent years. At the same time, however, a greater awareness of traditions developed again.

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