Life of the Zuni Tribe

The Zuni tribe lived in the desert, in the area that is now New Mexico. They lived in villages called pueblos. The houses in a pueblo were built one on top of another. The flat roof of one house was used as a yard for the house above it. People climbed ladders and entered their homes through holes in the roof.

Some rooms in the pueblos were special and called kivas. Men went there to hold meetings or ceremonies. They hoped these ceremonies would bring rain to the dry desert.

The Zuni started their day by working in the fields. Like many Native Americans, they worked first and ate later because cooking breakfast quickly was not possible at that time.

They usually baked very thin bread called water bread. The bread was blue because it was made from blue corn. The Zuni planted corn in deep holes they dug with sticks. When the corn ripened, boys ran around the fields all day, shouting at crows to protect the crop.

Everything the Zuni did, they did together. Whole families worked in the fields and shared the food with each other.