Pre-Contact Period
Clovis People
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Folsom People
Folsom people flourish throughout the Southwest at the end of the last Ice Age.
Cochise People
Earliest Evidence of Agriculture in the Southwest
Cochise people are first inhabitants to cultivate corn, squash and beans, the earliest evidence of agriculture in the Southwest.
Anasazi Basketmakers
Anasazi basketmakers elevate weaving to a high art, creating baskets, clothing, sandals and utensils.
Mogollon Culture
Mogollon culture introduces highly artistic pottery and early architecture in the form of pit houses.
Anasazi Culture Evolves into Chaco Civilization
Anasazi or Ancestral Pueblo culture centered on the Four Corners area are best known for their occupation of stone and adobe dwellings, such as cliff dwellings and Great Houses.
Anasazi People Settle Jemez Mountains
Beginning in the late 1100s, the upland mesas flanking the east side of the Jemez Mountains were settled by people of the Anasazi Culture. At first there were hundreds of individual, family size dwellings.
Anasazi Abandon the Four Corners Area
Abandonment of Four Corners area; population increase further south in Rio Grande and Little Colorado regions and Hopi mesas.
Anasazi of the Rio Grande Classic Period
Anasazi occupy the Pajarito Plateau, creating larger, relatively long-lived villages.
Pueblo Indians Occupy sites on the Rio Grande
Most of the Rio Grande Valley and adjacent areas of New Mexico were sparsely populated before 1300, a date used as a starting point for the establishment of many of the Pueblo villages that are still lived in today.
Navajos and Apaches Arrive in the Southwest
Navajos and Apaches, Athabascan-speakers, arrive in the Southwest from the north. Earliest evidence of Navajos indicates they raise corn and produce grey ceramic ware. Apaches enter the area about the same time.