The predominant ancestors of the Pueblo were the Anasazi, or Basketmakers. The early Pueblo lived in small, sprawling villages on mesa tops and in valleys. Possibly attacks by warlike nomad tribes caused them to develop the large, compact pueblo composed of many-tiered apartment houses. The first story of their houses had blank walls; ladders provided access to the terraces. Some Pueblo groups, called Cliff Dwellers, built their towns in natural recesses and shallow caves on the sides of mesas and canyons.

Around the end of the 13th century, the Pueblo in the Four Corners region (where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado meet) moved south and east. They may have abandoned their cities because of a prolonged drought and enemy attacks. After Coronado's conquest. Christian missions were established among the Pueblo, and in 1598 the Spanish began colonizing New Mexico.

The Indians rebelled against Spanish rule occasionally. In 1680 Popé, a Tewa medicine man, persuaded most of the Pueblo Indians to act together to drive the Spaniards from the country. The revolt was entirely successful. Santa Fe, the Spanish capital, was taken, and 2,500 Spaniards, nearly a fifth of the white population, were slaughtered. The Spanish returned in 1692, and by 1696 had again conquered the country. Thereafter the Indians were generally kept submissive. As a result of disease and enemy attacks, their number declined for more than 200 years.

Acquisition of the Pueblo territory by the United States in 1848, as a result of the Mexican War, had little effect on the Pueblo Indians. Ownership of the land granted to them by the Spanish was confirmed, beginning in 1864, and the acreage later increased. As they had learned some things from the Spanish (for example, silversmithing, stock raising, and baking in beehive ovens), so they adopted some American customs. The traditional ways of living persisted in the main, however.

Gradually, after World War I, the Pueblo country and Pueblo handicrafts were discovered by tourists. The old arts of pottery, weaving, and silversmithing had a great revival. The Bureau of Indian Affairs helped improve agricultural methods, public health, and education. By the time of World War II, there was a noticeable increase in population.

World War II was a turning point for the Pueblo Indians. Industrialization came with the establishment of atomic-energy laboratories at Los Alamos and Albuquerque, and the mining of uranium and development of other valuable mineral resources. Indians finding employment in the new industries as well as those who served in the armed forces demanded new ways of life in the pueblos. Young married couples began living separately from their elders, in one-story bungalows, in spite of efforts to hold them to traditional patterns. Only the Hopi, on their remote mesas in Arizona, are relatively untouched by modern influences.

In the mid-1960's eight northern pueblos united in a community-based program for economic development of their reservations. By the early 1970's, six southern pueblos had done likewise. In 1976 the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center was opened in Albuquerque. In the 1980's and 1990's, the Pueblo Indians were involved in legal action to protect their land and water rights.