The Navajo Revolt

Following the revolt in 1680, the major change from more aggregated to dispersed settlements for both the Navajo and Pueblo mark their increased migration, including the signs of intertribal warfare. Groups of Pueblos and Navajos relocated to areas that were more defensible. Before the Spanish came, the Pueblos generally lived in densely packed clusters on valley floors centered around kivas, but eventually the Spanish reduced the number of pueblos to facilitate conversion to Catholicism. Having driven out the Spanish, the Pueblos broke off into their individual tribes as several eastern Pueblo districts took refuge amongst the Hopi, Zuni, and Navajo. For example, the Pueblos living in the Rio Grande area established villages on top of Hopi

The change to settlements on high mesas helped deter the increasingly frequent raids of their former allies, the Apache, Navajo, as well as the Ute.
In the following years after the revolt in 1680, the Navajo also migrated and created architectural structures that signified the inter-tribal warfare, but it also signified the influence of the Pueblo people. In addition, the location of the settlement of the Navajos on mesas and in canyons permitted the revitalization of their culture as they began to build hogans, obtain livestock, and farm food like corn, beans, and squash. The basis of the Navajo’s subsistence economy was through agriculture, which myths and rituals demonstrated, especially since First Man and First Woman were created from white and yellow corn, respectively. Thus, the groups of Pueblos influenced the Navajos, particularly groups that relocated and settled in Gobernador canyon, due to cohabitation with Pueblo refugees. This cohabitation is exemplified through “pueblitos” that the Navajos built, which were puebloid in nature as they were made from mud

The location and construction of these mesa villages were significant as it meant that the Pueblos now occupied ancestral land. The influence of cultural revitalization spurned on the similarity in Pueblo construction amongst distinct Pueblo tribes like the Keres and Jemez people after the revolt as they built what is known as a dual-plaza plan. The dual-plaza plan suggested the return to cultural revitalization as there are signs that the orientation of these buildings represented iconic aspects of the Pueblo universe, specifically aligning with Keresan cosmology. Thus, after the revolt, the leaders used the architecture of Kotyiti, Boletsakwa, and Patokwa as a way to legitimize their reconnection to Pueblo culture pre-contact and reaffirming the differences between their new architectural style in comparison to the mission pueblos they were forced to live in. However, the momentum that cultural revitalization gained following the success of the revolt slowed down, particularly as vital leaders like Po’Pay lost their influence or disappeared. This lead to the construction of other sites like Astialakwa and Kotyiti East that no longer had a central focus on the incorporation of cultural traditions pre-contact as tribes began to intermingle more, making the need for an architectural arrangement that was more dispersed to assist the