A Native American culture centred in the “four corners” region of modern Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, USA. It began c.500 bc when a variant, called San Jose (c.500–100 bc), of the hunter‐gatherer desert cultures took the first steps towards agriculture and village life. Their abundant basketry has given the name ‘basket makers’ to their early stages. By 450 ad they were making pottery, and by 700–900 great kivas (round ceremonial chambers) were being built. In the 13th to 15th centuries droughts, crop failures, and the influx of Athapascan tribes (Navaho and Apache) led to the abandonment of many of their settlements and the building of cliff‐dwellings, or pueblos, for defence. They were visited by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado’s expedition of 1540–42, by which time they had begun to resettle some of their old territory. Initial relations were friendly, but a shortage of food led to resistance, ended by Coronado’s mass execution of Native Americans. Spanish missions came in the 17th century, and attempts were made to expel the missionaries in the 1680s, followed by severe Spanish reprisals from 1692. They became known as the Pueblo Indians.