Ancestral Pueblo

noun, plural in construction

variants or less commonly ancestral Pueblo

see usage paragraph below

: a group of prehistoric Indigenous peoples of the canyons of northern Arizona and New Mexico and southwestern Colorado

Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado may be known for its iconic cliff dwellings, but archaeological artifacts left by the Ancestral Pueblo are all over.

—Grace Hood

… in the late 13th century, about the time the ancestral Pueblo were vacating cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde.

—Allen Best

—often used before another noun

the Ancestral Pueblo people

Ancestral Pueblo culture

Ancestral Pueblo communities of the central Mesa Verde region became increasingly reliant on maize agriculture for their subsistence needs by AD 900.

—Andrew Gillreath-Brown et al.

Usage of Anasazi, Ancestral Pueblo, and Ancestral Puebloan

The English word Anasazi comes from a Navajo word meaning "enemy ancestors." Due to this association, Anasazi is now often considered an inappropriate or disrespectful name for a member of these prehistoric peoples or (when used in the plural) for the peoples referred to as a group. The terms Ancestral Pueblo and Ancestral Puebloan are often used as alternative names for the peoples and for an individual member of these peoples, respectively.

Word History

First Known Use

1887, in the meaning defined above