They also developed great skills in basket weaving and pottery making. It was during this time that they also began building villages, often on top of high mesas or in hollowed-out natural caves at the base of canyons. These multiple-room dwellings and apartment like complexes, designed with stone or adobe masonry, were the forerunner of the later pueblos.

Despite their success, the Ancient Puebloans way of life declined in the 1300s, probably due to drought and intertribal warfare and they migrated south, primarily into New Mexico and Arizona, becoming what is today known as the Pueblo people.

For hundreds of years, these Pueblo descendants continued to live a similar lifestyle, continuing to survive by hunting and farming, and also building "new” apartment-like structures, sometimes several stories high. These structures were made cut sandstone faced with adobe -- a combination of earth mixed with straw and water; or the adobe was poured into forms or made into sun-dried bricks to build walls that are often several feet thick. The buildings had flat roofs, which served as working or resting places, as well as observation points to watch for approaching enemies and view ceremonial occasions. For better defense, the outer walls generally had no doors or windows, but instead, window openings in the roofs, with ladders leading into the interior.

Each family generally lived in a single room of the building unless they grew too large, at which time; side-rooms were sometimes added. The houses of the pueblo were usually built around a central, open space or plaza in the middle of which was a "kiva,” a sunken chamber used for religious purposes.

Each pueblo was an independent and separate community, though many shared similarities in language and customs. Each pueblo had its own chief, and sometimes two chiefs, a summer and winter chief, who alternated. Most important affairs, such was war, hunting, religion and agriculture; however, were governed by priesthoods or secret societies.

The Pueblo people continued to utilize irrigation methods to grow corn, beans, pumpkins, cotton and tobacco. In the beginning, they hunted with spears, rather than bow and arrows, but were never known to fish. The only domestic animal was the dog, which was used as a beast of burden. They also continued to make elaborate baskets and pottery, as well as becoming expert wood carvers and decorating ceremonial clothing with shells, turquoise, feathers and furs.