Antonio de Espejo
In February 1583, Espejo arrived at the territory of the Piros, the most southerly of the Pueblo villagers. From there the Spanish continued up the Rio Grande. Espejo described the Pueblo villages as "clean and tidy". The houses were multi-storied and made of adode bricks. "They make very fine tortillas," Espejo commented, and the Pueblos also served the Spanish turkeys, beans, corns, and pumpkins. The people "did not seem to be bellicose". The southernmost Pueblos had only clubs for weapons plus a few "poor Turkish bows and poorer arrows". Further north, the Indians were better armed and more aggressive. Some of the Pueblo towns were large, Espejo described Zia as having 1,000 houses and 4,000 men and boys. In their farming, the Pueblos used irrigation "with canals and dams, built as if by Spaniards". The only Spanish influence that Espejo noted among the Pueblos was their desire for iron. They would steal any iron article they could find.
Hiware Bazar
The villagers implemented a drip-irrigation system to conserve water and soil, and to increase the food production. They avoided crops like sugarcane and bananas, which require a high use of water. The program included rainwater harvesting, digging trenches around the hill contours to trap water, afforestation and building of percolation tanks. These initiatives were complemented by a program for social change, which included a ban on liquor, adoption of family planning, mandating HIV/AIDS testing before marriages and "shramdaan" (voluntary labour for development of the village).