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.
Matengo people
The traditional farming methods of the Matengo are known as "Ingolo" or "Ngolo". Over the last 100 years, the Matengo have developed an innovative method of farming on the steep hills, digging pits on ridges on steep slopes to prevent soil erosion and to promote sustainable fertile soils. The function of the pits is to prevent heavy rain washing away the soils on the steep slopes, acting as sedimentation tanks to trap green grasses, thus providing a source of nutrients for the following season. The main crops they grow are staple food crops and coffee under this unique system of cultivation known as "Matengo Pit Cultivation". This cultivation practice usually starts in March following the rainy season.