Editing New Mexico (section)

===Prehistory===

The first known inhabitants of New Mexico were members of the [[Clovis culture]] of [[Paleo-Indians]].<ref name="Murphy 2000">{{cite book|last=Murphy|first=Dan|others=photo research by John O. Baxter|title=New Mexico, the distant land: an illustrated history|year=2000|publisher=American Historical Press|location=Sun Valley, CA|isbn=978-1892724090}}</ref>{{Rp|19}} Footprints discovered in 2017 suggest that humans may have been present in the region as long ago as 21,000–23,000 BC.<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 4, 2022 |title=Ancient footprints in New Mexico raise questions about when humans inhabited North America |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ancient-footprints-in-new-mexico-raise-questions-about-when-humans-inhabited-north-america |access-date=2022-07-25 |website=PBS NewsHour |language=en-us |archive-date=July 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725174206/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ancient-footprints-in-new-mexico-raise-questions-about-when-humans-inhabited-north-america |url-status=live }}</ref> Later inhabitants include the [[Mogollon culture|Mogollon]] and [[Ancestral Puebloans|Ancestral Pueblo]] cultures, which are characterized by sophisticated pottery work and urban development;<ref name="Simmons 1988">{{cite book |last=Simmons |first=Marc |title=New Mexico: An Interpretive History |edition=New |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |location=Albuquerque |year=1988 |isbn=978-0826311108 |url=https://archive.org/details/newmexicointerpr00simm }}</ref>{{Rp|52}} [[pueblo]]s or their remnants, like those at [[Acoma Pueblo|Acoma]], [[Taos Pueblo|Taos]], and [[Chaco Culture National Historical Park]], indicate the scale of [[Ancestral Puebloan dwellings]] within the area. These cultures form part of the broader [[Oasisamerica]] region of pre-Columbian North America.

The vast trade networks of the Ancestral Puebloans led to legends throughout [[Mesoamerica]] and the [[Aztec Empire]] ([[Mexica|Mexico]]) of an unseen northern empire that rivaled their own, which they called ''Yancuic Mexico'', literally translated as "a new Mexico".