Hawikuh Ruins, Archaeological site in Zuni, New Mexico, United States

Hawikuh Ruins are the remains of one of the largest Zuni pueblos, founded around 1400 AD and located 12 miles southwest of Zuni Pueblo. The site holds adobe house blocks, some described by Coronado as three to five stories high, along with underground kivas. The ruins of Mission La Purísima Concepción, established in 1628, also stand here.

Founded around 1400, Hawikuh was among the largest Zuni pueblos when Marcos de Niza's party arrived in 1539; Estevanico, its first non-native visitor, died there. In 1540 Francisco Vásquez de Coronado attacked the pueblo, was wounded by stones thrown from the flat roofs, and used it as a base to explore the region. A mission, La Purísima Concepción, was established in 1628; the church was burned in 1632, 1672 and 1680, after which the Zuni abandoned the site.

The Zuni name Hawikku means "gum leaves". Residents farmed, hunted, and traded bison hides and leather, turquoise, corn, beans and melons with other tribes. Coronado's men found stored provisions when they plundered the houses, and the Zuni returned to negotiate, offering gifts and asking for peace.

The site sits on the Zuni Indian Reservation and is reached by driving southwest from Zuni Pueblo through open land. Interpretive markers along the ruins help visitors understand what they are looking at and how the pueblo was arranged.

Early excavations between 1917 and 1923 uncovered thousands of everyday objects and tools that are now housed in museums, including the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington. These collections offer a rare window into how people actually lived and worked at the settlement.