The Basketmaker period was when true Pueblo culture began. During this time, people became farmers. They depended on their crops, especially corn, for most of their food.

When people became farmers, they had to give up their nomadic way of life to plant and tend their crops. So they settled on small farmsteads located close to good farmland.

Farming and a settled way of life are important parts of Pueblo culture. So archaeologists consider the people of the Basketmaker period to be the very first Pueblo Indians.