The Spanish term for this very famous area of trade is Gran Chichimeca. And so, Native Americans from the present Southwest have inherited cultural aspects from native peoples who live below what is now the Mexican border.
Pottery is an example of such a tradition.
Originally Native Americans and other people used pottery for cooking, food and water storage as well as for ritual and mortuary customs. Because of the importance of ceramics in their daily lives, many natural and abstract symbols were painted as decoration to represent a specific purpose. The early Mimbres culture, for example, was noted for its exceptional thin-walled, highly stylistic animal imagery. This culture is believed to have been absorbed by the ancestors of Native Americans as well as groups from Mexico.