Why did the pueblos Indians make their homes?

Most pueblo Indians did not live in "cave dwellings". Most "villages" (the Spanish name for village or town is Pueblo) were multi room, sometimes multi story structures constructed of stacked masonry or jacal. Most of these structures were built primarily on the mesa tops or the canyon floor, However, most sites that have been best preserved were those built in alcoves in the canyon walls. These are the most preserved for the same reason they were built in these alcoves, protection from the weather. Because these well preserved sites were the most attention grabbing, the Anasazi are sometimes referred to as "Cliff Dwellers" even though only about 10% of their sites were actually on the cliffs.

At Bandelier in New Mexico, and at other locations, the early pueblo people built structure that extended away from the vertical cliffs of soft volcanic tuff. They imbedded horizontal logs into the relatively soft cliff face for the roofs of the structures. They would also either carve rooms out of the volcanic tuff or use naturally eroded rooms behind the structures they built. See the History & Culture section of the Bandelier National Monument website for photos of this construction method.