Part 13

Laguna Pueblo is the youngest and second largest of the pueblos in New Mexico. Built in 1697, shortly after the reconquest by de Vargas, the name was derived from a large lake which existed at one time just west of the village. In addition to the main village, a number of small settlements have developed where the terrain is suitable for agriculture, the main occupation of the Lagunas. The most important of these villages are Paguate, Encinal, Paraje, Mesita, Seama, and Casa Blanca. The Laguna Indians are of mixed origin, composed of four linguistic stocks: Tano, Keres, Shoshone, and Zuni.

Although the occupation of the pueblo was traditionally agriculture, in recent years a moderate revolution has been visible. The people of Laguna are in the middle of one of the richest uranium mining areas in the world, and many of them have been employed in mining activities. Also, the pueblo lies on the main line of the Santa Fe Railway, allowing some employment with the railroad. Laguna Pueblo is one of the most progressive of all the Indian groups in New Mexico. It has a population well in excess of 3000.

Located at Laguna is the San Jose de Laguna mission, built in 1699. The plaster on the building is native earth. Indian symbols are painted on the ceiling of the chancel, and a large picture of St. Joseph done on elk skin hangs on the reredos. The halos on the saints are triangular rather than circular. The altar is covered with animal skins painted with Christian symbols.

Nambé Pueblo

Nambé is one of the smallest of the pueblos but is located in an area noted for its scenic beauty and climate. Its population is less than 200. It was not always so small; during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the population was greatly reduced by intertribal war and witchcraft executions. The Nambé people played an active role in the pueblo rebellion of 1680, murdering their priest and destroying their church.

The original church at Nambé was one of the first missions founded after the establishment of the first European settlement of San Gabriel at San Juan in 1598. Destroyed in 1680, it was rebuilt in 1696. In 1729, the converts had increased to such numbers that a new church was required. This church remained in use until 1909 when, because of carelessness in keeping it in repair, the roof collapsed during a storm. The annual Nambé fiesta is held in early October.

Picurís Pueblo

Picurís is seldom visited by the tourist, for it lies in the mountains forty miles north of Santa Fe and can only be reached over a gravel road. The people of Picurís were among the most warlike of the normally peaceful pueblo peoples. They participated actively in the pueblo rebellion in 1680, killing their priest and all the Spaniards in the vicinity. They also participated in the battle for Santa Fe which broke Spanish power in New Mexico until 1692. After the revolt, fear of the Spanish caused them to abandon their village until they were induced to return in 1706. The population of Picurís is very small, being slightly more than 100.

One of the few old missions left in New Mexico, the San Lorenzo de Picurís church shows the strange mixture of Spanish and Indian traditions. Near the door is a human skull covered with an old cloth, but unfortunately, its story is lost to antiquity.

An interesting feature at Picurís is the unusual construction seen in some of the buildings. Made of puddled adobe, they are the oldest still standing of any pueblo in the Rio Grande Valley. The buildings were made by pouring adobe mud into wall forms. This is the same kind of construction that is found at Casa Grande, Arizona, one of the significant prehistoric ruins in the United States.

Pojoaque Pueblo

Pojoaque, though still listed among the Indian villages of New Mexico, is no longer populated by Indians. Two missions were established at Pojoaque in the early Spanish days, the first shortly after 1600. This was destroyed in the rebellion in 1680. Later, in 1706, a new church was constructed which is still in use. The Indian population of Pojoaque was gradually reduced until, in 1900, the few remaining families abandoned the village. Since that time, Spanish-American families have occupied the buildings. It is a picturesque village seldom seen, for it is hidden from the passing tourist by a hill. Yet some of the buildings in this ancient village date back to pre-Coronado times and are a significant part of the romance of New Mexico.

Sandia Pueblo

Sandia Pueblo is a remnant of the Tiguex villages visited by Coronado in 1540. A mission was created at Sandia shortly after the colonization by Oñate, and it was an important mission center until the Pueblo Revolt. After the revolt, Sandia peoples scattered rather than again submit to Spanish control. Many of them went to live with the Hopi and there founded the village of Payupki on the middle mesa, the walls of which can still be found. After 62 years, in 1742, a few families returned to the Rio Grande Valley to found the modern pueblo. The old mission remains visible, although reduced to a rubble of adobe. Sandia Pueblo remains a small village, containing less than 150 people.

San Felipe Pueblo

San Felipe is one of the most conservative of the pueblos and has retained much of its Indian heritage despite the impact of Spanish and American influences. It has a close affinity with its neighbors, particularly Santo Domingo only five miles distant. San Felipe was a well-established village when the Spanish first arrived. Its people joined in heartily when the pueblo uprising began in 1680 but abandoned their village during a Spanish counteroffensive in 1681 (which failed). When reconquest was completed in 1692, the people returned to their village. Thereafter, they remained friendly to the Spanish and suffered many attacks from the Navajo, who hated them for this loyalty.

One of the finest remaining structures showing early Franciscan mission architecture can be seen at the San Felipe church. The present church is not the original mission, for three different churches were located at San Felipe over the centuries. The first was built in 1605 and destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt. The second was built in a new part of the village in 1694, but shortly after 1700, the village was moved and a new church constructed. The latter church is the one now in use at San Felipe. On May 1, the nearly 1000 people of the pueblo celebrate their annual fiesta.

San Ildefonso Pueblo

San Ildefonso has gained fame throughout the world because of the excellence of its pottery. The high quality and general acceptance of this commodity has made the village prosperous. It boasts some of the most famous Indian artists and artisans in the United States, among them Julian and Maria Martinez, perhaps the best-known potters in the world.

San Ildefonso participated in the Pueblo Revolt but did not contest the reconquest, at least not at first. In 1694, when de Vargas began to wage war on the northern pueblos, San Ildefonso did take part. The people fortified themselves on Black Mesa, a high, steep mesa of volcanic origin near the pueblo. There they successfully withstood Spanish efforts to dislodge them. Notwithstanding their initial success, they were ultimately conquered and brought into the Spanish system. Today there are several hundred people living in the village, and they are among the friendliest of the pueblo peoples. San Ildefonso is easily accessible from Santa Fe.

The mission church dates back to the 1890’s, although earlier churches at the pueblo played an important role in bringing Christianity to the Pueblo Indian world. The older churches are long since gone.

San Juan Pueblo

San Juan Pueblo is best noted for its close association with the first Spanish settlement in New Mexico in 1598. Oñate, colonizer of New Mexico, selected a site for his first headquarters which was a part of the ancient Pueblo of San Juan. The natives living in that part of the village willingly gave up their homes to the Spaniards and were taken in by the remainder of the people of San Juan. Oñate, in appreciation for this hospitality, bestowed upon the pueblo the name _San Juan de los Caballeros_, a name which the pueblo is still proud to bear.

Yet this same friendly people also contributed Po-pé, the great leader of the Pueblo Revolt, to the history of New Mexico. While Po-pé shared with many other pueblo leaders a hatred of the Spanish conqueror, he was the spiritual force and the organizer of the rebellion that broke the control of the Spaniard for twelve years and returned New Mexico to the Indian. This great rebellion stands as one of the significant efforts in the history of the world of a people to cast off the bonds of foreign control.

San Juan cannot claim a church dating back to the _conquistadores_, but it does have one of the great landmark churches in the Southwest. In 1890, the chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes was dedicated at San Juan. It was constructed of red volcanic rock found west of the Rio Grande. This beautiful structure is an architectural jewel set in desert surroundings.

The nearly 700 people of San Juan welcome visitors to their homes; their undecorated burnished black pottery is particularly distinctive and popular. The pueblo’s annual festival is held in June.

Santa Ana Pueblo

Santa Ana Pueblo lies along the banks of the Rio Jemez, which enters the Rio Grande from the west. The pueblo was visited by Oñate and a mission was built there about 1600, shortly after his visit. The people of Santa Ana joined in the Pueblo Revolt, and since there was no priest serving their church in 1680, they joined with the Indians of Santo Domingo and San Felipe to massacre the padres at San Felipe. In 1687, during one of the Spanish efforts to reconquer New Mexico, Santa Ana was destroyed and her people fled. Later, at the urging of de Vargas, the modern pueblo was established, along with the church now standing there. The population of Santa Ana is nearly 400. Its annual festival takes place in August. It is often difficult to find many of the people at the main pueblo for they spend most of the growing season at El Ranchito, to the east in the Rio Grande Valley.

Santa Clara Pueblo

Santa Clara Pueblo is near the mouth of Santa Clara Creek, a year-round stream flowing out of the Jemez Mountains into the Rio Grande. To the west of the pueblo, on lands owned by Santa Clara, are the famous Puye Cliff Dwellings ruins. The people of Santa Clara claim these natural cliff homes as their ancestral dwelling places, a fact which has been substantiated by archeologists. The Santa Clara Indians represent, then, an important living Indian group in which one can observe institutions and traditions that can be linked to traditions of the cultures that lived in the caves and abandoned cities of Southwest antiquity.

Like most of the pueblo people, Santa Clara joined the Pueblo Revolt, but this action did not seriously harm the pueblo. The real damage was done to Santa Clara in the late eighteenth century when intertribal warfare over witchcraft, plus the ravages of disease, took nearly 500 lives in the village. The current population is about 500.

The church at Santa Clara is quite modern, having been constructed in the twentieth century. The old church, built in 1760, was caught up in the modernization craze that swept through the pueblo world in the early 1900’s. Perhaps one of the most substantial and beautiful of all pueblo churches, the old church collapsed during a storm in 1909 (the same storm that destroyed the church at Nambé); it had been structurally weakened by the removal of the roof for remodeling.

The village has excellent agricultural lands and supplements its income by manufacturing an excellent and distinctive pure black pottery. Its annual festival is in mid-August.

Santo Domingo Pueblo

Santo Domingo is one of the largest of the pueblos, having a population of nearly 1500. It is also the most conservative in retention of its native culture. This makes its dances and dress of particular interest to the visitor to New Mexico. The present pueblo was established after the reconquest in 1692. The Indians of Santo Domingo took a particularly active part in the Pueblo Revolt, killing three padres resident at the pueblo. When de Vargas moved to retake Santo Domingo, he found the people had abandoned the village. They had constructed a village in the Jemez Mountains to the west, and it was there that de Vargas defeated them. Even then, the people of Santo Domingo did not give up the fight, and only after a long series of defeats and serious loss of life did they surrender and again return to the vicinity of their original village.

The church at Santo Domingo is not so old as many other pueblo edifices, but its qualities remain among the most typical aspects of early New Mexico mission architecture. In early August, during the great annual festival, the Indians completely clean and whitewash the church. Two large horses are painted on the front of the building by native artists. The dances during the Santo Domingo festival are among the most colorful and authentic in New Mexico.

Taos Pueblo

Taos represents the northernmost of the pueblos in New Mexico. It is also one of the most scenic, lying at the foot of the Taos Mountains, a spur of the mighty Sangre de Cristo range. It is a prosperous village of about 900 persons. There is no finer example of pueblo apartment architecture in New Mexico. The main pueblo building rises five stories above the mesa. One must be careful not to confuse the Spanish town, don Fernando de Taos, and the old Indian farming center, Ranchos de Taos, with the pueblo, San Geronimo de Taos. It is the latter that is Indian and is, therefore, by far the oldest of the three.

The ruins of the old San Geronimo mission at Taos represent one of the most historic and fateful in all the Southwest. It was there that two priests were murdered in 1680 during the first days of the Pueblo Revolt. It was there that Po-pé sowed the first seeds of that rebellion. Again in 1696, the Taos Indians sought to free themselves from Spanish control by killing their priests and other Spaniards in the vicinity. Again they were subdued. In 1847, when the Americans annexed New Mexico, the Taos Indians tried once more to gain their independence. Inflamed by Mexican citizens who refused to accept American authority, they attacked the Americans at Fernando de Taos, killing nine of them. Governor Charles Bent, builder of the famous Bent’s Fort on the Santa Fe Trail, was among those killed. On February 3, 1847, the American army in New Mexico laid siege to the village and the Indians fortified themselves in the mission. It became the Alamo of the Taos people. American artillery was brought to bear, and the walls of the ancient church were battered down; the Indians fled, first to the village and then into the mountains, leaving behind 150 dead and many wounded. They were finally forced to surrender, and their leaders were hung. Those so hung remain martyrs to this day. The ruins of the Taos mission, built three and a quarter centuries ago, still can be seen. They are a stark landmark to the stubborn independence of the people of Taos.

The traditions and ceremonials of Taos are well preserved. Their arts and crafts, however, have declined and are not of the high quality found in some of the other pueblos. Their ceremonials are excellent and are noted for their beauty and precision. The feast day of San Geronimo, September 30, is the most important event of the year.

Tesuque Pueblo

Tesuque is a small village, perhaps numbering no more than 150 persons. Even though it has always been small, it holds a major place in the history of New Mexico. It was at Tesuque that the first blood was shed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. On August 9, Cristobal de Herrera was murdered, and two Tesuque Indians rushed to Santa Fe to warn the Spanish governor of the impending rebellion. The Indian leaders, now aware that their plot was known, moved the date of the revolt from August 13 to August 10. On August 10, Father Pio, in charge of the Tesuque mission, went out from Santa Fe to say Mass and also was murdered.

Although its handicrafts are of poor quality, the Tesuque Indian ceremonials are colorful and authentic. The people have retained much of their early culture while living in proximity to the white man (Santa Fe is only nine miles distant). The pueblo’s most important festival falls on November 12.

Zia Pueblo

The story of Zia is one of tragedy and difficult problems of existence. Located on a basalt flow on the north bank of the Jemez River some fifteen miles above its junction with the Rio Grande, Zia has poor land and a limited supply of irrigation water. Agriculture is the main economic pursuit, but the pueblo’s unfortunate location makes trading for part of its food supply necessary.

Oñate reported Zia to be a large pueblo. However, it suffered greatly because of its participation in the Pueblo Revolt. Some historians estimate that during the reconquest, nearly 600 of the people of Zia were killed defending themselves from the Spanish. Continued wars and pestilence reduced the pueblo to a very few families. Over the past century, the group has again showed signs of growth and now has a population of more than 300.

The church at Zia dates from 1692, and thus represents one of the fine examples of ancient Franciscan architecture in New Mexico. The annual festival, dedicated to Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion, is celebrated with an excellent Corn Dance on August 15.

Zuni Pueblo

Zuni has the distinction of being the first of the pueblos seen or visited by Europeans. Seen from a distance by Fray Marcos de Niza in 1539, it was reported as a rich and extensive city. Nearby were six other pueblos, and the Spanish immediately associated the Zuni complex with an old Spanish legend about seven golden cities, the Seven Cities of Cibola. The expedition of Coronado was formed to explore and conquer the rich pueblos of New Mexico. His first contact was at Zuni, then called _Hawikuh_. It was neither golden nor rich.

Although Zuni was an important stopping place on the early trails to Mexico, it managed to remain least influenced by European ideas. The Spanish concentrated their efforts in the Rio Grande Valley and Zuni went its own way most of the time. While there were missionary efforts from time to time, by the nineteenth century, the stout resistance to such activity caused it to cease. In recent years, sporadic missionary activity has been evident, but it has not been notably successful.

The most famous of all New Mexico Indian ceremonial dances is held at Zuni each year. The Shalako, which occurs in early December, is authentic and spectacular. The dancers, carrying huge ceremonial figures on their shoulders, must train and practice constantly during the entire year.

Zuni is the largest of the pueblos in New Mexico, with a population numbering more than 5000 persons. The main occupation is agriculture. The Zunis supplement their income by manufacturing silver inlay jewelry that shows great creative skill and is beautiful to behold.

Other New Mexico Indians

In addition to the well-known Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, there are four other areas of Indian lands. Three of these belong to peoples of Athapascan origin, sometimes better known as Apache Indians. By name, they are the Jicarilla Apache, the Mescalero Apache, and Navajo. The fourth group is the Ute Indian.

The Apache tribes were relative newcomers to the Southwest. Their origin was the plains area between the northern Rocky Mountains and Hudson Bay in Canada. About 1000 A.D., a part of these northern Plains Indians began a migration that ultimately brought them to New Mexico. Down the High Plains across the western Dakotas, western Nebraska, Kansas, and finally to western Texas and eastern New Mexico, these people came. At about the latitude of Albuquerque, the migration split. Part of the group continued south, across the Staked Plains, into southeastern New Mexico, west Texas, and northern Coahuila and Chihuahua, Mexico. Here they divided into the Lipan, the Mescalero, and the Natage Apache. Today, in south-central New Mexico are the descendants of the Mescalero. The Mescalero Apache reservation is crossed by U.S. Highway 70, a scenic drive through pine forests. The tribe operates the Sierra Blanca ski area, one of the southernmost ski areas in the United States. Its annual Crown Dance and coming-of-age ceremonials are held July 1 to 4, followed by an Apache rodeo. The Lipan and the Natage have virtually disappeared.

The second group of the migration discovered for the first time in their long trek down the eastern fringes of the Rockies that the country opened up to the west. They poured through the passes and entered the areas traditionally controlled by pueblo farmers. Gradually, they took over these lands for themselves, driving out the farmers. By the time the Spanish came on the scene, most of the peaceful farmers had given way before the onslaught of the warlike Athapascan savages. Only one group remained, the pueblos of the central Rio Grande Valley. The migration that moved into the desert and mountain lands divided into a number of groups which are known by modern names: the Chiricahua, White Mountain, Western, and Jicarilla Apache and the Navajo. The Jicarilla Apache reside mainly in north-central New Mexico on reservation lands, and the Navajo reservation lies partly in extreme northwestern New Mexico. Most of the Navajo land and all the lands of the others are in Arizona.

The Ute Indians, driven from the plains by stronger tribes, settled in the central Rocky Mountain area. There they raided the wealthy (at least in their eyes) pueblos to the south. They fought sporadically against white penetration but were finally subdued and placed on reservation lands in the Four Corners area, part of which lies in New Mexico.

While the history of these peoples is fascinating and full of romance, there is little besides scenery to be seen when visiting their reservations. The populations are often scattered over many hundreds of square miles, and the people have only rudimentary handicrafts. The exception is the Navajo, and a trip to the Navajo reservation is worthwhile. These Indians have developed techniques of weaving and silversmithing that contribute significant art forms to Southwest handicrafts.

The outstanding Indian event of the year in New Mexico is the Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial at Gallup, held during mid-August. Some thirty tribes from the Southwest and Midwest meet to compete in arts, crafts, and ceremonial dancing.

Reminders of the Past

_by_ Paige W. Christiansen