Eastern Pueblo Tribes

Tribes affected: Cochiti, Hano, Isleta, Jemez, Nambe, Pecos, Picuris, Pojoaque, San Felipe, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Sandia, Santa Ana, Santa Clara, Santo Domingo, Taos, Tesuque, Tigua, Zia

Culture area:Southwest

Language groups:Keresan, Tanoan

Primary location: Hopi First Mesa, Rio Grande Valley

Population size: 62,540 ("Pueblo tribal grouping," 2010 US Census)

According to Puebloan lore, the tribe has occupied the Southwest from "time immemorial." Archaeological investigation has proved that the Pueblo nation is descended from the prehistoricAnasazi, "the Ancient Ones." As the Anasazi abandoned their great population centers Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, and Kayenta in approximately 1300, the tribe migrated into three main areas. The first was the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico, where they built new settlements, which were still occupied at the time of the Spanish entry into the Southwest around 1540. Most of these areas continued to be settled into the twentieth century.

The indigenous peoples whom the Spaniards encountered were, for the most part, agriculturists with a sedentary, settled lifestyle. They lived in villages consisting of terraced, flat-roofed, communal dwellings of stone and adobe built around a central plaza. The Spaniards called these villages "pueblos" and their occupants "Pueblo Indians," as distinguished from the nomadic Apache. With more than 25 percent of their yearly food supply provided by their own crops, the Puebloans had been able to develop a stable and organized way of life, with ample time to devote to art and religion.

Contact with the Spanish

The Spaniards came into the Southwest looking for gold but, finding none, settled for declaring it a missionary domain for the Franciscans. They divided the area into districts, each of which was assigned to a Catholic priest. All the pueblos were given Spanish saint names, and the Pueblo Indians were forced to swear allegiance and vassalage to the Spanish crown and the church. Some Puebloans were driven from their homes so that the Spanish soldiers, priests, and settlers could be housed.

Spanish oppression became increasingly unbearable until finally, in 1680, the Puebloans revolted, driving the conquerors back to El Paso del Norte. In 1692, however, General Don Diego de Vargas led his armies back into the territory, successfully recapturing it.

The Mexican Revolution of 1821 put an end to Spanish rule in the Southwest, but little changed for the Puebloans except that they were now designated citizens of the Mexican Republic. In 1846, war broke out between the United States and Mexico, ending in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ceded New Mexico and Upper California to the United States. The treaty also obligated the United States to recognize Indian rights previously established under Spanish and Mexican rule. In 1849, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) sent the first Indian agent to the New Mexico Territory. In the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, the United States acquired more land in the Southwest from Mexico; in 1861, parts of the New Mexico Territory were designated as the territories of Arizona and Colorado. For decades afterward, titles to Indian lands in these new territories were in question. Most of the pueblos had no documents confirming their Spanish land grants, and land-hungry settlers coming into the area took what they wanted. Beginning in 1856, federal government surveys were made and were later confirmed by the Supreme Court, with the result that many Puebloans were given official title to their lands in 1864. When both New Mexico and Arizona joined the Union in 1912, the Indians became United States citizens but were not granted citizenship by either state until 1948.

Tiwa-Speaking Pueblos

The Tanoan language, one of the two major language groups of the Eastern Pueblos, contains three subfamilies or dialects: Tiwa, Tewa, and Towa. The northern Tiwa are the pueblos of Taos and Picuris, while the southern Tiwa are located to the north and south of Albuquerque in the pueblos of Sandia and Isleta. A fifth Tiwa group, the Tigua, lives in El Paso, Texas.

Taos Pueblo, the northernmost of all those in the Rio Grande Valley, was built around 1700 after the original pueblo, dating several hundred years earlier, was destroyed by fire in the 1690s. The pueblo consists of two communal structures, Hlauuma (North House) and Hlaukwima (South House), which are located on either side of Taos Creek. The first Spanish contact was made by Pedro de Alvarado in 1540, followed by Juan de Oñate in 1598, who named the pueblo "San Miguel." The Spaniards built two churches in the pueblo, one in the early seventeenth century and one in the early eighteenth century, both of which were subsequently destroyed (the present church dates from 1847). In 1639, harsh Spanish rule forced the people of Taos to flee to the north, where they built a new pueblo in what is now Scott County, Kansas. Two years later, however, the Spaniards forced them to return to Taos. Their two-year residency among the Plains Indians influenced the dress, the customs, and even the physical makeup of the people of Taos, and for many years Taos was a trading center for the Ute, Apache, and Comanche.

The original pueblo of Picuris dates from around 1250 and was named San Lorenzo by the Spaniards, who built a mission there in 1621. Like Taos, Picuris had its problems with Spanish authority; the governor of Picuris was one of the leaders of the Pueblo Revolt, and after the Spanish reconquest in 1692, the people of Picuris escaped to western Kansas, where they lived until 1706. At that time, weakened by disease and warfare, they returned to their pueblo.

The pueblo of Sandia dates from about 1300. The Spaniards built a mission there in the early seventeenth century (San Francisco), but it was destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt. After the Spaniards destroyed Sandia Pueblo in their attempts at reconquest, the people of Sandia took refuge with the Hopi, building the village of Payupki on the Second Mesa. In 1742, about five hundred people returned to Sandia and built a new pueblo on the site of the old one.

Isleta, with its 210,445 acres, is the largest of all Rio Grande pueblos in terms of area. In the 1600s, many people from other Tiwa villages came to Isleta to escape Apache raids. At the time of the Pueblo Revolt, Isleta’s population numbered about two thousand people, many of whom were forced to accompany the Spaniards as they fled south to El Paso del Norte. Their descendants, the Tiguas, still live at Ysleta del Sur, about twelve miles south of El Paso, where they built a pueblo arranged around a rectangular plaza. As several scholars have established, the northern Puebloans virtually disowned the Tiguas because they did not fight the Spaniards in the Pueblo Revolt. As a consequence, the Tiguas have never been allowed to join the Pueblo Conference, although Texas recognized their tribal status by creating the Tigua Indian Reservation in 1967.

Tewa-Speaking Pueblos

There are seven Tewa pueblos: San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Nambe, Tesuque, and Pojoaque in the Rio Grande Valley, and Hano in Hopi country. The pueblo of San Juan is the largest of the Tewa-speaking pueblos and has been continuously inhabited since 1300. Juan de Oñate designated San Juan as his first capital in 1598 but appropriated the pueblo of Yunqueyunque the following year, sending its inhabitants to live in San Juan. In 1675, when Spanish repression of Pueblo religion reached the point where forty-seven Pueblo leaders were convicted of witchcraft and whipped, Popé, a San Juan medicine man, was among them. It was he who later planned and led the Pueblo Revolt.

The pueblos of Santa Clara and San Ildefonso date from the early fourteenth century. The Spaniards built missions in both pueblos; both were destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt. As the Spaniards attempted to reconquer the area, people from both pueblos took refuge atop nearby Black Mesa but surrendered after a nine-month siege. Most of the Santa Clarans abandoned their pueblo again around 1696 and moved west to the Hopi villages, where they built the pueblo of Hano on First Mesa. By 1702, the Spaniards had repopulated San Ildefonso with other Tewa-speaking people, but the pueblo continued to have serious troubles throughout the eighteenth century: A smallpox epidemic decimated half the population, Spanish repression of Puebloan religion continued, and many witchcraft trials occurred at the pueblo.

The pueblos of Tesuque, Nambe, and Pojoaque, which all date from around 1300, also took part in the Pueblo Revolt after destroying the Spanish mission in each. They joined the other Tewas at Black Mesa but, by the early 1700s, had returned to their own pueblos. While Tesuque has continued to follow the traditional Puebloan way of life, both Nambe and Pojoaque have more or less ceased to exist as Pueblo communities. Only the kiva at Nambe distinguishes it from any other rural Rio Grande village.

Jemez Pueblo

The only Towa-speaking pueblo still in existence is Jemez, located on the Rio Jemez in the Jemez Mountains west of Santa Fe. Hostile toward the Spanish from the outset, the Jemez fostered two rebellions against them even before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. After the reconquest, the Jemez, retreating to a mesa-top fortress, continued to raid the Spaniards but were defeated in the late 1690s. Those who escaped Spanish retribution took refuge with the Hopi and the Navajo. By 1703, most of the people had returned to the Jemez Valley and rebuilt their pueblo. In 1838, when Pecos Pueblo, another Towa-speaking village in the Galisteo Basin, was abandoned, its seventeen residents moved to Jemez Pueblo. Pecos, like all the other Tanoans, originated early in the fourteenth century and continued as an important center until the early nineteenth century.

The Keresan-Speaking Pueblos

The five remaining Keresan-speaking pueblos in the Rio Grande Valley are Cochiti, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Santa Ana, and Zia. All the original pueblos dated from the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century; in the late sixteenth century, all were visited by the Spaniards, who built missions in each pueblo in the seventeenth century. All the Keres took part in the Pueblo Revolt and in resisting Spanish reconquest in the 1690s. When Zia Pueblo was attacked and destroyed, six hundred people were killed, and the others were sold into slavery. Some who escaped fled to Jemez but were induced to return a few years later to rebuild at Zia. The Santo Domingans resisted reconquest by destroying their pueblo in 1692 and joining forces with Jemez Pueblo. When attacked by the Spaniards there in 1694, many fled to Hopi while others, accompanied by some refugees from Cochiti, moved into Acoma territory, where they built the new pueblo of Laguna. Later, some Santo Domingans returned to rebuild on the original site of their own pueblo. All the eastern Keres pueblos are still occupied, with the exception of Santa Ana. A lack of agricultural land and water for irrigation forced most of the people to move to a farming community near Bernalillo, with only a few caretakers remaining in the pueblo. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Cochiti Pueblo served as a refuge for Spanish and Mexican settlers from Apache and Navajo raids.

Pueblo Culture

Pueblo society is communal, with emphasis placed upon the welfare of the entire group, as opposed to that of any one individual. As many scholars have observed, the Puebloans had two highly desirable culture-forming assets: time and space. With time to think matters through carefully and space to see things clearly, they developed a culture that allowed them to enjoy the pleasures of each day to the fullest, without pressure for constant and immediate change. When change was called for, they reflected carefully, discussed it as a group, and then decided on a course of action.

The Puebloans had no written language; they maintained their culture orally, passing down knowledge from one generation to the next, often narrating it through ritual dances and other ceremonies. They have a great reverence for tradition and for truth and would never change or embellish their history for any reason, political or otherwise. As events have had an impact on Pueblo life through the centuries, they have been included in history; thus, the Spaniards appear in the ritual stories today. The Puebloans, who always relate their history "from the beginning," share a similar creation belief in which humankind originated in the center of the earth, finally emerging onto the surface through a ceremonial opening known as the sipapu. As they came up into the light, they were divided into different groups that spoke different dialects, and they were sent to make their homes in different regions.

Religion is integrated with all other aspects of Pueblo life; it influences art, crafts, all industries, and the social structure. The fundamental belief underlying the Pueblo religion is that a person must live so that he or she is always in harmony with nature, with nature’s basic rhythm. Other facets of existence have significance only in terms of how they relate to this principle belief. There are ceremonies and rites that are appropriate to each of the seasons—planting, growing, harvesting, and hunting. Many of the motifs that appear in their art are derived from their ceremonial beliefs, and even such mundane activities as the gathering of salt and clay are accompanied by special prayers. Lack of success in any endeavor is not blamed on the spirits but on the person who failed to observe the rituals properly.

The various pueblos have developed some similarities in their social and cultural patterns as they have interacted with one another through the centuries, yet each one is a closely united and distinct entity. Their ceremonials, for example, are similar, but important variations exist.

In each pueblo, authority is divided between religious and secular leaders, and the distinction between the two is carefully maintained. The slate of secular officers that resulted from a decree issued by the Spanish king in 1620 is still in effect: a governor, two lieutenant governors, a sheriff, and the fiscales, positions derived from the office of prosecutor. These officials serve for one year at all but four pueblos, where they serve for two years. The Spanish presented the first secular officers with metal-topped canes inscribed with the Spanish cross as emblems of their authority. When Mexican rule began in 1821, the system was maintained, and the officers were given new canes with silver tops as additional badges of office. Then, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln rewarded the Puebloans for their neutrality during the Civil War by giving silver-crowned ebony canes inscribed with his signature to all the secular officials, who now had three emblems of office. These canes are still displayed on important ceremonial occasions in most of the pueblos, along with the silver medals decorated with profiles of Lincoln and President Dwight D. Eisenhower made to commemorate the "Republican Centennial, 1863–1960" and the small cherrywood canes with white bronze tops presented to the Puebloans in 1980 in celebration of the Tricentennial of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

Division into Moieties

Another major cultural characteristic of the Rio Grande Pueblos is their division into dual ceremonial groups under the moiety system. For example, in the pueblos of Cochiti, Jemez, Sandia, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Santo Domingo and Zia, the moieties are divided into the Turquoise and the Squash. At San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Nambe, Pojoaque, Tesuque, and Hano, they are Winter People and Summer People, and at Taos Pueblo they are North and South. A moiety can also be a political division; many pueblos alternate the position of governor annually between the two moieties. A moiety is often mistaken for a clan by outsiders who do not realize that in Pueblo tradition a clan is a group of related persons who trace their matrilineal descent from a common ancestor.

In the dual system of the Tanoan Pueblos, each moiety has its own priest, or cacique—a term of Caribbean origin that was first used by the Spaniards to designate Pueblo religious leaders and was eventually adopted by the Puebloans themselves. In the Tanoan dichotomy, the caciques, who hold office for life, are an important part of the hierarchical form of government of each pueblo. The Keres Pueblos have a somewhat more complicated social structure involving clans, kiva groups, and medical societies as well as moieties. In these pueblos, a single cacique is responsible for the spiritual well-being of all the people and also appoints those who hold secular offices.

While adhering to their own traditional beliefs, many Puebloans also practice Catholicism; they find no inconsistencies in this, since they are able to keep the two religions separate. Each pueblo still observes the ancient ceremonies and rites, encouraging its young people to participate fully.

Puebloans in the latter half of the twentieth century and early twenty-first century found themselves plagued by the same economic problems that beset many people in the United States as a whole—such as inadequate land resources, dwindling revenues from agriculture, unemployment, lack of adequate funding for education and health care—but they must also contend with increasing pressures from the non-Indian world. In spite of this, they continue to retain most of their native culture, being bound together by love of tradition, by common languages, and by their strong religious beliefs.

Covid-19

The Pueblo Indian nation, like all Native American peoples, were disproportionally impacted by the Covid-19 coronavirus. The experiences of the Pueblo Indians are one example of this. The presidential administration of Donald Trump declared Covid-19 to be a public health emergency on January 31, 2020. In the months that followed, several Pueblo communities in New Mexico experienced much higher rates of infection and death than mainstream populations. By May 2020, large outbreaks had been reported among Pueblo members in Zia, San Felipe, Zuni, and Kewa (Santo Domingo). Although New Mexico's native population comprised 11% of the state's population, at this point in time, this community had suffered 50% of the New Mexicans who had died of Covid-19.

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