Mixing Old and New in the Land of the Pueblos

Language teacher Ray Trujillo, 37, pointed to the drawings of animals and insects on classroom walls in the adobe schoolhouse on the crest of a spectacular mesa 42 miles north of Albuquerque.

As he came to each object, the sixth graders chanted the proper Ko-’chits word: dog, tiya ; butterfly, puraka ; pig, pirs-kuchi ; roadrunner, s hash-ku .

Trujillo tested the youngsters with words spelled out phonetically on flash cards. The students repeated the words and gave English translations. They went through the colors, ku-chini , meaning yellow, etc. Then, they went through the words for family members. Girls and women in the pueblo have different ways of expressing kinship than boys and men.

Sa-mii-mii , for example, is brother when spoken by a female; sa-ti-um-sha is brother when spoken by a male.

Ko-’chits is the Cochiti dialect of the Keresan language of the Pueblo Indians. Each of New Mexico’s 19 Pueblo Indian tribes speak a different language--Keresan, Tiwi, Tewa, Towa and Zuni--or a unique dialect of one of the languages. The languages and dialects are not written. They have been passed down orally, generation to generation, for untold centuries.

There has been a tendency among children and parents of the present generations in Cochiti Pueblo, population about 1,000, to speak only English and to ignore the ancient language of their ancestors. The same is true in several other pueblos.

“If our language goes, our rich culture goes,” Trujillo implored his sixth graders. “Everything will be lost if we lose our language. You have a big responsibility.

“Nobody else on this earth speaks our language. We are the only ones that know it, and there are only a handful of us. That is why it is very important you learn it; otherwise it will die.”

Trujillo, a Cochiti Pueblo Indian who received his degree in elementary education from the University of New Mexico, teaches all 107 kindergarten through sixth-grade students their native tongue each day in seven hourlong classroom sessions in the Bureau of Indian Affairs schoolhouse on the lonely mesa.

The program began three years ago at Cochiti Elementary School at the request of the pueblo governor, village elders and religious leaders.

Throughout the language lesson the students paid close attention to their teacher. Each responded quickly and correctly during the exercise.

“Now I can understand my grandparents when they are talking Indian,” said 11-year-old David Garcia. “I have heard these words all my life. But I never knew what many of them meant before learning from Mr. Trujillo.”

Trisha Moquino, 10, added: “It is easy to learn because the language is deep down inside me.”

These are exciting and significant times for Northern New Mexico’s 50,000 Pueblo Indians living on 19 small reservations to the north, south and west of Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The largest group is the Zuni with about 10,000 people; the smallest, the Pojoaque (Po-hah-key) with fewer than 200 people.

Each tribe, no matter how small, has its own government headed by a religious leader called the cacique (ca-see-kee) and by a governor. Each tribe has its own unique history, traditions, ceremonies and arts and crafts.

The cacique is protector of the pueblo’s sacred and secret rites and artifacts and is held in great esteem by the tribe. He is responsible for the well-being and perpetuation of his people. He is trained for years as an understudy to previous caciques and holds the position as long as he lives.

Silver-tipped canes, signed and presented by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to each of the 19 Pueblo Indian governors in Washington, D.C., continue to this day as the present governors’ symbol of authority.

“There is a very positive, renewed attitude, a rekindling of the spirit as to who we are and where we are going,” said Frank Tenorio, 63, governor of San Felipe Pueblo, population 2,500, on the west banks of the fast-flowing Rio Grande. The pueblo lies between the river and towering Black Mesa.

The Indians of San Felipe live in 17th-, 18th- and 19th-Century adobe homes along narrow, winding, dusty, dirt streets. Many families have a horse or two in back-yard corrals. They grow crops for their own use on family plots outside the village.

Men work as skilled tradesmen in Albuquerque and Santa Fe--as carpenters, cement finishers, roofers, plumbers, boilermakers. Some San Felipe men and women are college graduates, professionals working as engineers, nurses, teachers. To augment family income, men, women and children make turquoise and heishi (shell beads) jewelry. San Felipe women are known for their embroidery and weaving. For some artisans, it is a full-time occupation.

Pueblo Indians on all 19 reservations live in traditional adobe homes in the old villages or in modern, albeit modest, homes on village perimeters. New housing is not permitted in the village proper, although in some pueblos--like Acoma (Ak-oh-ma)--during the last five years, several badly deteriorating ancient mud houses have been razed and replaced with replicas.

Each of the pueblos is renowned for particular types of arts and crafts; paintings in some, sculptures of corn dance figures in Santa Clara Pueblo--especially those by Michael Naranjo, an artist blinded in the Vietnam war. There are unique styles of pottery (like the famous black-on-black pots created by the late Maria Martinez at San Ildefonso Pueblo, a tradition carried on by her family), jewelry (including the widely heralded inlaid work by the Zunis), storyteller clay figurines and drums by the artisans of Cochiti Pueblo, and much more.

“Our people are feeling better about themselves than at any time that I can remember in the past,” Tenorio mused. “We have a purpose in life. We have a renewed interest and pride in our heritage, and we are doing everything necessary to preserve and perpetuate that heritage. This wasn’t true a few years ago. We are a blend of the old and new.”

He said that as governor of the San Felipe Pueblo he, too, is making certain young people are bilingual, fluent in English and the Indian language of the tribe.

There is high unemployment in San Felipe as at the other pueblos. “But we are holding our own,” Tenorio said. “We’re better off than we have been in previous years and, with more of our young people sticking it out in school, we’re going to do better in the future. I am optimistic for my people.”

New arts and crafts centers have been constructed and are being built in all of the pueblos as outlets for talented village artists and craftsmen. Many pueblos have recently erected stores, gas stations and laundries along highways on the outer edges of reservation land for their own use and the use of non-Indians.

Efforts are being made to attract light industries to tribal lands to provide employment. Merle L. Garcia, 58, governor of Acoma Pueblo, population 3,800, visited Tel Aviv last summer and signed an agreement with an Israeli firm to manufacture solar hot water heaters on the reservation.

“We expect to start construction on our solar heater plant this summer, a facility which will employ 150 of our people in the beginning and hopefully more later on,” Garcia said. “We are trying to find someone like Sears or Montgomery Ward to market the heaters for us with royalties going to the Israeli company.”

The Acoma Indians also plan to manufacture and market Israeli drip irrigation systems. Garcia has lived in Acoma all his life. He managed a trucking firm and an auto dealership in nearby Grants until his retirement to devote full time to his people.

He stressed the importance of the Pueblo Indians to fend for themselves, to become self-reliant. “We are trying to find ways to survive instead of being dependent on the government. Too long have Indians let Uncle Sam carry them,” he said.

Acoma consists of three villages at an elevation of 7,000 feet located at the base of a towering sandstone mesa that rises 367 feet from the rest of the mountain it crowns. On top of the mesa is 70-acre “Sky City.” Dating back to at least AD 900, it is said to be the oldest continuously inhabited village in America. By tradition, the village homes have no electricity or running water.

Taos, the northern pueblo with a population of 2,500, is another very traditional village, and perhaps the best known of the 19 pueblos. Taos Indians, living in centuries-old four- and five-story adobe structures at the base of the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) Mountains, also choose to shun electricity and running water.

When the Spaniards arrived in New Mexico in the 16th Century, they were amazed at the development and sophistication of the Indians. The Spaniards called them Pueblos--meaning villages--because they lived in permanent villages with well-organized religious systems and local governments, unlike most other Southwest Indians who were nomadic.

The Pueblo Indians were clustered around the Rio Grande and other ample water sources. They were farmers with excellent irrigation systems.

When the Spanish sought to impose their culture, the Pueblos staged the most successful revolt in North American history, driving the Spaniards out of the area in 1680. The Spaniards returned 12 years later, in 1692. Later the Indians adopted many aspects of the Spanish way--governors and lieutenant governors to administer the civil activities of the pueblos and the Catholic faith--but maintained their traditional religious practices and leaders, keeping the kiva (the building where religious ceremonies are held), the cacique and their war chiefs.

The traditions of the past are just as alive today in the villages as they were centuries ago. There are age-old dances for planting crops, for rain, for snow in the winter, for thanksgiving dances.

Pueblo Indians have always been great runners, and foot races are as popular in every village as they were in prehistoric times when runners provided the communication network between the 19 tribes joined together in common defense against marauding Apaches and other Indians.

In the back yard of nearly every home there is a beehive adobe oven for baking bread. This is done by burning branches and heating lava rock foundations, then raking out the coals and putting in the dough. Women and young girls are up at daybreak in all the pueblos, baking bread in the ovens.

A few pueblos have hard-set rules banning photographs and sketches. A photographer from The New Mexican, a Santa Fe newspaper, flew over Santa Domingo Pueblo, population 3,300, in a light plane in January, 1984. He photographed traditional dances from the air, and the paper published the pictures. The Indian tribe filed a $3.65-million suit against the newspaper.

“The tribe was furious. They spent $40,000 pursuing the case which was finally settled a few weeks ago,” explained Scott Borg, 34, attorney for the Indians. A settlement was reached in the Santa Fe court of U.S. Dist. Judge Santiago Campos. The paper publicly apologized on its editorial page, and set up a $20,000 scholarship fund as part of the agreement, said Borg.

At Cochiti Pueblo, Johnny Arquero, 60, and six other men go to the mountains looming over their village to cut down Aspen trees. From the trees they create hollow cylinders for drums as their ancestors had done in the same manner, in the same village, for centuries. They use cowhides for the membranes of their percussion instruments.

New Mexico’s state flag--four lines radiating in each direction from a center circle--is the ancient sacred sun symbol of the Zia Pueblo Indians. Each of the four bars represents the four seasons, the four directions, the four periods of each day, the four divisions in life and the four sacred obligations--strong body, clear mind, pure spirit and devotion to the well-being of mankind.

Traditionally, except for the 1680 revolt, the Pueblo Indians have been a tranquil group banded together to help one another and for protection against enemies. Historic records beginning in 1598 show the Pueblos have had a common council as well as local autonomous governments.

The All Indian Pueblo Council today is headquartered at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, built in 1976 at a cost of $2.1 million.

Owned and operated by all 19 pueblos, the cultural center is intended to present to the public, Indian and non-Indian, the history, culture, arts and crafts of the Pueblos. A $1.1-million expansion is now being completed enlarging the present museum, the restaurant (featuring Pueblo Indian dishes), the theater and the arts and crafts gift shop.

The gift shop, which features arts and crafts from all 19 pueblos, has been enlarged from 2,000 square feet to 7,000 square feet. Last year’s sales exceeded $500,000; this year’s sales are expected to be about $750,000.

The newly elected chairman of the All Indian Pueblo Council is Gilbert M. Pena, 38, previously governor for seven years of the Nambe Pueblo tribe (population 450). Pena, a Vietnam war veteran, was elected to a four-year term by the 19 Pueblo governors who make up council membership. He is paid $40,000 a year as chairman.

Because each pueblo has a different language or dialect, council meetings are held in English. Not too many years ago the meetings were held in Spanish. Interpreters attend the meeting to help older councilmen who do not speak English.

Problems of common interest are handled by the All Indian Pueblo Council. Pena represents the tribes as a group in congressional and legislative hearings. The council operates the Santa Fe Indian School, a 7th-to-12th-grade boarding school for students from all 19 pueblos. The council also sponsors university and college scholarships for 180 of the brightest young men and women on the reservations.

“We are progressing more rapidly now than ever before. There are healthy signs everywhere,” said Pena. “Pueblos are beginning for the first time to get into economic development, to create business enterprises. There has been an upgrade in range improvement for tribal and individual sheep and cattle herds. People are finally beginning to say they are proud to be Indians.”

At Isleta Pueblo, population 3,500, Joseph Juancho, 37, head of the new arts and crafts center, noted that some people ask why Indians, especially those like him, who are well educated, “live in these old villages in this day and age when everybody else is trying to get ahead, to live in the most modern, up-to-date homes.”

“There is something that draws you back or keeps you here,” he explained. “We never have had a big exodus from the pueblos, even among young people. We have many Indians with good-paying jobs that could live in better homes, but they chose to live here. People on the outside don’t understand the depth of our culture.

“The Pueblo villages have a special meaning you don’t find in the outside world, a meaning you cannot fully understand unless you are Indian. Being here gives our people a peace of mind. The Indian way of life is something money cannot buy. . . .”