Surviving Columbus; Part 2

<v Host>Surviving Columbus, this story of the Pueblo people now continues. <v Simon Ortiz>Freedom gives life. Freedom is life. <v Simon Ortiz>The Indian Pueblo revolt of 1680 gave life. <v Simon Ortiz>We exist today as Indian communities because of the revolt. <v Simon Ortiz>Now, our Pueblo people knew it was the time to be patient and determined <v Simon Ortiz>to be enduring. Now we, the people, were to keep struggling <v Simon Ortiz>for the existence of all things in creation. <v Conroy Chino>The Pueblo Revolt brought 12 years of freedom for our people. <v Conroy Chino>But in 1692, Don Diego de Vargas visited the <v Conroy Chino>Pueblos with promises of peace and our leaders agreed to let the

<v Conroy Chino>Spanish return. <v Conroy Chino>Each year in Santa Fe, the so-called peace for reconquest <v Conroy Chino>of New Mexico was celebrated, complete with Indians dressed in Hollywood <v Conroy Chino>costumes and looking happy to see their conquerors. <v Conroy Chino>Unfortunately, the real reconquest began when <v Conroy Chino>de Vargas returned with settlers, priests and canons. <v Herman Agoyo>The coming of de Vargas back into New Mexico has been depicted as one of being a <v Herman Agoyo>bloodless conquest, but we know difference that <v Herman Agoyo>de Vargas was just as brutal as Coronado and <v Herman Agoyo>Oyante. However, we've you know, we've managed to survive. <v Herman Agoyo>And I think there's a lesson there for- for all peoples <v Herman Agoyo>in terms of enduring atrocities imposed

<v Herman Agoyo>on people. <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>The first thing that de Vargas did after <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>a long night of siege of the ?vio de reyall? <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>de Santa Fe was to order <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>some 80 Pueblo Indian warriors <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>to be shot, summarily shot, and the remaining <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>400 mostly women and children were ordered to be partitioned, not <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>the Spanish families to serve as servants. <v Conroy Chino>Two years later, another revolt broke out, only to be put down by Governor <v Conroy Chino>de Vargas and his Pueblo allies. <v Conroy Chino>While individual Pueblos would continue to resist whenever their way of life was <v Conroy Chino>threatened, the Spanish had regained control. <v Conroy Chino>But they had also learned tolerance and respect for the problem was. <v Conroy Chino>While the relationship to the Spanish improved, the world was still

<v Conroy Chino>violently out of balance. <v Conroy Chino>Once living pueblos were now abandoned to the wind. <v Conroy Chino>A Pueblos world that once held 50,000 people <v Conroy Chino>and 100 pueblos was reduced to 14,000 people and 22 pueblos. <v Father Juan de Paz>The whole land is at war with the very numerous nation of the heathen Apache Indians <v Father Juan de Paz>who kill all the Christian Indians they encounter. <v Father Juan de Paz>No road is safe. <v Father Juan de Paz>The Apaches hurl themselves at danger like a people who know not God <v Father Juan de Paz>nor that there is a hell. <v Speaker>[Speaking in Pueblo] <v Conroy Chino>By the 18th century, violent raids had become all too common by other <v Conroy Chino>nomadic tribes, the Navajos, Utes and the fierce Comanche,

<v Conroy Chino>who were not only mounted on the descendants of Spanish horses, but armed with <v Conroy Chino>French guns. <v Glenebah Martinez>With the introduction of the horse, it just made it more difficult for the Pueblo Indians <v Glenebah Martinez>to-to- to secure their Pueblos from outside <v Glenebah Martinez>intervention. <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>It enabled the mounted raiders to appear and disappear very <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>quickly and made them highly efficient as raiders as well as <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>as warriors. <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>The Spaniards and Pueblo peoples needed to pull every resource at their command <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>to protect themselves effectively. <v Dr. Greg Cajete>The need just based on survival for possible people to <v Dr. Greg Cajete>not only defend themselves, but defend themselves very well. <v Dr. Greg Cajete>There grew among the Northern Pueblos a <v Dr. Greg Cajete>class of warriors because of the many, <v Dr. Greg Cajete>many different kinds of engagements which they were called upon either

<v Dr. Greg Cajete>individually or through acting as <v Dr. Greg Cajete>part of the Spanish militia. <v Dr. Greg Cajete>The Tewas especially, and also the Tiwas <v Dr. Greg Cajete>in Northern Mexico became very well known for their fighting ability. <v Dr. Tomas Atencio>The alliance between the Pueblos and the Hispanos after 1692 was <v Dr. Tomas Atencio>in a way an alliance of convenience I would say. <v Dr. Tomas Atencio>In terms of protection against the- the Plains Indians or the Indians who were <v Dr. Tomas Atencio>roaming the Llano Estacado on the plains and this- this forced the villagers in <v Dr. Tomas Atencio>the- both villages- Indian as well as the Hispanos to become <v Dr. Tomas Atencio>closer together. <v Conroy Chino>The alliance of Pueblo Indians and hispanic farmers and ranchers would <v Conroy Chino>last into the 20th century. <v Conroy Chino>But its roots went far beyond the need for defense. <v Speaker>I think the alliance between the Pueblo people and theSpanish really was part of

<v Speaker>working with the land. When the Spanish came to the southwest <v Speaker>and found that there was no gold here or wealth, great <v Speaker>riches to be had. They still had to survive, find a way to survive. <v Speaker>And they really had to then cooperate or find out how <v Speaker>the Pueblo people were doing it. <v Speaker>The earth remains the symbol of the place where people connect. <v Dr. Greg Cajete>What was happening right after the Revolt was a search for common ground. <v Dr. Greg Cajete>That common ground was found first primarily <v Dr. Greg Cajete>through trying to establish an understanding of <v Dr. Greg Cajete>each other's ways, and also <v Dr. Greg Cajete>finally or secondly, through a process of coming to terms <v Dr. Greg Cajete>with- with- with living in this place, which is New Mexico. <v Dr. Greg Cajete>There was indeed a new kind of Spaniard,

<v Dr. Greg Cajete>primarily an individual, who was looking, indeed, to make New <v Dr. Greg Cajete>Mexico their home. <v Conroy Chino>After the Spanish returned, they recognized Pueblo lands through a series <v Conroy Chino>of land grants. This legal recognition of our lands, <v Conroy Chino>the center places of our world, would be crucial to our existence <v Conroy Chino>in the centuries to come. <v Joe S. Sando>Under the Spanish flag, we were well protected by- <v Joe S. Sando>under the laws of the Indies, which were Spanish <v Joe S. Sando>policies. We were given land grants, which we still have today which <v Joe S. Sando>cannot be touched by any government. <v Conroy Chino>But reaching an accommodation with the church was far more difficult. <v Conroy Chino>The clergy and civil authorities still sought to replace our traditional <v Conroy Chino>beliefs with Christianity.

<v Speaker>Again, there was a reassertion of Catholicism <v Speaker>and the pressure to convert a number of different <v Speaker>pueblos, uh, attempted to convert outwardly and <v Speaker>yet at the same time practice their own traditional Native religious <v Speaker>practices as they had always done. <v Speaker>And that, of course, varied from pueblo to pueblo. <v Speaker>Each pueblo evolved and developed their own kinds of strategies <v Speaker>in relationship to the specific kinds of things that they were faced. <v Speaker>We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker <v Speaker>of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. <v Speaker>We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only son, <v Speaker>even to this day my grandmother be God's will. <v Glenebah Martinez>More recite the Catholic prayers in Spanish.

<v Glenebah Martinez>She'll see them in Spanish like before she goes to sleep. <v Glenebah Martinez>But yet my grandmother will go to the kiva and she'll dance. <v Glenebah Martinez>And she- when she really- when she really wants to pray, she prays in Indian. <v Glenebah Martinez>She's prays in Tiwa. <v Regis Pecos>One of the things that we can be thankful for is the foresight of what <v Regis Pecos>our forefathers did to take our religion <v Regis Pecos>underground so that what we know of today, <v Regis Pecos>what has been preserved, our language, our ritual, our ceremonies and <v Regis Pecos>our songs, that they took all of that underground and developed <v Regis Pecos>a level of secrecy that still is a is very much <v Regis Pecos>a part of our way of life. <v Regis Pecos>So that much of what takes place as the most meaningful <v Regis Pecos>in our lives ceremonially is often closed to the public, <v Regis Pecos>is often performed at night. <v Speaker>[Speaking in Pueblo] <v Conroy Chino>While the Pueblo peoples and most Hispanic settlers depended on subsistence

<v Conroy Chino>agriculture. There was money to be made in New Mexico through trade. <v Conroy Chino>Trade with the same Comanches, Apaches and Navajos <v Conroy Chino>whose attacks threatened the colonies survival. <v Conroy Chino>Every autumn, a great trade fair was held outside of Taos, Pueblo. <v Conroy Chino>Human beings were one of the most important commodities at these trade fairs. <v Conroy Chino>In 1776 the going rate for an Indian girl between 12 and 20 <v Conroy Chino>years old was two horses and a blanket. <v Conroy Chino>Young men were substantially cheaper. <v Dr. Greg Cajete>The Comanches would take captives, Pueblo men and women, <v Dr. Greg Cajete>and they used people as a sort <v Dr. Greg Cajete>of medium of trade with the Spanish for goods that they <v Dr. Greg Cajete>that they wish to obtain. <v Dr. Greg Cajete>And many times they would trade with plains tribes for the captives <v Dr. Greg Cajete>that the Plains tribes held.

<v Dr. Greg Cajete>Those captives were then inducted into the Spanish <v Dr. Greg Cajete>households. And this really is where the Genízaros <v Dr. Greg Cajete>and mestizo population begin to blossom in New Mexico during <v Dr. Greg Cajete>that that century. <v Dr. Benito Cordova>Historically, Genízaros have been referred to, uh- to detribalized Indians. <v Dr. Benito Cordova>Indians that were captured and ransomed by the Spaniards and brought into New Mexico <v Dr. Benito Cordova>and placed in mission communities, select <v Dr. Benito Cordova>mission communities throughout the state. <v Dr. Benito Cordova>Genízaros are Indians that settled into permanent <v Dr. Benito Cordova>communities, but they bridge two worlds, the Hispanic world <v Dr. Benito Cordova>and the Indian world. <v Conroy Chino>Most Pueblos had achieved a stable relationship with the Spanish government, <v Conroy Chino>the Catholic Church and their Hispanic and Genízaros neighbors. <v Conroy Chino>The stability ended in 1821 with Mexico's independence. <v Conroy Chino>While the Mexican period was short, it was marked with the loss of public lands.

<v Conroy Chino>[music] <v Speaker>The Mexican period, for all intents and purposes, was <v Speaker>a very dire period of time for Pueblo people <v Speaker>because of the change in the way that Pueblo people <v Speaker>were viewed and also with regard to the way in which public lands <v Speaker>were handled. They were no longer is looked upon as <v Speaker>being special and as they had been with <v Speaker>regard to the case of the Spanish colonial laws. <v Speaker>In that period of time, they were viewed <v Speaker>as being just the same as any other Mexican citizen. <v Speaker>In some ways, the selling of land or the loss of land began <v Speaker>to really occur extensively. <v Conroy Chino>Dissatisfaction with the Mexican government was not restricted to the Pueblos.

<v Conroy Chino>And in 1837, an alliance of Pueblo leaders, Genízaros, <v Conroy Chino>and Hispanics flamed into armed rebellion in Santa Cruz and Chimayo. <v Conroy Chino>The revolt was crushed. <v Conroy Chino>It's Genízaro leader, Jose Gonzalez, who for one brief moment had been <v Conroy Chino>Mexico's only Indian governor, was executed. <v Conroy Chino>But the conflict between rich and poor would continue and would become <v Conroy Chino>even more severe after the Americans invaded New Mexico in 1846. <v Glenebah Martinez>Well, I'm very lucky to have a grandmother who listened to many of the stories of her <v Glenebah Martinez>grandparents and her great-grandparents. <v Glenebah Martinez>One time when I was a little girl, I went into her bedroom and I saw a saint. <v Glenebah Martinez>And it's it's always the saint that I thought was the ugliest because it was- well, you

<v Glenebah Martinez>know, when you're a child, it was kind of burned out looking, and it- You can't really <v Glenebah Martinez>see the face, and you can't see the eyes, but it's a figure of a saint. <v Glenebah Martinez>And- and I asked my grandma, I said, 'How come this saint looks so ugly? <v Glenebah Martinez>How come you keep it, and you have all these other saints?' And- and she told me that <v Glenebah Martinez>that was a saint that was thrown out of the church during the rebellion of 1847. <v Gilbert Suazo>The rebellion of 1847 that took place here <v Gilbert Suazo>at Taos, Pueblo was a result of our <v Gilbert Suazo>Taos Pueblo people here having very strong feelings regarding the <v Gilbert Suazo>imposition of a different way of life again here <v Gilbert Suazo>in this part of the country. <v Gilbert Suazo>Our Taos Pueblo leadership here took a very serious stand <v Gilbert Suazo>about the takeover by the United States government of this area. <v Gilbert Suazo>[music] <v Conroy Chino>The last armed struggle of the Pueblo peoples began in January 1847

<v Conroy Chino>under the leadership of Tomás Romero from Taos, Pueblo. <v Conroy Chino>At dawn, a group of Pueblo men, Hispanics and Giníceros surrounded the house <v Conroy Chino>of the American governor. <v Conroy Chino>Instead of fleeing with his family, the governor stayed, only to be killed and scalped <v Conroy Chino>by the angry crowd. <v Conroy Chino>5more Americans in Taos died that day. <v Conroy Chino>And as the news spread, so did the rebellion. <v Conroy Chino>?Arroyo, Fondo? And other parts of New Mexico. <v Conroy Chino>Armed with artillery and modern guns, the U.S. <v Conroy Chino>Army set off from Santa Fe to answer this challenge to American authority. <v Conroy Chino>In battles at ?la Canada and Conbullo? <v Conroy Chino>A poorly armed group of Pueblo men and Hispanic farmers was easily defeated <v Conroy Chino>and forced to flee back to Taos and the fortified pueblo which had protected <v Conroy Chino>them so many times from Comanche raids. <v Conroy Chino>The Americans were not intimidated by the thick adobe walls.

<v Conroy Chino>They surrounded the pueblo and deployed their artillery and began to reduce <v Conroy Chino>the village to rubble. <v Speaker>Many of the women and children here took <v Speaker>refuge within the interior of the large <v Speaker>pueblo structures. <v Speaker>Tunnels were dug from one room to another in order to get to <v Speaker>the deeper part of the village, as the soldiers stormed <v Speaker>the walls of the village. <v Conroy Chino>On the second day, the defenders gave up and sent the women and children to the church. <v Conroy Chino>But any hopes of sanctuary were quickly dispelled by cannon fire. <v Glenebah Martinez>And so when the soldiers came in, there was a lot of fighting that occurred, fighting <v Glenebah Martinez>broke out and somebody set the church on fire. <v Glenebah Martinez>They start throwing the saints out because they didn't want the saints to burn.

<v Glenebah Martinez>And one of my aunts- or one of my other uncles caught that saint. <v Glenebah Martinez>And that's how we have that Saint. [music] <v Conroy Chino>Over 150 people died and the Taos revolt ended. <v Conroy Chino>The American conquest of New Mexico was complete. <v Conroy Chino>[music] <v Gilbert Suazo>The religious leaders were taken to Santa Fe under the pretense <v Gilbert Suazo>of negotiations and talks with the <v Gilbert Suazo>representatives of the United States government. <v Gilbert Suazo>Our people never saw these religious leaders again. <v Gilbert Suazo>These men were all hung by the neck until <v Gilbert Suazo>the- in Santa Fe. [music] <v Conroy Chino>The American conquest of New Mexico did have one benefit, a respite <v Conroy Chino>from violent raids by nomadic tribes which allowed the Pueblo population <v Conroy Chino>to increase once again after reaching its lowest level in history <v Conroy Chino>in 1850.

<v Conroy Chino>7,000 survivors in a world that once contained <v Conroy Chino>50,000 people. <v Conroy Chino>Unfortunately, the practice of Indian slavery was accepted and continued <v Conroy Chino>by the Americans even after the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves. <v Conroy Chino>[music]American <v Conroy Chino>progress finally made an impact on New Mexico. <v Conroy Chino>Mining towns popped up overnight. <v Conroy Chino>Forests were cut down to build houses and Jemez Pueblo lost its <v Conroy Chino>mountains. <v Conroy Chino>The transcontinental railroads linked the nation and cut pueblos in half. <v Speaker> As I grew up, got a bid old, <v Speaker>old enough to ride horses, I used to herd horses and ride <v Speaker>along the railroad. <v Speaker>?inaudible? passenger train come. <v Speaker>I used to gallop over there on my horse drive to go right alongside them, right

<v Speaker>alongside the railroad with them. <v Speaker>And people would start waving at me. I had a long hair, and <v Speaker>everything I wore was handmade. <v Speaker>And I have always caried of bow and arrow in my back <v Speaker>riding around the side of the railroad. <v Speaker>I think those people would go, 'Look at that little Indian.' I guess they'd say. <v Speaker>[laughter] [music] <v Speaker>The influx of people following- upon the railroad <v Speaker>and even before- also served to reduce the <v Speaker>land base that the Pueblos peoples have been accustomed to using. <v Speaker>A lot of the Pueblos which had traditionally been left <v Speaker>alone to graze their horses and cattle, their stock, <v Speaker>on certain areas lost those areas <v Speaker>to the aggressive expansionist activities <v Speaker>and policies of new ranchers.

<v Conroy Chino>Along the Rio Grande the new Anglo American immigrants pushed Hispanic farmers <v Conroy Chino>off their lands. <v Conroy Chino>U.S. courts did accept the old Spanish land grants to the Pueblos and to <v Conroy Chino>their Hispanic neighbors. <v Conroy Chino>All that was required was a simple survey and a review of the grant, <v Conroy Chino>a simple procedure that was used to defraud the public people and Hispanics <v Conroy Chino>out of hundreds of thousands of acres. <v Speaker>The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo theoretically ended the Mexican-American War, <v Speaker>and as provisions of the treaty, the rights of the public people <v Speaker>were to be protected and respected just as they had been <v Speaker>under the government of Mexico. <v Joe S. Sando>The Pueblos were legal citizens, but there were some disadvantages <v Joe S. Sando>because we were not recognized as American Indians <v Joe S. Sando>under the 1834 Trade and Intercourse Act.

<v Joe S. Sando>This was an Act which was proposed for other Indian tribes to protect <v Joe S. Sando>them against land speculators and traders. <v John Reiner>The court encouraged the non-Indians to settle <v John Reiner>into the- well within the exterior boundaries of the <v John Reiner>Indian pueblos. In our case up here, <v John Reiner>there were something like 3,000 non- <v John Reiner>non-Indians who squatted on Indian land, and <v John Reiner>they- they really refused to give up <v John Reiner>to- to go out off the reservation even if they were asked. <v Conroy Chino>The government not only stood by as our lands were taken, but actively <v Conroy Chino>joined in the theft. <v Conroy Chino>In 1906, President Roosevelt created the Carson National Forest. <v Conroy Chino>Its heart was the Taos Pueblo Sacred Blue Lake.

<v Gilbert Suazo>Our people belong to Mother Earth, just like the trees, <v Gilbert Suazo>the living things, the water, the mountains, everything <v Gilbert Suazo>is a part of Mother Earth. <v Gilbert Suazo>Blue Lake is a part of the land that our people <v Gilbert Suazo>have used and occupied for hundreds and hundreds of years. <v Gilbert Suazo>It is a link to our origin, a link to our <v Gilbert Suazo>past. <v Tulto Torleno>At the first snow one winter in 1893, a white <v Tulto Torleno>man came and took all of us on a train to a new kind of <v Tulto Torleno>village called Carlisle Indian School. <v Tulto Torleno>And I stayed there 7 years. <v Tulto Torleno>They told us that Indian ways were bad. <v Tulto Torleno>They said we must get civilized.

<v Tulto Torleno>I remember that word. It means be like the white man. <v Tulto Torleno>It was a warm summer evening when I got off the train at Taos Station. <v Tulto Torleno>The first Indian I met, I asked him to run out to the Pueblo <v Tulto Torleno>and tell my family I was home. <v Tulto Torleno>The Indian couldn't speak English and I had forgotten my Pueblo <v Tulto Torleno>language. All this time, I was a white man. <v Tulto Torleno>I wore white man's clothes and kept my haircut. <v Tulto Torleno>I was not very happy. <v Emory Sekaquaptewa>The federal government decided that maybe they did have some responsibility for <v Emory Sekaquaptewa>educating Indians to become Americans. <v Emory Sekaquaptewa>So they built these boarding schools <v Emory Sekaquaptewa>removed in the- for the most part from reservations and <v Emory Sekaquaptewa>brought children there severed from their parents- <v Emory Sekaquaptewa>and uh,to get them away from their own cultural influences and make them into little

<v Emory Sekaquaptewa>Americans. <v Dr. Dave Warren>In those experiments, especially in the 1880s, when <v Dr. Dave Warren>the Dawes Act said we will de-tribalize Indians, <v Dr. Dave Warren>and I think Theodore Roosevelt put it well. He said the Dawes Act was like a mighty <v Dr. Dave Warren>machine. It pulverized family and culture. <v Speaker>The manifest destiny of the nation has moved up to <v Speaker>and sometimes over or through Indian people. <v Conroy Chino>Like the Spanish before them, the American conquerors decided that Pueblos <v Conroy Chino>could only progress if our religion was eradicated. <v Conroy Chino>A new wave of missionaries was unleashed. <v Conroy Chino>Only this time they were Protestants. <v Conroy Chino>And rather than missions, they built schools to teach our children how to <v Conroy Chino>speak English and reject the ways of their mothers and fathers <v Conroy Chino>as pagan beasts and half animals. <v Conroy Chino>[music]

<v Emory Sekaquaptewa>When the Americans began to settle in with their own <v Emory Sekaquaptewa>mission of civilizing Indians and making them good <v Emory Sekaquaptewa>little Christians so by <v Emory Sekaquaptewa>oh 1860s they decided to bring <v Emory Sekaquaptewa>the missionaries who were apparently <v Emory Sekaquaptewa>in competition with each other, different kinds of denominations <v Emory Sekaquaptewa>in competition with each other to see to get their own territory <v Emory Sekaquaptewa>of Indians to civilize and Christianize. <v Anacita Taliman>Oh, my father saying, you know, he was singing all the time and, uh so <v Anacita Taliman>he said one day- one day- there was these young- young women missionaries <v Anacita Taliman>coming with a little box, he said. And it was a Victrola. <v Anacita Taliman>And so my mother went to the door and- <v Anacita Taliman>and she said, 'I'm sorry, but we're Catholics.' And so that my father said, 'Oh let him <v Anacita Taliman>come in. Let- let them come in. They have a music box.

<v Anacita Taliman>I like to hear music.' He says, 'Let em' come in. <v Anacita Taliman>We're not going to be contaminated. If we didn't know any better, we might, you know, <v Anacita Taliman>we-we might just, you know, turn-' And so- so <v Anacita Taliman>then she let him in. And so that they started playing that little music. <v Anacita Taliman>And of course, I sat, and I liked it. <v Anacita Taliman>He sat and I sat listening and listening to the music. <v Anacita Taliman>And they were talking to us about- about, you know, God and- <v Anacita Taliman>and of course they- they don't understand that we know God more <v Anacita Taliman>than they do. [laugh] [music] <v Conroy Chino>At the beginning of the 20th century, our lands, our religion <v Conroy Chino>and even our children were all under attack. <v Conroy Chino>The modern world, with all its wonders and problems, began to invade once <v Conroy Chino>isolated pueblos. <v Conroy Chino>The myth of the vanishing American Indian was created. <v Conroy Chino>It was only a matter of time, they said, before Native cultures were swept away <v Conroy Chino>by the march of progress.

<v Conroy Chino>[sounds of talking] The modern world had arrived at our doorsteps <v Conroy Chino>in trains, cars and tourist buses as anthropologists, <v Conroy Chino>photographers and visitors flocked to see our quaint customs <v Conroy Chino>before they disappeared. <v Conroy Chino>But our people refused to vanish because they knew the beauty <v Conroy Chino>of the Pueblo way of life. <v Agnes Dill>Generosity, unselfishness is one of the greatest <v Agnes Dill>values that our Indian people taught, and especially in <v Agnes Dill>my family, because my mother and father always say never refuse <v Agnes Dill>a stranger and never refuse a person when they come to the house. <v Agnes Dill>Those are the things that we had before Columbus came before.

<v Agnes Dill>Education was put upon us. <v Agnes Dill>And those are the things that I call surviving Columbus. <v Speaker>Some of the best moments of my childhood were when I knew that feast day was coming <v Speaker>and all this activity were going- be going on, and I would, of course, have to be a part <v Speaker>of helping to make the bread and sweeping the yard <v Speaker>and sweeping the plaza, helping to plaster, bring the mud. <v Speaker>But when the day finally came, I would get this wonderful <v Speaker>sensation of walking through the crowds, hearing the sound here in <v Speaker>the beat of the drum. <v Speaker>[Talking in Pueblo] <v Conroy Chino>Whether we wanted it or not, the U.S. <v Conroy Chino>government decided that our culture, our heritage would have <v Conroy Chino>to be destroyed before we could progress.

<v Conroy Chino>More boarding schools were built so that all children would be forced to learn <v Conroy Chino>the white man's ways and forget those of their parents. <v Herman Agoyo>[music] We went to school at Albuquerque Indian School or Santa Fe Indian School. <v Herman Agoyo>Some went to Haskell and other places. <v Herman Agoyo>Many of us were taken away from home during the time when <v Herman Agoyo>our cultural was at its strongest <v Herman Agoyo>peak. Many of the elders were still living, and <v Herman Agoyo>I feel that by being away from home, <v Herman Agoyo>we lost out on many of the teachings that that our elders <v Herman Agoyo>would pass on to the people during the wintertime. <v Agnes Dill>Yes, there were some negative things happening in the Indian schools because a lot <v Agnes Dill>of them were not allowed to talk the Indian language and punished

<v Agnes Dill>very severely for speaking them if they were caught speaking <v Agnes Dill>the language. <v Esther Martinez>I went to the day school here in San Juan, and then <v Esther Martinez>from fifth grade we get sent to the boarding school in Santa Fe. <v Esther Martinez>Then I entered Santa Fe boarding school. <v Esther Martinez>I didn't like that at all. <v Esther Martinez>Nighttime is when it was lonely. <v Esther Martinez>When you go to bed, you have nice clean sheets waiting for you, <v Esther Martinez>a nice bed. <v Esther Martinez>But there's no grandfather. There's no grandma there to sit <v Esther Martinez>on their lap and listen to the stories. <v Pablo Abeita>Columbus goes back to Europe and claims that he found a <v Pablo Abeita>new world. <v Pablo Abeita>What right did Columbus have to make such a claim? <v Pablo Abeita>Well, what proofs did he have that it was a

<v Pablo Abeita>new world that he found? <v Pablo Abeita>This world was not lost. <v Pablo Abeita>Our principal needs today are that you eject all <v Pablo Abeita>non-Indian trespassers off our lands. <v Pablo Abeita>Instead of reimbursing the Indian of what land a non-Indian <v Pablo Abeita>holds, why not reimburse the non-Indian trespasser <v Pablo Abeita>and make him get off? <v Pablo Abeita>He knows that he is holding land illegally. <v Pablo Abeita>Only you know that he won't vote for you if you don't kick us <v Pablo Abeita>into submission. <v Conroy Chino>The U.S. government had taken more than 60 years to realize <v Conroy Chino>that we were Native Americans and entitled to the protection of our lands <v Conroy Chino>and water rights. <v Conroy Chino>It would, however, ignite a legal storm. <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>Another threat that was faced by the Pueblo people came in the 1920s

<v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>in the form of the ?Burson Bill? What it proposed to do basically <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>was to legalize the rights of squatters on public lands. <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>It would leave squatters, both Hispanic and Anglo, <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>right where they were by legalizing their rights to the lands they were living on. <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>If it had been uncontested and gone on through the Congress and been signed into <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>law, it would have probably met the end of Pueblo culture. <v Conroy Chino>The failure of Protestant missionaries to eliminate Native religions <v Conroy Chino>led to yet another assault on Puebl life, the Religious Crimes Code. <v Conroy Chino>In direct violation of the Constitution, the US government <v Conroy Chino>made our religion illegal. <v Speaker>Until the old customs and Indian practices are broken up among <v Speaker>these people, we cannot hope for a great amount of progress. <v Speaker>A secret dance is perhaps one of the greatest evils.

<v Speaker>What goes on I will not attempt to say, but I firmly believe that it is <v Speaker>little less than a rebel system of debauchery. <v Speaker>Our most fundamental right is threatened and is actually <v Speaker>being nullified. Our religion is sacred and is more <v Speaker>important to us than anything else in our life. <v Speaker>The religious beliefs and ceremonies and forms of prayer <v Speaker>of each of our pueblos are as old as the world, and they <v Speaker>are holy. <v Speaker>We, Pueblo Indians, have not consented <v Speaker>to abandon our religion. <v Dr. Joseph H. Suina>The government was tampering with something very deep and sincere in the minds of the <v Dr. Joseph H. Suina>Pueblo people. Because the religion, ceremonies, the dances, <v Dr. Joseph H. Suina>are at the heart of who we are. <v Dr. Joseph H. Suina>If you start messing with that, people are going to take care of themselves and protect

<v Dr. Joseph H. Suina>themselves. So very often what happens is, you know, that the intent is- <v Dr. Joseph H. Suina>is one thing, but the result is just the opposite because it just forces people to <v Dr. Joseph H. Suina>clam up even more, to guard themselves even further than ever <v Dr. Joseph H. Suina>before. <v Conroy Chino>The leadership of the all Indian Pueblo council and widespread public support <v Conroy Chino>defeated these threats, and by the 1930s, the policy <v Conroy Chino>of the Bureau of Indian Affairs under John Collier had changed. <v Conroy Chino>For the first time, the BIA admitted that <v Conroy Chino>it was good and honorable to be an Acoma, a Zuni, <v Conroy Chino>a Hopi, but at the same time, the Bureau of Indian Affairs <v Conroy Chino>tried to impose its political system and federal rules and regulations <v Conroy Chino>on our way of life. <v Ron Solimon>Out here at Laguna, that was a time that they recall when their sheep had to be <v Ron Solimon>driven into pits and slaughtered because of the drought that

<v Ron Solimon>occurred. But in their own minds, they were able to manage that <v Ron Solimon>drought by rotation of the sheep to various pastoral lands. <v Ron Solimon>But somebody else came in and imposed certain quotas and limitations <v Ron Solimon>on grazing capacity that- that were external. <v Ron Solimon>But yet they had to live with them. So that was a great period, great time of <v Ron Solimon>devastation. <v Regis Pecos>My grandfather used to always talk about the survival of- <v Regis Pecos>of Indian people, and he would always say that. <v Regis Pecos>Is- there's no question that we as Indian people are going to survive. <v Regis Pecos>But the more important question that we should be asking ourselves is how? <v Regis Pecos>And that answer to that how <v Regis Pecos>is the extent to which we continue to maintain <v Regis Pecos>the rights and powers of a sovereign entity. <v Conroy Chino>Like other Native Americans, the Pueblo peoples defended the United States in

<v Conroy Chino>its wars. At home, women and children pitched in to support the boys <v Conroy Chino>in the front and the war effort. <v Speaker>On baton, I was with the 31st Infantry <v Speaker>Regiment. We were ambushed, machine guns started <v Speaker>firing all around us, and we hit the ground. <v Speaker>By the time I looked up, there were Japanese guards all around us with their rifles <v Speaker>pointed at us, and then they walked us. <v Speaker>We walked, the group I was with, for three days, <v Speaker>we walked and walked and walked and walked. <v Edward Beyuka>I came back. <v Edward Beyuka>We could never vote. <v Edward Beyuka>And then I asked myself. <v Edward Beyuka>Why did we go? <v Edward Beyuka>Why did they accepted so many Indians

<v Edward Beyuka>drafted, you might say, to be in the armed forces when <v Edward Beyuka>they're wards, when we are still wards of the government. <v Governor Robert Lewis>We had hoped that World War II would end all possibilities of other wars. <v Governor Robert Lewis>But it didn't come out that way. <v Governor Robert Lewis>And I thought that if any of our boys had to <v Governor Robert Lewis>go to other wars, they should have the right <v Governor Robert Lewis>to vote for the people who sent 'em out there. <v Conroy Chino>We had to sue the state of New Mexico before we got the right to vote <v Conroy Chino>in 1948. <v Conroy Chino>But the changes set in motion by World War II would have an even more profound <v Conroy Chino>impact on the Pueblo world. <v Conroy Chino>The Pueblo people paid an additional price to defend the country. <v Conroy Chino>Lands fromSan Ildefonso Pueblo were taken to create Los Alamos National

<v Conroy Chino>Laboratory, the top secret research center which developed the atomic <v Conroy Chino>bomb. Uranium was discovered at Laguna Pueblo <v Conroy Chino>and bulldozers, earth movers and dynamite created a vast pit <v Conroy Chino>mine. <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>When the armed forces veterans came back, returned home, <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>in the absence of farming people began to work outside of the pueblos. <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>Los Alamos was established as a wartime project, the Manhattan Project. <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>So at least for the Northern Pueblos, a large number of Pueblo people <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>began to work at Los Alamos, both men and women. <v Mary Waconda>Many had sold their livestock during the uranium boom <v Mary Waconda>because they, I guess, couldn't handle livestock and <v Mary Waconda>a full time job. <v Mary Waconda>So, uh, now, often I hear I wish

<v Mary Waconda>I hadn't sold my livestock. <v Mary Waconda>I envy you because you still have livestock. <v Mary Waconda>But that was another thing that the old timers used to tell us. <v Mary Waconda>Don't ever sell your livestock because it's food on your table <v Mary Waconda>and clothes on your back when the going gets tough. <v Conroy Chino>In the 1950s, the U.S. <v Conroy Chino>government attempted to terminate its treaty responsibilities for all tribal people <v Conroy Chino>and turn administration over to the states. <v Conroy Chino>At the same time, the Bureau of Indian Affairs began a program to <v Conroy Chino>relocate Indians to urban centers across the country. <v Regis Pecos>I have an uncle who was part of that relocation program who has lived <v Regis Pecos>in Oakland for over 40 years. <v Regis Pecos>Their feeling at the time was that they were going to do the best they could for their <v Regis Pecos>children. But one of the devastating outcomes of that is the offspring

<v Regis Pecos>has rejected their parents and are very bitter towards their parents <v Regis Pecos>because they never gave them an opportunity to learn about <v Regis Pecos>Cochiti, never having an opportunity to learn the language. <v Dr. Dave Warren>I think that until the 1970s, not only <v Dr. Dave Warren>Indian policy by the federal government, but in a way the reality of making <v Dr. Dave Warren>a living or finding a way to stay in the Pueblo <v Dr. Dave Warren>was very difficult. Policy said go away. <v Dr. Dave Warren>1950, it was we take you away with the relocation and termination <v Dr. Dave Warren>policy. [music] <v Conroy Chino>The U.S. government's efforts to destroy Native cultures finally <v Conroy Chino>ended in the 1970s with the recognition that we were capable

<v Conroy Chino>of determining our own destinies. <v Conroy Chino>The return of Taos's Blue Lake marked the first time the U.S. <v Conroy Chino>government actually gave land back to a Native people rather <v Conroy Chino>than just providing compensation. <v Conroy Chino>This victory capped a 60 year long struggle by a community <v Conroy Chino>determined to maintain its sacred relationship to the land. <v Glenebah Martinez>It wasn't until the 1970s that Blue Lake was finally getting back to the Taos Indians. <v Glenebah Martinez>It was a time of celebration. I remember seeing my grandmother crying and my grandfather <v Glenebah Martinez>crying in the house. It was at night when we heard the story and heard the news <v Glenebah Martinez>and they were crying and they said we never have to worry about people desecrating <v Glenebah Martinez>our area. And I remember my my older brother and I, David, <v Glenebah Martinez>we were flashing the lights off and on on the porch light because we were so happy. <v Gilbert Suazo>Blue Lake is a symbol of perseverance.

<v Gilbert Suazo>Because indeed this was a very strong symbol of <v Gilbert Suazo>our people enduring great hardships, great difficulties <v Gilbert Suazo>and persevering in what they wanted <v Gilbert Suazo>done in the way of justice for our people, justice <v Gilbert Suazo>for Indian people. <v Speaker>While the secret Blue Lake was returned and other sacred areas were taken, the <v Speaker>Yakima people have come to worship in the starkly beautiful lava flow of <v Speaker>the Malpais since our pueblo was built over a thousand years ago. <v Speaker>Yet in 1987, these sacred places were made part of a national <v Speaker>park and exposed to the influx of tourists. <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>Land is critical to the survival of the public people in this day and age <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>because as elders have put it, unless we can <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>bequeath to the children a place on which they may plant their feet

<v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>as well as our crops, whatever they want to plant, then the community <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>will dissolve, then they'll scatter like leaves in the autumn. <v Dr. Alfonso Ortiz>[laughter] <v Conroy Chino>For centuries, our ancestors have successfully defended our <v Conroy Chino>culture, religion and lands against the attacks of the Spanish, <v Conroy Chino>Mexican and American governments. <v Conroy Chino>But today we face perhaps our greatest challenge- <v Conroy Chino>how to maintain our existence as Pueblo people in a rapidly <v Conroy Chino>changing world, replete with alcohol, drugs, <v Conroy Chino>AIDS, urban encroachment and television. <v Conroy Chino>At the same time, the traditional roles of Pueblo women are changing <v Conroy Chino>as they too enter the workforce. <v Charlotte Bradley>When I was growing up as a child, I- I remember that role

<v Charlotte Bradley>of a woman being in a home, being the nurturer, <v Charlotte Bradley>taking care of the family. <v Charlotte Bradley>[sounds of machines] But as time changes, I see women <v Charlotte Bradley>getting more involved in the working field, getting <v Charlotte Bradley>education and because of socioeconomics we <v Charlotte Bradley>have more single parents that need to get out and work. <v Charlotte Bradley>Now we have more women working in the Pueblo here. <v Rachelle Agoyo>The role the women has changed drastically with <v Rachelle Agoyo>time, with- with- with even the <v Rachelle Agoyo>education that- that women have gotten in and the <v Rachelle Agoyo>career that they want, and then to try to be <v Rachelle Agoyo>a part of Indian life. It's very difficult role to have. <v Mary Zuni>[dogs barking] It's extremely critical that Indian women hold on to and

<v Mary Zuni>maintain our lives that involves the traditional aspect of <v Mary Zuni>being Indian. Because if we don't, then <v Mary Zuni>we're going to lose it completely because the woman is the most <v Mary Zuni>important part of the home when it comes to the teaching of children, and <v Mary Zuni>if we're going to have our children continue this way of life, then it's up to us <v Mary Zuni>as mothers and teachers to instill all of that in our children. <v Conroy Chino>At the same time, traditional family roles are changing. <v Conroy Chino>Our culture is also being threatened by an even more severe problem, the <v Conroy Chino>loss of our native languages. <v Speaker>Language is being <v Speaker>lost by the people. <v Speaker>And when that happens, we have to worry and wonder <v Speaker>about how long our traditional dances,

<v Speaker>our songs and our prayers will continue to survive. <v Joe S. Sando>The qualities that help the Pueblo peoples to survive were there culture up till <v Joe S. Sando>today is first religion, their native religion. <v Joe S. Sando>And in order to have their native religion, they had to have a language. <v Joe S. Sando>So theses are the two outstanding qualities that help the public to <v Joe S. Sando>survive, religion and language. <v Joe S. Sando>You need one to operate the other. <v Joe S. Sando>[music] <v Gail Bird>It's very hard to be from a community where language is so important, <v Gail Bird>where custom and tradition are so important, and not be a part of it. <v Gail Bird>Not to have grown up in it. To not know the language, though, is really difficult. <v Gail Bird>I talk to my mother about this because I would ask her about language. <v Gail Bird>I would- I would ask her what are they saying when they <v Gail Bird>say those, when they pray? <v Gail Bird>And she would try to explain it to me and then she would say, 'I don't know the words.'

<v Gail Bird>She said, 'That's- that's uh because I know what they mean, <v Gail Bird>but I can't explain it in English'. <v Gail Bird>And she said, 'I don't even think I could explain it in my own language, because <v Gail Bird>those are words that are so special that they feel awkward in my mouth.' <v Speaker>[Speaking Pueblo] <v Christina Otero>OK, now that you know that you have to go every morning and throw cornmeal. <v Speaker>OK. <v Christina Otero>I think they can learn. I think they can learn how to pray the right way. <v Christina Otero>And I want them to if they can. <v Domingo Otero>It actually feels good because I feel that I'm <v Domingo Otero>learning it. It just comes to you. <v Christina Otero>[to the children: You have to say it too.] We're Sandia, Pueblo Indians, and

<v Christina Otero>if we don't grow up speaking it, it's like our it's our responsibility <v Christina Otero>to learn. <v Christina Otero>[sound of teacher teaching her students] <v Conroy Chino>I think for a long time there's been this expressed fear by tribal <v Conroy Chino>elders that somehow we were losing something. <v Conroy Chino>That as they were pushing their children to get educated <v Conroy Chino> they were the same time sacrificing girls <v Conroy Chino>their own tradition, their language, <v Conroy Chino>their culture. <v Speaker>[Speaking Pueblo] What am I asking you to? <v Speaker>[Speaking Pueblo] <v Doris Chavez>I know it would be very sad for me if they do lose the culture, but I still <v Doris Chavez>want for them to carry it on. <v Doris Chavez>And that's one of the reasons why I try to reinforce this in the classroom.

<v Doris Chavez>If they can't get it at home, they surely can get it here at school. <v Alex Seowtewa>If we just maintain to carry our language, carry our cultural <v Alex Seowtewa>practices that we still can survive next <v Alex Seowtewa>500 years that we still can go beyond that to carry <v Alex Seowtewa>our identity. But it's entirely really up to us. <v Alex Seowtewa>Nobody has a part to come and destroy our culture <v Alex Seowtewa>and do away our language. <v Alex Seowtewa>And if we only caried this idea not backing off, not giving <v Alex Seowtewa>up life, not shunning anything. <v Alex Seowtewa>We can still survive in time to come because we are unique people. <v Alex Seowtewa>All the way through history and we still have to look forward to carry <v Alex Seowtewa>this. <v Regis Pecos>And so we find ourselves on the eve of the quincentennial faced <v Regis Pecos>with some of the greatest challenges that any people

<v Regis Pecos>have ever faced over the last 150 years, and that is <v Regis Pecos>how we survive into the 21st century. <v Glenebah Martinez>[music] It makes me very proud to have the heritage of I do have because I feel that <v Glenebah Martinez>that-that my people were opposed to Spanish colonization and <v Glenebah Martinez>later on U.S. <v Glenebah Martinez>intrusion. Makes me very proud that my people think their culture and their traditions <v Glenebah Martinez>are so important. I don't consider myself a citizen of the United States. <v Glenebah Martinez>I don't consider myself a citizen of New Mexico. <v Glenebah Martinez>I am a Taos Indian. And that's what I am. And that's my nationality, if you <v Glenebah Martinez>were to call it a nationality. And I am very proud of my history of resistance, very <v Glenebah Martinez>proud of that history of resistance. <v Lauri Weakkee>My hope for the Pueblo people that would we're gonna be here in a thousand years. <v Lauri Weakkee>Still very clear and very strong on who were are and why we are.

<v Lauri Weakkee>It's mainly that. That the celebration of humanity will still <v Lauri Weakkee>be very much a part of our prayers. <v Simon Ortiz>There is hope. <v Simon Ortiz>It is in what past generations of our people have always said. <v Simon Ortiz>As long as we keep believing in and living by the ways <v Simon Ortiz>of our people, We will continue. <v Simon Ortiz>As long as the story of our struggles, which is like the story <v Simon Ortiz>of all people who deeply love and respect themselves and their culture, <v Simon Ortiz>community and land is told we the people will continue. <v Conroy Chino>Even after 450 years, the encounter of <v Conroy Chino>the Pueblo peoples with white man's culture continues. <v Conroy Chino>What will be our children's future is unknown.

<v Conroy Chino>Still, we have a genius of enduring, of <v Conroy Chino>surviving the descendants of Columbus. <v Conroy Chino>[music] <v Speaker>Funding for this program has been provided by the Corporation for Public

<v Speaker>Broadcasting and by the financial support of viewers like you. <v Speaker>Additional funding has been provided by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Native <v Speaker>American Public Broadcasting Consortium. <v Speaker>This is PBS.