Pojoaque Pueblo

 

Po-suwae-ge, "water drinking or gathering place" is the traditional Tewa name for Pojoaque Pueblo.

 

Pojaque Pueblo was first inhabited as early as 500 AD, but its population reached its peak in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

 

With the arrival of the Spanish, the mission church of San Francisco de Pojoaque was built in the early 1600s. 80 years later, the Pueblo Revolt took a large toll on Pojoaque, such that at the time of Don Diego de Vargas’ re-conquest of New Mexico, the Pueblo of Pojoaque was deserted.

 

In 1706 five Pojoaque Pueblo families came back to resettle the Pueblo, and by 1712 their population had reached 79. The Pueblo was finally given an official land grant and cane from President Lincoln in the 1860s.

 

Soon after, Pojoaque was devastated by smallpox, drought, and the encroaching non-Indian settler population. In 1900 the last Cacique (Pueblo Spiritual Leader) died, and the Governor Jose Antonio Tapia left the reservation to seek employment elsewhere, the rest of the pueblo scattered to neighboring pueblos and the Pueblo of Pojoaque was once again deserted.

 

In 1934 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs called for all Tribal members to return to the area or else the Pojoaque lands would be dissolved under the Indian Re-Organization Act. 14 members of the Tapia, Villarial, Romero and later the Gutierez/Montoya families returned and were awarded land grants. In 1946 the Pueblo of Pojoaque Reservation received federal recognition with an enrollment of 263 tribal members.

 

In 1973 Pojoaque Pueblo elected the first woman Governor in the Rio Grand villages, Thelma Talachy.