Rainstorm Over Mt. Taylor, Cibola County
Current Population: 8,000
Language: Western Keres
Location: 500,000+ acres in Cibola, Bernalillo, Valencia, and Sandoval Counties, between Acoma and Isleta Pueblos
Early Societal Structure: Agrarian, Exogamous, Matrilineal Clans with Ritual Moieties & multiple Kivas
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Traditional Homelands
Older Than People Think
There are six Villages: Paguate, Encinal, Mesita, Seama, Paraje, and Laguna. The Village of Laguna has always been the main Village and is currently the capital of the Pueblo.
While Laguna Pueblo is the most recently established of all the Pueblos (1699), the people of Laguna have lived in the area since 6500 B.C. The name comes from the now-dry lake that was south of where the current Pueblo is located. The Pueblo of Laguna commissioned geoarchaeological investigations to identify and date this lake and other indigenous reservoirs. That research confirmed the lake was marshland made into a lake with a dam constructed around 1370 CE. The people of the lake also had an extensive canal and ditch system in place for irrigating their agricultural fields. That irrigation system extended for more than 60 miles through the Rio San Jose Basin, almost from today's Grants eastward to Mesita.
The Laguna Pueblo ancestors came from the North. The people here were refugees from many tribes that were fleeing the Spanish Reconquest in 1699. Refugees from the Hopi, Acoma, Zuni, San Felipe, Zia and Sandia tribes reside here. Four dialects are spoken on this Pueblo due to its diversity. Each of the six villages also has its own slant on ceremonies and on the dates that they take place.
Stolen Land
The construction of railroads through the region during the nineteenth century quickly increased the population of the surrounding region. The Laguna Pueblo fought to protect their traditional way of life though this was met with continued resistance by the federal government. After being repeatedly attacked, harassed, and even killed, the Indigenous peoples were forced onto reservations.
Due to a lack of U.S. oversight and administration, Laguna lost much of the land allotted to them in their original land grant.
Modern Laguna
The tribe has numerous programs to support its community. And there is the Laguna Pueblo Community Foundation, whose main program focuses on workforce development.
Laguna has participated in the Department of Justice's "Weed and Seed" program - a community-based program whose goal is to prevent, control, and reduce violent crime, drug abuse, and gang activity in targeted high-crime neighborhoods throughout the country. Local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors cooperate in "weeding" out criminals who engage in violent crimes and drug abuse, and "seeding" brings to the area human services encompassing prevention, intervention, treatment, and neighborhood revitalization.
People are allowed to visit Laguna Pueblo though photography and videography is generally not allowed.
Making History
Deb Haaland's mother, Mary Toya, was a Navy veteran who worked in Indian education at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Toya made sure her children maintained a connection to their maternal grandparents. Haaland learned cooking from watching her grandmother and worked outside with her grandfather. Her father, John David Haaland, was a Norwegian American from Minnesota. He was awarded a Silver Star for his service in Vietnam as a U.S. Marine. The military family moved alot, so Deb attended 13 schools before they settled in Albuquerque, where she graduated from Highland High School.
She earned a B.A. in English and a Juris Doctorate in Indian Law from the University of New Mexico. After getting her undergraduate degree, she had her daughter and started a salsa company to make ends meet. The ends often didn’t meet up, but she had community who would provide shelter and offer other support. Later, Haaland became the first chairwoman elected to the Laguna Development Corporation Board of Directors, a Laguna-owned business created to strengthen the Laguna Community and its economy. She also served as the tribal administrator for the San Felipe Pueblo from January 2013 to November 2015.
Haaland was elected to a two-year term as the chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico in 2015. She raised enough money during her two-year term as chair to pay off seven years' worth of debt incurred under previous chairs.
In 2020, a coalition of Indigenous environmental organizations and more 120 tribal councils and other indigenous organizations, wrote to the Biden-Harris transition team requesting that Biden nominate Congresswoman Debra Haaland as Secretary of the Department of the Interior.
On March 16, 2021, Deb Haaland was confirmed and sworn in as the United States Secretary of the Interior. People often say she made history - which she did do. But Deb Haaland is not merely the first Native American cabinet secretary. The Secretary of the Interior is responsible overseeing the use and conservation of federal lands and manages the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation (waterways), Geological Survey, Burau of Indian Affairs, and Insular Affairs (government policy in Guam, Mariana Island, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands.) Throughout U.S. history, the majority of white men in this role sought to destroy indigenous communities.
So, when Deb Haaland became the Secretary of the Interior, she altered relations between the United States and Native Nations forever.
