Black Mesa, Santa Fe County
Current Population: 650
Location: 60,000 acres between Pojoaque and Los Alamos
Language: Northern Tewa
Early Societal Structure: Patrilineal clans with ritual patrimoieties with kivas for each moiety
Click to expand
Click to expand
San Ildefonso’s ancestors migrated from Mesa Verde to Bandelier. They moved to the Rio Grande river vallery in the 1300s.
Following the Pueblo Revolt, San Ildefonso withstood advances by the Spanish by holding ground atop Black Mesa. They eventually came to an agreement with the Spanish which allowed them to freely practice their religion and have more self-governing rights. In 1964, the United States gave San Ildefonso a land alottment of 17,292 acres. The tribe had fewer than 200 members at the time. A smallpox outbreak in 1918 reduced their numbers to feewer than 100.
Life in the quiet village on the Pajarito Plateau is filled with love for one’s neighbor and respect for the God-given gifts of the earth.
Colonization Part 2
In the 1940s, the U.S. government asked the San Ildefonso Pueblo to give up part of their land for military purposes; the San Ildefonso Pueblo relinquished the land with the understanding that it would be returned after World War II. 1n 1943, this sought-after patch of land became the site of LANL, where most of the research for the top-secret Manhattan Project would take place.2 For the next fifty years, the various Pueblo peoples living near to and downriver from LANL would have essentially no knowledge or voice concerning the dangerous materials that LANL was leaking and dumping into the air, water, and land.
The land taken by LANL culturally and spiritually significant to the people of San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Cochiti. Pojoaque, and Jemez Pueblos.
Modern San Ildefonso
Though they are a small tribe, the San Ildefonso government provides a wealth of services to their community. Their programs and governmental offices inclcudel cultural and environmental preservation, a farming education program, Parks & Wildlife, a transportation department to maintain roads on the Pueblo, a senior care program, and more.
Because of the risk of loss of culture through loss of language, the San Ildefonso Pueblo has made learning their language a priority. They established a Tewa Language Department to teach our youth our language.
View digital drawings of San Ildefonso’s ancestral village, created by architect Dennis Holloway.
Pueblo Revived
Maria Martinez learned pottery making by observing other potters, namely her aunt, Nicholasa Peña Montoya. Pueblo pottery was a communal activity with potters helping one another with each step, from gathering and mixing the clay to firing the vessel.
She married Julian Martinez in 1904. Three years later he was hired by the School of American Archaeology (later the School for Advanced Research), in Santa Fe, to work on excavations sites on the Pajarito Plateau.
Edgar Lee Hewett, professor of archaeology, encouraged Julian’s painting and Maria’s pottery work. In 1908, when he uncovered pieces of black pottery at an archaeological excavation near San Ildefonso, he asked Maria and Julian to try to recreate the it. A year later Hewett established the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe. He continued to encourage and support the Martinez’ by purchasing their creations for the museum and for his personal collection.
Although other pueblos, such as Santa Clara, had been producing black wares, Maria and Julian invented a technique that would allow for areas of the pottery to have a matte finish and other areas to be a glossy jet black. This style became loved by collectors around the world because it perfectly fit the art deco style of the time. But it was Maria’s skill that made her one of the most well-known indigenous artists of the 20th century. Some consider her the best and most well-known of all pueblo artists. She has pieves in the Smthsonian and White House.
Maria retired from pottery in the 1970s, but she passed on her knowledge to several children. Her son, Popovi Da, created new finishes, including sienna, black and sienna, and gunmetal.
Maria lived at the Pueblo her entire life where she was eager to greet visitors and to share her craft with those who would like to watch and listen.
