A MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING MARCH 6, 2003 AS "EIGHT NORTHERN INDIAN PUEBLOS DAY" AT THE LEGISLATURE.

WHEREAS, the eight northern Indian pueblos consist of the northern New Mexico Indian pueblo tribes of Taos, Picuris, San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Nambe, Pojoaque and Tesuque; and

WHEREAS, the Taos pueblo Indians have lived in their present location for more than one thousand years in what is today the largest multi-storied pueblo structure in the United States; and

WHEREAS, the Pueblo of Picuris, located at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, moved to its present location almost seven hundred fifty years ago from a larger pueblo known as Pot Creek and consists of more than two hundred people living on the reservation, down from a population of more than three thousand in the year 1250 A.D.; and

WHEREAS, the Pueblo of San Juan, which serves as the central headquarters of the eight northern Indian pueblos council, is the largest of the Tewa-speaking pueblos and exists in its present form much as it did twenty-two years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, with about one hundred original seven-hundred-year-old homes still standing at the present location; and

WHEREAS, the Pueblo of Santa Clara, with a tribal membership of more than one thousand seven hundred people, actually has more than ten thousand people living on its reservation with most of the city of Espanola within the exterior boundaries of the reservation; and

WHEREAS, the Pueblo of San Ildefonso consists of a tribal membership of five hundred seventy-five people on a land base of more than twenty-six thousand acres; and

WHEREAS, the Pueblo of Nambe, located about twenty-four miles north of Santa Fe, has a tribal membership of more than six hundred people and a total population of more than one thousand three hundred; and

WHEREAS, the Pueblo of Pojoaque, with a tribal population of nearly three hundred and a total population of nearly two thousand five hundred, employs about seven hundred fifty Indian and non-Indian individuals through various tribal programs and commercial enterprises; and

WHEREAS, the Pueblo of Tesuque is one of the more conservative traditional Tewa pueblos, yet is the closest to Santa Fe and has a tribal membership of four hundred people and a total population of more than seven hundred;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that March 6, 2003 be designated as "Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Day" at the state legislature.