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.