Over five centuries of foreign rule - by Spain, Mexico, and the United States - Native American pueblos have confronted attacks on their sovereignty and encroachments on their land and water rights. How five New Mexico and Texas pueblos did this, in some cases multiple times, forms the history of cultural resilience and tenacity chronicled in Pueblo Sovereignty by two of New Mexico's most distinguished legal historians, Malcolm Ebright and Rick Hendricks. Extending their award-winning work Four Square Leagues, Ebright and Hendricks focus here on four New Mexico Pueblo Indian communities - Pojoaque, Nambe, Tesuque, and Isleta - and one now in Texas, Ysleta del Sur. The authors trace the complex tangle of conflicting jurisdictions and laws these pueblos faced when defending their extremely limited land and water resources. The communities often met such challenges in court and, sometimes, as in the case of Tesuque Pueblo in 1922, took matters into their own hands. Ebright and Hendricks describe how - at times aided by appointed Spanish officials, private lawyers, priests, and Indian agents - each pueblo resisted various non-Indian, institutional, and legal pressures; and how each suffered defeat in the Court of Private Land Claims and the Pueblo Lands Board, only to assert its sovereignty again and again. Although some of these defenses led to stunning victories, all five pueblos experienced serious population declines. Some were even temporarily abandoned. That all have subsequently seen a return to their traditions and ceremonies, and ultimately have survived and thrived, is a testimony to their resilience. Their stories, documented here in extraordinary detail, are critical to a complete understanding of the history of the Pueblos and of the American Southwest.

Pablo Abeita is the first biography of Pablo Abeita, a man considered the most important Native leader in the Southwest in his day. Abeita was a strong advocate for Isleta and the other eighteen New Mexico pueblos during the periods of assimilation, boarding schools, and the reform of US Indian policy. Working with some of the most progressive Indian agents in New Mexico, with other Pueblo leaders, and with advocacy groups, he received funding for much-needed projects, such as a bridge across the Rio Grande at Isleta. To achieve these ends, Abeita testified before Congress and was said to have met, and in some cases befriended, nearly every US president from Benjamin Harrison to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Abeita dealt with many issues that are still relevant today, including reform of US Indian policy, boarding schools, and Pueblo sovereignty. Pablo Abeita's story is one of a people still living on their ancestral homelands, struggling to protect their land and water, and ultimately thriving as a modern pueblo.

Over five centuries of foreign rule-by Spain, Mexico, and the United States-Native American pueblos have confronted attacks on their sovereignty and encroachments on their land and water rights. How five New Mexico and Texas pueblos did this, in some cases multiple times, forms the history of cultural resilience and tenacity chronicled in Pueblo Sovereignty by two of New Mexico's most distinguished legal historians, Malcolm Ebright and Rick Hendricks. Extending their award-winning work Four Square Leagues, Ebright and Hendricks focus here on four New Mexico Pueblo Indian communities-Pojoaque, Nambe, Tesuque, and Isleta-and one now in Texas, Ysleta del Sur. The authors trace the complex tangle of conflicting jurisdictions and laws these pueblos faced when defending their extremely limited land and water resources. The communities often met such challenges in court and, sometimes, as in the case of Tesuque Pueblo in 1922, took matters into their own hands. Ebright and Hendricks describe how-at times aided by appointed Spanish officials, private lawyers, priests, and Indian agents-each pueblo resisted various non-Indian, institutional, and legal pressures; and how each suffered defeat in the Court of Private Land Claims and the Pueblo Lands Board, only to assert its sovereignty again and again. Although some of these defenses led to stunning victories, all five pueblos experienced serious population declines. Some were even temporarily abandoned. That all have subsequently seen a return to their traditions and ceremonies, and ultimately have survived and thrived, is a testimony to their resilience. Their stories, documented here in extraordinary detail, are critical to a complete understanding of the history of the Pueblos and of the American Southwest.

In 1963 the Dona Ana County Historical Society initiated the publication of a historical journal to chronicle the rich and varied history of Southern New Mexico. The annually distributed SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW has over the years covered a range of topics from the settling of the region and the personalities that shaped its unique character to United States Military actions in the Southwest from the nineteenth century Indian wars to the border incursions of the early twentieth century. 2012 marks New Mexico's statehood centennial. In honor of that celebration the Dona Ana County Historical Society has compiled this anthology of representative articles from its REVIEW to make more widely available some of its outstanding contributions to the historiography of the Southwest Borderlands.

This long-lost journal, now available in paperback, gives a unique look into the old Navajo country. Recently rediscovered, it is both the earliest and only extensive eyewitness account of the traditional Navajo homeland in the eighteenth century. It reveals new information on Hispanic New Mexico and relations with the Indians. For the first twenty days in August of 1705, Roque Madrid led about 100 Spanish soldiers and citizens together with some 300 Pueblo Indian allies on a 312-mile march in retaliation for Navajo raiding. The bilingual text permits appreciation of the unusually literate and dramatic journal. Historical and archeological data are carefully tapped to retrace the route. ""This account sets a new standard for the publication of such documents. . . . I consider it a gem.""--David M. Brugge, author of The Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute

Winner of the 2014 Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association This long-awaited book is the most detailed and up-to-date account of the complex history of Pueblo Indian land in New Mexico, beginning in the late seventeenth century and continuing to the present day. The authors have scoured documents and legal decisions to trace the rise of the mysterious Pueblo League between 1700 and 1821 as the basis of Pueblo land under Spanish rule. They have also provided a detailed analysis of Pueblo lands after 1821 to determine how the Pueblos and their non-Indian neighbors reacted to the change from Spanish to Mexican and then to US sovereignty. Characterized by success stories of protection of Pueblo land as well as by centuries of encroachment by non-Indians on Pueblo lands and resources, this is a uniquely New Mexican history that also reflects issues of indigenous land tenure that vex contested territories all over the world.

On 4 October 1693 don Diego de Vargas left El Paso with eight hundred settlers and soldiers to reoccupy New Mexico. His account of organizing the colonizing expedition, leading the march up the Rio Grande valley, and eventually conquering Santa Fe is presented in this volume, the third of six drawn from his reports.

Vargas's journal gives immediacy to the themes of reoccupation and pacification. Many of those he led into New Mexico were survivors of the Pueblo Revolt, and all, he noted, were now reduced to "abject poverty and nakedness." To organize the expedition, Vargas spent eight months in northern Mexico recruiting settlers and attempting to secure financing from the royal treasury.

When no funds were forthcoming, Vargas and the settlers nevertheless departed for Santa Fe before winter arrived. On their march north they survived by trading livestock for foodstuffs, and by the end of December they successfully reached the colonial capital and defeated the Pueblo Indians occupying it.

This documentary history in English translation is a key resource on New Mexico's cultural and political history. Its extensive annotation will be useful to genealogists as well.