Ohkay Owingeh (, ), known by its Spanish name as San Juan Pueblo from 1598 to 2005, is a

pueblo Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...

Rio Arriba County, New Mexico Rio Arriba County () is a List of counties in New Mexico, county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 40,363. Its county seat is Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, Tierra Amarilla. Its ...

. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined that community as a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP). Ohkay Owingeh is also the

federally recognized tribe A federally recognized tribe is a Native American tribe recognized by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs as holding a government-to-government relationship with the US federal government. In the United States, the Native American tribe ...

Pueblo people The Pueblo peoples are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Among the currently inhabited Pueblos, Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Zuni, and Hopi are some of the ...

inhabiting the town.

Name

Ohkay Owingeh was previously known as San Juan Pueblo until returning to its pre-Spanish name in November 2005. The

Tewa The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo people, Pueblo Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans who speak the Tewa language and share the Pueblo culture. Their homelands are on or near the Rio Grande in New Mexico north of San ...

name of the pueblo means "place of the strong people". Ohkay Owingeh has the ZIP code 87566 and the

U.S. Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...

prefers that name for addressing mail, but accepts the alternative name San Juan Pueblo. The community was also formally known as the San Juan Indian Reservation.

Geography

Its elevation is and it is located at . One of its boundaries is contiguous with Española, about north of Santa Fe.

History

The pueblo was founded around 1200 AD during the Pueblo III Era. By tradition, the

Tewa people The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo Native Americans who speak the Tewa language and share the Pueblo culture. Their homelands are on or near the Rio Grande in New Mexico north of Santa Fe. They comprise the following communities: * ...

moved here from the north, perhaps from the

San Luis Valley The San Luis Valley is a region in south-central Colorado with a small portion overlapping into New Mexico. The valley is approximately long and wide, making it the largest alpine valley in the world. It extends from the Continental Divide on ...

of southern

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, part of a great migration spanning into the Pueblo IV Era.

Spanish colonial capital

In March 1598,

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

Oñate traveled north from

Nueva Galicia Nuevo Reino de Galicia (New Kingdom of Galicia; ) or simply Nueva Galicia (''New Galicia'', ''Nova Galicia''), known in Nahuatl as Chimalhuacán (‘the land of shield bearers’), was an autonomous kingdom of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. It w ...

accompanied by a caravan of Catholic missionaries, a thousand soldiers, colonists, and Tlaxcalans. The expedition included cattle, sheep, goats, oxen, and horses, and arrived at ''Yungeh'' (place of the mockingbird) in present-day Ohkay Owingeh on July 11, 1598. It was recorded that the people who met him that day were hospitable and offered ''Yuque Yunque'' pueblo as guest quarters to Oñate and his party. On July 12, 1598, he baptized and renamed ''Caypa'' pueblo (present-day Ohkay Owingeh) ''San Juan de los Caballeros'', after his

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

. San Juan de los Caballeros became the first capital of the New Spanish region of Santa Fe de Nuevo Méjico. In local history, it is said the event united the two fragmented families of Caypa and Yuque Yunque. Since their arrival from earlier homelands in the northwest, the two pueblos had been divided by the river, split until the expedition party's arrival. When the community offered Yuque Yunque pueblo on the west bank to Oñate, the two fragmented pueblos were made whole again at Caypa. The Spanish capital would be moved in 1610 to La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís.

Popé Po'pay, sometimes spelled Popé, ( ; – ) was a Tewa religious leader from Ohkay Owingeh, who led the Pueblo Revolt in 1680 against Spanish colonial rule. In the first successful anticolonial revolt against a European colonial power in the Wes ...

was a local man who rose to be one of the most regarded leaders of American Indian history. He would play a major role in the

Pueblo Revolt The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, also known as Popé, Popé's Rebellion or Po'pay's Rebellion, was an uprising of most of the Indigenous Pueblo people against the Spanish Empire, Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, larger t ...

in 1680.

Modern era

Ohkay Owingeh is the headquarters of the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council, and the

pueblo people The Pueblo peoples are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Among the currently inhabited Pueblos, Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Zuni, and Hopi are some of the ...

are from the Tewa ethnic group of American Indians. It is one of the largest Tewa-speaking pueblos."Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo"
''New Mexico, Land of Enchantment''. New Mexico Tourism Department. Retrieved March 15, 2014. The annual Pueblo Feast Day is June 24. For all pueblos, the actual feast day includes a Catholic mass that is held in the morning. Because of historical relations with the Catholic Church, all pueblos have a church located near the center of the village. Most Pueblo people practice aspects of both the Catholic religion and Pueblo belief systems. The tribe owns the Ohkay Casino and the Oke-Oweenge Crafts Cooperative, which showcases redware pottery, weaving, painting, and other artwork from the eight northern pueblos.

Demographics

, 1,480 people were estimated to be living in the CDP, with 6,690 in the surrounding

Census County Division A Census County Division (CCD) is a country subdivision, subdivision of a county (United States), county used by the United States Census Bureau for the purpose of presenting data, statistical data. A CCD is a relatively permanent statistical area ...

. The 2010 census found that 1,522 people in the U.S. described themselves as exclusively Ohkay Owingeh and 1,770 as Ohkay Owingeh exclusively or in combination with another group.

Education

It is in the Española Public Schools district. The comprehensive public high school is Española Valley High School.

Notable natives

Emiliano Abeyta Emiliano Abeyta (1911–1981), also called Sa Pa, was a twentieth-century Puebloans, Pueblo-American Painting, painter from the Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico, Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo) tribe. From 1933 to 1934, he was an artist in the Public Wo ...

, painter * Juan B. Aquino, painter * Robert Aquino, painter * Lorencita Atencio, painter and textile artist * Joe A. Garcia, tribal governor (1995–2006) and head councilman (2009–2023) * Rose Gonzales, potter * Evelina Zuni Lucero, writer *

Esther Martinez Esther Martinez also known as Estefanita Martinez (1912 – September 16, 2006) was a linguistics, linguist and storyteller for the Tewa people, Tewa people of New Mexico. Martinez was given the Tewa language, Tewa name P’oe Tsáwä (meani ...

, linguist and storyteller *

, Tewa leader of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 * Alfonso Ortiz, professor and cultural anthropologist * Leonidas Tapia, potter

References

External links

Ohkay Owingeh

Ohkay Owingeh Dept. of Education

History of Ohkay Owingeh

Los Matachines at Ohkay Owingeh
photo gallery

Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

at

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

San Juan pottery
photo gallery {{authority control American Indian reservations in New Mexico Federally recognized tribes in the United States Geography of Rio Arriba County, New Mexico Native American tribes in New Mexico Pueblo great houses Tewa Unincorporated communities in New Mexico Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area Unincorporated communities in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico National Register of Historic Places in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico Pueblos on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico