new acquisition CONSERVANCY MEMBER ASSISTS WITH PURCHASE OF PREHISTORIC PUEBLO

Conservancy Member Assists with Purchase of Prehistoric Pueblo

Village site dates to early occupation of lower Chama Valley in northern New Mexico.

While driving down US 285 in northern New Mexico about 10 years ago,Steve Glass of the Wilderness Studies Institute noticed a large patch of vegetation up on a ridge that differed from the surrounding landscape.The vegetation matched that of lands he had seen at archaeological sites in the vicinity. Subsequent examination of the site by researchers determined that it was one of the earlier prehistoric villages established in the Ojo Caliente Valley of Rio Arriba County.

With the help of a generous contribution from Jane Sandoval,a 17year Conservancy member, this fortuitous find has become the Conservancy’s most recent New Mexico preserve. Sandoval Pueblo was named in honor of Jane’s late husband,A.David Sandoval,a New Mexico native who shared her lifelong commitment to preserving the state’s heritage.David, who passed away in 2001,met Jane in 1971 in Washing-

Sandoval Pueblo

Sandoval Pueblo sits at the top of this ridge in northern New Mexico.

ton, D.C.In 1995,they moved to New Mexico, Jane having fallen in love with the state’s spectacular landscape and the incredibly rich cultural heritage.

Sandoval Pueblo is the Conservancy’s fourth Biscuit Ware site.The name refers to a number of settlements in the lower Chama Valley that contain distinctive prehistoric pottery resembling the unglazed vitreous china called biscuit ware.The other three Biscuit Ware sites, Howiri,Tsama,and Leafwater Pueblos,are located in the general vicinity of Sandoval Pueblo.

“This site is a great addition to the Conservancy’s Chama Valley preserves,” said Paul Williams,Bureau of Land Management (BLM) archaeologist for the Taos region of New Mexico.“The pueblo,which was previously unknown and unrecorded until recently, is in very good shape and is especially interesting because it dates to an earlier period than most of the known sites in the area.It is also probably easier to understand than some of the area’s larger sites,which have later overlapping occupations that make them more confusing.” The BLM,which owns a portion of the pueblo,will manage the preserve in partnership with the Conservancy.

Gordon Wilson, Jim Walker, and Steve Koczan kneel on one of the pueblo’s roomblocks. Wilson is a Conservancy volunteer, Walker is the Conservancy’s Southwest regional director, and Koczan is the site management coordinator.

Sandoval Pueblo,a five-acre site consisting of two adobe roomblocks containing an estimated 200 rooms, is located on top of a narrow terrace that overlooks the Rio Ojo Caliente, a major tributary of the Rio Chama just north of San Juan Pueblo.Based on the site’s surface ceramics, Sandoval Pueblo appears to have been occupied from about A.D.1250 until 1400 by Tewa-speaking peoples ancestral to San Juan Pueblo. Other Tewa pueblos include Santa Clara,San Ildefonso, Pojoaque,Nambe,and Tesuque.

Tewa traditions speak of a time when the Tewa were one people that divided into two groups, the Summer and the Winter People.The two groups traveled along the sides of the Rio Grande and the Rio Chama,making many stops along the way and building villages at each location. When the Summer and the Winter People reunited,they built villages together in the Ojo Caliente Valley.

Archaeological evidence tells a similar story, indicating that around A.D. 1250 several small villages were established along the Rio Chama and its tributaries,possibly by people who had left the Four Corners region to the north and migrated south,settling in areas with plentiful water.By the late 14th century, due to relatively rapid population growth,people had abandoned most of these smaller pueblos and established seven very large villages in the Ojo Caliente Valley. It’s thought that the area’s population numbered in the thousands at this time.These large pueblos were the last villages occupied by the prehistoric Tewa people before their migration to present day pueblos.

“The site has the potential to help us understand who the people were that first settled the valley and where they came from,”Williams said.It was during the mid to late A.D. 1200s that people left the Mesa Verde region of southwestern Colorado,possibly moving south to establish the pueblos in northern and central New Mexico.By A.D. 1600, the Chama Valley pueblos were abandoned, the inhabitants having moved south and east to join today’s Rio Grande pueblos in central New Mexico.—Tamara Stewart

Conservancy Plan of Action

SITE: Sandoval Pueblo

CULTURE & TIME PERIOD:

Ancestral Puebloan, A.D. 1250–1400 STATUS: Rural residential development and looters threaten the site. ACQUISITION: Jane Sandoval, a Conservancy member, has made a generous contribution toward the acquisition of the site. Additional funds are needed for fencing, the creation of a management plan,and site stewardship. HOW YOU CAN HELP: Please send your contributions to The Archaeological Conservancy, Attn:Project Sandoval Pueblo; 5301 Central Avenue NE,Suite 902; Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517.