Isleta Pueblo: The Southern Gate

Thirteen miles south of downtown Albuquerque, where the Rio Grande bends between low mesas, Isleta Pueblo occupies one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in New Mexico. The pueblo's people, Southern Tiwa speakers, have been at this river crossing since at least the fourteenth century, and the site may have been occupied considerably earlier.

Coronado's army passed through this valley in fifteen forty. Missionaries arrived a century later and built the mission church of San Agustín de la Isleta, which has stood on the pueblo since the early sixteen hundreds, making it one of the oldest churches in the United States. The church has been burned, partially destroyed, and rebuilt; the structure visible today incorporates materials and construction methods from multiple centuries.

During the Pueblo Revolt of sixteen eighty, Isleta's relationship to the uprising was complicated. The Southern Tiwa communities, Isleta among them, were more thoroughly integrated into Spanish colonial culture than the northern pueblos. Historical records indicate that some Isleta people did not join the revolt, and some fled south with retreating Spanish colonists to El Paso del Norte. When the Spanish returned in sixteen ninety-two, Isleta was reestablished. Some of those who had gone south returned. Others established a new pueblo, Ysleta del Sur, near modern El Paso, which maintains a separate tribal government to this day.

Isleta Pueblo today is a federally recognized tribe with a reservation of about two hundred eleven thousand acres. The tribal government operates the Isleta Casino Resort, which is one of the largest employers in the Albuquerque metro area. The church of San Agustín is still an active parish. The pueblo is open to visitors with certain restrictions, and photography policies are posted at the entrance.