Ohkay Owingeh ( Tewa: Ohkwee Ówîngeh ), known by its Spanish name as San Juan de los Caballeros from 1589 to 2005, is a pueblo and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a 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 counterparts of incorporated places, suc ...

(CDP) in

Rio Arriba County Rio Arriba County is a county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 census, the population was 40,246. Its county seat is Tierra Amarilla. Its northern border is the Colorado state line. Rio Arriba County comprises the Española ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

. Ohkay Owingeh is also a federally recognized tribe of Pueblo people 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 name of the pueblo means "place of the strong people". Ohkay Owingeh has the ZIP code 87566 and the U.S. Postal Service 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 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, extending from the Continental Divide on the northwest rim into New Mexico on the south. It c ...

of southern

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

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

Spanish colonial capital

In March 1598,

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...

Oñate traveled from north central Mexico, accompanied by a caravan of Catholic missionaries, a thousand soldiers, colonists, and

Tlaxcala Tlaxcala (; , ; from nah, Tlaxcallān ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is ...

n Mexican Indians. 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. The people who met him that day, it is written, 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, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

. San Juan de los Caballeros became the first capital of the

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the A ...

colony 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 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 in 1680.

Modern era

Ohkay Owingeh is the headquarters of the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council, and the pueblo people 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. 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 Española Public School District #55 (EPSD) or Española Public Schools (EPS) is a school district based in Española, New Mexico, USA. It includes sections of Rio Arriba County and Santa Fe County. In the year 2000 the district had a total of ...

district. The comprehensive public high school is

Española Valley High School Española Valley High School (EVHS) is a Title-1 public senior high school of the Española Public Schools District, located in Española, New Mexico. Nearly 3/4 of the student body is made up of Hispanic students. The school is located with ...

Notable natives

* Emiliano Abeyta, painter * Juan B. Aquino, painter * Lorencita Atencio, painter and textile artist * Rose Gonzales, potter * Evelina Zuni Lucero, writer * Esther Martinez, linguist and storyteller * Popé, Tewa leader of the

Pueblo Revolt of 1680 The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, also known as Popé's Rebellion or Popay's Rebellion, was an uprising of most of the indigenous Pueblo people against the Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, larger than present-day New Mexic ...

* Alfonso Ortiz, professor and cultural anthropologist * Leonidas Tapia, potter

Gallery

File:Ohkay Owingeh0.jpg, Dancers at Ohkay Owingeh, May 2005 File:Ohkay Owingeh1.jpg, Buffalo Dance File:Ohkay Owingeh2.jpg, Statue of Popé, Ohkay Owingeh, May 2005 File:Los Matachines de Ohkay Owingeh.jpg, Los Matachines de Ohkay Owingeh, Christmas 2012 File:CEX D392 The Tewa pueblo of Ohke or, San Juan.jpg, Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in 1896

References

Joe Garcia, Pueblo leader, ready to take on NCAI Tuesday, November 15, 2005 https://www.indianz.com/News/2005/011282.asp

External links

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 agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational properti ...

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