Tortugas Pueblo or Tortugas, New Mexico is a community in

Doña Ana County, New Mexico Doña Ana County () is a county located in the southern part of the New Mexico, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 219,561, which makes it the second-most populated county in New Mexico. Its county seat is Las Cruce ...

, just outside of

Las Cruces, New Mexico Las Cruces (; ; lit. 'the crosses') is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico and the county seat, seat of Doña Ana County, New Mexico, Doña Ana County. As of the 2020 United States ce ...

. As of the 2020 census, the CDP's population was 579. Tortugas Pueblo, as it is commonly referred to as, was the area of land that was granted to tribal members of the Piro, Manso, and

Tiwa Tiwa and Tigua may refer to: * Tiwa Puebloans, an ethnic group of New Mexico, US * Tiwa (Lalung), an ethnic group of north-eastern India * Tiwa language (India), a Sino-Tibetan language of India * Tiwa languages, a group of Tanoan languages of the ...

tribe in Las Cruces.

Geography

Tortugas is located just south of the

New Mexico State University New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution of higher education, and was the original land-g ...

and

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

. The community is located near an

oxbow __NOTOC__ An oxbow is a U-shaped metal pole (or larger wooden frame) that fits the underside and the sides of the neck of an ox or wikt:bullock, bullock. A bow pin holds it in place. The term "oxbow" is widely used to refer to a U-shaped meand ...

of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

, which in the past had many turtles ("tortugas" in Spanish).

History

Tortugas was founded in 1852. Tortugas Pueblo, as it is commonly referred to as, was the area of land that was granted to tribal members of the Piro, Manso, and Tiwa tribe in Las Cruces. Originally Tortugas was made up of two Native villages, the Pueblo of Guadalupe and the Pueblo of San Juan de Guadalupe. Many of the people living in Tortugas today are members and descendants of the tribe, as well as descendants of various other tribes in the surrounding area including Jumanos, Sumas,

Apaches The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

, Conchos, and

Rarámuri The Rarámuri or Tarahumara are a group of Indigenous people of the Americas living in the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. They are renowned for their form of prayer that involves running for extended periods of time. Originally inhabitants o ...

. Despite being considered extinct,

Manso Indians The Manso Indians are an Indigenous people in New Mexico. The Mansos were semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers who practiced little if any agriculture. Farming Indians lived both upstream and downstream from them. They had a life style similar to the Sum ...

are part of the population that make up members of the Tortugas community. The area of land in present-day Las Cruces down the Rio Grande into Juarez, Mexico was the territory of the Manso people before the Spanish came through and before other tribes began moving in. The Tiwa (or Tigua) from

Isleta Pueblo Pueblo of Isleta ( , ; ) is an unincorporated community and Tanoan pueblo in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United States, originally established in the . The Southern Tiwa name of the pueblo is (Shee-eh-whíb-bak) meaning "a knife lai ...

and Piro people from near

Socorro, New Mexico Socorro (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, sə-KOR-oh'') is a city in Socorro County, New Mexico, Socorro County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is in the Middle Rio Grande Valley AVA, Rio Grande Valley at an elevation of . At the 2020 ...

moved into the area after 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 ...

, when many Native Spanish allies as well and Native slaves of the Spanish, also known as genizaros, traveled south from Santa Fe into Paso del Norte (present day El Paso) where missions were established for the Natives in the area to attend. Many people in Tortugas are also descendants of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, a pueblo in Texas that was established after the Pueblo Revolt as well. Despite not being federally recognized, Tortugas has maintained its Native cultural heritage and traditions and has thrived as an inter-tribal community. The current

cacique A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...

is Patrick Narvaez. Tortugas is home of the Tortugas Pueblo Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a feast day celebration observed every year on December 10–12 that incorporates Native traditions with Catholic influence. There are four dance groups in Tortugas that dance during the ceremony, including the Pueblo Indian dancers, the Danzantes, the Danzantes Guadalupana, and the Danzantes Chichimecas, the latter two being

matachines Matachines ( Spanish singular ''matachín''; sword dancers dressed in ritual attire called bouffon) are a carnivalesque dance troupe that emerged in Spain in the early 17th century inspired by similar European traditions such as the moresca. T ...

dance groups.

Education

It is located in Las Cruces Public Schools.

References

Villages in Doña Ana County, New Mexico Populated places established in 1852 1852 establishments in New Mexico Territory Native American history of New Mexico {{NewMexico-geo-stub