[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 155 (Monday, October 17, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6598-S6599]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING JOE SIMON SANDO

 Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. President, today, I honor the 
life and legacy of the great Pueblo Indian Historian, Joe Simon Sando. 
Joe was one of New Mexico's leading historians and the preeminent 
expert on Pueblo History. He passed away at the age of 88 on September 
13, 2011, after a lifetime of dedication to education, history, and 
cultural preservation.
  Joe Sando taught, published and lectured throughout the world about 
the history and culture of the Pueblo People. His numerous publications 
and educational efforts brought to life the vibrant history of the 
Pueblo People while also acknowledging the ever changing and current 
culture of the pueblos.
  Joe's own story started in Jemez Pueblo in northern New Mexico where 
he grew up speaking Towa. He later learned English, the language of his 
extensive publications, when he attended the Santa Fe Indian School. 
When World War II raged into the lives of Americans, Joe Sando bravely 
harkened to the call for service, joined the Navy, and served out the 
war on the decks of aircraft carriers.

[[Page S6599]]

  After his military service, Joe obtained an education degree from 
Eastern New Mexico University and taught at the Albuquerque Indian 
School. He later went on to attend graduate school at Vanderbilt 
University in Tennessee and become an instructor at the University of 
New Mexico. Teaching Pueblo history at UNM, and ethnohistory at the 
Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, Joe Sando quickly became 
the dominant expert in pueblo history and culture. In 1986, he helped 
create the Institute for Pueblo Indian Studies at the Indian Pueblo 
Cultural Center and did not retire until 2003 at the age of 80.
  Joe Sando said, ``As a Pueblo man of Jemez, I feel that the Indian 
people have a duty and a challenge to write their own history.'' Sando 
aggressively took up this challenge writing and contributing to 
numerous books about his culture and history from the distinct and not 
often published perspective of a tribal member. Joe felt that ``the 
traditional Pueblo history should be revealed, as the Pueblo Indians 
themselves know it,'' and that is exactly how he wrote it, from the 
pueblo perspective.
  Joe Sando's contribution to society was not limited to his extensive 
educational efforts. He was also a generous and dedicated public 
servant. He was the first chairman of the All Indian Pueblo Housing 
Authority and the first chairman of the State Judicial Council. He also 
served on the Statuary Hall Commission and on the board of Americans 
for Indian Opportunity.
  Joe was also widely honored. He was the 2005 recipient of the 
Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Lifetime Achievement Award. In 
2007 he received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of 
New Mexico, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the All Indian 
Pueblo Council. For his writing, he received the Bravo Award for 
Literary Excellence, Outstanding Alumnae of Eastern New Mexico 
University, State Heritage Preservation Award, Excellence in the 
Humanities Award, Lifetime Achievement Award of Indian Librarians and 
Indian History Teachers, and the Eugene Crawford Memorial Peace Pipe 
Award.
  Mr. Sando was a friend to every pueblo, and had an extensive 
knowledge of genealogies and individuals from each pueblo. He could 
form a personal connection with anyone as he also determined a familial 
connection, using his impressive memory of families and clans.
  But perhaps Joe Sando's story is better told through the history he 
taught and loved. The history of the Pueblo People is a vibrant part of 
our nation's story.
  For centuries immemorial, the Pueblo People occupied the Southwest. 
The ancestors of the Pueblo People were guided by deity from place to 
place and finally they were brought to a land where they would be safe 
from the catastrophes of natures. This vast area of the Southwest, much 
of which is still occupied by the 20 remaining pueblos, was given to 
the ancestors of the Pueblo People at the beginning of time.
  In their vast open lands of mesas, mountains, and plains, pueblo 
society developed around the systematic raising of food, especially 
corn, making hominy, succotash, cornbread, cornmeal mush, tortillas, 
and tamales. Also cultivated were chile, squash, pumpkins, beans, and a 
myriad of other products. Various dances were held according to the 
seasons, prayer dances and thanksgiving dances, and the ancient people 
were warned to respect and obey the laws of nature and the orders of 
their leaders who would guide them spiritually and socially. Guidelines 
for well-ordered living were established and lead to centuries of 
cultural development and continued community success.
  Through the centuries, several individual pueblos emerged and three 
distinct language groups developed, Zuni, Keresan, and Tanoan with 
dialects of Tiwa, Tewa, and Towa. These languages continue to be spoken 
in the remaining 21 pueblo tribes.
  In 1539 Europeans entered the Pueblo World and by the end of the 
century the Spanish were planning a permanent settlement in the pueblo 
region. The tentative interactions and exchange of knowledge and goods 
quickly turned to anger and distrust as taxes were leveed on the Pueblo 
People and the expressions of the pueblo culture were oppressed.
  In 1598 the All Indian Pueblo Council was organized to coordinate 
interactions between the pueblos and the Spanish Governor, Juan de 
Onate. This council of pueblo leaders continues today as a functional 
symbol of tribal sovereignty, pueblo unity, and government-to-
government relations.
  But despite the council's formation and efforts, tensions escalated 
between the Spanish and Pueblo People. One distinctive event in 1680 
lead to the first American Revolution. Religious and political pueblo 
leaders were accused of ``sorcery'', and were imprisoned, publicly 
humiliated, whipped, and some even hung. Po'pay, from the Pueblo of 
Ohkay Owingeh, was one of these leaders taken from his village, 
humiliated, and lashed. And as tradition has it, Po'pay rose from this 
oppression to unite the pueblos to drive the Spanish from Pueblo lands 
in 1680. We honor Po'pay's fight for justice and his mark on history 
today in our capitol, where a statue of Po'pay stands as one of the 
honored leaders in the National Statuary Hall Collection.
  In a matter of years after the Pueblo Revolution some pueblos 
welcomed the Spanish back, while others continued to wage conflict. 
Finally, in 1706, an alliance between the Pueblo People and the Spanish 
was established to help protect against raids from the outside. Since 
then, a culture of mutual respect and interdependence has emerged and 
continues today.
  More than a century after this alliance was established, the treaty 
of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican American war and moved the US 
border south of the pueblos. Later, President Lincoln formally 
recognized the authority of the pueblo governors under the United 
States Government, and today pueblo leadership continues to conduct 
government-to-government interaction with the United States. In New 
Mexico we continue to learn about and appreciate the culture and 
history of the Pueblo People, and celebrate as new leaders, like Joe 
Sando, continue to emerge.
  Joe Sando recognized his call to share the history of the Pueblo 
People. He said that, ``Every now and then some readers tell me that I 
was mandated to tell the world about the Pueblo Indians. That may be 
true.'' Today we record Joe Sando's story in the United States 
Congressional Record to honor him for taking up the call to tell the 
world about the Pueblo People, a story integral to our national history 
and ever-changing culture.

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