Pueblo Historian Tells Story of His People

Thousands of Pueblo Years Chronicled in Jemez Man's Lifetime

When “Pueblo Historian” is Googled, the name that pops up first is Joe S. Sando.

Soon to be 86 years old, Sando, who is New Mexico’s acclaimed Pueblo historian and author, has spent decades investigating the history of the first people of New Mexico, and along the way tells his own story. He researched topics pertaining to the state’s 19 Pueblo Indian tribes.

The research produced by Sando over his lifetime is compiled in several books about pueblos, some of which are used by researchers and scholars as primers into traditional and contemporary Pueblo life.

His most recent book, however, is an autobiography published in 2008 titled, “Pueblo Recollections: The Life of Paa Peh.” The book chronicles his heritage and life from 1923 to present day.

Sando is Walatowa (Jemez Pueblo) and is respected in New Mexico and abroad for his first-hand knowledge about Pueblo history and culture.

He grew up speaking only Towa, his tribal language. In 1949, after serving almost three years in the Navy during WWII and graduating with a bachelors degree from Eastern New Mexico University, he began to think seriously about writing.

However, it wasn’t until 1960 when he got his first work published in the “New Mexico Sun Trails Magazine” published what he describes as his “first real attempt” at writing. His story talked about “little known facts about the Pueblos,” he said.

Subsequently, “New Mexico Magazine” (borne out of the evolution of “Sun Trails”) started running his grass-roots pueblo life stories regularly he said.

In 1959, Sando attended graduate school at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, seeking a masters degree in audiology.

After a year, he had passed the certification tests to be a clinical audiologist and did not return to Vanderbilt the summer term that he would have received his masters degree. He said, “that to me was enough,” and returned to New Mexico where his wife, two children and work at the Santa Fe Indian Health Clinic awaited him.

Sando also worked as an audiologist at Lovelace Clinic followed by several years as a counselor with the Navajo Bordertown Program at the Albuquerque Indian School. Sando also helped to establish the All Indian Pueblo Council in 1967 and was made a member of the Council’s Education Committee.

From 1967 until 1985, Sando held positions and consulted at UNM, NMSU, and other organizations dealing with Indian and cultural education. He advocated on behalf of Indian education issues and assisted in developing curricula for students with English as a second language and teacher.
Sando’s last position before retirement was with the Institute of American Indian Arts where he taught ethno-history of the North, Central and South American Indians.

Since 1981, Sando has penned six books of which one has undergone a second edition. Each book addresses aspects of the complex history of the pueblo people and challenges opinions and misinformation about them.

For instance, his 1992 book, “Pueblo Nations: Eight Centuries of Pueblo Indian History,” was in response he said, to a negative perception of Native Americans. “A need existed for Indian stories to be written by Indians for Indian school children,” he said. “What was out there was uncomplimentary to young Indians.”

Sando was the first Pueblo person to ever write a comprehensive book about Pueblos from a Pueblo point of view. A New York Times review described “Pueblo Nations” as:, …the first insider’s story of the 800-year history of the 19 Pueblos in New Mexico. This is an excellent book.”

After a lengthy career in education, Sando devoted 18 years to the Institute for Pueblo Indian Studies at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center as an unpaid director until 2003 when he retired for a second time. He co-founded the institute in 1976 and much of the institute’s archival information was gathered by Sando while he researched Pueblo history, which he largely compiled from oral accounts from elders and leaders of the 1930s and 1940s.

“Future leaders must know the history of Pueblo water rights law, crimes code acts and state and federal laws,” he said.

Sando credits the institute for helping some of his former students become Pueblo leaders.

Sando says he practices a strict “hands-off” approach to discussing Pueblo religion with anyone. “The feeling among the Pueblos is they cannot expose the religion and the reason that it continues as strong as it is today is that the language and religious practices continue,” he said.

He acknowledges, however, that appropriated Pueblo religious information that was “given away” in the 1920s by anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons has today, he said, “assisted the Pueblos who would have otherwise lost that old knowledge.”

“That information taken back in the 1920s has saved the younger people about not knowing the old stories and language,” he said.

In his preface to Sando’s first book, “Nee Hemish: A History of Jemez Pueblo,” renowned Pueblo scholar and anthropologist, Simon Ortiz said, “By deepest instinct, Joe Sando is a historian.”

The historian in Sando is now uncovering linguistic connections between the seven Keresan speaking Pueblos to bands of Taino Indians who once inhabited the Caribbean Islands.

“Joe has studied, researched and written about us as Pueblo people of the Southwest,” said Keres speaker, Ron Solimon. “He has told our story not only to the world, but also often to each of us.” Solimon said he is looking forward to seeing what Sando comes up with on this latest project.

Sando credits the 2005 book, “1491:New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus,” by Charles C. Mann as a catalyst for his latest research. Mann’s book presents new evidence about pre-Columbian America that questions the history presented about North and South American Indians.

Sando said he uses sources from the Smithsonian Institution, books and direct oral history from the Pueblos
in his most of his research.

In between booksignings, spending time at the Institute for Pueblo Indian Studies, lecturing and being a husband to wife Louisa, Sando frequently fields numerous inquiries from authors, educators, researchers and Pueblo people.

Some people travel hundreds of miles to meet him. Julie Cresswell an associate researcher for public service media, WGBH and Frontline, a Public Broadcast Service program, came to meet Sando in Albuquerque recently. She is conducting pre-research for a new documentary titled, “God in America,” to air on Public Television Network the fall next year.

Julie Cresswell interviews Joe Sando for documentary

“Almost everyone I’ve been in touch with on this project have said to talk to Joe Sando.” Cresswell said, “The first section in our six-hour series takes into account the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and how that event is the harbinger for now not to do things – planting old world systems in a new world.”

She said that John Kessel, emeritus professor of history at UNM, and New Mexico author, David Roberts both told her that one of the best authorities on the Pueblo Revolt was Sando and that is why she sought him out.

Sando said in his autobiography, “As my life approaches midnight, I feel extremely grateful to learn that my work was not in vain and I have been recognized for my just and honest work in the past.”

Written March 12, 2009

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