President Louis Caldera and American Indian Student Services Director Pamela Agoyo are in Washington, D.C., to help enshrine a statue of Popé in the National Statuary Hall on Thursday, Sept. 22. Popé is the San Juan Pueblo leader who organized the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
Agoyo, a member of San Juan Pueblo, is the president of the New Mexico Statuary Hall Foundation and was recently named special assistant to the UNM president for tribal issues.
In 1997, Governor Gary Johnson appointed the New Mexico Statuary Hall Commission and charged it to commission an artist to create the Popé statue.
The commission then created the foundation to solicit funds for the project. The 7-foot, 3.5-ton Tennessee-marble sculpture of Popé is by Jemez Pueblo artist Clifford Fragua. It is the 100th and final statue in the hall.
The New Mexico congressional delegation will host the Washington, D.C. ceremony. Tribal leaders and delegates from New Mexico's 22 tribes, along with the pueblo of Ysleta del Sur in El Paso and the Hopi Tribe of Arizona, will be in attendance.
Tomorrow’s event culminates a 14-year journey to enshrine Popé. It was in 1991 that Pueblo Indians created a nonprofit to promote the idea. Members of New Mexico's pueblos and Arizona's Hopi Tribe attribute their religious freedom and ability to carry on their culture to the San Juan Pueblo leader.
Contact: Laurie Mellas, (505) 277-5915