Isleta

From Native American Information Superhighway Alltribes™ Wiki

The population of Isleta Pueblo consists of mostly the Southern Tiwa ethnic group (Spanish: Tigua[2]) who speak Isletan Tiwa, a variety of the Southern Tiwa language (of the Kiowa-Tanoan family). The other variety of Southern Tiwa is spoken at Sandia Pueblo. Isleta Pueblo is located in the Rio Grande Valley, 13 miles (21 km) south of Albuquerque. It is east of and adjacent to the main section of Laguna Pueblo. Among the Southern Tiwa groups, Isleta is known for being more resistant to acculturation when compared to Sandia and the greatly acculturated Ysleta del Sur (a community of Southern Tiwa ancestry formed by refugees fleeing from Spanish retribution after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680).Culturally, Pueblo groups have been divided into two group classes, a Western Pueblo group and an Eastern Pueblo group.[3] Isleta Pueblo in this view is an Eastern Pueblo.

The name Isleta is Spanish for "little island". The Spanish Mission of San Agustín de la Isleta was built in the pueblo in 1612 by Spanish Catholic Franciscans. During the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, many of the pueblo people fled to Hopi settlements in Arizona, while others followed the Spanish retreat south to El Paso del Norte (present-day El Paso, Texas. After the rebellion, the Isleta people returned to the Pueblo, many with Hopi spouses. Later in the 1800s, friction with members of Laguna Pueblo and Acoma Pueblo, who had joined the Isleta community, led to the establishment of the satellite settlement of Oraibi. Today, as well as the main pueblo, Isleta includes the small communities of Oraibi and Chicale.