Overview and Brief History:
The US Census listed 57,555 Native Americans of varying degrees of purity and representing over forty different tribes as residing in the Albuquerque metro area. The largest group represented is the Navajo tribe with 22,072 (14,183 full-blooded) followed by Pueblo tribes at 12,622 (7,927 full-blooded). Apaches were in a distant third place at 1,896 (1,086 full-blooded). This was expected as these three tribal groups have reservations located in New Mexico. Among Pueblos, there is no indicator as to which of New Mexico’s 19 Pueblos are represented and to what degree, although two Pueblos, Sandia and Isleta, abut the city limit boundaries. There were two other tribal groups with populations listed as over 1,000: Cherokee and Sioux, although both were well under that number in full-blooded representation. The Albuquerque Indian Center reports that there are 35,000 American Indians from more than 150 different tribes living in the city of Albuquerque.

Native Americans are considered to be the indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere. Anthropologists posit many theories on where they originated and how they came to be in the Americas, but it is well established that they have been here for thousands of years. When the Spanish under Cortez arrived in Mexico in the 1520's, the Native population of America north of the Rio Grande was estimated at approximately seven million. Shortly after the arrival of Europeans in America, the indigenous population was decimated by diseases and over two-thirds of the population disappeared. In the American Southwest, the Pueblo population fell by 90 to 95 percent between 1775 and 1850 alone. Today there are 330 officially recognized tribes in the lower 48 states and 227 in Alaska.

Immigration to the United States and Albuquerque:
As noted above, Native Americans have been living in the Albuquerque area for thousands of years. They did not immigrate to the United States, the rest of the world emigrated to them. Many co-existed with the Spanish settlers long before the Americans annexed New Mexico in 1848.

Native Americans have been an integral and important part of the modern Albuquerque community and economy for well over a hundred years. Albuquerque traders and merchants have been selling Native American arts and crafts since the late nineteenth century. The Santa Fe Railroad’s Fred Harvey employed many Native Americans at the Alvarado Hotel. The Albuquerque Indian School was established in 1881 as a federal boarding school to culturally assimilate Native American children through education and isolation from their families. It merged with the Santa Fe Indian School and was closed in the mid 1970's. Many Native Americans attended this school and many of them remained in the Albuquerque area upon graduation. Albuquerque is surrounded on three sides by Native American reservations. Isleta to the south, Sandia to the north, and Laguna and To’hajiilee to the west.

The primary motivation for Native Americans to re-locate to Albuquerque has always been employment. The dearth of jobs around the rural reservations has caused many to migrate to the city. However, the average Native American immigrant to Albuquerque does not stay in the city for very long. Many consider Albuquerque to be a temporary place to live until they can make enough money to return home to the reservation. Several Native American artists said that they only stay in town long enough to find a market for their art and establish a relationship with the merchants in town who will sell Native American art. Typical of these types of residents were two young men from Zuni Pueblo. They had developed a new type of realistic wood carving that was not traditional to their tribe, and so they had come to Albuquerque to try and establish a market for their art.

One reason some non-New Mexican Native Americans said that they chose Albuquerque as a place to live is because of the openness of its citizens toward Indians and the wealth of resources available to them; for example, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, and also events such as the Gathering of Nations Pow-Wow. Many of the artists we talked with were also active in Santa Fe's Indian Market and some participated in events and sell their work at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. Albuquerque is a central location between these markets. Still others come to the city because they have become disenfranchised from their traditional community. One woman said "In Pueblo tradition, the man's allowed to bring a woman home. The woman goes where the man's from. So, when you marry outside the tribe like I did, you can't live on reservation land." One man stated that he came to Albuquerque because a sister who was attending Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute told him about the mild winters here. He came down from the north to check it out in 1975 and has never gone back.

Cultural Traditions:
Most Native Americans interviewed noted the importance of language in maintaining their cultures and traditions. Several admitted talking to themselves in their native tongues as one way of maintaining their fluency. For Navajo and Pueblo residents, the proximity to their reservations and the close ties of family and friends made maintenance of the language easier than those groups from farther away, such as the plains tribes. Several others bemoaned the fact that language was in decline among many tribes even on the reservation. One young man stated “My peers were listening to Tupac and Eminem. They don’t speak as much Zuni, like I do. More like Zunglish. I can speak old Zuni. I can speak the old, traditional language. They wouldn’t understand what I’m saying. They’re more into the urban life.”

Members of Laguna Pueblo have developed an interesting adaptation for keeping their tribal ties and traditions strong. There is a formal Laguna Colony of Albuquerque that acts as an extension of the Pueblo. They meet the first Tuesday of every month at Saint Andrew Presbyterian Church, and they discuss issues that are going on in the village. They teach the Laguna language of Keres. They teach moccasin making and other Pueblo traditional arts. One non-Laguna Pueblo man described the effect of living in the city on traditional culture as brainwashing them to just erase that indigenous mentality.

Kiva Club at UNM is an example of a program that enables Native Americans students to meet and interact and exchange information. The Native American Studies Program also provides an educational track to Native American students who want to learn more about their cultures. Also at UNM, arts and technology are working together in the Digital Pueblo Project, recently funded by the National Science Foundation's Partnership for Innovation Program. The Digital Pueblo Project is seeking to build an infrastructure for the development of an arts and technology industry in NM. Core to the project are "Technology Pods" that we are building around the state. The pods will be connected by the NSF Access Grid and will enable us to carry out collaborative projects across the state. While these programs were cited a beneficial in interviews of Native American students at UNM, there does not appear to be much overlap with them and the rest of the Albuquerque Native community.

Artistic Traditions:
There are three radio programs offered in the Albuquerque area that are targeted to Native Americans. Native Music Hours on KANW-FM and The Singing Wire and Native America Calling produced at KUNM-FM. Native Music hours and the Singing Wire offer, in addition to music and requests, public affairs messages alerting their listeners to events, such as dances, feasts, and pow-pows that are being held in and around Albuquerque. There is a Native American recording label, SOAR, that is headed by Tom Bee, who is a recipient of a Native American Music Award or "Nammy" as it is sometimes called. There are a couple of Native American groups that play world beat and native inspired music such as the groups Red Earth and Native Roots. Joy Harjo of Laguna Pueblo has a jazz/poetry group called Poetic Justice.

Among visual artists, there are many talented artists in almost all genres of traditional Native American arts such as Navajo rug weavers and Pueblo sash weavers. There are many Pueblo potters who live and work in Albuquerque. One of the most sought-after beadworkers in the world, a Shoshone/Bannock from Idaho, whose creations are featured in many movies, currently resides in Albuquerque. There are many silversmiths, both Navajo and Pueblo, who use the city as a base for marketing their wares. We interviewed kachina carvers from Zuni who are adding new dimensions of realism to this art form.

There is a very strong network of galleries and shops that cater to Native American artists. Many galleries in Old Town sell Native art exclusively. There are many shops that sell the supplies and materials necessary to the manufacture of Native goods around the city. These informal resources provide a fairly stable infrastructure and support system for Native artists, their suppliers, and marketers. The most common complaint about the system from Native Americans was about the high cost of supplies and the low pay for the artwork. Many would like more control over pricing of their work. Some artists would like to be able to eliminate some of the middle men and sell their work more directly to the public but lack the knowledge or skills.

Annual Events and Festivals:
The most well-known annual Native American event in the Albuquerque area is the Gathering of Nations Pow-Wow held at UNM’s basketball arena (aka “The Pit) in April. Dancers and drum groups from all across the nation gather to perform and compete at what is billed as the largest pow-wow on earth. Miss Indian World is also chosen at this event. The two Pueblos have many annual feasts, but the largest of these occur at Isleta on August 28th and September 4th, and at Sandia and Isleta on June 13th.

Conclusions:
In spite of the fact that there is an Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, an Albuquerque Indian Center, and facilities on the UNM campus where Native Americans can utilize space and communications networks, the lack of such facilities was decried by many. Native people want more places to meet, communicate, and practice their arts, dances, and languages. One Hopi individual opined that ““It's hard to find a central point where we can meet and get together.“

In the past, the Albuquerque Indian Center has supported a weekly (now temporarily discontinued) Pow-wow Academy where youth are taught Pow Wow drumming and dancing, as well as things that they need to know to be able to participate in a pow-wow. They also taught language, beadwork, sand painting, and general production, among other facets of pow-wow preparation at the Academy. Many would like to see this program revitalized and others like it begun in other venues.

Many Native American artists expressed a need for a place where they could learn business skills and more about marketing their work. One sugestion was to create a form of cooperative venue where artists could sell their work and also gain insight and advice into ways to expand their markets outside of Albuquerque.