Collaborative Archaeology at Picuris Pueblo: The New History

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Collaborative Archaeology at Picuris Pueblo: The New History" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

At the onset of Spanish colonialism, Picuris Pueblo was one of the largest settlements in the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico, serving as a key point of articulation in a regional economy that brought together the people and resources of the southern Plains, Rocky Mountains, and Pueblo region. After playing a leading role in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, however, the resident population at Picuris declined precipitously, the combined effect of ongoing colonial violence, epidemics, and voluntary out-migration. Today, a resilient tribal community of roughly 300 enrolled members is seeking to extend traditional Indigenous knowledge of their ancestry using archaeological research. This session summarizes the findings of the first five years of the Picuris collaborative archaeology project, bringing together tribal members and outside researchers. Collectively, the research is transforming our understanding of the depth, scale, complexity, and regional connections of Ancestral Tiwa history in the northern Rio Grande region.