ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how the Pueblo community has undergone significant change over relatively short spans of time. Isleta Pueblo is a modern Pueblo community with a distinctive set of lifeways. Cultural maintenance is accomplished via the socio-religious institutions of the community. The indigenous villages had already evolved a high degree of community organization by the time of first Spanish contact. At the time of the first Spanish explorations into Pueblo country, Shee-eh-whib-bak was already settled atop a low outcropping of craggy volcanic knolls. Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was widespread throughout the territories of the Pueblo Indians. In 1821, Mexico declared its independence from Spain. The Santa Fe trade and the fur trade became an alternative conduit from which merchandise flowed between St. Louis, Santa Fe, and Taos. By 1850, the first provisional American territorial government was established. The subject of change resulting after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 demands a separate treatise.
