San Ildefonso Pueblo, on the eastern bank of the Rio Grande in northwestern New Mexico, has been home to the Tewa-speaking Pueblo Native Americans for centuries.

In 1617, Spanish conquerors established a mission at the pueblo and set about catholicizing the Pueblos. The Pueblo resisted, preferring to maintain their native religion and customs, and joined in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, killing two Spanish missionaries and destroying the church. Since then, they have lived quietly under the successive rule of Spain, Mexico, and the United States.

In the early 20th century, the traditional pottery of the Pueblo women became popular with white tourists and art dealers. By this point, disease and poverty had reduced San Ildefonso's population to fewer than 200 inhabitants. This cottage industry became a much-needed source of income and stability. In 1943, pueblo residents began taking service jobs at nearby Los Alamos National Laboratory. This income enabled them to modernize the pueblo, installing indoor plumbing and electricity, but some felt that the money did not compensate for the loss of their ancestral lands, shut off by radioactive contamination.

In recent years, the Pueblo's inhabitants have engaged in a succession of lawsuits to reclaim these lands. In 2003, the state of New Mexico ceded two thousand acres of sacred lands back to the people of San Ildefonso, a significant victory in a continuing struggle to reclaim their ancestral lands.

Podcast Written and Narrated by Erika Wilhite, Public History Student at the University of West Florida.