San Filepe Pueblo, Katishtya, is located in New Mexico’s middle Rio Grande valley at the foot of the Black Mesa. From time immemorial we have resided in areas known today to be Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and beyond, and have been at or near our current location for many hundreds of years.
San Felipe Pueblo is between New Mexico’s capitol, Santa Fe, and its largest city, Albuquerque. The Pueblo of San Felipe consists of approximately 3,700 enrolled tribal members and approximately 68,000 acres.
Coronado arrived in 1540, as did Juan de Oñate in 1598, who made their claims. In 1689 the Spanish government recognized the sovereignty of the pueblos through land grants and gifts of the canes of power.
When Mexico won independence from Spain, San Felipe Pueblo became part of Mexico from 1821- 1848. In 1848 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, San Felipe and New Mexico became part of the United States of America as a territory. The United States Congress upheld the Pueblo’s Spanish Land Grant in 1858 and the land was patented to the Pueblo of San Felipe by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. President Lincoln also gave the Pueblo’s Governor another silver-tipped cane.