More to Explore
San Ildefonso Pueblo
Our ancestors…came from the north, some say Mesa Verde, and moved south and occupied the villages of Potsuwi, Sankewi, and Otowi in the high mountains of the Pajarito Plateau. Later, because of drought, they moved into the Rio Grande valley. Our ancestors were living about a mile south of where we live today when they saw Europeans for the first time. After the Pueblo Revolt, about 1694, they moved to the top of Black Mesa, where they defended themselves against the Spanish leader Vargas. Finally, they returned to their village and in 1717 the pueblo, where we now live, was built.” Navajos know the pueblo by a name meaning “houses between the rocks,” referring to the space between Round Mountain and La Mesita. When Oñate passed through here in 1598, he called the pueblo Bove, for reasons unknown, but later changed the name to commemorate St. Ildephonse, 7th-century Archbishop of Toledo, Spain. The Spanish built their mission here in 1617, and St. Ildephonse has been the Pueblo’s patron ever since.
Place Names of New Mexico by Bob Julyan