Laguna Colony members meet to keep language, traditions alive (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Laguna Colony members meet to keep language, traditions alive

© Indian Country Today March 13, 2006. _All Rights Reserved_ Posted:
March 13, 2006 by: The Associated Press[1]
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412633

[AP Photo/The Albuquerque Journal, Marla Brose_ -- Ulysses Grant
Paisano, 93, posed for a photograph Feb. 23 in Albuquerque, N.M. Known
as ''U.G.,'' Paisano remembers the beginnings of the Laguna Colony of
Albuquerque. The colonies grew out of an unlikely arrangement when
Laguna Pueblo leaders chose not to sell right-of-ways through their
lands to railroads, instead trading access for railroad building jobs
for pueblo members.]

BY LESLIE LINTHICUM -- ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Even
though their reservation is only 45 miles away, members of the Laguna
Colony of Albuquerque get together every two weeks to stay in touch
with pueblo business, to keep the Keresan language alive and to simply
feel part of a tribal community in a big, impersonal city.

They've been doing it for 50 years, ever since a then-middle-aged BIA
employee thought the Albuquerque Lagunas should have a voice in the
pueblo.

Today, the founder of the colony, Ulysses Grant Paisano, is 93 and still
active in the Laguna Colony.

Known as ''U.G.,'' Paisano remembers the beginnings of the colony. The
first meeting took place on Feb. 16, 1956, in the old Albuquerque
Indian School auditorium, and about 60 people turned out.

Paisano didn't anticipate such longevity for the colony, but he's glad
it persisted.

Without the organization, he said, ''We would be kind of lost.''

Laguna colonies grew out of an unlikely arrangement between a rail
company and the Laguna Pueblo that sent tribal members west to work on
the railroad. When the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad shopped for
right-of-ways for its westward expansion in the late 19th century,
Laguna Pueblo leaders chose not to sell the rights to access through
their land but trade it for jobs for pueblo members.

Satellite Laguna communities grew up in Barstow and Richmond, Calif.; in
Winslow, Ariz.; and in Gallup - strung along the railroad tracks in a
symbiotic arrangement that helped build and run the rails while keeping
families and their culture intact.

Thelma Atsye, the secretary of the Albuquerque colony, grew up in the
Barstow Laguna colony, a village of 50 or more Laguna families living
up against the tracks.

''The railroad provided housing - box cars set up right next to the
railroad tracks,'' Atsye said. The place was called the ''Indian camp''
and the kids were known as ''box car kids.''

Living in the camp wasn't considered a hardship, however.

Fathers of the kids had jobs building or maintaining rail track. Mothers
worked in railroad hotels and tended the home fires in the box car camp,
some building adobe hornos and stoking fires to make traditional bread.

Language was a mixture of English and Keresan, and feast days were
celebrated with traditional dances in the California desert.

''The way that the box cars were situated, we had a plaza,'' Atsye said.
Colony members sealed off the plaza from outside eyes to do private
religious dances and left it open for social dances on the St. Joseph
feast days in March and September.

When the rail work lapsed, so did the colonies. Some rail workers and
their families found work and homes near the box car towns, but most
moved home to Laguna or settled in cities like Albuquerque.

Paisano was living in Albuquerque and working as a supply superintendent
for the BIA in the early 1950s when he became chairman of a finance
committee to revise the Laguna constitution to give the tribe a legal
mechanism to give per capita distributions of royalties that began
piling up when the mine opened in 1953.

After traveling to the rail colonies to explain the constitution
changes, Paisano saw the need for an Albuquerque Colony to keep
Albuquerque Lagunas apprised of tribal business.

His daughter, Cheryl, said the original intent of the Albuquerque colony
was to help city Lagunas stay informed.

Laguna Pueblo consists of seven villages and each has representation on
the tribal council. Each week, after the council meets, representatives
go back to the villages for a second meeting to tell villagers what the
council discussed and acted on.

City dwellers had jobs and families and found it difficult to make the
90-mile round trip once a week to attend meetings.

These days, colony members meet twice each month and review the minutes
of the past tribal council meetings. Colony members may also vote by
absentee ballot.

About 500 registered Laguna Pueblo members live in the greater
Albuquerque area; about 300 are 18 or older and qualify for membership
in the colony.

Cynthia Figueroa-McInteer, a 43-year-old architect who lives in
Albuquerque, is serving a two-year term as chairman of the colony, a
way to keep in touch with a reservation she has not lived on for 33
years.

Laguna on her maternal grandfather's side, Figueroa-McInteer has lived
in Albuquerque since she was 10.

Laguna Colony activities help her and her two sons stay in touch with
tribal culture.

There have been weaving classes and classes designed to keep alive
cross-stitch, which is used on ceremonial aprons.

Laguna Colony members also get together during the New Mexico State Fair
to help sell fry bread and stew at their stand in Indian Village.

''I have a nice connection to Laguna people that I wouldn't have
otherwise,'' she said.