BOLL. 30] 



ISLETA 



623 



received accessions from the Tigua pue- 

 blos of Quarai, Tajique, and others, e. of 

 the Rio Grande, when those pueblos were 

 abandoned in consequence of Apache 

 depredations. In 1680 the population of 

 Isleta was about 2,000. As the Spanish 

 settlers along the lower Rio Grande took 

 refuge in this pueblo when the uprising 

 occurred in the year named, and thus in- 



ISLETA WOMAN. (vroman, Photo. ) 



terrupted communication between its in- 

 habitants and the seat of war at the 

 northern villages, they did not participate 

 in the massacre of the colonists and 

 missionaries in the vicinity. When G( iv. 

 Otermin retreated from Santa Fe, how- 

 ever, he found Isleta abandoned, the in- 

 habitants having joined the rebels. The 



year following (1681) Otermin surprised 

 and captured the pueblo, and on his re- 

 turn from the n. took with him 519 cap- 

 tives, of whom 115 afterward escaped. 

 The remainder were settled on the n. e. 

 bank of the Rio Grande, a few miles be- 

 low El Paso, Tex., the name Isleta del 

 Sur ( ' Isleta of the South ' ) being applied 

 to their pueblo. The date of the refound- 

 ing of the northern Isleta is somewhat 

 in doubt. According to Bancroft the 

 present pueblo was built in 1709 by some 

 scattered families of Tigua gathered by 

 missionary Juan de la Pefia, while Bando- 

 lier asserts that the pueblo "remained 

 vacant and in ruins until 1718, when it 

 was repeopled with Tiguas who had re- 

 turned from the IMoquis [HopiJ, to whom 

 the majority of the tribe had tied during 



VICENTE JIRON. FORMER GOVERNOR OF ISLETA 



the 12 years of Pueblo 'independence,' " 

 1680-92. The name of the mission (San 

 Antonio de la Isleta) seems also to have 

 been transferred to the new pueblo in 

 the s., and on the reestablishment of the 

 northern Isleta the latter became the mis- 

 sion of San Agustin. The Genizaros 

 pueblos of Belen and Tome were visitas 

 of this mission in 1788. It has been 

 learned l>y Lummis that a generation ago 

 about 150 Queres from Acoma and La- 

 guna were forced to leave their homes on 

 account of drought and to settle at Isleta, 

 where they still fc»m a permanent part 

 of that village and are recognized by 

 representation in its civil and religious 

 government. Pop. 1,110. ( Consult Ban- 

 delier in Arch. Inst. Papers, iv, 233, et 

 seq., 1892.) 



