Saavedra: ‘Socorro Tompiro-Jumano tribe are not extinct’

Land along the Rio Grande stretching north and south of present-day Socorro, has borne witness to a complex chapter of history, in which colonization, Pueblo revolt, displacement and assimilation left behind a community of people now striving to preserve what remains of their ancestral knowledge and inherent indigeneity. They identify as the Socorro Tompiro-Jumano.

Before Spanish conquest, there were over 100 Pueblo communities within present-day New Mexico. Today the federal government recognizes 19 Pueblos in New Mexico, as well as the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo in Texas, a Pueblo community that is also recognized by the All Pueblo Council of Governors.

For context, there are 574 federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States, and 400 non-federally recognized tribes identified by the Government Accountability Office. Pre-colonization, it is believed there were over 1000 Indigenous civilizations with over 100 million citizens in the present-day US. The greatest difference between federally recognized and non-federally recognized tribes is that those with federal recognition enjoy the status of being sovereign nations within the United States of America that allows for a government-to-government relationship, though there are many federal laws and offices that still oversee what that relationship entails because of the US Government’s trust responsibility to federally recognized tribes. Only 14 states recognize tribal sovereignty at a state-only level, and each of those states recognize that relationship differently. The state of New Mexico does not recognize tribal sovereignty at a state level. Federal Indian Policy is unique to the US and contains a vast amount of data that can be accessed and studied further online or through the library.

The Piro are generally regarded as an extinct people, but local culture bearer and Tompiro-Jumano tribal leader Victor Saavedra, disagrees. He recalled being around 7 years old and playing with Diné children from Alamo. His grandfather overheard him tell the other children that he wasn’t Native American. That day his grandfather pulled him aside and told him something that would change his life.

“He sat us all down and explained to us that he's a Piro, and his people were Piro. So we're Piro, too,” Saavedra said.

Long before Socorro was known by that name, Saavedra said it was part of a thriving Indigenous civilization called Pueblo de la Parida. As an elder, his goal is to preserve the Indigenous teachings that were passed down to him and other elders, by their elders, so that younger generations can learn more about the people they come from and take pride in their ancestry.

“We're working to preserve our culture and our heritage, and we are putting together the little Pueblo de la Parida as a cultural center for us,” Saavedra said. “We broke the dirt, we paid it off. It's all going forward, and it's a happy time, because if you look at us, we have no designated land as a Pueblo people.”

Saavedra donated his property, which he said is on ancestral Piro homeland, to build the cultural center. On April 1, Saavedra spoke at the Socorro City Council meeting on behalf of the Socorro Tompiro-Jumanos, and said: “We are a big part of the history and culture in Socorro and Central New Mexico. We’re retribalizing and want our culture to be recognized and our heritage to be brought back. We’re listed as an extinct people… we want to look for some action and see if we can be recognized in our own city and own habitat where we’re from.”

Mayor Basker said he’d like to find out how many people can trace their heritage to the Piro using DNA technology, and Saavedra told him they have documentation to show ancestry.

Meanwhile, the group is applying to become a 501c3 non-profit, and working towards applying for federal recognition with guidance from the leadership of the Jumano Nation in Texas. He said he tribe wants local recognition that they still exist, even if federal recognition doesn’t happen anytime soon. For instance, the Piro/Manso/Tiwa (PMT) Indian tribe, Pueblo of San Juan de Guadalupe in Mesilla Valley consists of three Indigenous groups that are descendants of larger Pueblos that fled their homes before and during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. This tribe has been seeking federal recognition since the 1970s. District 13 Representative Patricia Roybal Caballero identifies as a member of the PMT tribe and has advocated for achieving federal recognition, to no prevail.

“It's just getting the recognition of being Indigenous from this land, and the recognition of our ancestry and our heritage and cultural preservation,” Saavedra said. “The biggest thing that we're facing is total annihilation. We will protect extinct birds, extinct animals, plants, we will protect all these things, but will we protect the annihilation of a culture? Where's the preservation?”

Jumano Nation of Texas Council Chairman Felix Bonilla Salmeron said the Socorro Tompiro-Jumano are an extension for their nation, which was formally established in 2016 as a 501c3 non-profit. Texas does not recognize tribal sovereignty at a state level, although in 2019 the Texas House of Representatives adopted a resolution that recognized the Jumano Indian Nation’s historical and cultural contributions to Texas. Saavedra and his tribe hope to gain similar recognition in Socorro County and New Mexico.

According to Saavedra, who has studied written history and also grown up with his people’s oral history, the story of the Tompiro-Jumano is one of complexity and survival. Anthropologically they are Puebloan by tradition, yet genetically a mix of European and Indigenous ancestry. Following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, many Pueblo people were displaced or fled south. Some returned later. This migration—and return—was carefully documented in Catholic church records, Saavedra said, which now serve his tribe’s efforts to reconstruct family trees and cultural lineages.

“Through marriage records and baptismal logs, we’ve been able to trace our people from Socorro to Guadalupe [PMT] and Tortugas Pueblo [in Las Cruces] and back again,” Saavedra said. “We were displaced, detribalized, and many of our customs, languages, and sacred knowledge were erased…That’s cultural genocide.”

Saavedra said his people were used as buffer zones by the Spanish—to farm and create peace among other tribes—and later US policies pushed to strip them of their ancestral lands and identity. However, he said, despite a tragic history, his community has kept a flame alive through storytelling, cultural land-based practices and spiritual leadership.

At 52, Saavedra is a historian and a tribal elder, carrying generations of knowledge passed down by his ancestors. “We were taught through prayers, songs, and stories. We didn’t learn Spanish farming—we taught them how to survive here. We were feeding starving Spaniards when they arrived.”

Today, few people know the Tompiro-Jumano story. But efforts to reclaim their heritage are underway, even as language and culture teeter on the brink of erasure. “This isn’t just about the past,” Saavedra said. “It’s about the future—our children deserve to know who they are.”