Santa Ana Pueblo wants to rename San Felipe Mesa
Move part of a strategy to reclaim ancestral lands
Right now, but maybe not for much longer, a mesa about 20 miles west of Bernalillo is known on maps as San Felipe Mesa, likely named by Spanish conquerors to honor King Philip II of Spain.
But the Tamayame people of Santa Ana Pueblo would like to change the name as part of their “overall strategy for reclaiming ancestral lands” to the one used by their ancestors, who told of living atop the mesa centuries ago.
The mesa is on the former Alamo Ranch land the pueblo purchased last year from the King family, about 100 square miles for close to the asking price of $33 million.
“This particular mesa is on the ranch, and it was part of the reason why they bought the land,” said Phillip Shelley, Santa Ana Pueblo’s historic preservation officer and director.
“Their oral history talks about the fact that when they were migrating they found themselves in a precarious position. They had enemies around them and in order to protect themselves, they built their community on top of an almost inaccessible mesa … which later became known as San Felipe Mesa.”
But in Santa Ana oral history, the mesa, which reaches about 6,500 feet in elevation, is called Kii,Nii,Iwa, pronounced kin-nee-eewah, and means “up on top.”
“We know there is a community up top. It’s known in the archaeological community as Sky Village,” Shelley said.
The pueblo has applied to have the name officially changed on all federal maps to Kene-ewa. It’s a process that requires approval from the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, though local maps can be changed without such a process.
Most name changes are approved if there is no major opposition. No official protest has been lodged with the state or federal committees in charge of renaming locations and features on government maps.
The name board must reach out to possible stakeholders to alert them of name change proposals.
Local place name expert Bob Julyan said it could be controversial because the mesa likely was named because of its proximity to San Felipe Pueblo. The San Felipe name was given by Spanish explorers and Christianity conversion missions in the late 1500s in honor of the then-king of Spain.
The pueblo declined to comment on the name change.
Nationally, other Native American communities and others have been working to rename locations to fit with their history or to overturn cruel or exploitative names. In 2005, the federal name board approved changing Dead Negro Hill in Roosevelt County to Buffalo Soldier Hill.
The only other current site being considered for a name change in New Mexico is a petition to name a now-unnamed climbing rock northeast of Farmington as Molar Rock.
Shelley said he hopes the pueblo gets approval, which could come some time this summer.
“On all of our maps we can change the name, but we want to get it so in the published official maps it carries a name that has meaning to the community,” Shelley said. “Santa Ana is like most other traditional communities, working very hard to retain their core values and have the younger generation understand where they came from. This is all part of it.”