‘WE CAN HEAL AND GROW STRONGER’
SF considers new sculpture honoring two Native American heroes
As the city of Santa Fe contemplates the monuments, markers and community events that recognize its history and the people who helped shape it, city leaders are considering placing a new sculpture honoring two Native American heroes in the courtyard of the city’s convention center.
A resolution to accept the donation of sculpture of Catua and Omtua — runners from Tesuque Pueblo who served as messengers at the outset of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 — was passed by the city’s Arts Commission on Monday and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission on Tuesday, in a process heading toward City Council consideration on May 9.
While donated by Tesuque Pueblo, the sculpture is the work of Pojoaque artist George Rivera, whose statue of Santa Fe Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Leroy Petry stands in front of City Hall, next door to the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.
A fiscal impact report lists $46,000 in costs to the city for landscaping and installation to be paid for out of the Art in Public Places fund.
The courtyard of the convention center is already dedicated to Catua and Omtua, who were sent from Tesuque to spread word of the revolt to other pueblos, but were captured and executed by the Spanish. A plaque in the courtyard recognizes their role in what has been called the “First American Revolution.”
“This courtyard rests on the ancient settlement of Oga Poegeh, the ancestral home of Taytsugeh Oweengeh,” reads the plaque, using the traditional name of the Tesuque people in their native Tewa
language. “Today, Taytsugeh Oweengeh and the city of Santa Fe continue to share history and to celebrate the cultural richness of New Mexico.”
Construction of the convention center was delayed years ago after remnants of the settlement, along with human bones, were discovered while digging. The city sought and received permission from the pueblo to proceed with the project after the remains were removed.
Co-sponsored by City Councilors Signe Lindell and Renee Villarreal, the resolution supporting acceptance of the sculptures skirts recent controversies that have surrounded Santa Fe’s monuments and historical public events. Instead, it acknowledges a 400-year “shared history” between the Villa de Santa Fe and the Pueblo of Tesuque.
“I support the recognition of Catua and Omtua because it contextualizes our complex history in northern New Mexico and Santa Fe,” Villarreal wrote in an email to the Journal. “It also is a symbolic way to acknowledge and provide a more inclusive and accurate representation of our historical narrative.
“Through recent history, some people have created a Native-Hispano binary or paradigm of our culture and history, when actually we have a shared history because of our mixed heritage and familial ties.”
No one version of history
Last August, after a white supremacist rally against the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Va., turned violent, then-Mayor Gonzales called for an inventory of the historic monuments and markers on City of Santa Fe property, as well as events in town commemorating historic events or people.
He said he believed Santa Fe could become “a leader in racial healing and transformation toward a more unified city” and by addressing the controversies head-on “we can heal and grow stronger.”
The timing was just a few weeks before the controversial staging of the Entrada — a re-enactment of the Spanish resettlement of Santa Fe in 1692, 12 years after the Pueblo Revolt, that’s performed each year on the Plaza during the Fiesta de Santa Fe in September.
Native American groups have protested the event, calling it a whitewashing of history and the celebration of one culture’s repression of another. Fiesta and Entrada organizers say the event celebrates the coming together of two cultures.
Santa Fe police were out in force during last year’s Entrada, whose starting time was changed at the last minute in a failed effort to stem the protests, at which eight people were arrested. All charges were later dropped.
The inventory called for by Mayor Gonzales identified nearly 60 monuments, markers, sculptures, murals and plaques. Among them were the Cross of the Martyrs overlooking downtown that recognizes 21 Franciscan priests and others killed during the pueblo uprising, and a statue in Cathedral Park of Don Diego de Vargas, who led the Spanish resettlement after the revolt and who is the lead character in the Entrada pageant.
Newly elected Mayor Alan Webber, like Gonzales, believes Santa Fe can still set an example for the nation on matters reconciling history and racial healing. He has made plans to visit Rivera’s studio to see firsthand the ongoing work on the sculptures of Catua and Omtua.
“My perception is that there is no one version of history that is right,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “What we have are multiple lived experiences from different parts of our community and each part of our community has a completely legitimate historical experience.
“If we want to separate Santa Fe from what’s happening around the United States in general, rather than treating it as an adversarial clash, we should endeavor to use it as an opportunity for the development of a unique curriculum of the history of our region and our state that the rest of the United States can benefit from and learn from.”
Elena Ortiz, an Ohkay Owingeh tribal member and Santa Fe resident, has helped organize the Entrada protests. She said the sculptures of the two Tesuque runners is a great idea, but, “Why are they hiding them in the courtyard of the convention center when we have statues of (Santa Fe founder Pedro de) Peralta and de Vargas out and about? Why not put them on or close to the Plaza?”
According to Councilor Villarreal, placing the sculptures in the courtyard of the convention center came at the request of Tesuque Pueblo.
‘It has to end’
Rivera, the artist, said he was asked by former Tesuque Gov. Mark Mitchell to create the artwork of Catua and Omtua. “This has been a few years in the making,” said Rivera, a former governor of Pojoaque Pueblo. “It’s going to be a really cool image.”
Rivera previously created a sculpture of another famous Native American runner, Billy Mills, the Oglala Lakota runner who won a gold medal at the 1964 Olympic games in the 10,000-meter run. “I think when they saw the Billy Mills in such a large scale, they thought (sculptures of Catua and Omtua) would really turn out good,” Rivera said. He said he hoped to have the sculptures completed by August.
Native activist Ortiz said the city still has to do much more to heal centuries-old wounds. It can start by abolishing the Entrada, she said.
Various parties, including Archbishop John Wester and pueblo leaders, have been in talks about what to do about the Entrada. But no changes for the September event, which has a heavy religious theme, have been announced.
“The city is going to have to deal with the Entrada,” said Ortiz. “(The protests) aren’t going away. Putting up statutes (of the Tesuque runners) is fabulous, but it doesn’t exempt the city of Santa Fe from addressing the racism and celebration of genocide that occurs every year. It has to end.”