‘Where Our Nansipu Remains’: Tewa Pueblo Maps and Meanings

A family from the northern New Mexico tribe of Santa Clara Pueblo is developing a Tewa-language place-names project. Their work raises questions about the intergenerational passage and passing of cultural knowledge. Place-names call attention to the link between language and land. They orient communities to space and time. They hold stories. This talk considers the function of Tewa place-names within our contemporary configuration of politics and technology. I suggest that both intertribal dynamics and digital resources shape the responsibilities and the hopes of those who maintain cultural knowledge. The title of this talk borrows a line from a Pueblo elder describing the relationship between his home and Los Alamos - a relationship that haunts place and meaning in Tewa communities. “Where” refers to the Pajarito Plateau, the mesa complex that hosts the town and laboratory of Los Alamos. “Our” refers to Santa Clara Pueblo. “Nansipu” translates to earth-mother-navel, a place of origin and emergence. “Remains” is an ambivalent provocation.

Speaker: Dimitri Brown, UC Berkeley