The Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico (; ) is a federally recognized tribe of Native American Pueblo people in west-central New Mexico, near the city of Albuquerque, in the United States. Part of the Laguna territory is included in the Albuquerque metropolitan area, chiefly around Laguna's Route 66 Resort and Casino. The name, Laguna, is Spanish (meaning "small lake") and derives from the lake on their reservation. This body of water was formed by an ancient dam that was constructed by the Laguna people. After the Pueblo Revolt of 1680–1696, the Mission San José de la Laguna was erected by the Spanish at the old pueblo (now Old Laguna) and finished around July 4, 1699.
Pre-Colonial Archaeology and Post-Revolt Ethnogenesis While popular histories frequently attribute the founding of Laguna Pueblo to Spanish Governor Pedro Rodríguez Cubero in 1699, extensive archaeological surveys of over 1,400 ancestral sites across the reservation have conclusively pushed continuous human occupation in the Rio San Jose basin back to the Archaic Period (circa 6500 BCE). Following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and the subsequent Spanish reconquest by Diego de Vargas, the site of Old Laguna functioned as a critical geographic sanctuary. The modern community underwent a complex process of ethnogenesis, absorbing large populations of Keresan, Tanoan, and Hemish refugees fleeing Spanish reprisal campaigns from neighboring Pueblos, including Cochiti, Santo Domingo, and Cieneguilla. This historical influx transformed Laguna into a diverse multi-pueblo coalition well before the formalization of the Spanish mission facility in 1701.
1880 Railroad Construction and Hydrological Transformation In 1880, the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad laid tracks along an east–west trajectory through the Rio San Jose valley, an infrastructure expansion that fundamentally altered local hydrology and ultimately led to the desiccation of the historic lake from which the Laguna Pueblo derived its name. The physical footprint of the rail line, combined with rapid upstream overgrazing and timber harvesting during this period, triggered severe soil erosion along the watershed. The resulting siltation filled the reservoir bed, permanently converting the ancient agricultural lake into dry meadowlands.
During the early-to-mid 20th century, federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, intentionally introduced and widely planted non-native tamarisk trees (commonly known as saltcedar) along New Mexico waterways to combat widespread watershed erosion and stabilize vulnerable riverbanks. The plant quickly escalated into an aggressive invasive species throughout the region, heavily colonizing the Rio San Jose basin and the surrounding Pueblo lands.
Characterized by remarkably high evapotranspiration rates, mature tamarisk thickets consumed vast amounts of water daily, siphoning moisture directly from underground aquifers and severely depressing the local water table. Furthermore, the tree's deep root networks actively drew up underground alkaline water, excreting highly concentrated salt crystals from glands on its leaves. Upon falling, the foliage blanketed the ground in salt, elevating surface soil salinity to toxic levels that choked out native cottonwoods and willows, which fundamentally altered the riparian ecology of the Pueblo.
Uranium Mining and the Jackpile-Paguate Superfund Site In 1953, the Anaconda Minerals Company (a subsidiary of the Atlantic Richfield Company) began operating the Jackpile-Paguate Mine on tribal lease lands adjacent to the village of Paguate. Over its 29-year operation until its closure in 1982, the facility grew into the largest open-pit uranium mine in the world, stripping roughly 2,656 acres of land and extracting approximately 25 million tons of uranium ore. The mine's footprint was located mere hundreds of feet from residential areas and intersected local waterways, including the Rio Paguate and Rio Moquino.
The intensive open-pit operations upended the Pueblo's traditional socio-economic structures and left an extensive ecological and public health burden. Mining activities generated massive quantities of radioactive dust and left behind over 23 million tons of sub-grade ore and toxic tailings dumps. Runoff from these waste piles contaminated downstream surface waters and the Paguate Reservoir wetland with heavy metals and radionuclides, including uranium isotopes (U-234, U-235, U-238) and manganese.
Decades after mining ceased, former workers and residents in downwind communities continue to experience elevated rates of kidney disease, hypertension, and various cancers linked to persistent radiation exposure and heavy metal toxicity. Due to the failure of early reclamation efforts to halt ongoing groundwater and atmospheric contamination, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officially added the Jackpile-Paguate Mine to the National Priorities List as a Superfund site in December 2013 to initiate comprehensive federal remediation.
The migratory plume of uranium and heavy metal runoff from the Jackpile mine significantly impacted downstream infrastructure, leading to the contamination and eventual irrigation closure of the Mesita Dam reservoir, located near the village of Mesita. Extensive sampling by the EPA confirmed severe radiation hotspots, accumulation of uranium-laden sediment, and "Level II" environmental contamination across the reservoir basin, making the water completely unsafe to supply local farms. This hydrological pollution severely affected the local wildlife and riparian ecology; the reservoir and the connecting Rio Paguate river system historically served as active habitats for native fish populations, such as catfish, bluegill, and crappie, which became high-risk vectors for bioaccumulated heavy metal toxicity. The toxic sediments trapped within the marshy, tamarisk-lined dam area continue to compromise the surrounding food chain and local ecosystems, disrupting both historical wildlife nesting and traditional tribal fishing practices.
Geography
Their reservation lies in parts of four counties: In descending order of included land area they are Cibola, Sandoval, Valencia and Bernalillo Counties. It includes the six villages of Encinal, Laguna, Mesita, Paguate, Paraje, and Seama. The reservation is west of the city of Albuquerque. The reservation consists of approximately .see "Welcome to the Pueblo of Laguna"
The Laguna Pueblo (and the Acoma Pueblo) lie in the river basin of the Rio San Jose. The laguna or lake was historically much larger than the present time and hosted waterfowl of many kinds, including ducks, geese and swans. The Rio San Jose flows into the Rio Puerco near the southeast corner of the Laguna Reservation.
Communities
Encinal Laguna New Laguna, New Mexico Mesita Paguate Paraje Seama Casa Blanca, New Mexico
Demographics On the 2010 census 6,758 people in the U.S. reported being exclusively LagunaCensus 2010 American Indian and Alaska Native Summary File (AIANSF) - Sample Data, Pueblo of Laguna alone (H45) and 8,358 people reported being Laguna either exclusively or in combination with another group.Census 2010 American Indian and Alaska Native Summary File (AIANSF) - Sample Data, Pueblo of Laguna alone or in any combination (H45) & (100-299) or (300, A01-Z99) or (400-999)
The State of New Mexico says the population is 7,700."Laguna Pueblo". New Mexico, Land of Enchantment. New Mexico Tourism Department. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
Government The administration of the Pueblo of Laguna in 2025 is: Governor: Harry Antonio Jr. First Lieutenant Governor: Ronald Sarracino Jr. Second Lieutenant Governor: Wilfred Herrera Jr.
History
The people of Laguna have a long history of residing in and farming along the Rio San José in west-central New Mexico. Laguna history begins long before the advent of written records in the Southwest. It is a common misconception that the Pueblo of Laguna began in 1699, at the time of the construction of the Mission. However, research of 1,449 archaeological sites and an anthropological analysis of the Laguna oral history have firmly proven that people have inhabited the area ranging from 6500 B.C. to the present.T.J. Ferguson and Barbara J. Mills, 2012, Supplemental Report: Archaeological Sites on the Laguna Indian Reservation. Unpublished paper on file at the Pueblo of Laguna Tribal Historic Preservation Office.
The Acoma Pueblo and Pueblo of Laguna have many ties, including location, language and a shared high school.
The Pueblo of Laguna has a well-established Tribal Law system. The Pueblo of Laguna has participated as a "Weed and Seed" tribe. This Department of Justice program studied the enforcement of law and effectiveness of social programs on Native American lands.
The Irish surname Riley was adopted by many members of the Laguna tribe in the 1800s, for legal use in European-American culture, while they retained their Laguna names for tribal use.
Late 19th-Century Factionalism and the Founding of Mesita During the 1870s and 1880s, the Pueblo of Laguna experienced a severe internal political and religious schism driven by the arrival of outside modernizing influences, Christian missionaries, and white government surveyors who married into the tribe. Central to this shift were brothers Walter and Robert Marmon, white Union Army veterans and surveyors who married Laguna women, integrated into the tribal hierarchy, and were subsequently elected to leadership positions, with Robert Marmon serving as Pueblo Governor. The Marmons, alongside Presbyterian missionary John Menaul, aggressively promoted Western secular education, Protestantism, and industrial alignment with the oncoming railroad, forming a political faction known as the "Progressives."
This rapid acculturation triggered intense friction with the "Conservative" or traditionalist faction, who sought to protect traditional Keresan kiva religious structures, community governance, and historical ties to the Roman Catholic Church. Tensions escalated dramatically when Progressive leaders, backed by newly converted tribal members, closed the historic St. Joseph Mission Church, utilizing it temporarily as a burro corral, and threatened the demolition of Catholic and traditional religious altars. The sacristan of the church, Hamí, and other traditionalist leaders actively put up physical resistance to defend the sacred structures. By late 1879, the religious and political rift became completely irreconcilable. Refusing to abandon their ancestral customs under the new leadership, a substantial population of traditionalists permanently migrated away from the main village of Old Laguna. A portion of these refugees moved west to seek asylum at Isleta Pueblo, while the remaining traditionalist faction moved north to establish the new, isolated outlying village of Mesita, permanently reshaping the geopolitical footprint of the Pueblo land.
The Richmond, California Boxcar Colony (1922–1982) Following the 1880 right-of-way agreement between the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad and the Pueblo of Laguna—historically referred to as the "Flower of Friendship"—the railroad guaranteed permanent employment to tribal members. This agreement laid the foundation for long-distance labor migrations, culminating in the establishment of a permanent diaspora community at the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (AT&SF) Railway terminal in Richmond, California. In response to the national Shopmen's Strike of 1922, AT&SF management mobilized the treaty agreement, recruiting Laguna men to relocate to the Richmond rail yards as replacement mechanics, laborers, and track workers.