Branigan Cultural Center new exhibit explores Indigenous culture

The Branigan Cultural Center is hosting a long-term exhibit to give insight into six regional Indigenous groups who have lived in the area for centuries.

The exhibit is called “Land of the People,” and it consists of two rooms devoted to telling the stories of six local groups: Ysleta de Sur Pueblo, Pueblo of Tortugas, Mescalero Apache Tribe, Piro-Manso-Tiwa Indian Tribe, Chiricahua Apache Nation and Gila Apache. The first of the six exhibits, devoted to Ysleta de Sur Pueblo, is currently on exhibit in the rotating gallery and will be up until Nov. 29.

Analisa Torres, Branigan Cultural Center exhibit curator, said the cultural center worked with a historian who has a background in Indigenous histories. The center also worked with the Indigenous groups very closely to ensure the groups had agency over the exhibit and were able to tell their own stories directly.

Rick Quezada, director of Cultural Preservation for Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, based in El Paso, said he had a great experience working with the Branigan and that the red drum in the first room of the exhibit is one he made himself years ago.

“It’s cool to see my stuff out there,” Quezada said.

The first room of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo exhibit gives insight into things such as food pathways, Indian boarding schools,  and Indigenous ceremonies. The back room will rotate to tell each Indigenous group’s story. Torres said each Indigenous group chose what aspects of its stories it wanted to tell.

“Ysleta talked about their start as a federally recognized tribe,” Torres said. “They are one of two in this group [with federal recognition]. It was really important to them to talk about their pueblo today, their strides with youth, their government. It’s really interesting. Each group goes into their own topic,” Torres said.

Quezada said Ysleta del Sur Pueblo has over 78,000 square acres in the El Paso area and was federally recognized in 1987.

“We have our own fire department, police, health clinic and housing. We’ve been able to expand in the last 30 years,” Quezada said.

Quezada said that life for Ysleta del Sur Pueblo is about striving to protect the group’s history, culture and language. They teach their own language and produce pottery in their own historic tradition, he said. “We have a traditional garden. We plant corn, beans, squash. We have one fruit orchard. We introduce traditional ways of living off the land, as our ancestors did for three centuries.”

Quezada said the most important story the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo wanted to tell in its exhibit at the Branigan was about the pueblo’s 1680 revolt. The Ysleta del Sur are connected to the Isleta Pueblo just south of Albuquerque. They came south in 1680 when the pueblos united to revolt against Spanish rule.

“There was a huge fight in 1680. We were forced here, retreating from the Spanish,” he said.

Quezada, who is of the Ysleta del Sur, said some of the group returned to Isleta Pueblo but some stayed, and by 1682 the Ysleta del Sur formally established.

Torres said part of the goal for the cultural center is to talk about those who lived here before Las Cruces was a city.

“No one has done an exhibit like this before. It’s important to get this word out about these groups,” she said.