Hello everyone I’m going to go over the twelve common wealth’s that I see in my little community. A good key asset to start off with is the history of Pojoaque Pueblo. From my understanding Pojoaque Pueblo was at one time one of the biggest pueblos along the Rio Grande which was known for its huge gardens until the Spaniards came and forced Catholicism and money on our people.
My second key asset is the water cycle. The word Pojoaque means where the water gathers in my native language Tewa .We are very lucky to have three rivers run through our community that allows us to water our gardens, which lets us have plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit in the fall.
Although the soil isn’t the best here for farming people have tricks to help build up the quality of the soil. The clay in the soil is what makes it difficult for the soil and plants to absorb the water needed for gardens to thrive.
As for the wild life here its mostly small dessert game like roadrunners, coyotes, raccoons , skunks. At times the elk, deer, and mountain lions were on the farm on more than one occasion due to the drought and lack of food and water.
On the topic of spirituality about 90% of the population in our pueblo are catholic and the other 10% are of other religions, which include Buddists and Seiks, and Christian populations as well.
For renewable energy there’s not much but we do get a lot of sun light which we use for solar panels and some people have wind mills for pumping water. Renewable energy is of great importance because of the ways in which we have to fight for the water that is ours other sources of renewable energy could be used so that loss of crops wont be a problem like it has been for many years.
There’s also a public school here too its called Pojoaque Valley Schools and my tribe also have a Scholarship program available to all tribal members to go to private schools and attend college anywhere. This enables tribal members to excel in education, and most college educated tribal members come back to work for the tribe in various departments that pertain to the degrees received.
The culture here is mixed between native Americans and Hispanics. The natives make pottery, jewelry, stone sculptures and baskets and the Hispanics do mostly tin work and retablos, and straw applique.
The last but not least key asset in my community is our health. Although the health care system is not very good, our people are getting back to growing their own food and raising the meat they eat to help them be healthier. We also provide healthier cooking classes and recipes for everyone. The main focus for our people is to use food as medicine.
