Joe Sando, historian from Jemez Pueblo, passes on at age 88

Wednesday, September 14, 2011  

Joe Sando, an author, educator and historian from Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico, died on Tuesday. He was 88.

Sando was born and raised on the reservation. He left to attend Santa Fe Indian School, where he learned English.

Sando enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served during World War II. Following his return to the U.S., he earned degrees from Eastern New Mexico University and Vanderbilt University and embarked on a lifelong mission to educate the world about his tribe and the Pueblo people.

“Mr. Sando knew people from every one of the pueblos. He would ask who you were, who your parents were, who your grandparents were and inevitably he could tie back to someone he knew from the pueblo,” Lela Kaskalla, the president of the board of directors at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, told The Albuquerque Journal. “An individual like Mr. Sando is so rare. You meet a handful of them in your lifetime. He was the life in the Institute for Pueblo Indian Studies. He believed in it; he wanted us to tell our own story.”

Sando went on to author numerous books about Pueblo government, history and culture. He frequently examined tribal relations with Spain, Mexico and the U.S.

“His vision, his wisdom, and his knowledge that he drew from his love of reading and writing our history, provided the message that we – meaning all of us from all walks of life – can understand and enjoy how in the end we’re all part of the same family,” Regis Pecos of Cochiti Pueblo told the Journal. “He was one of the greatest ambassadors of our people to the world.”

Funeral services will be held this coming Monday at the National Cemetery in Santa Fe.

Get the Story:
Pueblo Historian Sando Dies at 88 (The Albuquerque Journal 9/14)
Joe Sando, 1923-2011: Scholar wrote about Indian history from insider's perspective (AP 9/14)