“This paper offers a partial political history of Santa Clara Pueblo
by studying the process of factionalism within a long tradition of adaptive self-governance. Factionalism was (and is) a complex and persistent aspect of the internal politics of Pueblo society. At Santa Clara, factionalism played (and plays) a key role in the ideological shifts that often result in political, economic, and legal reform. Using select documentary accounts and recorded Santa Clara testimonies, this ethnohistory of Pueblo Indian self-governance traces the story of political strategies by a divided community seeking to find unity.”
