“For us, self-governance is not a story. It’s a way of life.”

Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, the southernmost Pueblo in the United States, was established near present-day El Paso in 1682, two years after the Pueblo Revolt drove the Spanish from the Tiwa homeland. By 2012, a federal one-eighth blood quantum requirement imposed by Congress in 1987 was leading the Pueblo toward extinction. Pueblo members were watching their own children fall short of the federal requirement for enrollment.

Through Project Tiwahu, the Pueblo led years of community engagement, eventually passing a blood quantum reform bill that returned enrollment authority to the Pueblo itself. The Pueblo’s enrolled population doubled. With that growth came new responsibilities and new resources, including a Joint Venture partnership with the Indian Health Service that produced a 78,000 square foot health clinic with 17 exam rooms, five doctors, an in-house pharmacy, dedicated public health and behavioral health divisions, and a building shaped like a kiva and oriented to true north toward the Pueblo’s place of origin.

Featuring Governor Michael Silvas and Ysleta del Sur Pueblo leadership and staff.