Editing Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico (section)

==History==
[[File:Santa Clara Pueblos - NARA - 523835.tif|thumb|left|200x200px]]
Tewa people lived in the Pueblo area for millennia before they met Spanish conquistador [[Juan de Oñate]] and his exploration party on July 11, 1598.<ref name="newmexicohistory.org">{{cite web|url=http://newmexicohistory.org/people/pueblo-of-santa-clara-grant|title=New Mexico Office of the State Historian - people|website=newmexicohistory.org|access-date=22 April 2018}}</ref> Pueblo archaeology shows that [[Ancestral Puebloans]] lived in the general region as far back as 1200 BC.

First visited in 1541, a segment of [[Francisco Coronado]]'s expeditionary force met with the residents of the nearby Caypa Pueblo. After annexation of the region into the Spanish Kingdom, and as part of the 1601 expansion of Oñate's colonial capital,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/amsw/sw40.HTM|title=Santa Clara Pueblo--American Southwest--A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary|website=www.nps.gov|access-date=22 April 2018}}</ref> a chapel was built there by 1617. [[Alonso de Benavides|Fray Alonso de Benavides]] established a mission in 1628.<ref name="newmexicohistory.org"/> The mission was abandoned on the lead up to the [[Great Pueblo Revolt]] of 1680.

This Pueblo joined forces with others nearby and fought against the Spanish Royal Government in 1680 in the revolt. The original and unoccupied chapel was destroyed. Two other chapel buildings would be constructed there. The current church replaced the former in 1918.

In 1782, a [[small pox|smallpox]] outbreak decimated the population. The eighth section of the Act of July 22, 1854, mandated a census of the newly acquired possessions of the US government. In review of the land's title, the pueblo presented a Spanish Royal decree dated October 15, 1713, that the title to land and various pueblos could be expected. Though lost, the decree on the title papers assured protection of the pueblos' right to protection of their homelands from encroachment. The result of the title research led this Pueblo community to be of the first recognized by United States Congress.