page_title: Sandia Pueblo
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Sandia Pueblo / Culture / Religion
caption_attribution_description: English: The Sandia Mountains at sunset, looking Southeast from Bernalillo. Below is the Rio Grande.
context_page_description: Sandia Pueblo is a federally recognized tribe of Native American Pueblo people inhabiting a 101.114-square-kilometre reservation of the same name in the eastern Rio Grande Rift of central New Mexico. It is one of 19 of New Mexico's Native American pueblos, considered as one of the state's Eastern Pueblos. The population was 427 as of the 2010 census. The people are traditionally Tiwa speakers, a language of the Tanoan group, although retention of the traditional language has waned with later generations. They have a tribal government that operates Sandia Casino, Bien Mur Indian Market Center, and Sandia Lakes Recreation Area, as well as representing the will of the Pueblo in business and political matters.
context_section_description: The Sandía are a deeply religious people. Early reports discuss devotion to santos, or effigies of saints, a syncretic phenomenon common throughout the Southwest.
  Though nominally Catholic, they preserve many of their pre-Catholic traditions.  Their feast day, a tradition common to most Pueblo people, is celebrated yearly on June 13, the feast day of St. Anthony. This feast, or fiesta, as it is called, is open to the public. Music and dance are big parts of the ceremony, and it is considered an honor to participate.
  They use the mountain as their official symbol.
caption: The Sandia Mountains, the sacred land of the Sandía people
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