Sandia Pueblo is a remnant of the Tiguex villages visited by Coronado in
1540. A mission was created at Sandia shortly after the colonization by
Oñate, and it was an important mission center until the Pueblo Revolt.
After the revolt, Sandia peoples scattered rather than again submit to
Spanish control. Many of them went to live with the Hopi and there
founded the village of Payupki on the middle mesa, the walls of which
can still be found. After 62 years, in 1742, a few families returned to
the Rio Grande Valley to found the modern pueblo. The old mission
remains visible, although reduced to a rubble of adobe. Sandia Pueblo
remains a small village, containing less than 150 people.