The Santa Fe New Mexican has a good story on Cochiti Pueblo and Cochiti Dam.
In the 1950s, this was their playground as boys. They would swim in the river, hunt birds and scoop up Rio Grande silvery minnows by the bucketful. “We used to fry them up. They were really good,” Pecos recalled, as the river water lapped almost to his shoes.
The men are old enough to remember picking fruit all summer and fall — apples, apricots, plums, cherries — from pueblo family orchards along the river. “Every family had a plot of land by the river,” said Suina. “Life was out there on the farm.”
“Everyone helped during harvest,” Pecos said. “Everyone shared food. That’s what kept the community together.”
It all changed in a generation.