San Ildefonso pueblo, eight miles away, has a tradition that it was their ancestors who lived at Tsankawi, probably in the 1400s. In Tewa the name for Tsankawi (saekewikwaje onwikege) means "village between two canyons at the clump of sharp, round cacti."
The village ruins are reached after the trial winds through cliffs covered with petroglyphs and climbs to the top of the Mesa. The village was built out of tuff stone plastered inside and out with mud.
The Tsankawi mesa top is serene and peaceful.
