(slow Western guitar music) - [Host] The Rio Grande is one of the most majestic rivers in America.

It's the main water source for millions of Americans and a large part of the US Mexico border.

It's also an historic place of recreation for generations of New Mexicans.

Today, my river guide is Louie Hena, member of the Tesuque Pueblo.

(water raging) (yelling and laughing) - Yeah!

- [Host] His ancestors have lived along the Rio Grande from as early as 950 A.D., and their stories are etched into the canyon walls.

When I would look up the history in a more formal text about this space, I might read about Spanish explorers.

I'd read about border wars and the division of lands.

How do you tell the history of this place?

- Well we don't tell history, we tell our story.

There's the petroglyphs all up and down this canyon.

The first people were the Tiwa and the Tewa people.

All their stories are written up through up and around here, and the Comanches come through here, write their stories.

The Europeans came through here and wrote their stories.

So everybody's stories is etched into these boulders.

- [Host] Yeah.

- [Louie] And so in indigenous communities, we're teaching our stories to our younger people now.

- [Host] Louie believes those stories should be told not just within his community, but to anyone who visits.

He gets to do just that in his job with the Los Rios Runners, a local whitewater rafting company, where native guides educate visitors on Pueblo history and why this river is sacred.

- What does this river mean to you?

What does it mean to your community?

- We look at the river as a lifeblood.

Everything out here has a spirit.

Today, the floor of our church is this river itself.

- Floor of our church huh?

- Mm-hmm, the floor of our church.

We're floating on Avanyu.

- Avanyu?

- Avanyu (foreign language).

The Lady Water Serpent.

(water churning) So if you understand the water cycle, you know, it starts rain and everything coming from the ocean and all of this water that lands on top of these mountain ranges.

- [Host] Yeah.

- Brings all of this great organic matter and great energy.

And so all this good energy comes into our fields, waters our crops, and then we eat the foods.

- Mm-hmm.

- And all that good energy comes into us, keeps us healthy.

- [Host] Yeah.