A historic pueblo of the Cochiti people, one of the Keresan Nations, it is part of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area.

[4] According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 1.2 square miles (3.1 km2), all land.

[11] The pueblo celebrates the annual feast day for its patron saint, San Buenaventura, on July 14.

The ancestors of the Cochiti people, living in cliff dwellings at Rito de los Frijoles in present-day Bandelier National Monument,[13] divided into two groups.

[11] At first, the Spaniards admired and respected the Pueblo Peoples for their Spanish-like farming techniques and villages, viewing them as equals, and opening trade.

The Spanish Catholic missionaries attacked their religion and renamed the Pueblos with Catholic saints’ names and began a program of church construction, such as the San Buenaventura Mission at Cochiti, routinely torturing the tribes for practicing their traditional religion, and forcing them into labor and/or slavery.

[11] The Cochiti people remained at Potrero Viejo until 1693 when they were forced to flee Spanish Governor Don Diego de Vargas and his troops.

Continuing to use traditional techniques, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, potters have also expanded their designs and repertoire in pottery, which has an international market.

In 1969, a documentary film about a Native American boy's life on the Cochiti pueblo was made for Sesame Street's second season (1970–1971), aired on December 9, 1970.