To the Red Willow Pueblo

  Taos, New Mexico, United States
Monday, July 21, 2008

The next day we went to the Taos Pueblo, a World Heritage site. We got there just in time to go on a guided walking tour with one of the pueblo members.

Our Guide

The structures in the pueblo are believed to be over 1000 years old, with homes in the pueblo passed down from generation to generation.

The North Taos Pueblo

The pueblo has no running water and no electricity by choice since the inhabitants are intent on maintaining their way of life and their religious practices. There cooking is done in hornos, outdoor adobe ovens, in which they burn hot cedar fueled fires. After the cedar has turned to ashes, they rake them out and put in the food to cook. Bread can cook in as little as thirty minutes.

Hornos at the Taos Pueblo

While the Spaniards tried to establish Catholicism as the way of life for the pueblo, the native religion still guides daily life. The pueblo people had a long history of clashes with the government, including the massacre of over 140 people in the San Geronimo church. The church was destroyed in retaliation for the assassination of the New Mexico governor, Charles Bent. The destroyed church was left as a memorial and cemetery. The old churchyard is only entered for burial and on All Saints Day.

San Gernonimo

The source of water for the pueblo is the Red Willow Creek that flows down from the mountains that loom over the pueblo. While the government name for the pueblo is the Taos Pueblo, the people prefer to be known as the Red Willow Pueblo since this is a more accurate name for them.

Red Willow Creek

The pueblo owns over 100,000 acres of land, including the mountain, and they prohibit access to this area except for religious purposes. One of the things that our guide told us that was astonishing was that the pueblo residents were not allowed to vote in local or national elections until 1952!
 
The pueblo is home to many Native American artists, working in beads, silver, drums, and pottery. Most of the silver jewelry is made by the Navahos and "imported" to be sold in the pueblo. However, we were fortunate to find one artisan in the pueblo, Arthur Lujan, who did silver work. His pueblo name was Beautiful Aspen.

Beautiful Aspen (Arthur Lujan)

He was kind enough to share that with us as many of the people keep their Indian names to be used only amongst themselves. The same is also true of their language, Tiwa. The language and their religion are passed down orally from generation to generation. Linguists have tried to come into the community to create a written version of the language but have been rebuffed so that the pueblo people can maintain a degree of separation from the outside world. All of the people we encountered in the pueblo were friendly and outgoing, which is amazing considering the onslaught of tourists they have to put up with day after day. We talked with one couple who recounted the story of the wife saving their pet peke-a-poo from a bear. Apparently, the bear had come down from the mountains in the summer looking for food and the small dog immediately gave chase, causing the bear to hightail it down the trail. Right behind the dog was the woman, trying to get the dog. She said all of her children were rolling on the ground in laughter seeing this huge bear, being chased by this little bitty dog, and their irate mother chasing the dog. Their only regret was that they couldn't find the camera to record the moment.
 
While we were in the pueblo, a procession came in led by a drummer and flute player.

The Walkers

They formed a circle on the plaza and were blessed with incense and water and then prayers were said. Then they unfolded the blankets that they were carrying, inside of which totems from the various tribes were represented. We found out that this group had started as an idea of one or two members to walk from Alaska to Panama. As they have gone along, members have dropped out and others have joined. They don't have a specific schedule or route, but are moving from community to community on their way south.
 
After leaving the pueblo, we went back into Taos and walked around the plaza for a short while before again being chased inside by the afternoon monsoon. Fortunately the rain cleared in time to grill salmon for dinner.