Taos Pueblo

 

 As the sign says, Taos Pueblo has been continuously inhabited for over 1000 years.  The reservation includes 10,000 acres.  While only about 150 people now live in the village year-round, there are many more people living in the area in modern houses.  Only a part of the village is open to the public, and even that part is closed during certain ceremonial times of the year.  Other dances and ceremonies are open to the public.  The tribal council has done an excellent job of allowing the public to come and learn about the ancient culture while preserving privacy and respect.  Stephen and I wondered if we would feel awkward visiting a place that was someone's home, but the rules and areas of access are very clear and the guides and craftspeople were obviously happy to educate us and welcome us.  It was a lovely experience.

 The dwellings did not originally have doors.  You would climb a ladder and access the building through an opening in the roof.  This was for protection.  When the doors were added they were frequently painted turquoise or other bright colors.

 The river, we were told, has potable water that is tested frequently and carefully protected.  The source is a blue lake on the mountain.  President Teddy Roosevelt took the lake away from the Pueblo and opened it to public access.  Soon, people vandalized the area and polluted the lake.  But under President Richard Nixon the Pueblo was able to regain control of the mountain area that includes the lake and eventually its purity was restored.  It was the first time that Native people were able to get land back from the United States government.

 Stephen bought frybread and lemonade from one shop and I talked to the owner.  He had been born in the house we were standing in.  The extended family lived in different parts of the building.  His grandmother's kitchen is where he and his wife now make the frybread and cornbread to sell to visitors.  He is a veteran, has been on the Tribal Council, and was a member of the police force on the pueblo. He spoke Tiwa until he went to public school. He told me that there is now an elementary school on the Pueblo that goes to 7th grade, after which students either go to the public school in Taos or the Indian boarding school in Santa Fe.
In one shop we fell in love with a group of paintings that were so cheerful and happy we wanted to look at the images every day.  The young man in charge of the shop said that his sister was the artist.  The shop had been his grandparents' home and he showed us pictures of them and told us a bit about his family.  In some of the shops the old ceilings had been replaced with smooth boards over the vigas (log beams) but in this shop the ceiling was still small branches and mud as it would have been originally.  We decided to buy one of the paintings, but we had to go back to the visitor's center to get cash.  When we returned we got to meet the artist -- a charming young lady wearing jeans and a rock and roll t-shirt.  We told her how much we admired her work, but she was a little shy.  It is clear that her talkative brother is more suited to deal with the public and she prefers to paint.

The ruins of the original church stand over the cemetery.  We feel so fortunate that we were able to visit the pueblo and talk to interesting people and learn about the history and culture.