The single most dramatic event in the recent history of Taos Pueblo land is the return of 48, acres of mountain land including the sacred Blue Lake. It was taken by the U. Government in to become part of the National Forest lands. Among the ritual sites where Taos people go for ceremonial reasons, Blue Lake is perhaps the most important. The return of this land capped a long history of struggle. Blue Lake and mountains are off-limits to all but members of our Pueblo.
Tiwa is our native language. English and Spanish are also spoken. The land base is 99, acres with an elevation of 7, feet at the village. The tourist trade, arts, traditional crafts and food concessions are important employment sources at the Pueblo. Some tribal members are employed in the Town of Taos. The Pueblo has a centralized management system where tribal members are employed in a variety of occupations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs maintains an elementary school, located behind the south Pueblo in an area restricted to the public.
The majority of teachers are Indian. There is also a preschool program for three and four-year-olds. An education committee comprised of Pueblo members oversees the education of students and monitors a scholarship program for students wishing higher education.
Indian children also attend public schools in the Town of Taos. Mica-flecked pottery and silver jewelry are made by local artisans and sold at many of the individually owned curio shops within the Pueblo.
The Taos Indians, being great hunters, are also famous for their work with animal skins — moccasins, boots and drums. Different accounts of this expedition give various names and descriptions to what is now known as the Taos Pueblo , which still exists, its multi-storied adobe buildings still used by the Tiwa speaking people of the Taos Valley.
For the more than years that have now passed since that meeting, these people have somehow, in the face of constant incursions and threats, also retained most of their culture, language, and society.
It has been a long journey, one that continues today midst the mad, rushing changes all around us. Change is inevitable, but we should try to preserve the memories of past events and people. Traces on the land around Taos denote the passing of all these things.
Churches and other historic buildings, old roads and trails, camps of explorers, battle sites, ruins of prehistoric pueblos, mining camps and old cemeteries are but a few of the sites worth studying and preserving for future generations. To the north, near the sand, there is a lake where the first people climb the great fir tree and emerge to populate the earth. With them come good and bad spirits who can dwell in everything, rocks, trees, animals, plants and people.
Rather, the valley appeared first and the river followed. They live in the open, sleeping in crude shelters, or in overhanging caves. Farming, even on a small scale, begins to restrict their movements to smaller areas where they can harvest what had been planted, thus leading to more elaborate shelter, and the development of communities and cultural differences.
Not long after this time, pueblos appear in the Taos Valley. Some "experts" place the date at when the Pot Creek Pueblo became abandoned and some of the inhabitants apparently moved to Picuris Pueblo and others moved to the Taos Pueblo. Leading a detachment of twenty soldiers, and accompanied by the chaplain, Fray Juan de Padilla, Alvarado travels east past the great rock of Acoma. Upon reaching an impassable canyon, they climb to a high plain, and on the edge come to a large pueblo divided in two parts by a river.
He understands it to be called Braba. From there they travel to the east to see the plains after sending a report about the pueblos to the General.
The governor asks the chiefs of the Indian provinces if, in order to receive benefits of military protection and the guidance of the missionaries. The Indians agree, and after the papers are drawn up, each Indian leader signs "amid great rejoicings". The American troops bombarded the church, killing or capturing the insurrectionists and destroying the physical structure. Around , an entirely new mission church was constructed near the west gate of the pueblo wall.
The ruins of the original church and its s replacement are both still visible inside the pueblo wall today. The coming of the railroad to the area brought about changes in traditional native economies and increased tourism.
Government action throughout the s and 30s, and other forces since then have also had an impact on native traditional living within the pueblo. Today the Pueblo is mostly unoccupied and used for sacred ceremonies and as a popular heritage site for tourists Courtesy of Lucca Galuzzi.
The pueblo is open to visitors daily for a fee and is one of the most popular tourist sites in New Mexico and throughout all of the Southwest. For more information, visit the official Taos Pueblo website. Of traditional adobe construction, the pueblo consists of two clusters of sun-dried mud brick houses, with walls from 70cm thick at the bottom to about 35cm at the top.
The community still refinishes the walls with a new coat of adobe plaster each year as part of a village ceremony.
The two main adobe buildings flank the river and retain their traditional layout. The tribe continues to use the pueblo for sacred ceremonies. In addition to the adobe buildings, other notable features of the pueblo include several round kivas religious and ceremonial spaces , the surrounding defensive wall, the sacred ruins of Cornfield Taos, large unexcavated ancient trash middens, and a ceremonial racetrack. Rubble mounds and a lone bell tower mark the ruins of the original Spanish church, San Geronimo de Taos.
Many generations of both Spanish and American Indian peoples lie buried around and within its crumbling walls.
Built c. Despite these alterations, the church is still a beautiful example of early Spanish architecture in the Southwest. Its presence and continual use alongside ancient ceremonial kivas mark an important cultural phenomenon. Today the majority of the Taos people identify as Catholics while still recognizing strong ties to their American Indian cultural traditions.
The Pueblo, which is owned and administered by the Taos Tribal Council, is open to visitors daily from am to pm except during times that tribal rituals require its closing. For more information, visit the Taos Pueblo website or call Taos Pueblo Tourism at before visiting to confirm open hours.
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