While IVO Taos (isn’t that a great acronym? IVO means In the Vicinity Of. Military people use it a lot.), I visited the ancient town of the Taos Pueblo. It is a perspective shattering experience to be in a town continuously inhabited for more than a millennium. No one can be sure, it could be substantially more. Native dogs roamed the pueblo and old women sold goods baked in traditional wood-fired ovens of adobe. I bought some and made little sandwiches for a week with the delicious bread. The baker assured me that the bread would be good for a week, “because it ain’t got no eggs or dairy in it.”
If a visitor could expel the inconsiderate swine other visitors and sit quietly for a moment, she could almost time travel to the ancient past, when humans lived in harmony with one another and their environment.
The Taos Pueblos was a center of trade before the Spanish thieves arrived. Residents hosted a trade fair every year after the harvest, attracting visitors and goods from all of the surrounding pueblos.
These dwelling units have been continuously inhabited for over a thousand years. The street-level doors and windows are a recent addition, only a few hundred years old. Originally, the entrances to the individual dwellings were through the roof. When neighboring cities raided, these people simply pulled up their ladders and waited them out. Apparently raiding parties never thought to bring their own ladders. So there! Ha!This is the new church, constructed in 1850. When the state-sponsored terrorists arrived from Spain in the 1600s, they informed the indigenous people that their religion was wrong and forced them to convert to Catholicism. They also enslaved them and, under the lash, made them build churches to the glory of an all-merciful and ever loving god.This is the original church, also built by enslaved indigenous people. When Governor Bent (the first appointed governor of New Mexico) was killed by rival imperialist gang members in nearby Taos, the American government blamed the pueblo residents. They, mostly women and children, sought refuge in this church. God declined to intervene; the United States Army unleashed a cannonade to destroy the dangerous women and children hiding in the church. Mission accomplished. All were killed and are buried here in this abandoned cemetery.
This little tributary of the Rio Grande flows from the sacred Blue Lake straight through the pueblo. A thousand years of generations have drawn water from this stream to sustain their households. They do the same to this very day.
It’s important for us interlopers to realize the dastardly acts that allowed our habitation of this landscape. The pictures of the dwellings are beautiful and reveal how well suited they are to their hot, arid place. They are cool inside when the sun is over head; warm in the chilly night. I am enjoying your travels.
amazing!
It’s important for us interlopers to realize the dastardly acts that allowed our habitation of this landscape. The pictures of the dwellings are beautiful and reveal how well suited they are to their hot, arid place. They are cool inside when the sun is over head; warm in the chilly night. I am enjoying your travels.