Advertisement
Published: October 24th 2012
Edit Blog Post
North House
Sangre de Cristo mountains in the background As we began the three-day drive home from Santa Fe to Minnesota, we made an unscheduled detour to Taos Pueblo (7,068 elev.), located just north of the fashionable artists' enclave of Taos, New Mexico. Taos Pueblo is the only UNESCO Living World Heritage Cultural Site in the United States and a National Historic Landmark, continuously occupied for more than 1,000 years.
Taos Pueblo is singularly unique as it is the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States. And it boasts the largest multistoried traditional adobe Pueblo structure still in existence. The central pueblo area features two large multilevel buildings (North House and South House) thought to be more than 1,000 years old, which are actually individual homes with common adobe brick walls, often several feet thick. The adobe bricks are made of earth, straw and water that are dried and then set in alternating courses, much as modern bricklaying, using adobe slurry as mortar to bind them and as stucco to seal and finish them.
The rooms are square, with thick flat roofs and are arranged in terraced stories, so that access to the roof of one level is reached by a movable ladder from the level below.
Traditionally, access to the interior rooms was by ladder through openings in the roof just large enough to permit access by a single person as well as sunlight, and the walls had neither exterior windows nor doors, to help moderate temperature extremes and as protection against attackers. The only exception to this original construction is the use of modern wood hinged doors. The north-side pueblo is said to be one of the most photographed and painted buildings in the Western Hemisphere.
Immediately in front of North House is a large open plaza for outdoor gatherings and traditional ceremonies, and an overhead array of wood drying racks for harvested vegetables, wild berries, chiles, wild game and hides--and to provide shade against the intense summer sun. To one side of the imposing North House is a configuration of eight single-story adobe structures, and opposite across the plaza is South House, is a similar configuration. The plaza is bisected by Red Willow Creek, which flows down through the pueblo from the sacred Blue Lake hidden in the lofty Sangre de Cristo mountains above.
Taos Pueblo has a long tradition of welcoming visitors into its living community, and the village benefits from
Ladders to upper levels
notice small sign for gift shop its status as a living pueblo by charging nominal admission and photography fees for non-tribal visitors. These fees, and sales from more than a dozen shops that sell artwork, crafts or food, provide income for the tribe and contribute to village maintenance, including periodic re-plastering to the exterior of the adobe structures against exposure to the elements. Respect for their private lives is maintained by restricting access to certain areas--such as the ceremonial kiva, and photographic restrictions--such as of the cemetery, during feast days, or of residents wearing traditional costumes.
Taos Pueblo became the first Living World Heritage site in 1992. Criteria for designation include residents who have "aboriginal status to this land..." and who now are "post-contact aboriginal" as well as "cultural properties that reflect pre-history and living communities."Pride in the Tiwa culture is prominent, and the pueblo proudly celebrates its heritage with 10 feasts and events (open to the public) annually. The high adobe wall that surrounds the village keeps the people undisturbed during ceremonial times and "...serves as a boundary of where Traditional Cultural beliefs are nurtured and where foreign beliefs do not apply." Due to past oppression, the traditional values are guarded as sacred and
not shared with outsiders. The traditional language, Tiwa, remains unwritten and unrecorded.
Similar to Pecos Pueblo, nearly 200 miles south, Taos Pueblo was a crossroads for trade and had easy access to a year-round supply of water. Spanish priests used Indian labor to build the first church in 1619 and forced the people of the pueblo into Catholicism in an attempt to "civilize" them. This, along with slavery, led to the Pueblo revolt of 1680. Taos Pueblo was the headquarters of the successful revolt. As a result, the King of Spain granted formal land titles to the pueblo peoples in 1689.
Mexico recognized these same land grants, and when Mexico achieved independence from Spain in 1821, the indigenous peoples became citizens. In 1846 the United States and Mexico fought a war over boundaries, which ended in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In this treaty the United States agreed to recognize land grants made by the Spanish and Mexican governments in New Mexico and five other western states.
Although independence from the Spaniards was short-lived, the Pueblo Revolt resulted in a measure of freedom from future efforts to eradicate their culture and religion following Spain's reconquest.
Red Willow Creek
Mounded earth on each side of creek to prevent flooding. Third San Geronimo Church built in 1850. And while Catholic practices are incorporated into Native values, these Tiwa descendants continue to practice their traditional beliefs. There are 21 federally recognized pueblos that are home to Pueblo people, including Taos Pueblo.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.067s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 22; dbt: 0.0452s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb