Taos Pueblo

Last Sunday (Mothers’ Day) we didn’t let cloudy/rainy weather stop us from visiting Taos Pueblo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 1.5 hours’ drive north of Santa Fe. The Pueblo was probably built about 1,000 years ago and has been continuously inhabited since then.

Our tour guide, a teenage tribal member named Angela, told us many interesting things about Taos Pueblo. Some highlights:

• About 2,000 people live on the 100,000 acres of Taos Pueblo land, including about 200 people in the adobe buildings of the Pueblo.

• Today’s tribal members still hunt, fish, and farm on the land, using ancient techniques like baking bread in hornos (outdoor adobe ovens) and drying game and crops on large wooden drying racks.

• There is no electricity or running water in the Pueblo. Many families have two houses: ancient adobe homes inside the Pueblo walls, and modern homes outside the walls but still on Pueblo land.

• The main religion is Catholicism, which is practiced harmoniously along with ancient Indian rites.

• Children attend Pueblo schools until 8th grade, and then attend high school in Taos. The unwritten Tiwa language is handed down orally to each new generation.

St. Jerome Catholic Church

Our guide, with hornos and (in the distance) old church and cemetery

Wall with adobe bricks visible

North House (Hlaumma)

Red Willow Creek, flowing from the sacred Blue Lake high in the mountains

South House (Hlaukwima)

Gift shops and homes

In addition to tourism, traditional crafts are important to the Pueblo’s economy. We were very impressed with the work of tribal artisans, and perhaps when we stop nomad-ing and settle in a permanent home, we’ll decorate it with some choice pieces from Taos Pueblo.