7-22-2018 Taos, New Mexico Part I

Little Bee on the steep roads to Taos

Pretty view on the road to Taos

You’ve probably wondered about the origin of the word, “Taos.”  Me, too.  Adjacent to the city of Taos lay the sovereign nation of the Pueblo tribe who live and thrive on more than 100,000 acres of land.  The tribe called themselves The Tao people.  “Tao” is their word for “red willow,” a plant that grows abundantly on the land and which plays a major part in the lives of the Indians from weaving to medicinal purposes.  So they referred to themselves as “The People of the Red Willow,” or “Tao.”  When the Spanish came along, they put an “s” on the word to make it plural:  “The Taos live over there.”  The word stuck for the town but the tribe became known as the Pueblo tribe.  “Pueblo” also has several applications.  The Pueblo Indians live in pueblos (homes) in their pueblo (village) on their land, The Pueblo National Forest.  The culture and some of the structures are more than 1,000 years old and are inhabited to this day by descendants of the original natives.

North pueblo (village)

Notably, they had no doors or windows on the ground floor of the pueblos and entered the residence by means of ladders for the sake of security.  There is no electricity nor running water.  Water is carried from the Red Willow Creek which is supplied by the sacred Blue Lake.  There are ovens scattered throughout the pueblo, some shared and some attached to individual dwellings.  The oven, “horno,” is made of adobe and each morning, the women start a wood fire in it and continue to stoke it until the desired temperature is reached.  Then the wood and ash are cleared out of the oven and it is ready for baking.  Sometimes, the horno is used to smoke or dry meats and vegetables but it is mostly used for breads such as blue corn flatbread which we purchased at the tiny bakery.

Our guide, Diana, explains the use of the "horno" next to her.
(The "h" is silent)

Teddy Roosevelt confiscated the land of the Pueblos in 1909 and declared the area a national preserve.  In 1970, Richard Nixon returned the land to the Indians and it is now their private reserve with their own customs and rule of law.  One of their rules involves their language, Tiwa.  It is not written, one cannot study the spelling or the grammar.  Tiwa is only learned by speaking and hearing it which means that you must live in the pueblo which you cannot do unless you are authentically Pueblo, 50% or more by blood.  (The Cherokee do not abide the 50% rule anymore.  If you have one molecule of Cherokee in your body, you are Cherokee.  Which explains why Elizabeth “Tonto” Warren chose to declare herself Cherokee.  Nothing to prove.  Hard to find that one molecule.)

The remains of old San Geronimo Church on the pueblo,
destroyed by theUS Army after the murder
of the NM Territorial governor

New San Geronimo Church built on the pueblo

Front of La Hacienda de los Martinez

Severino Martinez was an enterprising and ambitious fellow.  He was born in the mid-1700s in Mexico and married Maria in 1787.  He moved his wife and six children to Taos and was a successful merchant, trader and rancher on five acres of land he had purchased.  The original building was small but as he became more and more successful, especially in the textile trade, the homestead grew.  He employed Navajo and Ute workers to help with goats, sheep, burros and horses and raised many vegetables.  Maria managed 30 servants who helped run the place and also made fine woven and knitted goods from wool and leather.  The Hacienda de los Martinez, luxurious living quarters for its time, grew to 21 rooms built around 2 interior courtyards.  Valuable livestock could be herded through the large gates into the interior courtyards for security during Indian raids.  I love the great big kitchen (cocina).  The fireplace in the corner produced hot coals which were shoveled out onto the shelf where pots were placed upon them.  Smoke was drawn out through the flue above the fireplace.  Above the pots, a deck strewn with blankets and hides became quite warm from the heat radiating upward and these were the youngsters’ bunk beds.  The thick adobe walls kept the hacienda cool in the heat of summer and warm in the winter.  Señor Martinez left the hacienda, intact, to his six children and it stayed in the family for a while but then was sold.  It fell into disrepair but was salvaged and restored by 1980.  It is now an open-air museum where one can step in and out of every room to get a real feel for what life was like on the hacienda in the 1800s.

Front courtyard of the hacienda with well

Rob in the trading and bartering room

Cool kitchen!  The kids slept on the bunk behind my
head.  The baby slept in the suspended cradle.

Back in town, there is a fiesta happening on the plaza.  We visited the craft booths and then found a place on an upper deck to have a margarita, listen to the music and watch the dancers.  The end of a nice day in Taos.

At the fiesta - the little girl in red is 3 years old