PEOPLE AT THE RED WILLOWS AKA Taos Pueblo

We visited the Taos Pueblo today in the snow.

The first flurries of the several inches which are forecast for tonight.





Archaeologists say people lived here nearly 1000 years ago. The main part of the present buildings were most likely constructed between 1000 and 1450 A.D.

The appeared much as they do today when the first Spanish explorers arrived in Northern New Mexico in 1540 and believed that the Pueblo was one of the fabled golden cities of Cibola. The two structures called Hlauuma (north house) and Hlaukwima (south house) are said to be of similar age. They are considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the USA. But the Hopi on the first mesa also claim this.

The outside surfaces of the Pueblo are continuously maintained by replastering with think layers of mud. Interior walls are carefully coated with thin washes of white earth to keep them clean and bright. The Pueblo is actually many individual homes, built side-by-side and in layers, with common walls but no connecting doorways. In earlier days there were ladders and skylights to gain access through the roof. The doors are a recent innovation.

The tribal elders ban electricity and piped water inside the pueblo. Water is still drawn from the stream that runs through the pueblo.

We visited most of the galleries in the Pueblo and were surprised by how warm most of them were. The wood burning stoves or earthern fireplaces they use really doing a good job.


The present San Geronimo, or St. Jerome, Chapel

was completed in 1850 to replace the original church which was destroyed in the War with Mexico by the U.S. Army in 1847. That church, the ruins still evident on the west side of the village, was first built in 1619. It was then destroyed in the Spanish Revolt of 1680 but soon rebuilt on the same site. St. Jerome is the patron saint of Taos Pueblo.

The Pueblo Indians are about 90% Catholic. Catholicism is practiced along with the ancient Indian religious rites which are an important part of Taos Pueblo life. The Pueblo religion is very complex; however, there is no conflict with the Catholic church, as evidenced by the prominent presence of both church and kiva in the village.


We liked the parking space in the village reserved for the war chief, he and his men see to the security of the mountains, the Pueblo, and the land holdings outside of the old city walls.