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    Taos
    Taos
    Taos
    Ebook204 pages35 minutes

    Taos

    By Lyn Bleiler and Society of the Muse of the Southwest

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    Located in the "Land of Enchantment," Taos has a long history that predates the pilgrims' arrival at Plymouth Rock. Anasazi Indians first inhabited the Taos Valley in 1000 A.D., and the Taos Pueblo (both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a National Historic Landmark) has been continuously inhabited for more than 1,000 years. Spanish conquistadors explored Taos in 1540, and by 1615 many Spanish families had settled in the region. Taos later became a crossroads for French and American trappers, and by the early 1800s it was a bustling headquarters for mountain men, including the legendary Kit Carson. When artists Bert Phillips and Ernest Blumenschein passed through in 1898, a broken wagon wheel delayed them and ultimately resulted in another wave of newcomers, who established an art colony. In 1917, New York socialite Mabel Dodge became enthralled with Taos, and during the next four decades she invited many highly regarded creative people to visit, including Ansel Adams, Carl Jung, Georgia O'Keefe, Willa Cather, D. H. Lawrence, and Aldous Huxley. Taos continues to attract adventurous, spirited individuals.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439639870
    Taos
    Author

    Lyn Bleiler

    Author Lyn Bleiler�s writing has appeared in a number of literary journals and anthologies. In the summer of 2009, she was writer-in-residence at the Emily Harvey Foundation in Venice, Italy. For this book, she gathered images from the Taos Historic Museum Archives and from other local collections.

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      Book preview

      Taos - Lyn Bleiler

      Carney.

      INTRODUCTION

      Taos, from an Indian word for red willow, has a remarkable history that predates Columbus’s arrival in America and the Pilgrims’ landing at Plymouth. Anasazi Indians were the first to inhabit the Taos Valley around 1000, and the Taos Pueblo holds the distinction of being the longest continuously inhabited community in the United States. Over the years, the people of Taos Pueblo have had to fight to protect their 99,000-acre land base consisting of the sacred Blue Lake and surrounding mountainous area that the U.S. government seized in 1906 to designate as a national forest. As a result of hard work and diligence on the part of Taos Pueblo tribal leaders and concerned citizens, 48,000 acres, including the sacred Blue Lake, were returned to the Pueblo Indians in 1970. In the early days of photography, Pueblo officials allowed photographs to be taken of ceremonial dances and rituals. Some of these are included in the Taos Historic Museums’ extensive archives but are not reproduced here out of respect for Taos Pueblo tribal leaders. Many Taos Pueblo extraordinary celebrations, such as the annual pow-wow, San Geronimo Day, Christmas Eve Procession of the Virgin, and various dances are still open to the public.

      The Spanish heritage of many of the oldest families in Taos adds a rich cultural component to the area. Dating back to 1540, when Spanish conquistadors arrived in Taos believing it to be one of the mythical cities of gold, and the Spanish people who followed in 1615, bringing a legacy of the wheel, iron, mules, horses, sheep, cattle, and wheat, began to dramatically influence the Taos landscape. Most of these families left during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 but returned in 1796 when the king of Spain distributed the Don Fernando Land Grant.

      The influx of American artists, many of whom studied in Europe, profoundly influenced the Taos community at the end of the 1800s, as did the arrival of Mabel Dodge and her marriage to Taos Pueblo Indian Tony Luhan. While still just a remote mountain village, Taos was infused with an astonishing number of artistic, literary, and intellectual thinkers of the day.

      Finally, like most interesting places, Taos attracted and nurtured an inordinate number of eccentric individuals, some of whom are featured in chapter six. Fortunately, this phenomenon is still true today.

      One

      EARLY TAOS PUEBLO

      The northernmost of all New Mexico pueblos, Taos Pueblo was built between 1000 and 1450, making it the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States. Taos Pueblo land encompasses 99,000 acres, and includes the sacred Blue Lake from which Taos Pueblo Indians believe they originated. The Pueblo is divided into two large buildings: Hlauuma (north house) and Haukwima (south house), four and five-story dwellings made of adobe (a combination of earth, straw and water), with large timbers (vigas) supporting the multilevel roof structures. For protection against raids by Apache, Navajo, and other nomadic tribes, early Pueblo housing did not have windows or doors, and living quarters were entered through rooftops using wooden ladders.

      Spanish conquistadors explored the Taos Valley in 1540, and by the early 1600s Franciscan priests were sent to New Mexico to spread the Catholic faith. Religious interference caused mounting tension between New Mexico Indians and the Spanish. Finally, in 1680 a medicine man named Popé from San Juan Pueblo led the now legendary Pueblo Revolt against Spanish rule and Franciscan missionaries. Of the 400 Spaniards killed by various Pueblo Indians, more than 70, including two Franciscan priests, were killed at Taos Pueblo. As a result of the uprising, missions and other vestiges of Christianity in New Mexico were eliminated. In 1692, however, Don Diego de Vargas led a campaign to regain the Spanish rule of New Mexico and, following years of active resistance, Taos Pueblo surrendered in 1696.

      In 1906, the Taos Pueblo’s sacred Blue Lake and 48,000 acres of surrounding land were confiscated by the United States government and designated as a national forest. The sacred lake and surrounding mountains have significant ritual and ceremonial importance to the Taos Indians and in 1970, tribal leaders were able to regain possession.

      The Taos Pueblo was named a national historic landmark in 1965 and became an official UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992 as one the most significant historic cultural landmarks in the world along with such treasures as the Taj Mahal, the Great Pyramids, and the Grand Canyon.

      This early photograph of a young Taos Pueblo

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