Taos Pueblo: World Heritage Site

I live in the hinterland -- a place that is far from any coastline and remote from any urban area.  It is my hope that you will find some understanding of this place in Notes from the Hinterland.  In many cases I'll keep each entry relatively short -- a quick read of less than 5 minutes each.  As I tell the story of this place, each post will try to build upon those coming before.

Starting a story of Taos means that one should go back, back, back in time to find its original inhabitants.  That means that you start with the story of the Native Americans who first called this place home.

Most people have never heard of the Taos Pueblo.  They probably don't know where Taos is and they think Pueblo is a town in Colorado.   Like so many other things about New Mexico, Taos Pueblo remains a secret to most of the world at large.  Being the only inhabited World Heritage Site in the United States hasn't raised its profile.  Being one of the oldest continually inhabited structures in the North America hasn't brought it to public attention.

Pueblo de Taos, as it is known to some, is a place you must see in your lifetime. That is the sole purpose of writing here about Taos Pueblo -- to ask that you come here and to experience it for yourself.  In particular, you should Ask your Innkeeper at La Posada de Taos about which times of year are the most special to visit the Pueblo.  Christmas at Taos Pueblo, for example, is one of the primary reasons Travel+Leisure Magazine designated Taos as one of the Best Places to Spend Christmas in both 2001 and 2009.

The official World Heritage designation of Pueblo de Taos says in part:

"Taos is the best preserved of the pueblos north of the borders defined by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848). Located in the valley of a small tributary of the Rio Grande, Taos comprises a group of habitations and ceremonial centres (six kivas have been conserved), which are representative of a culture largely derived from the traditions of the prehistoric Anasazi Indian tribes who settled near the present borders of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado."

Archaeologists and anthropologists believe that the two main old buildings at Taos Pueblo are at least 800 years old.  The Taos people say that their buildings are much older than that.  This much we know for sure:  when the original Spanish explorers arrived at Taos soon after 1500, they found the Taos in their adobe buildings much as we see them today.

World Heritage Site Photo of Taos Pueblo

 As you can see, these structures are not teepee's, nor are they wigwams or igloos.  Constructed of adobe as only the Taos make, the structures are said to have been seven stories tall when the Spanish arrived.  The bottom floors, used for food storage, had neither windows nor doors.  The Taos employed their now-famous Pueblo Ladders to climb up to the safety of upper floors and pull their ladders up after them.  In modern times, doors and windows have been added for function.

A Pueblo-Style Ladder at La Posada de Taos

One of the ways to understand the significance of these structures is to realize that unlike so many nomadic peoples, the Taos were settled.  When the Spanish arrived about 500 years ago, the Taos had been settled here a period longer than our nation has existed.  By the time the Americans arrived in the mid-1800's the Spanish and the Taos had shared the land in this valley for almost 300 years, again a period longer than the United States has been around.   Americans,therefore, became the interlopers, the invaders and the uninvited.  Despite promises that everyone would be protected by this nation of laws, the Taos and the Spanish were circumspect at best and rebellious at worst.

Equally important to an understanding of the modern Taos Pueblo, is the role played by the Catholic Missionaries who accompanied the Spanish explorers and settlers.  As Willa Cather noted in her masterpiece "Death Comes for the Archbishop," by the time the United States annexed the New Mexico Territory, the Catholic Church had been the principal authority in the region since 1540.  The whole vast expanse stretching from Texas to California had sat ignored, isolated and uncharted until the very end of America's Westward expansion.  Even after California became a State, the New Mexico Territory remained just that -- seemingly unworthy of Statehood until 1912 (New Mexico's Centennial Celebration is gearing up this year).

Through all the centuries of repeated invasion and settlement, through all the years of rapid technological change, Taos Pueblo remained.  As Americans violently implemented all that Manifest Destiny demanded, the Taos remained in place at their ancestral home.  They were never forcibly relocated as were so many other Native Americans.  The complex history of their interaction with the European-American culture tells only a part of their story.

To many the Taos Pueblo helps form the spiritual foundation of this place we all know as Taos.  There are many who will disagree. 

In future blog entries I'll begin to describe this special place for those who want to visit; I'll try to provide context and color.   Please understand, however, that my telling of these stories will be affected by the lenses of my own life experiences and from the perspective of someone who is not from here.  Although I'll try to quote authoritative sources, my telling of the story of Taos will not necessarily be what you might hear from an official source or from a local.  Watch for future posts.