Taos Pueblo

The Taos Pueblo is over 1000 years of tradition.  The Adobe structures are mudded  every year.  The homes are generally passed down from one generation to the next with, usually, the eldest son being the sole owner.  The homes are the connection to their way of life and to their ancestors.

The area in front of this building is where they hold their feasts, everyone gathers and two men climb up to the top of this pole and lowers the meat that is up there for the feast.  They put in doors in recent years, there use to be only small windows.  They climbed ladders to the top of the buildings and entered through the roof.  They would pull the ladders up so no one else could get up.  The turquoise doors are a color they believe is good luck and will keep predators away.

This is the old church and cemetery which was build in 1680.  It was burned down in 1847 with over 100 women and children inside.  The cemetery we were told has many people buried here, they buried them one on top of another.  You will see the pile of crosses leaning on what’s left of the old church.  They have fallen down through snow and storms so they didn’t know where they belonged to put them back up.

This is the new church, which was built in 1850, it is still being used today.

This is a Horne structure,they use this to bake food in it.

Other structures around their community.  I walked around on my own after the tour and talked to a few members of the community, one was from Tina Kitchen Restaurant, he makes all his own flours and authentic Pueblo cuisine.  He talked about when he was a boy they would go to town and trade stuff they grew, but no one does that anymore.  His mother would give him .25 to run over to his uncles and get eggs and milk for breakfast.  It was very peaceful there, didn’t really want to leave.