2025-9-23 Taos Pueblo

 This morning we were off to the Taos Pueblo. We drove about 2 miles to the pueblo entrance and were able to park pretty close to the entrance.

The Taos Pueblo people are a Tiwa-speaking Native American tribe of Puebloan people who have lived in the Taos Valley, New Mexico, for over 1,000 years, residing in a community of multi-storied adobe buildings that serve as both a sacred home and a cultural center. These indigenous people practice nature-based traditions and maintain their sovereign nation status, living in a living, continuously inhabited community that is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a National Historic Landmark.  

There is a charge to visit the Pueblo: Adult $25 - $ Free 

During some festivals/celebrations entrance may be free but no pictures are allowed during those times.

The church is right near the entrance to the Pueblo. This is where the guides will meet you. You are not required to go with a guide but they provide a lot of insight for your visit as long as the group doesn't get so large that you can't hear them. 

Entrances to upper stories are from the outside.

The original church was built in 1619, destroyed during the Spanish revolt of 1680, rebuilt, and then destroyed by the U.S. Army during the War with Mexico in 1847. It is surrounded by a graveyard.

The Pueblo is made entirely of adobe which is earth mixed with water and straw and then either poured into forms or sundried into bricks. 

This is a horno or oven where baking and cooking is done outside.

Tribal members have tables set up to sell various goods or some have opened their home to sell goods inside.

This might have been the original condominium. There are about 40 families that actually live in the Pueblo full time while others occupy their Pueblo homes during ceremonies. Originally all entrances were through the roofs but that changed over the years. The walls are very thick which makes for good insulation. The roofs are even thicker. This is actually many homes with their own separate entrances. There is no electricity, plumbing, or running water in any of the homes. Many families live in homes surrounding the Pueblo but they also do not have plumbing.

This was our guide. She was very knowledgeable and willing to answer most questions. Guides work for donations only. This tribal woman has a college degree and likes to travel so donations must pay well. She can trace her family back to the original families. Since the Pueblo families are all related over time, she said she doesn't date other Pueblo members.

Those are not carports you see in front of the homes. They are structures used for drying animal skins.

These are community hornos that families share. Our guide said that you will often see bread or other things being baked when you visit but we were not that lucky.

This is an example of where someone was selling goods inside their home. That is the only time you can go inside. I noticed that many homes that were not occupied full time had padlocks on their doors.

These visitors were coming out of a shop in a home.

Our guide was explaining that this is the source of water for the whole community. It is considered very pure and safe to drink because it comes from the mountains and is within tribal land all the way. We were asked to please stay away from it. There were 3 narrow walking bridges we could use to get to the other side of the Pueblo.

The adobe is of course all the same but families can use whatever color they want for their doors...red and blue were the most popular. Inside walls are coated with white earth to make them lighter.

These are the bridges.

This horno has firewood already in it for the next baking session. You can see the straw in the adobe.

Maintaining the adobe is an ongoing process due to weather. One homeowner came over and sat with us for a few minutes away from her sale table. She lives in the Pueblo full time and told us she was waiting for her son to come and put another coat of adobe on her home. She was wishing he would hurry up as the rains would be coming before long.

The sun was pretty hot by the time we finished our tour.

As we worked our way back around to the church after the tour, we could see that some of the tribal members were hard at work applying a new coat of adobe. They got water from the stream in clean buckets and mixed the adobe in the wheel barrows.

We enjoyed our visit and learned a lot about the Pueblo and how the tribal members live. Some children go to a tribal school right outside the Pueblo while others attend school in Taos where some tribal members also work. 

The Pueblo is governed by a tribal governor and war chief, who are appointed yearly by the Tribal Council of about 50 male tribal elders, along with their staffs. The tribal governor is concerned with civil and business issues within the village and relations with the non-Indian world. The war chief deals with the protection of the mountains and Indian lands outside the Pueblo walls. The tribal land consists of 99,000 acres with the village at 7200 feet elevation.

The Taos Pueblo considers itself a sovereign nation within the United States with preserving their ancient traditions in the face of advancement of "modernization" as their prime concern.