Ancient villages
Spirit of home and family remains vital to Pueblo people
The first inhabitants of this area were ancestors of the
present Taos and Picuris Pueblo Indians. Their initial dwellings
were pit houses which later evolved into more complex multi-storied
villages in what is now the Pot Creek area.
Almost 1,000 years ago, a village that would come to be
known as Taos was begun amid a stand of red willows alongside
another creek that flowed from a high mountain lake which
held great spiritual significance for its people. As time
passed, these Tiwa-speaking people began to develop relations
with some of the nomadic tribes of the Great Plains to the
northeast and traded with other villages to the south.
The Taos people built their homes in a cluster that was
highly defensible against other hostile tribes. The ability
of both the Taos and Picuris people to withstand harsh winters
and periods of drought was reinforced by well-maintained
stores of grains and dried meat. But it was, and continues
to be, their deep spirituality and closely held traditions
that have given them the tenacity to endure enormous challenges
and occasional life-threatening conflicts.
This is how both villages were when a contingent of soldiers
scouting for Francisco Vasquez de Coronado rode their horses
into the region in 1542. Coronado had come from the west
in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Gold to claim for
the Spanish crown.
A few years before, Fray Marcos de Niza had "discovered"
the Pueblo realm in search of the same goal. "Pueblo" is
a Spanish word for village. However, de Niza's encounter
with Hawikuh (near present Zuni Pueblo in western New Mexico)
was violent. His scout, a Moorish slave named Estevan, was
killed after attempting to rape a village woman. Without
setting foot in the village, de Niza took the land and people
before him under the flag of Spain and returned to Mexico
where he proclaimed the legend of the golden cities was
true.
Needless to say, Coronado's journey was fruitless, except
for the fact that as he traveled through this new country,
he was met by hospitable sedentary Indian tribes who accompanying
Catholic priests considered ripe for conversion to Christianity.
In 1598, Juan de Onate, a wealthy adventurer, financed the
first colony in New Mexico. Located near present San Juan
Pueblo, this became a significant foothold for the Spanish
in the northern regions.
During the intervening decades, the Spanish presence here
grew. And as it grew, so did the colonists' need for provisions,
along with a fixation on gaining converts. Mistaking the
Pueblo stores as an indication of prosperity, the colonial
government imposed a system of tributes that were required
of the Indian population. Without the food and supplies,
many Indians starved. Some Catholic priests zealously attempted
to eradicate native religion by persecuting Indian leaders
and directing agreeable soldiers to destroy anything connected
with what they considered pagan beliefs. By 1680, the Pueblo
Indians throughout New Mexico had had enough. A revolt organized
from Taos Pueblo by a San Juan man named Pope resulted in
the forced eviction of the Spanish presence in New Mexico.
Although the uprising came about to re-establish former
traditional values, by the time Don Diego de Vargas returned
in 1692, the unity that bound the Pueblos against the Spanish
had nearly dissolved.
(continued)
