Taos Pueblo, New Mexico

Taos Pueblo (or Pueblo de Taos) is an ancient pueblo (town, village drawing on Spanish ‘pueblo’), probably founded around the late 14th or early 15th century AD, that belongs to a Taos-speaking (Northern Tiwa, a branch of local native American dialects) tribe of Puebloans.

It is located about a mile north of Taos, northern New Mexico, either side of Rio Pueblo de Taos (or simply Rio Pueblo, a tributary of Rio Grande) in the backdrop of the Taos Mountains, within the range of the Sangre de Cristo Range, and presents a fine example of Puebloan communities of the pre-Hispanic era stretching as far as our days.

The pueblo features two multi-storey stacked step-back adobe dwellings, reaching as high as five storeys in the north and south wings, surrounded by a low defensive wall and further comprises seven kivas (underground ceremonial chambers), four middens, a foot-race track and the San Geronimo Catholic Church.

Immediately east lie the ruins of the original pueblo, a sacred site referred to as ‘Cornfield Taos,’ laid down around 1325 AD but remains unknown why it was abandoned so soon. The original settlers were apparently Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloans) driven away from the Four Corners⁽¹⁾ either through a long drought or a violent struggle.

Taos Pueblo quickly established itself as a trading hub between the natives along the Rio Grande and the Great Plains whilst it held a trade fair every fall following the harvest before the first Spaniards arrived in the form of conquistadores under the Francisco Vásquez de Coronado expedition, seeking the mythical Seven Cities of Gold, in 1540.

The attempts of Spanish Jesuits to impose the Catholic religion, raising the mission of the San Geronimo de Taos, despite the averse feelings of the natives along with the increased presence of new Spanish settlers in the early 1600s incurred friction that saw the resident priest killed and the church ruined by about 1660.

As usual, the Spaniards responded brutally spilling plenty of blood but soon the Pueblo Revolt followed, under the general leadership of Popé (or Po’pay), in around 1680 where Taos Pueblo uprose to drive away the colonists, destroying the church once again and killing two other priests.

Yet, having been forced out of the entire region, the Spaniards gradually returned after twelve years under Diego de Vargas to regain the upper hand over the region by the end of the 1690s, with the mission re-established in Taos Pueblos for a third time.

The original pueblo had very few windows and no conventional doorways, apparently for defensive purposes, as access to rooms was gained through square holes in the roofs and the use of wooden ladders, with no interconnections between the houses.

The northern side (picture), apparently intended mainly towards defensive ends, is among the most photographed and painted structures in North America made of adobe walls that can be several feet thick.

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(1) A region that takes in southwestern Colorado, southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico.

San Francisco de Asís Mission Church, Ranchos de Taos (New Mexico)

The San Francisco de Asís Mission Church, completed after 43 years in 1815, lies in the historic district of Ranchos de Taos Plaza at the census-designated Ranchos de Taos, just south of Taos Pueblo in central Taos County (north New Mexico).

A Spanish mission was established in the early 1700s there and construction commenced around 1772 by the Franciscan Fathers as the center of a fortified plaza, which afforded protection against Comanche attacks, in a time that New Mexico was part of New Spain.

It is a large trademark adobe structure that measures about 37m in length and features a brace of bell towers either side of an arched entrance at the front looking on an enclosed courtyard.

It underwent a number of restorations with the last carried out in 1967 that saw a new roof placed over the structure where the ceiling beams, most corbels and the doors were replaced with copies of the original design.