On the Road; Taos NM

Sacred River


Pueblo Church of St. Jerome


Pueblo Cemetery


Taos Pueblo



<Downtown Taos <

Taos Pueblo
The most interesting part of the Taos visit, was our visit to the local Indian tribe Pueblo. This dates back to ??? In the background of the cemetery is a remnant of the first church. The Spanish missionaries converted them to Christianity. Our guide, whose understanding of English was not all that proficient, told us about their religion. Actually, I kept asking. They say that they are Catholic. For funerals the difference is that they must bury the deceased the next day and are forbidden to embalm or cremate. It sounds like Judaism and then she told us that they have no wake but have a celebration of the person's life for about a week after the funeral--their version of the Shiva. The cemetery is sacred ground and cannot be entered except for funerals and on All Saints Day. Each body in the cemetery has a simple cross marker carved by a family member. The only headstones in the cemetery are for veterans of the military (I guess the army gives them these so they take it). After the grave markers fall or deteriorate they gather them and add them to a pile of old lost crosses. They do not replace them.

I find it great the way that they have integrated their ancient customs into Christianity. They do their corn dances and pole climbing contests(You can see on a picture the big pole that was put up at the end of September and will be chopped down after the pole climbing contest before Christmas). the Catholic holidays. They have a river that they consider sacred and from which they take drinking water, cooking water etc. No one is allowed in as this would pollute the water but a big dog was wallowing in it when we looked at it.

The Pueblo is divided into an inner circle and an outer circle. The inner circle is primitve having no electricty and no plumbing. They have adobe ovens outside the little houses and they bake all their bread and cookies in here. I think that 300 people live in houses in the inner circle or maybe they just have houses --each house almost be the site of a store for the tourists.

They have a business of the pueblo. Everyone must pay $10 to walk in and pay $5 for each camera that you bring in.