We left Santa Fe and drove to Taos where we headed to Taos Pueblo. It is a world heritage site and is an ancient pueblo belonging to tiwa speaking Native American tribe of puebloan people.
It’s situated about 1,6 km outside Taos and has been there since 1166. There are still between 8-15 families living permanently in the pueblo, about 400 homes in total. The have a school for those who wants to put their children in it but some of the Native American children in the area attend the public school in Taos.
In 1850 a Catholic church was built in the pueblo and all the people attend it but still keeping their old beliefs. They have their own sovereign government. During Roosevelt’s presidency the land was taken away from them and the were not allowed to set foot but Nixon gave it back to them during his presidency.
The language Tiwa is mostly spoken by the elderly people and a lot of the children and young adults don’t know it. There are now some women who have taken it up on themselves to teach the younger generation.
You can visit the pueblo but not all of it as people still live there. Some families have taken the opportunity to sell traditional things from their houses. And uses the houses mainly for that. Those houses were you allowed inside. The houses are built to keep the cold out in winter and the heat out in summer. And when you stepped inside it was as the had air conditioning there. Doors has been added later as they from beginning entered via the roof.
After the pueblo we drove to Arroyo Seco to visit your friends Anne and Richard. Anne was Emelie’s teacher in San Diego. They have a second home New Mexico that is in a wonderful place. Sitting on their porch and looking at the sky and mountains was very peaceful.
They took us to the Ski Valley close to them and it was like almost walking in an Austrian ski place.
We spent the night at their house and had a lovely time. It was so nice to see them again – last time we met was 16 years ago when they came to Sweden.