The Pueblos

Taos Pueblo

While in Taos, we drove out to explore Taos Pueblo, about two miles north of town. It was very flat, very dusty and very brown. We took the tour and learned a lot about their culture, which has continued in this spot for over a thousand years. They still, to this day, have no running water and no electricity. In fact, they are working very hard to retain all of the old ways as well as their language.

We had to pay a fee to be allowed to use our camera. And there were restrictions against photographing the cemetery and inside the church. We were not allowed to take pictures of any of the residents unless we asked them for permission.

Here we are not far from the church, before our tour began.

This is the church, which was reconstructed some time after the Pueblo revolt against the Spanish. I wish we could have taken pictures inside as it was very pretty, retaining much of the Pueblo’s own religion while mixing it with the Spanish Catholicism.

This is a shot across the plaza showing some of the dwellings. The post in the center is used for ceremonial purposes.

Here’s another shot of the dwellings, across the small river which is their only water source.

In their words, it’s a “simplistic” life. I say it’s way too much like camping for my taste!

Acoma Pueblo

One of our tours out of Albuquerque was to the Acoma Pueblo. This village sits on top of a mesa, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. They built their pueblo there because of its defensive position. This is a shot from a couple miles away. If you click on it to blow it up, you can see the buildings.

The same camera rules applied in this Pueblo. This is of their church. It was the only church in the Pueblo Revolt that was not destroyed. It was much larger than the one in Taos and also very pretty inside.

This gives an idea of the views from the top of this mesa. By the way, that is the only tree on top of the mesa and is only about 30 or 40 years old. Yet the people have lived there for over a thousand years.


This is the entrance to a kiva, where the Pueblo people practice their own religious ceremonies.


The architecture here was very similar to Taos. Here is a picture of some of the dwellings.

At the end of the tour, we were allowed to walk down the “steps” of the mesa. Julian and I chose not to do this, however several of our group did. They told us later that it was pretty steep, as we suspected. We enjoyed our mini-bus ride back down to the Visitor Center.

The Acoma people are also trying to keep their old ways and culture alive. The biggest difference we saw was the large number of port-a-potties on the mesa. I don’t think we saw even one in Taos Pueblo. It would sure be a hard life up there without them, though.