NM Vignettes -- Taos Pueblo

The Taos Pueblo is the longest, continuously occupied Pueblo in the Western Hemisphere, and David and I met several of the people who still live there today.

The church was built in the 1800s and offers combination native American/Catholic services.

The adobe walls are repaired every year after the monsoon rains have ended.

Our guide lived there until he was ready for high school so he could learn his native language and traditions. So, until he was 14 and left for boarding school, he had no electricity, bathroom facilities, or running water in the home he shared with his grandparents.

This stream provides pure drinking water.

The Rio Grande River supplies their drinking water, and there are porta johns at the perimeter of the property for other necessities.

Do not pity these native Americans. Our nineteen-year-old guide described growing up on the Pueblo as Paradise. He was able to play with his friends all day in the summer time until the sun was about to hide behind the mountain, and he says he never missed television or a cell phone.

Indeed, we probably all would have benefited from going growing up on a Pueblo.