Twenty-First Annual Honrar A Nuestros Hé�oes
RAICES CONTENTS / LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
4 8 12 UFO sightings: ‘What’s going on out there?’
OUR LADY’S EMBRACE
Nuestra Señora de Dolores
TRADES, RAIDS AND CULTURE
By Rick Romancito
By Taylor Hood
By Sol Traverso
STRANGE DOINGS
Legacy of the Comanche
From the Editor There is a long history to this land; a history of the people here that dates back thousands of years. Our roots are deep and strong. That is part of the reason Taos is such a tight-knit community. Once a year, in our Tradiciones: Raices issue, we get to explore these roots (“raices” in Spanish) and tell the tales of what we have found. Of course, we are surrounded by these examples of history and testaments to our roots, year-round. But once a year we get to stop and really look at these stories with fresh eyes. For example, Taoseños often pass by La Hacienda de los Martinez or the Talpa Torreón in southern Taos, but how often do we ever stop to explore the history of these structures? In this year’s issue, Sol Traverso takes readers through the history of Comanche raids in the area and explores how that history has affected the architecture. Read all about it on page 12. On more of a supernatural note, we are also taking a look at the long and exciting history of UFO encounters in the area. Rick Romancito (who has personal experience in this area) tells the spooky and awe-inspiring tales of little green men and flying saucers in Taos. With the US government’s recent admission of the existence of UFOs, we felt this was a good time to explore our own history with visitors from other worlds. Fly on over to page 4 to read Rick’s story. Lastly, few things have contributed more to the roots of our community than religion. With that in mind, we take a look at Nuestra Señora de Dolores Church in Arroyo Hondo and its place of honor in the mysterious and devoutly Catholic order of the Penitente Brotherhood. Learn what that means on page 8. Thank you for checking out this year’s issue of Tradiciones: Raices. Stay safe out there, and remember that we are all in this together. Strong communities have strong roots. Sincerely, Taylor Hood, magazine editor
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ROBIN MARTIN owner, CHRIS BAKER publisher, JOHN MILLER editor, TAYLOR HOOD magazine editor, CHRIS WOOD advertising director, MARY CHÁVEZ business manager,
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FUSS, EDUARDO, NAVAJO TIPI, 2012-11-15. COURTESY OF THE PALACE OF THE GOVERNORS PHOTO ARCHIVES (NMHM/DCA).
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Sept. 23, 2021 TRADICIONES 3
RAICES
Strange Doings Even after a government report on UFO sightings, people still ask ‘What’s going on out there?’ by Rick Romancito
phtoos
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4 TRADICIONES SEPT. 23, 2021
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STRANGE DOINGS RAICES
You’re walking alone at night down a dark dirt road somewhere in Taos. A fast-moving thing bright in the sky catches your eye. You continue a little further and suddenly the thing appears right overhead. It’s bright enough to illuminate the sagebrush and junipers around you. Is it a helicopter, you ask yourself? You know it’s not because a helicopter isn’t this quiet. But, there it is, hovering in the starry sky, flickering lights of various colors. Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, it’s gone. You’ve just seen an Unidentified Flying Object, or as the government now calls them, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. After decades following the Roswell Incident of 1947 and its alleged cover-up, many have tried to pressure the government into disclosing what it knows about the thousands of documented sightings since then. Finally, on June 25, 2021, a report was issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence titled “Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.” Of which The New York Times was quick to declare “The United States has no explanation for unidentified objects, but the report stops s hort of ruling out aliens.”
NOTHING NEW
So, obviously, if you’ve seen one you’re not alone. Many people have reported seeing strange objects in the skies over Taos County. And, what may be more surprising, sightings may stretch back into prehistory. Taos Pueblo artist Dawning Pollen Shorty told me about how her studies in archaeology helped inform her artistic direction, and helped illuminate her interest in the origin of some ancient images. “I’m always looking to the past,” she said. The ancestral Puebloan people, who lived in cities around the Four Corners region we now call Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde and Canyon de Chelly, were not relegated only to dwellings in sandstone cliffs and massive adobe and stone structures. They traveled extensively as evidenced by the discovery in various ruins, of tropical bird feathers, coral beads and seashells, along with fish images in petroglyphs. “There’s even spaceships, flying aircraft, UFOs, that are depicted in stone and rock,” Shorty said. “I use those images too in my art. I’ve been known to put UFOs in a lot of my art. People have been seeing these for years and didn’t know what they were at one time, but it’s becoming more and more prevalent or relevant to what we see and know today.”
PEELING BACK THE VEIL
So prevalent have been sightings, several symposia were conducted here in the 2000s that have explored everything from ghosts to cryptozoology, UFOs, prophesies, crop circles, hybrids, secret alien bases and more, all under the auspices of the now-defunct Alliance Studying Paranormal Experiences (ASPE) based in Angel Fire. Authors, lecturers, investigators and even abductees made appearances, such as Travis Walton, whose experience was depicted in the feature --film “Fire in the Sky” (1993). Janet Sailor, ASPE director, had some choice words for the government report, telling me it was “disappointing, but predictably so. How could a mere seven-page report be anything else? The broadscoped, eight-point directive under an ‘Advanced Aerial Threats’ sub-heading buried under ‘Committee Comments,’ which were essentially an afterthought to the annual intelligence authorization act — which itself had been sandwiched into the 5,593-page COVID Relief and Government Funding bill signed by Donald Trump on Dec. 20, 2020 couldn’t possibly be covered in such a brief document.” She said rumors of military, primarily Navy, involvement in UAP – often backed up with images – “were rife even a dozen years ago at the annual ASPE symposiums held in Angel Fire and Taos. Back then,
ARTIST INSPIRATION
A petroglyph or pictograph of a shield or circle, sometimes described as a UFO, made by the ancient Fremont indians at Mcconckie Ranch in Dry Fork Canyon near Vernal, Utah. SHUTTERSTOCK
we still called them UFOs.” On the specific subject of UFOs and the report in question, Sailor said she considers the information presented at those symposia — by “well-documented experiencers such as Travis Walton, noted researchers such as John Greenwald, and internationallyrecognized experts in the field such as Stanton Friedman, to be more definitive, forthright and credible” than what was stated in the National Intelligence report.
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Sept. 23, 2021 TRADICIONES 5
RAICES STRANGE DOINGS
HOTBED OF MYSTERIOUS INCIDENTS
WHAT WAS IT?
‘I took a picture of it using my phone. When I sat down to look at it, I saw what appeared to be a small object. I blew it up and was surprised to find I had captured a black object silhouetted against that cloud.’ RICK ROMANCITO
6 TRADICIONES SEPT. 23, 2021
From the 1970s through the 1990s, there was a hotbed of activity involving strange phenomena in Northern New Mexico, not the least of which were reports of unexplained animal deaths, erroneously referred to as “cattle mutilations.” I wrote about this for the Taos News back in 2005 in a story headlined “Altered Steaks.” In it, I noted that some of these incidents, which happened in the Arroyo Hondo area north of Taos, also included reports of UFO activity, silent black helicopters and even extraterrestrial visitations. When the reports started getting wildly out of hand, John Paternoster, who was district attorney in the 1990s, decided there needed to be an authentic law enforcement approach to finding out who was responsible — not what. Former Taos News reporter Phaedra Greenwood followed up with Paternoster on what was happening. She did a story about it for paper in 2000, writing, “District Attorney John Paternoster and investigating officer Gabe Valdez discovered mysterious tracks in a field where a bull was found dead and ‘mutilated.’ Mechanical V-shaped indentations were seen all over the field, back-hoe size, 18 to 24 inches in diameter, Valdez said. Gouge marks were five to six inches deep in some places and appeared to have uprooted the grass. Valdez said he had seen similar ground markings near a mutilation in Dulce in 1978. Dulce is on the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation in Northwest New Mexico and a renowned site of many other such sightings. The rancher who owned the bull and lived nearby stated he had noticed nothing suspicious the night before, but other witnesses testified they had seen a green light flying in the area on the night of the bull’s death.” Greenwood, who reported on a number of cases in Taos County during the 1990s, said that despite an enormous body of conflicting and sometimes bizarre evidence, there is still no clear idea as to the cause. “A UFO is just that,” she said, “an unidentified flying object.” Also during the 1990s, I and the late Dale Fulkerson, a former staff photographer for the paper, decided we were going to check out those reports of UFO activity near Dulce. Although we didn’t find the “base” where ETs allegedly had an intergalactic shootout with local miners (read more here: theufochronicles.com/2009/05/doubts-disappear-after-attending-dulce.html), we did talk to some folks who
said they’d witnessed a lot of military-type aircraft overhead. One Apache man said he would not be surprised if the government was conducting experiments on the reservation, mainly because few people other than tribal members would take an interest.
SIGHTINGS CONTINUE
Here in Taos, specifically Taos Pueblo, a relative of mine sent me this report from 2016. He said he observed a black oval blob hovering silently over the Pueblo canyon just before sunrise. It was about 200 feet from the ground and had no lights but looked like it had “spikes around it.” He said it “hovered for about 5 minutes and then it slowly started to back away, moving north over the mountains. It got smaller and smaller until it was the size of a basketball in the sky and then all of a sudden it shot northeast like moving through a worm hole … It had a small trail behind it but just vanished. My dog who is scared of nothing saw it too and was making a weird cry and I could hear other dogs in the area howling … When it was gone I felt dizzy and my body was shaking like it was in shock.” Among stories of note for 2019 in the Taos News was one dealing with a UFO sighting involving a pair of hunters that September. “Two men from the Santa Fe area went elk hunting in the hills northwest of Taos, an area where one of them had been going for 15 years,” the paper stated. “What they saw wasn’t elk, but some unexplained phenomena that spooked them enough to call a UFO expert about it and share details to the local newspaper. The story was shared among UFO fans all over the country and generated a lot of comments from readers about having seen similar odd things in the same area over the years.” I, myself, may have caught a photo of an object in the sky I can’t easily explain. I was in Arroyo Seco in July of 2021 on an assignment for the paper. I was shooting photos of a lowrider exhibit and performance by the band Concepto Tambor when people around me started looking up in awe. What they were pointing at was a beautiful sight, a cloud was casting a shadow through the haze caused by wildfires in the west. I took a picture of it using my phone with the intention of posting it to my Instagram later on. When I sat down to look at it, I saw what appeared to be a small object. I blew it up and was surprised to find I had captured a black object silhouetted against that cloud (see photos at left). What was it? I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine.
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STRANGE DOINGS RAICES
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT HAS TO SAY
The Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on June 25, 2021 can be read here: dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/ assessments/Prelimary-Assessment-UAP-20210625.pdf
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RAICES
Our Lady’s em 8 TRADICIONES SEPT. 23, 2021
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OUR LADY'S EMBRACE RAICES
Seven sorrows of Jesus’ mother Mary enshrined in Nuestra Señora de Dolores by Alfred Trujillo and VirginiaClark he feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows, Sept. 15, is celebrated annually by the Catholic Church one day after the feast of the Holy Cross (Sept. 14) every year, thus linking the close connection between the Passion of Jesus and Mother Mary’s Sorrows associated with Christ’s suffering. According to Arroyo Hondo native, artist and dedicated Catholic, Alfred Trujillo, “The Passion is literally carved into the community’s founding, history and religious heritage.” The Passion of Christ is typically associated with Easter,
referring to the week of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. It’s remembering the events beginning with Palm Sunday when Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem and culminating in His suffering. The Latin word passionem/ passio originally meant “suffering, enduring,” from the Latin pati, “to endure, undergo, experience.” First built in 1830, Trujillo said the church Nuestra Señora de Dolores/Our Lady of Sorrows was located at
mbrace COURTESY PHOTO
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Sept. 23, 2021 TRADICIONES 9
RAICES OUR LADY'S EMBRACE CHARLES F. LUMMIS (1859-1928); CRUCIFIXION OF THE PENITENTES; 1888; ALBUMEN SILVER PRINT; AMON CARTER MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, FORT WORTH, TEXAS; P1976.18.13
15 Arroyo Hondo Road because the Hermanos Penitente identified The Pieta (art depicting the sorrowful Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus after it was removed from the cross) in the hillside directly north of the church. “The church and surrounding plaza were dedicated to aggrieved Mother Mary, who witnessed and withstood the death of her son Jesus,” Trujillo notes. “Our Lady of Sorrows plays a monumental role here. Arroyo Hondo’s founding was risky due to its isolated, ‘arroyo hondo/ deep valley’ setting on the edge of the Spanish frontier. Congestion problems in Taos encouraged a vanguard group in 1813 to establish an outpost on the east (upper) end of the valley for strategic and religious reasons.” Trujillo says it was the first of three protective plazas in this valley north of Taos, “The other two were built further west upon becoming an official community land grant in 1815. By then, Catholicism had been firmly planted at the upper plaza – a ‘Station of the Cross’ in more ways than one.
here,” he explains, “a natural spectacle taking up a large portion of the mountain north of the Río Hondo fostered faith, fueled fortitude and favored fortification.” The topography facing the valley at that locale inspired the church site and its consecration of Nuestra Señora de Dolores in upper Arroyo Hondo. “Of the seven sorrows endured by Mary throughout Holy Week, the moment between Jesus’ crucifixion and entombment (Station of the Cross XIII) where she holds and mourns her lifeless son, is heart-rending,” Trujillo says. “The Pieta represents that instance and is naturally and majestically manifested on the mountain behind and above the church that bears her title – the most poignant of all her glorious titles.” “The lower part of the mountain depicts Jesus from head to toe, lying across his mother’s lap. On the east, the distinct round hill strewn with red pumice is his bloodied head from the piercing crown of thorns; the three basalt outcrops going west match the left shoulder, elbow and knee – where injuries from the grueling trudge along the Via Dolorosa were incurred. His arm is bent with hand over heart and from the tortured knee his leg slopes down towards the river. “The prominent peak is Our Lady, seated upright with outspread veil and head tilted toward her son’s head. A mound on the mountainside forms her right elbow and forearm that slopes down to Jesus’ chest where a small rise marks her hand over his. The son’s head is striking in shape and color, but the mother’s crown dominates the skyline – a graceful and tranquil figure.”
Although a church in Taos had already been dedicated to her, Our Lady of Sorrow’s patronage here was a natural, preordained choice, according to Trujillo. “Her peak towers over the ‘arroyo hondo’ and the brow can be seen from parts of Taos and farther south; a far-reaching beacon showing where the sunken plaza and church attributed to her can be found. She persists as her son’s guardian as well as everyone’s – witnessing and withstanding still.” The acequia that flows in front of The Pieta was named Atalaya (“watchtower”) and behind Our Lady’s crest, about a 1.5 miles north, a slightly higher peak looms, Cerro Negro, so-named for that dark and dismal day, Trujillo says. On the south side of the valley the midpoint of The Pieta is marked by the upper morada and adjoining cemetery, wellsituated on a hill with an imposing view of the sacred formation. Trujillo notes too, “For Arroyo Hondo’s Penitente brotherhood, Lent was a momentous occasion, commemorated by processions and a Passion Play – their own Via Crucis, where suffering, sacrifice and somberness were stressed. Christ’s pain and loss of blood were recreated and forgiveness sought through penitence for the overall sanctity of people and place. “At this village, the culmination of that fateful day 2,000 years ago, is ever-present,” Trujillo states. “The Pieta is the calm after the storm, an everlasting personification that reminds and fortifies year-round. “At the cemetery, funerals mirror the event portrayed across the valley. In full view, Mary succumbs to a final farewell, Jesus lies in a stationary yet transient state and the soaring mountain as a whole has an aura of ascension that is the celebration of Easter.” Trujillo says aside from its tactical adobe sanctuaries, Arroyo Hondo is known for its wooden bultos, santos and retablos “where an expiring or dead Jesus and a distressed Mary are commonly portrayed. “But here, the foremost sculpted and highlighted icon is immense, immobile and not crafted by human hands. It is elemental and eternal,” Trujillo concludes. “Although Nuestra Señora is hailed throughout, her peak is one of two that form the cerro/mountain that is The Pieta. The other is the Sangre de Cristo.”
The Pieta is the calm after the storm, an everlasting personification that reminds and fortifies year-round. 10 TRADICIONES SEPT. 23, 2021
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Sept. 23, 2021 TRADICIONES 11
RAICES
Trades, Raids and Culture The enduring legacy of the Comanche in Taos by Sol Traverso
THREE MEN OF A COMANCHE TRIBE REST IN AN OKLAHOMA ENCAMPMENT IN 1873. THE COMANCHE WERE A FORMIDABLE WALL PLANTED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT.
12 TRADICIONES SEPT. 23, 2021
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RAID OF THE COMANCHE RAICES FUSS, EDUARDO, NAVAJO TIPI. COURTESY OF THE PALACE OF THE GOVERNORS PHOTO ARCHIVES (NMHM/DCA). TAOS NEWS FILE PHOTOS
‘During the early 1800s, there [was] a shift in settlement patterns in the Taos area … Hispaño settlers had been living in these dispersed settlements across the land, and they started to coalesce into these more secure villages to [keep themselves safe] against Comanche raiding,” said Lindsay Montgomery, an assistant professor in anthropology at the University of Arizona. Montgomery is referring to the of history Comanche raids in Taos. Though she is referencing the early 1800s, Northern New Mexico’s relationship with Comanche tribes goes back much further. The first written observations of the Comanche came in 1706, after the Pueblo Revolt, when the Spanish settlers noted their presence in the Taos area. Montgomery also points out the many lasting pieces of evidence of Comanche raids in Taos. For example, she points to Hacienda de los Martinez. Built in 1804, the Spanish structure located off Lower Ranchitos Road in Taos, survived decades of raids and is still standing today, a living testament to our community’s history. Of course, Hacienda de los Martinez also served as a trading center. “[The Martinez Hacienda] was specifically designed to have all the surrounding people come into the center of the hacienda and have all the windows facing outwards so that you could fire rounds at Comanche raiders,” said Montgomery. Taos torreónes today, fortress-like towers with thick adobe walls, are also fixtures from this part of history that are still standing. These watchtowers would sound alarms to bring people in or allow people to fire at raiders, either from the top or through the windows, used for shooting. Only two torreónes remain of the 50 to 75 originals. One is intact, the other in ruins. One torreón is a quarter of a mile east of Ranchos on State Road 68 and 50 yards south of State Road 518. The other torreón is on the north rim of the Ranchos valley, at the southeastern end of Taos valley, about a mile west of the hamlet of Talpa. The Comanche often raided Spanish settlements for horses, weapons, food and captives. “It’s a complicated story,” said Ned Blackhawk, professor of History and American Studies at Yale University, and who is a member of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone. “It’s multi-dimensional in the sense that there are no clear divisions between Spanish and Indians in a kind of binary way.” Blackhawk said, generally speaking, these raids by northern tribes like the Comanche do not have a simplistic history.
THEY ARE NŪMŪNŪŪ, ‘THE PEOPLE’
Comanche, is a Hispanicized word, which is derived from the Ute word kĪmantsi which is translates to “enemy.” The Comanche, refer to themselves as Nūmūnūū, meaning “the People.” The Nūmūnūū were nomadic hunter-gatherers before colonization. They spoke a Uto-Aztecan language with bands that were spread out across the Great Basin, into California
Hacienda de los Martinez
Our Culture is Rooted in Traditions. Taos County was formed in 1852 and was one of the original 9 counties in New Mexico. www.taoscounty.org taosnews.com/magazines/raices-tradiciones
Sept. 23, 2021 TRADICIONES 13
RAICES RAID OF THE COMANCHE
COMMANCHE MAP. IMAGE AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET AND INCLUDED IN ACCORDANCE WITH TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107.
These are the ruins of the second Catholic church at Taos Pueblo named after St. Jerome. The first was destroyed during the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. This one was destroyed by the U.S. Cavalry under the command of Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny during the 1847 Taos Revolt. Rebels had take refuge in the church hoping the military would respect the concept of sanctuary afforded houses of worship. RICK ROMANCITO/TAOS NEWS
and northern Mexico and eastward into present-day Louisiana. “Right now we only have seven known bands,” said Mary Weahkee, archaeologist for the state of New Mexico, and who is Santa Clara Pueblo and Comanche. “And before that there were several. My grandpa thinks there were 15, maybe even 22.” Weahkee said that the Comanche used trails that preceded them from other Indigenous groups, from the Canadian river and the Pecos river and would trade with different Pueblo groups such as Taos Pueblo. Taos Pueblo was a major trade center prior to Spanish colonization, according to Montgomery. According to Weahkee, after the Spanish arrived, they created rifts between the Pueblo Communities. “[The Spanish] befriend other tribes to come against the Comanche,” Weahkee said. “They create a division as they disassemble the Pueblos coming up from the Rio Grande Basin.”
AFTER THE REVOLT
The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 managed to overthrow Spanish rule in New Mexico. The period free of the imperial yoke was brief, lasting only 12 years, but major changes took place during that time. One major shift was that horses were made more available to groups like the Comanche, according to Montgomery. With the horse, the Comanche are able to expand their trading networks, which included the buying and selling of firearms – that were previously outlawed to Indigenous people. “Taos Pueblo becomes a central node in the Comanche trading network that is connecting the Great Plains to the southwest, down to Louisiana and continuing south down to Mexico City,” said Montgomery.
Once the Spanish returned and made settlements, the Comanche would raid these settlements frequently. “We have archival records from Picuris Pueblo where Spanish priests said they should take down the church at Picuris, so that the Comanche have nothing else to raid,” said Montgomery. Comanche women were seen at raids fighting alongside the men. Weahkee’s grandmother used to tell her about Comanche warrior women. “She told me, ‘You’re that kinda person that would take people out.’ I said, ‘Well I still am grandma.’ Ayy! [chuckles],” said Weahkee.
IDENTITY
‘A lot of times the Comanches in these raids were former captives,” said Gregorio Gonzales, a postdoctoral scholar in Comparative Studies at the Ohio State University, and who is Comanche and Genízaro. Gonzales believes the Spanish colonial archive does not illustrate the scope of these relationships between captives and tribes, pointing to instances in which captives were integrated into the tribe. The reverse was much more sinister as Indigenous
peoples taken captive by the Spanish would often be sold as slaves. “Plains people, many of them Comanche, who had been taken as slaves and grew up in Hispaño households,” said Montgomery describing the identities of the Genízaro people of Ranchos de Taos. Around Christmas season in Ranchos de Taos, Genízaro and Hispaños dance outside of a Catholic Church and incorporate Comanche words and dance, in a celebration linked to the birth of Christ. “It’s a total hybrid mix of Hispaño, Indigenous and Catholic tradition,” said Montgomery. Gonzales, whose family has been involved in these traditions, and his own academic research has been on the cultural history of Genízaro communities in the Río Chama and Taos Valley areas. According to Gonzales, dances are almost exclusively accompanied with tombés, or Plains-style single-headed hand drums. That is not the only influence the Comanche have had. Mary Weahkee says that many different Pueblo communities dance Comanche dances into the present. “That was because the Comanche protected them against the Utes, the Apaches and the Spaniards,” said Weahkee.
Around Christmas season in Ranchos de Taos, Genízaro and Hispaños dance outside of a Catholic Church and incorporate Comanche words and dance, in a celebration linked to the birth of Christ. MORGAN TIMMS/TAOS NEWS
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2021 Taos Pueblo leadership. Pictured are Warchief Secretary Jeremy Lujan, Warchief Fred L. Romero and Lt. Warchief Steven Archuleta.
Roots: A civilization that’s dwelled in the same buildings for more than 1,000 years.
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