Taos Pueblo | The Trading Post Restaurant

Tuesday - 11 June 2002: Taos, New Mexico - Today marks our 250th night camping in our little home on wheels! No one can accuse us of buying a RV and not using it. She looks pretty good, considering. As I type this, knock on wood, nothing is broken.

Today was less-busy than the past few... I told DT I needed a little down-time, needlepoint time, and he happily complied and went golfing this afternoon to the Taos Country Club - alone. I did have a nice afternoon, caught-up on my soap opera, did laundry and spent several hours needlepointing. He said the course was beautiful and played with two local, nice, men.

This morning, we visited the Taos Pueblo. The Pueblo is one of 19 occupied Pueblos in New Mexico. Taos Pueblo has been continuously occupied for AT LEAST 1000 years. The Taos Indians are also referred to as the Tiwa, which is their language. Tiwa is only a spoken language and is still taught in the Pueblo school. It is expensive to visit the Pueblo: $10 per person, plus $10 per camera... which set our family back forty smackers. (Please enjoy the photos and linger over them at your leisure.)

Taos Pueblo


Another view of Taos Pueblo

This section of the Pueblo is five stories at some points. Each portion (or house, consisting of 1 to 3 rooms each) is "owned" by local families. They are never bought or sold, only passed-down through the generations. The only major change to the buildings from the past, is that within the past 100 years, doors have been cut into the walls. Previously the homes were entered through holes in the ceilings. (Now the holes are covered with grills and/or sky-lights.) The rooms were entered via ladders and at night the ladders were brought in to protect against attack. This Pueblo was at the cross-roads of two common trade routes and the Tiwa People had relations and traded with tribes nearly to the Pacific Ocean and south to Mexico. The Pueblos are made with adobe brick (mud, straw and water), which has been covered with smooth adobe. Fresh adobe is added every other year or so, depending upon the weather. There is no electricity or running water in the Pueblo - and over 100 people live here full-time. A creek - Red Willow Creek - runs through the Pueblo. Its source, and the storied-beginning of the Tiwa People, is Blue Lake, 26 miles away in the mountains. The lake is protected and can only be accessed by members of the Tribe and it is forbidden for visitors to drink from the river.

We took a tour, with a nice Taos boy, named Chris. He had just graduated from the University of New Mexico and was now doing graduate work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He was very knowledgeable about his people and was able to answer every question. He gave a us a tour of the new chapel and told how the Spanish forced Catholicism, Catholic burial practices and Spanish names on the Tiwa. On the altar of the church is a Virgin Mary - not Jesus. The Virgin is there as she represents a Mother, as in Mother Nature or Mother Earth. He said about 70% of the 2,700 tribe members have been baptized and some do practice the Catholic faith, but most practice a combination of ancient tribal beliefs and Catholicism. Services are held each Sunday in the chapel and are open to the public... well, assuming you have ten bucks. There are two Kivas (ceremonial houses) in the Pueblo where ancient religious rites are conducted - visitors are not allowed into the Kivas. There are also many hornos (Spanish word for the adobe ovens) in the Pueblo. Women were baking, and selling, their bread from the ovens. Chris told us about the history, language, government and education of the tribe. In 1847 there was a big massacre at the Pueblo, when the US Army attacked the Pueblo in retaliation to the murder of Taos Governor, Charles Bent. The Taos people went into their chapel and everyone inside was murdered by the Army. The ruins of the foundation of this chapel are now a graveyard. The bell in the tower is the original from 1619. Now the dead are buried in the traditional Taos Pueblo method: wrapped in blankets and animals skins and buried in the ground.

The Old Chapel at Taos Pueble


The New Chapel at Taos Pueblo

Now most of the tribe lives nearby on the 108,000 acre reservation - with electricity and plumbing. The Tribe, of course, has a casino. We really enjoyed ourselves and bought a few nice things from the craftspeople in the Pueblo. Here are two more photos for you to enjoy. Really enjoy.

Pueblo door


Pueblo sign

After the morning spent at the Pueblo, we went into Taos and had lunch and looked into a few shops and galleries. I tried an "Indian Taco". (Somehow you never hear the word "Native American" here - the Taos are INDIANS.) The "taco" was a lovely mound of beans on a sopaipilla, with cheese, onions, tomatoes and lettuce. Very delicious. DT tried the tamales. This was at a road-side type of place, nothing fancy. We visited the Taos Indian Maid moccasin factory. (NOTE: Luckily we visited when we did - this company has now closed!) They had nothing for DT, but I was able to buy a few pair for gifts. The moccasin's are still made here in Taos - most other "Indian" moccasins are made in China!

Tonight, we dined at the (probably) nicest restaurant in Taos - The Trading Post. We have been hearing about the Trading Post since we were in Albuquerque. Plus, the Trading Post is highly recommended by all our guide books, so we gave it a try. We were not disappointed. However, the dining room was EMPTY. I hate to eat at a restaurant where we are the only customers.

We were seated at a nice table in the main dining room, but as we were reading the menu, DT suggested maybe we should move over to the bar, because at the bar/counter you can watch the chefs cooking and possibly enjoy more ambience than staring at each other during dinner.  We told the waitress - another pretty New Mexican girl - that we had decided to move to the counter and we were seated with a lone single at the bar. The cooks were working feverishly. As far as I could see, there were 3 customers (including DT and myself) in the restaurant. Who were they cooking for? It was just a beautiful restaurant - with a lot of history. The Trading Post was actually a trading post. When the owner died, his family continued the tradition and now have a fabulous restaurant where the shop was, and a small shop next door. The menu is wonderful, not southwestern at all, and it was very difficult to choose a meal from the selection. To make matters worse, our server told us of about five different "specials".

One of the salad specials was a Caprese, so NATURALLY I had to try my favorite. It was dressed in a serious balsamic, but was still quite enjoyable and chilled. The salad included mixed greens, which included fennel - a nice surprise. DT had the gazpacho, also chilled, for his appetizer. DT says it was "just like gazpacho, but with a lot of chilies". For our main courses, I tried their Rosemary Chicken and DT tried their Chicken Vesuvius (like the volcano) - chicken with fried onions, tomatoes and chilies and mashed potatoes. We both loved our meals. What a wonderful restaurant. The cooks were cooking like mad because they had a full-house on the patio out-back! We sat at the bar with a nice man from Austin, who is an importer-exporter and a huge basketball fan. It is always enjoyable to chat with people and always enjoyable when the people are friendly and chatty. (I have occasionally been called friendly and chatty myself.) This restaurant is quite famous with the movie-making set - many film stars stay in Taos because many movies are filmed here. The Trading Post also has a nice wine list, with several Italian selections for your drinking pleasure.

Tomorrow we are leaving Taos. We were going to Denver, but it seems because of the forest fires, this is not a good idea. Our plans are up in the air. Going with the winds.

RV Park: Taos Valley RV Park