American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Lying about seventy miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and just north of the non-Indian Town of Taos, is the Indian pueblo, also called Taos. A National Historic Landmark since 1975, Taos has recently been nominated as a World Heritage Site. First seen by white men during the Spanish conquistador Coronado’s expedition of 1540-42, the pueblo currently has a population of about 2,000 Indians. It is a popular tourist attraction, automobiles sometimes lining up for more than an hour, waiting their turn to drive in and park in the village square. An attractive white-walled Catholic church, St. Geronimo, sits at the main entrance facing the square. Through the center of the village runs the Rio Pueblo de Taos, whose source is the Sacred Blue Lake some 20 miles to the north. After bisecting Taos, this stream runs into the much larger Rio Grande. At an elevation of 11,800 feet, Blue Lake is “symbolically considered the source of all Taos life and the retreat of souls after death.” It is also the focal point for the annual pilgrimage of the Taos, held in late August. According to Tito Naranjo, a Santa Clara Pueblo married to a Taos woman who has participated in Taos religious life: “The walk to Blue Lake by ’piathliaas’ is to reaffirm the belief in ‘thlatsinaas,’ which is similar to other moity oriented pueblos who re-enact the origin myths. The Pueblo, as a whole, participates in that process in a dual pilgrimage, one by the boys and ’teach- ers’ and the other by the Pueblo resident members at large.”