Day 187: Taos Pueblo

You can visit medieval villages in the United States and this one is even listed as a World Heritage site.  It's called Taos Pueblo, the home of the Red Willow tribe. The village has two multi-story blocks of homes separated by a wide public space with the river running through it.  The structure of the tallest blocks is at least a thousand years old, though, being adobe, it's been repaired on an ongoing basis.  In the last four hundred years, contact with the Spaniards then the Americans brought a lot of changes.  There is an old church, now ruined, and a new church which is still over 150 years old.  Outdoor ovens called hornos are scattered around the village, and are also a Spanish borrowing, and they do look pretty familiar from Europe.  They contrast with the large wooden drying racks, the system for which dates back to pre-Spanish times. The stacked houses now have front doors, often painted in bright colours, but originally, access was through the roof.  It reminds me very much of Catal Hayuk in that respect, and a few other places.  It's an interesting reminder that there isn't a single village model. The tribe keep their many aspects of their traditional spiritual and social life separate from outsiders, so while the churches are prominent, it isn't possible to see the kivas.  These are underground rooms for religious and administrative meetings.

A relatively small number of people live in Taos Pueblo now, probably partly because of the decision to keep modern utilities out.  There are more visitors here than Indians and a whole load of systems for keeping us under some semblance of control.  Meanwhile the tribe has quite a lot of other land.  Most people live in modern houses closer to Taos, and there is a very large wilderness area where only tribal members are allowed.  The adobe houses in the pueblo can be lit by gas lamps and heated with wood burning open hearths.  These facilities were quite important to us on our visit because it was dark, gloomy, and so cold it felt like it might snow.  There are actually quite a lot of houses that are open to the public, selling crafts or food.  We weren't in the market for crafts but we did buy some blueberry pie, and some of the famous fried bread.  It is famous, because the craft shops are full of signs saying things like 'No fried bread in here!", "Keep your icky fried bread papers to yourself".  With the fried bread lady's reputation preceding her like that, how could we resist when we eventually found her shop!  I had never imagined that ordinary bread dough would expand quite the way this did when deep fried in oil. Then we covered it in sugar powder and cinnamon, and got all icky.  Then we turned out noses up at the local dogs who suddenly decided we were interesting and went to visit the church.  Haha, we didn't touch anything though.

Day 186: Georgia O'Keefe Museum

Now for a completely different museum, dedicated to Georgia O'Keefe. It's the first time I saw any of her paintings in real life.   I just find them very visually appealing, especially when there are colours bleeding into whites or blacks as in the one above.  It's the kind of art that I like to look at and don't find it easy to say much about.  I have a feeling that O'Keefe was the same way, because although they have quotes from her all over the walls, they say things like "Colour is really important to me".

Day 185: Museum of Contemporary Native Arts

The sculpture garden, with Antonia at the far right looking like a sculpture!

 Blogging is back!  So, first of all what is Santa Fe like.  Well, very pretty.  I have never seen so many adobe houses altogether in one place.  The town centre is more like a European town with a central park, shops full of expensive clothes that actually came from France and roof terrace cafes.  There is a real public life here with people just hanging around in the centre.  Unfortunately, there is a real public life on the more outlying streets as well.  During the week I've been here on my own, I've been subjected to more honking by cars, catcalls and more or less indecent approaches by random men than ever in my life.  Including one really bad incident, where I was threatening the guy with the police before he backed off.  What is wrong with these people?!  I thought I was safe now that I'm in my 40s and have unusually white hair. Obviously, all this will die down a bit with Mike here.

Today we went to the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, which is contemporary art made by members of American Indian tribes (that explanation might be necessary for any non-Americans out there).  We all really enjoyed the exhibitions which were extremely varied, with one installation, galleries of painting and photography, a small sculpture garden, and a series of films.  I think we perhaps enjoyed these the most, though a lot of the rest was very good as well.  A lot of the art on display is not only by Native Americans but addresses things that are central to the Native American experience.  A large chunk of that has to do with the fact that, non only did the Indian tribes lose their battles and their land against the United States and European Americans, but they are expected to identify as US citizens.  This unfortunately includes a presentation of US history and culture in which they're depicted to themselves as outsiders, and expected to celebrate their own defeat.  America as a state, conversely has a need to celebrate its history that we don't see so much in Europe. 

One of the most interesting movies was a documentary, about a really sad standoff between Native and Italian Americans over the Columbus day parade in Denver.  Columbus day is a national holiday, but the whole figure of Columbus is symbolic of the start of the catastrophe to many Native Americans. They don't really think he's a reason to party (and I have to say that, all other considerations aside, his behaviour towards the people he found in the Caribbean was,... well, words fail me).  On the other hand, the Italian Americans, at least in this film, seem to have taken Columbus to their hearts.  The Columbus Day parade allows them to celebrate their rather difficult integration into US society, and to see their contributions as important right from the start, I guess.  It means a lot to some of them.  So, there is a big stand-off in the middle of the street.  There are also, as you can imagine, people of mixed ancestry coming down on various sides, and people of non-mixed ancestry not being on the side of the majority of their group.  Quite a mess. 

I also like the huge painting that was like a map of the US with incidents from American history that aren't so worthy of celebration either.  The installation was on a different theme and was a room with a central table piled high with donuts, cakes, etc.  The whole thing was made to look like solid sugar and it was called the Last Supper.  This is a reference to the dietary problems that seem to be affecting American society as a whole, but I guess each group has a slightly different take on it.

Day 168: Hiatus

Mike has gone back east on another business trip and taken Antonia with him, so it looks like my Thanksgiving  holiday has come early this year.  I'm going to be very busy doing research, writing and other seriously grown up things, so I probably won't update the blog for a couple of weeks.  See you in Santa Fe in late September!

Day 166: Black Hills Hike

There's so much to do in the Black Hills area that this is the first hike we went on just for the sake of hiking.  We did about 10 km but to get to the trailhead we had to drive along this strange road that was constructed purely for fun.  It has pigtail bridges that make you drive around over the road you just came on for no good reason, tunnels that were created specially to frame distant Mount Rushmore and places where the road winds through the trees in two separate narrow lanes of tarmac.

Antonia found a rattlesnake in the car park.  It's always Antonia who finds the interesting stuff around here.  This is just like the rattlesnake they showed us at the snake show at Reptile Gardens the other day and that one was pretty aggressive acting.  That's why Mike left this one alone, and didn't try to steal the litter out from under its nose.

Day 164: Jewel Cave

This is the first miserable, cold, wet day I've seen in months and we planned to spend it in a cave.  Jewel cave gets its name from being covered in a several inch thick layer of calcite crystals.  The tours are very interesting, but there are limited numbers, so it's very advisable to book them in advance.  Apparently, thousands of people are disappointed each year!  There are so many National Parks, Monuments and Memorials in this area that Antonia has been earning several Junior Ranger badges per week.  Paradoxically, we have found ourselves in the strange position of sitting around doing very little while she works on crosswords and word searches.  The program definitely has its ups and downs, though one of the ups is that she is enjoying it very much.  Some of the sites have programs that are much more educational than others....

Day 163: Mammals and Reptiles

The Rapid City area is full of paying attractions, and Antonia loves animals so I thought we wouldn't leave until she had been to the 'zoo'.  Bear Country USA offers a safari style drive through large enclosures filled with several of North America's large mammals - not just bears. It also has a walk around section with smaller mammals like skunks and porcupines, as well as lots of multi-coloured baby black bears. I now know the difference between an elk and a moose - an elk is disappointingly small.  I also know the difference between a black bear and a grizzly.  A grizzly can grow to be unacceptably large.  I can almost handle the idea of facing off a black bear by looking small and unobtrusive!

A snake with its mouth full of mouse and its skin still peeling.

The Reptile Gardens is also a lot of fun.  The highlights are the alligator show and the snake show, where you watch a staff member feed himself to the alligators and boas respectively (just kidding, it was actually fun and educational!) and the indoor reptile garden.  This is rather like an indoor butterfly habitat, in that you go in to this greenhouse and various lizards and things are there loose. It's very cool.  Around the greenhouse on two levels are the usual glass-fronted cages for the more dangerous animals: cobras, komodos, giant saltwater crocodiles, etc.

They have dragons too!  Wanted, for various misdemeanors.  One day when I get free access to Photoshop, I will turn the sign lettering back the right way up: