Land Water People Time 2022-2023 by The Taos News

Complimentary publication in collaboration with the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area representing the counties of Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Taos YOUR CULTURAL GUIDE TO NORTHERN NEW MEXICO 2022-2023

TO VISIT TAOS PUEBLO IS TO WALK IN A SACRED PLACE WHERE LIFE CONTINUES FROM THE EARLIEST OF HUMAN EXISTANCE. Over 1000 years of tradition. Learn about our histroy, culture and art. taospueblo.com | Open Thursday-Monday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. | 758-1028 | 120 Veterans Highway

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4 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime 70686664100806DEPARTMENTSFROMTHEEDITORBIENVENIDOSMAPHERITAGEINMEMORIAMCALENDARBOARDMEMBERS This publication is a cooperative venture between the Taos News and the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area, with assistance from Taos, Santa Fe, and Rio Arriba Counties. The title, Land Water People Time, is used by permission of Water in Motion, LLC, and Northern Río Grande NHA. For copies of this magazine, call 575-758-2241 or email circ@taosnews.com. Find the entire Land Water People Time publication online at taosnews.com/ landwaterpeopletime. ON THE COVER Painter E. I. Couse poses with one of his models, Juan Concha. 1907. Courtesy Lunder Research Center ISSUE 7 / 2022-2023 ROBIN MARTIN, OWNER CHRIS BAKER, PUBLISHER JOHN MILLER, EDITOR LYNNE COPYMICHAELMAGAZINEROBINSON,EDITORTASHJI,EDITOR KARIN CIRCULATIONSHAWNBUSINESSMARYADVERTISINGCHRISCREATIVEEBERHARDT,DIRECTORWOOD,DIRECTORCHÁVEZ,MANAGERROBERTS,DIRECTOR SHANE ATKINSON, SALES MANAGER TYLER NORTHROP, MEDIA PRODUCTIONPAULMEDIAS'ZANNESPECIALISTREYNOLDSSPECIALISTGUTCHES,MANAGER HEATHER OWEN, DIGITAL EDITOR TAOS NEWS 226 ALBRIGHT ST. TAOS, NM TAOSNEWS.COM575-758-224187571 NORTHERN RIO GRANDE RIOGRANDEHA.ORG505-852-0030ESPAÑOLA,P.HERITAGENATIONALAREAO.BOX610NM87532 STAFF 12 Reunity toBuildingResources:connectionthesoil,landand water An idea whose time has come BY TAMRA TESTERMAN 20 Maria JaramilloJosefaCarson Beloved third wife of famed trapper, agent Kit Carson BY VIRGINIA L. CLARK 26 John Gaw architecturalMeem’slegacy BY DENA MILLER 36 Envisioning Taos: From black and white to colorful captures Photographs used as visual references by E.I. Couse yield a surprising slice of Taos life BY RICK ROMANCITO 50 farawayO’Keeffe’slens One woman’s eye on the landscape BY LYNNE ROBINSON PHOTO BY BILL CURRY CONTENTS

The 1933 photo was before the 1939 fire. The Ramona Hotel was another of E.D.ventures.Trujillo’s The store fire in 1939. In the heart of Española.

1926 1933 1939 Today 1917

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The 1917 store was located in Rincon de los Trujillos in Upper Chimayo.

A KALEIDOSCOPE OF TREASURE Offering Native American and Hispanic jewelry, pottery, weavings and so much more! CHIMAYO TRADING POST Established 1917 in the heart of Española, between Santa Fe and Taos 110 N. RIVERSIDE CHIMAYOTRADINGPOST.COM505-753-9414DR spend sometime with us.

The 1926 photo was the first trading post in Española. Today’s site.

WELCOME

WHEN Chris Baker asked me if I’d like to edit Land Water People Time, I was both honored and intimidated, but delighted with the opportunity to showcase the unique cultural heritage of Northern New Mexico.

Through it all' we

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Lockdowns came and went and, all along, artists continued to create, farmers continued to plant their crops and architects continued to create buildings to live and work in. And then the seasons changed with climate change—winds like we had never seen swept spring into summer with a vengeance, wildfires burning out of control threatened to decimate centu ries-old communities just beyond our fragile borders. We stood ready, as we prayed for our neighboring Fortycommunities. yearsof living and raising a family here has taught me how interconnected we all are, how sustainability begins at home, with the food on our FROM THE EDITOR

tables and the gratitude in our hearts, even as the world around us rocks on its axis. Now especially, we must preserve this fragile ecosystem, with all of its flora and fauna, its tangled history and Mestizo culture, which is unique to this region, first conquered by the Spaniards traveling ancient Meso Ameri can trade routes, long before the French trappers, German merchants and American colonists arrived and added to the melting pot that is Northern New ThisMexico.issue of LWPT is a joyful celebration of these intertwined stories and bloodlines, of the artists and farmers and architects and, mostly, the original people of this land, who were here long before the rest of us and continue to call it home. We are very privileged to share the extraordinary photographs taken by E.I. Couse a century ago. They reveal a different story from the old one born of war and conflict. In this story, the artists and the Red Willow people share a mutual respect and curiosity that would result in Taos becoming an internation ally-known art colony, lasting into the present time, its legacy assured by Davison Koenig, director of the Lunder Foundation. When Virginia Couse discovered her grandfather’s negatives behind a loose adobe brick in the house he built, she knew she’d struck gold. Read Rick Romancito’s story on this amazing find to learn more. Women feature in this issue, too, because women have always featured in these parts, beginning with Taoseña Josepha Jaramillo, who was Kit Carson’s third wife. Virginia Clark digs a little deeper into Josepha’s history. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum kindly provided stunning images to illustrate my story on the artist, who became practically synonymous with the very region we showcase. And, of course, there are the men who had the courage to stand up for the people and place; longtime community advocate and former executive director of the NRGNHA board, the late Tom Romero, is honored by fellow Board member David Fernan dez, who at the same time, honors the Rio Grande National Heritage Area itself, in Spanish and English.

I came to my position as editor of Tempo at the Taos News shortly before the pandemic changed our industry along with the greater world. When we went into lockdown just three months after I was hired to replace the esteemed journalist Rick Romancito, I thanked my lucky stars for my community and the immense collective creativity and rich cultural resources it would allow me to draw from as an editor and writer for the Taos News.

Lynne Robinson

Daniel Gibson provided us with short bios of the current Board Members of the NRGNHA, who have partnered with us to make this publication possible. And finally, I would like to thank Anna Hansen and Margaret Campos for their feedback along the way, and Creative Director Karin Eberhardt for her stellar design work. I hope you all enjoy this issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

Dena Miller went on a tour of the Santa Fe County Courthouse, designed by the Pueblo Revival architect John Gaw Meem, with board member and Santa Fe County Commissioner, Anna Hansen, and Tamra Testerman and photographer Bill Curry paid a visit to Reunity Farms to bring it all right back home, to the food we grow and serve at our tables.

COURTESY BILL CURRY continue

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WELCOME to the truly special and spirit-filled country of the Northern Rio Grande National Her itage Area in Northern New Mexico. People come from all over the world to experience the cultural, spiritual, historical, recreational and countless other positively special elemental attractions that make up and are reflected from the lands, the waters, the peoples and even the special flow of timeThehere.mountains, rivers, valleys and lands of this region, namely, the Counties of Taos, Rio Arriba, and Santa Fe in North Central New Mexico and the pueblos, towns and cities therein, are imbued with an exceptional spirit and wisdom and very dramat ic background that has shaped and influenced the very ancient and relatively modern peoples who livePeoplehere. have lived here and in the broader Southwest territories for perhaps twelve thousand years or more, and there is clear evidence of very ancient spiritual activity by way of sacred sites throughout. Immense petroglyph fields are said to express religious elements in the lives of the elder peoples and civilizations and present descendants here. These old, venerable ways represent faith practices that obviously pre-date the coming of the European peoples in the 16th century A.D. The Spaniards arrived around 1540 and first settled in this land from 1598 on. They brought the religion of Christian Catholicism. The first several decades of relations between the civilizations were turbulent, and in 1680, all Europeans were forced out by the Indian Pueblos. The Spaniards returned after 1692, and religious relations stabilized in a parallel coex istence, mutual tolerance and accommodation. The story of the spiritual traditions in this land is amazing and inspiring. The great Taos Pueblo San Geronimo Feast is an example in the world of how seemingly diverse sacred traditions can be joined, in this case a combination of ancient Native religious spirituality and Christianity. Many view this as a sign of the most common essential spirituality in humanity no matter how different their origins, and of the Great Spirit, the Holy Spirit, of the Most High. And ultimately, a thoughtful and discerning visitor to these lands might be able to sense the special spiritual vigor that pervades this Northern Rio Grande country.

El patrimonio del pais Norteno del Rio Grande

BIENVENIDOS al pais del Rio Grande del Norte, que es designado como el Area Nacional de la Herencia del Rio Grande del Norte (Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area). Esperamos que su visita en las montanas y en los valles y en los Pueblos y comunidades, sea muy agradable.

Damos gracias entonces por el buen arbol de la cultura y herencia, que cobija y guarda a todos que arriman y vivan en el pais del Rio Grande del Norte.Yentonces se les invita a todos los visitantes y peregrinos que llegan aqui, de ser preparados para una experiencia alegre y edeficante por los terrenos y las aldeas de este raro pais del Rio Grande del Norte.

Estas tierras, incluyendo el area en los Conda dos de Taos, Rio Arriba, y Santa Fe, siguen siendo el patrimonio y la herencia de las civilizaciones antiguas de los Indigenas y de los colonizadores Espanoles desde el siglo diez y seis, y como ahora tambien incluyen los que han llegado aqui en los tiempos mas recientes. Este area incluye la capital del estado de Nuevo Mexico, Santa Fe, que fue establecida en 1610, y representa una poblacion unica en el mundo por estar compuesta de nativos indigenas del ‘mundo nuevo’ a lado de los descendientes de los primeros Europeanos Espanoles en una tradicion y relacion singular. Esta relacion entre estas gentes refleja un modo raro entre vecinos con sus diferentes culturas y lenguajes. Se expresa en el mantenimiento de sus culturas y modos respectivos, y a la vez con un entendimiento mutual nacido por las experiencias compartidas por los Estesiglos.antiguo pais por sus aldeas alrededor del Rio Grande del Norte sigue manteniendo raices muy profundas que se manifiestan por el uso de los lenguajes nativos y de Espanol, y como en las tradiciones vivas que se celebran en los Pueblos y comunidades de las ambas poblaciones.

LA CIENEGUILLA PETROGLYPH SITE, SOUTH OF SANTA FE, INCLUDES THIS EXCELLENT THUNDERBIRD AMONG ITS THOUSANDS OF IMAGES. PHOTO BY DANIEL

A vigorous spirit uplifts our Northern Rio Grande Country

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El trabajo y la mision del Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area es de suma importancia, es decir, de preservar los merecedores particu lares de la Herencia de este pais y su tradicion, sea por su forma fisica o su forma intangible y sobre-fisico, y sus culturas tan ricas y incompa rables.Hay un dicho, un proverbio, del Norte: “El que a buen arbol se arrima, buena sombra lo cobija.”

BYBIENVENIDOSGIBSONDAVIDFERNANDEZ

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10 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime 1 TaosPueblo 2 PuebloPicuris NorthernRíoGrandeNationalHeritageCenter 3 OhkayOwingehPueblo 4 Santa PuebloClara 5 NambéPueblo 6 PuebloIldefonsoSan 7 PojoaquePueblo 8 PuebloTesuque MAP SANTA FE COUNTY CalienteOjo TAOS COUNTY RanchosdeTaos Chimayo RIO ARRIBA COUNTY Dulce Tesuque Abiquiu BANDELIERNATIONALMONUMENT HISTORICNATIONALPECOSPARK PiedrasTres AmarillaTierra Questa MadridEdgewood Galisteo RÍO MONUMENTDELGRANDENORTENATIONAL 64 84 64 64 285 285 84 84 25 68 TAOS ESPAÑOLA CHAMA SANTA FE 1 2 3 6 7 8 5 4 Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area The Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area is one of 94 cultural regions in the nation designated by Congress for protection and support. We are a not-for-profit organization. Our mission is to sustain the communities, heritages, languages, cltures, traditions and environment of Northern New Mexico through partnerships, education and interpretation. NEW MEXICO 109 EspañoladePaseoEastOnate,

PRESERVE & HONOR Taos Community Foundation is proud to host Endowment Funds for the long-term financial stability of organizations. Amigos Bravos, Sierra Club-Rio Grande, Taos Archaeological Society and Taos Land Trust bring their best work forward in preserving and honoring our communities natural resources. Please give us a call to learn more about Endowment Fund gifts at Taos Community Foundation: 575-737-9300, taoscf.org. 575.776.3333 Located on Ski Valley Road, 470 State Highway 150 in Arroyo Seco sabrosotaos.com Locally Sourced Meats • Award Winning Wine List • Incredible Ambience • Open Wed – Mon review“Delicious Every Time” taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 11

12 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime resources

taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 13 Building connection to the soil' land and water BY TAMRA TESTERMAN | PHOTOGRAPHS BY BILL CURRY resources

They are in farm camp learning hands-on how to connect with ancient agricultural practices, surrounded by a cornucopia of rich soil and fresh vegetables. Juliana and Tejinder Ciano, the co-founders, live on the farm with their sons — Mateo and Jasper (ages 10 and 8) — and two dogs adopted from the Española Animal Shelter — Shunya and Olivia Stardust Juice Ciano.

THERE ARE COLLABORATIONS with other non profits, and collectives, local government and private businesses. And there is the experiential — hands-on education available for anyone who wants to learn how to build a connection with the soil, land and water and become more responsible stewards who can care for the earth.

There is a set of brightly-painted refrigerators at the entrance of the farm that is stocked every day with fresh produce for anyone who wants it. No questions asked. A team of volunteers does the harvests for programs that address food insecurity in children, the elderly and anyone in need. There are Farm Cards, a program that allows families in need to shop and choose farm fresh produce, and local meats and eggs.

REUNITY RESOURCES

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REUNITY RESOURCES FARM OFFERS HANDS-ON EDUCATION AVAILABLE FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO LEARN HOW TO BUILD A CONNECTION WITH THE SOIL, LAND AND WATER AND BECOME MORE RESPONSIBLE STEWARDS WHO CAN CARE FOR THE EARTH.

ReunitysoundtracksummerontheResourcesFarminthevillageofAguaFría—ahamletinSantaFeonthehistoricCaminoReal—isthesoundofchildren’slaughter.

The

THE FARM IS TIDY AND PEACEFUL and the days begin very early. There are shade trees and a fruit orchard, the legacy of the prior owner and land steward John Stephenson, a World War II veteran who built the Santa Fe Community Farm and lived to be 102. There is a deep well on the property and a drip irrigation system to channel precious high desert water to delicate seedlings which become seasonal rows of shishitos, sweet peppers, broccolini, squash, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, spinach, arugula, garlic, hot peppers, basil and eggplant.

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REUNITY RESOURCES

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Juliana said, ‘Many people becoming skilled is much like walking in a mist — gradually, you become soaked, but it is difficult to pinpoint when and how. The more people we build connections with, the more possibilities for growing projects arise, whether it is a single tomato plant in a five-gallon bucket or a field of beneficial native cover crop on a desertified piece of land.

Bit by bit, more people are learning, experimenting, and more opportunities are present for others to join in and learn and share knowledge with one another.’

LIVING TRADITIONS in Native Cultures LARRY MARTINEZ JEWELER 575. 758. 4169 822 Paseo del Pueblo Sur Unique Originals, Contemporary & Vintage Designs taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 17

“And the positive feedback. A gardener delighted with healthy soil they’ve built with our compost — now an abundant garden. Or a farm camp parent sharing how their child’s confidence and joy now shines through. And they are so proud they harvested peas and carrots — and climbed their first tree.”

REUNITY RESOURCES FARM AND FARM STAND, 1829 San Ysidro Crossing, Santa Fe, is open to the public 20 hours a week. Thursdays and Fridays from 3-9 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (June through October). Community members can support the Reunity Resources shop at the Farm Stand or sign up for the Doorstep Compost Program. There are community events and live music, and drop-in volunteer opportu nities on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Up-to-date information is available on their website, reunityresources.com, and Instagram page @reunityresources.

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There are kindred spirits who show up on the farm with a twinkle in their eyes. Whether that’s to pull weeds, pump used cooking oil, wash compost buckets, make signs, design a pollinator garden, share grant-writing skills or help with farm camp registration — there are so many special people who show up and make it all possible.

REUNITY RESOURCES

BEHIND THE PRACTICAL REASONS to learn how to farm to improve food security and build a resilient local food system, Julianna emphasized, “We need to work on land and water access, farming techniques in our harsh and changing climate, the economic viability of farming as a career choice and the community per ception and value around healthy local food.” Juliana and Tejinder are both self-taught farmers with undergraduate degrees in theater. Julianna said the parallels between community farming and the stage is the unique power to inspire action and change.

KINDRED SPIRITS SHOW UP AT COMPOSTUSEDTHEIRWITHRESOURCESREUNITYFARMATWINKLEINEYESANDREADYTOPULLWEEDS,PUMPCOOKINGOIL,WASHBUCKETS,MAKESIGNS,DESIGNAPOLLINATORGARDEN,SHAREGRANT-WRITINGSKILLSORHELPWITHFARMCAMPREGISTRATION.

“Sometimes, there are doubts and fears and hurdles that make us wonder what other careers might be suitable — but there is something about the inimitable momentum of an idea whose time has come, and it is driving us rather than the reverse. We are doing our best to stay balanced and positive and show up for what is needed.

YOUR ECLECTIC TAOS EXPERIENCEART PEGGY TRIGG: Los Lucero Orchard, 12 x 36” oil MONIQUE BELITZ: Cradled, 36 x 36” Acrylic / Ink on Panel STEPHEN DAY: Evening Over The Santa Fe Landscape 18 x 48” Oil Wilder Nightingal Fine Art 119 Kit Carson Road, Taos, NM 87571 | (575) 758-3255 | wnightingale.com YOUR ECLECTIC TAOS EXPERIENCEART PEGGY TRIGG: Los Lucero Orchard, 12 x 36” oil MONIQUE BELITZ: Cradled, 36 x 36” Acrylic / Ink on Panel STEPHEN DAY: Evening Over The Santa Fe Landscape 18 x 48” Oil Wilder Nightingal Fine Art 119 Kit Carson Road, Taos, NM 87571 | (575) 758-3255 | wnightingale.com YOUR ECLECTIC TAOS EXPERIENCEART PEGGY TRIGG: Los Lucero Orchard, 12 x 36” oil MONIQUE BELITZ: Cradled, 36 x 36” Acrylic / Ink on Panel STEPHEN DAY: Evening Over The Santa Fe Landscape 18 x 48” Oil Wilder Nightingal Fine Art 119 Kit Carson Road, Taos, NM 87571 | (575) 758-3255 | wnightingale.com taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 19

Josefa was Carson’s third wife. His first marriage to Arapaho Wa-Ni-Beh in 1835 ended when she died three years later of a fever. One of two daughters died in an accident and the eldest, Adaline, went to Carson’s sister in Missouri, since Carson had expeditions to Yellow stone and Bighorn. Two years later, Carson married a 17-year-old Chey enne woman named Making-Our-Road, who divorced him after less than a year. A year later, in 1842, Carson met Maria Josefa Jaramillo in Taos.

Beloved third wife of famed trapper' agent Kit Carson BY VIRGINIA L. CLARK

HISTORY

The couple was introduced by Gov. Bent, a fur trader, explorer and the first United States territorial governor of NewAccordingMexico.to Cowgirl Life magazine (Feb. 14, 2018), in the May 16, 1907 edition of the Rio Rancho Observer, Carson was described as “‘short, balding and bow legged.’ He saw in Maria Josefa ‘grace and elegance,’ and Maria Josefa saw in Carson ‘fearlessness and a sense of decency.’ Carson’s friends agreed with [Josefa’s] assess ment of his personality. History records that he wasn’t afraid of ‘hell or high water’ and that his private life was ‘as clean as a hound’s tooth.’” Josefa was born March 19, 1828, in Santa Fe, to a well-respected merchant father, Francisco Jaramillo, and her mother, Maria Apolonia Vigil, who owned many acres in the Rio Grande area.

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ON FEB. 6, 1843, Maria Josefa Jaramillo married well-known frontiersman and government agent Christopher “Kit” Houston Carson at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church next to Taos Plaza. He was 33 and she was 15. After wedding celebrations hosted by Gov. Charles Bent and wife Maria Ignacia (Josefa’s sister), the Carsons set up in their new home, one block east of the plaza (now the Kit Carson House/ Museum at 113 Kit Carson Road in Taos).

JOSEFA CARSON GAVE BIRTH TO THEIR FIRST CHILD, CHARLES BENT CARSON IN MAY 1849. KIT AND JOSEFA HAD A SECOND SON IN OCTOBER 1852 AND NAMED HIM WILLIAM. THE PAIR BOTH ADOPTED AND HAD MORE CHILDREN OF THEIR OWN: DAUGHTER TERESINA, BORN IN 1854, SON CRISTOVAL CHARLES BORN IN 1858, DAUGHTER REBECCA IN 1864, AND DAUGHTER ESTEFANA STELLA IN 1868.

Maria Josefa Jaramillo Carson

Josefa met Carson in 1842, after he’d been on ex pedition with Col. John Charles Fremont in the Rocky Mountains. Despite mutual attraction, her well-educat ed father wanted a literate spouse for Josefa, or at least a Catholic — which Kit Carson took care of straight away. Baptized Jan. 28, 1843, the couple were married

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Maria Josefa Jaramillo Carson

Beloved third wife of Kit Carson

IN 1854, Carson became a Freemason — Initiated, Passed and Raised a member of Montezuma Lodge 109 in Santa Fe, seven years after the Taos Revolt. Governor Bent is reportedly the first Freemason to settle in New Mexico. Six years later, in 1860, the Bent Masonic Lodge 204 was chartered. That was the same year Carson became federal agent to the Ute and Taos Pueblo tribes. Kit and Josefa helped feed tribal members whenever Wash ington support didn’t come through. Cowgirl Life notes a report issued by Carson to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1859, “Scarcely a day passes but I have five to 25 to feed and take care of — their only resource is upon the government.”

Between the end of the Mexican War and start of the Civil War (1848-1861), Carson ranched on Lucien Maxwell’s property in Rayado, 50 miles from Taos. Finally able to spend time with Kit, Josefa saw he wasn’t meant for farming. Josefa gave birth to their first child, Charles Bent Carson, one month premature, in May 1849. Too frail to make a grueling journey, baby Charles and family stayed with the Maxwells. The baby’s health never fully improved, however, and he died in 1851. Kit and Josefa had a second son in October 1852 and named him William. Four months after the baby was born, Kit Carson, Lucien Maxwell and 22 hands drove and sold 6,500 sheep to California (at $5.50 a head!). Then he hurried home to Josefa and William, and reportedly ransomed three captive Navajo children, and raised them as their own (see kitcarsonmuseum. org/timeline). The pair also had more children of their

BY JULY 1867, Carson’s health was rapidly deterio rating. At 57, riding a horse was excruciating, so he traveled mostly by army ambulance, once transport ing himself and a delegation of Ute Chiefs to Wash ington, D.C. in February 1868 to negotiate a treaty concerning tribal lands. Returning in March 1868, Carson was weak and exhausted. Josefa was expecting their seventh child, and he was desperate to join her. April 11, 1868, Josefa met Kit at La Juanita, Colo. with a team and a wagon to take him home, welcoming their seventh child into the world April 13, 1868. Two weeks after their daughter was born, Josefa died of complications from that birth. Heartbroken, Carson was also overwhelmed at the prospect of caring for his large family alone. A month after Josefa’s death, Kit Carson died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm, May 23, 1868, at Fort Lyons, Colo. Kit and Josefa Carson were buried in Boggsville, and their bodies were later moved to the Kit Carson Park cemetery in Taos. Josefa Carson was 40 and Kit Carson was 59.

When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, Carson resigned BIA and joined the Union Army. As Lieutenant Colonel of the New Mexico volunteers, he met other soldiers in Albuquerque, along with Josefa and the Whenfamily. KitCarson learned the Confederates were not going to advance on Fort Craig in Soccoro, but bypass it instead and press on to Taos, he sent word to Josefa. She quickly sent family out of town. Fearing the advancing troops might raid their home, Josefa packed the money and valuables with them when theyUponleft. resigning from military service in 1865, Kit became Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Col orado Territory and moved the family to Boggsville, Colo. in 1866, briefly taking command at Fort Garland. Shortly after arrival in Colorado, Josefa gave birth to their third daughter, Estefana Stella.

own: daughter Teresina, born in 1854, son Cristoval Charles born in 1858, daughter Rebecca in 1864, and daughter Estefana Stella in 1868. In 1861, they adopted a 3-year-old Navajo orphan they named Juan Carson.

Josefa (whom Kit called ‘Chipeta/Little Singing Bird’) spent 13 months alone,from the time Carson left in late May 1843, maintaining the cabin Carson built for her on the Little Cimarron River; no doubt support ed by her Catholic faith and family. During the Taos Revolt of 1847, she and sister Ignacia and children witnessed the murder of Gov. Bent by a crowd angered by the new territorial govern ment. Though scalped and killed in front of his family, neither the women nor children were harmed.

THOUGH ILLITERATE, he learned and spoke Spanish, French, 15 different Indian dialects and sign language. An accomplished frontiersman, he helped open the West to U.S. territorial expansion.

JOSEFA CARSON’S SEWING KIT PURCHASED AT MANITOU GALLERY AUCTION FROM OURAY MEYERS COLLECTION. KIT CARSON FAMILY PHOTO.

22 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime a month later by the equally infamous Padre Antonio José Martínez. Her sister and Gov. Bent stood up for the couple as they exchanged vows. Just three months later, however, Carson left on the first of many expeditions he took during his married life, his way of life since age 15.

a r c h i t e c t u r e . i n t e r i o r d e s i g www.barrettdes.comn tcetihcra,tterrabl.annhojtAOS Modern taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 23

For nearly three decades State Senator Roberto “Bobby” J. Gonzales has fought to protect and invest in our water, roads, utilities and education. A Legacy of Service PAID FOR BY THE COMMITTEE TO RE-ELECT ROBERTO “BOBBY” J GONZALES ROBERTO “BOBBY” J GONZALES, TREASURER • $1.4 million secured in capital outlay proj ects for acequias and water infrastructure in the last 2 years • Collaborated with the late Sen. Cisneros on securing nearly $7 million to repair and restore Cabresto Lake Dam • Co-Sponsored legislation to enable Eagle Nest Lake to become a State Park (2004) • Sponsored legislation to create UNM Taos Branch Campus • Supported a $0.50 gross receipts tax for education to bene fit UNM-Taos, local school districts and charter schools • Secured funding for the SecurityHealthActstudy • A champion of forandinfrastructureroadprojectsyears 24 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime

I’m always available to hear your constituent concerns and requests. Call me on my (575)770-3178.cell, State Senator Roberto “Bobby” J. Gonzales District 6, Democrat taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 25

The

legacyarchitecturalof

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BY DENA MILLER

JohnMeemGaw

IN 1920, THE ARCHITECT JOHN GAW MEEM moved to Santa Fe upon the advice of his doctors, seeking relief for his recently-diagnosed tuberculosis. The dry climate of New Mexico was the gold standard of care at the time and he regained his health, but he did not leave the Southwest once he had recuperated. Over the next 30 years, Meem made such an indelible mark on Northern New Mexico’s architectural land scape that he became known as the “Father of Santa Fe Style.”Among the many gems for which Meem is recognized is the old Santa Fe courthouse at 102 Grant Street. Completed in 1939 as part of the federal WPA program, the Spanish-Pueblo Revival building served as the headquarters of county government, though, over time, it was modified to accommodate a growing bureaucracy and workforce.

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28 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime THE OLD SANTA FE COURTHOUSE FEATURES TWO FRESCO MURALS BY ACCLAIMED ARTIST FREDERICO VIGIL THAT DEPICT THE HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. The architectural legacy of John Gaw Meem

Guiding Teacher: Marcia Rose P.O. Box 807 • Ranchos de Taos, NM • 87557 575-758-0633 hermitage@mountainhermitage.org www.mountainhermitage.org •A unique practice opportunity for sincere Dharma students in the exquisite high country of Taos, New Mexico. Grounded in the Vipassana Theravada lineage. •Special scholarship rates available for Dharma students who could not otherwise attend. No fee for monastics FEBRUARY•••1 0 - 17, 2023 1 Week Insight Meditation Retreat with Brian Lesage ••• MARCH 26 - APRIL 16, 2023 3 Week Hermitage Retreat for Experienced Students with Marcia Rose & Kristina Baré ••• MAY 27, 2023 One Day BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Color) Retreat ONLINE with Bonnie Duran ••• JULY 7 -14, 2023 1 Week Insight Meditation Retreat with Greg Scharf NOVEMBER••• 3 - 12, 2023 10 Day Vipassana Retreat for Experienced Students with Annie Nugent ••• NOVEMBER - DECEMBER, 2023 Sunday International Sangha ONLINE 10 to 11:15 am (MT) with Marcia Rose DECEMBER••• 2-11, 2023 10 DAY Concentration/Insight Retreat with Venerable Dhammadipa 50WITH50CELEBRATINGYEARSEVENTS Enjoy the ranch and the great outdoors all week long through October! Details olondrinas.orat 505-471-2261  golondrinas.org  334 Los Pinos Road, Santa Fe El Rancho de Las Golondrinas is 50 years old in 2022. Celebrate with exciting events, including these upcoming festivals: Santa Fe Fiesta de Los Niños: September 3 & 4 Santa Fe Renaissance Faire: September 17 & 18 Santa Fe Harvest Festival: October 1 & 2 Santa Fe Spirits of New Mexico: October 22 Go to golondrinas.org for more information and tickets. PARTIALLY FUNDED BY THE CITY OF SANTA FE ARTS COMMISSION AND THE 1% LODGERS’ TAX, COUNTY OF SANTA FE LODGERS’ TAX, AND NEW MEXICO ARTS taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 29

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, the Santa Fe County commissioners voted to fund a multi-million dollar project to restore the courthouse, intending to breathe life back into a municipal building that was decidedly tired. The original floors were buried under decades of wax, and pressed tin lighting fixtures had dulled from age and dust. Most striking, its courtyard had been lost in the 1970s to a two-story, 9,000-square-foot addition of office space that made the original building dark and airless. The project plans called for removal of that annex and for the historically accurate restoration of much of the interior features. The building’s exterior walls of brick and pentile — a popular building material of hollow tile bricks fabricated at the old state penitentia ry — would remain intact. What even county officials could not have foreseen was such a stunning resurrection of Meem’s design. Today, the historic courthouse evokes timeless beauty: a glorious connection between past and present, just as had been envisioned by Meem over 89 years ago. On a tour throughout the building, Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna Hansen first pointed to the gleaming brick floors laid in a herringbone pattern interspersed with intricate pops of design. “It was amazing to see the floors uncovered and to see how beautiful they are,” she marveled. Overhead, Meem’s original tin chandeliers were spit-and-shine sparkling, throwing a soft glow throughout the hallway whose walls were adorned with Meem’s framed, original floor plans and renderings of the fixtures and even the furni ture he conceptualized for the space.

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At a set of doors, Hansen stopped and pointed through the windows to the sunny outside. “This is where the office addition was and which is, gratefully, gone,” she said. In its place was Meem’s courtyard as he first built it, with brick walkways, trees and colorful foliage inviting visitors to sit and drink in its peaceful elegance. Overhead, three original carved and painted corbels stand sentinel. For years they were “buried by the other building. The restoration of the courtyard is certainly one of the highlights of this project.”

The architectural legacy of John Gaw Meem

The John Gaw Meem Historical Courthouse is on the National Register of Historical Places and the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties.

TODAY, THE HISTORIC COURTHOUSE EVOKES TIMELESS BEAUTY: A GLORIOUS ENVISIONEDJUSTBETWEENCONNECTIONPASTANDPRESENT,ASHADBEENBYMEEMOVER89YEARSAGO.

BACK INSIDE, “The building features two fresco murals that were preserved by acclaimed artist Fred erico Vigil,” Hansen continued. “As we head up to the second floor, you can see the mural along the stairwell which depicts the history of New Mexico.”

“The County and our amazing contractors received two prestigious awards for this project: the Architec tural Heritage Award from the New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee and the Heritage Preser vation’s Community Service Award from the Old Santa Fe Association,” noted Hansen.

“And the centerpiece of our [commission] chambers is the other fresco mural by Mr. Vigil that commemo rates the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. It was painted in 1997 for the 150th anniversary of the treaty… a pow erful mural that speaks to the protections of property, religion and language, and equal justice under the law.”

“I believe it is history and culture that make our communities stronger and more resilient,” she conclud ed. And there is the best of both residing in this iconic building.Anna Hansen is also president of the non-profit Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area.

“The floor in the Chamber was replaced with cork flooring, an original design that helps to absorb sound. On the south side of the building, you can see that the rooms used as holding cells have wooden bars on the windows and balcony, all design elements that have beenInpreserved.”additionto maintaining the historical compo nents of the design, the project’s consultants — the Jaynes Corporation and Studio Southwest Architects — brought the building into compliance with today’s standards. Its new mechanical systems, ADA modifica tions and electric vehicle charging stations marry the historical and the modern.

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Santa Rosa de Lima was an early 18th-century Spanish settlement in the Rio Chama valley, near present-daythetown of Abiquiu. The church, on the plaza, was built circa 1744, and was in use until the 1930s. Repeat ed raids by Utes and Comanches caused the settlement to be abandoned in 1747.

SANTA CLARA PUEBLO

SANTA ROSA DE LIMA

LIMA Operated

APACHEJICARILLANATION tentribes575.759.3242partnership.orgDulce SANTA PUEBLOCLARA Española505.753.7330 PUYE DWELLINGSCLIFF LosSanNM505.917.6650puyecliffdwellings.com30andNM5,taClaraCanyonRd,Alamos TRADINGCHIMAYÓ POST Española110505.753.9414SandiaDr

JICARILLA APACHE NATION

Jicarilla Apache, one of several loosely organized autonomous bands of the Eastern Apache, refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Athabaskan language. The term jicarilla comes from Mexican Spanish meaning “little basket”, referring to the small sealed baskets they used as drinking vessels.

DISCOVER THESE HISTORIC SITES IN RIO ARRIBA COUNTY

SANTA ROSA DE by the

Puye Cliff Dwellings is a National Historic Landmark and home to the ancestors of today’s Santa Clara Pueblo people. Experience one of Northern New Mexico’s most awe-inspiring cultural attractions featuring cliff and cave dwellings, early Pueblo architecture, an original Harvey House and a stunning panorama of the valley.

GEORGIA O’KEEFFE HOME AN D STUDIO

PUYE CLIFF DWELLINGS CHIMAYÓ TRADING POST

Stepping from the bright Española sunlight into the cool adobe interior of the Chimayó Trading Post is like stepping into a bit of New Mexico history. The trading post — designated a national and state historic landmark in 1992 — opened its doors in 1917.

There are few places in New Mexico that can compare with the majestic beauty of the landscape of the homelands of the Santa Clara people. The splendor of the scenery are justly famous in the South west. The Santa Clara Pueblo has emerged with a strong tribal government and a prosperous economy.

Roman ArchdioceseCatholicofSantaFe505.831.8100 32 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime

The Georgia O’Keeffe Home and Studio is a historic house and museum in Abiquiú. From 1943 until her death, it was the principal residence and studio of the artist, Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986). It is now part of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, which has sites in Santa Fe and Abiquiú.

Ohkay220505.852.4400Ohkay.orgPo’payAvenueOwingeh

LOS LUCEROS HACIENDA

FRANK BOND HOUSE

BOND HOUSE

Foster’s Hotel, Restaurant, and Saloon has been around since 1881 and is the oldest commercial building in Chama, New Mexico. Of course, it wasn’t always a hotel, restaurant, and saloon, but, since its opening, it has been home to a convenience store, gas station, brothel and a hotel, restau rant, and saloon. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and because of its incredible history is rumored to be haunted!

The Historic Bond House Museum 706 E Bond Street 505.747.8535Española, Voted #1 Scenic Train by “USA Today 10 Best” readers in 2016, 2019 and 2020! The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Rairoad traverses 64 miles between Chama, NM, and Antonito, CO. It crosses the borders of Colorado and New Mexico 11 times as it chugs its way up and over the 10,015 foot high elevation.

CUMBRES & TOLTEC RAILROAD DISCOVER THESE HISTORIC SITES IN RIO ARRIBA COUNTY LOS BRAZOS HISTORIC DISTRICT taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 33

LOS HISTORICBRAZOSDISTICT Los Ojos

The picturesque 148-acre ranch is located north of Alcalde on the east bank of the Río Grande. Upon arriving at the site visitors quickly realize why people have called the beautiful property home for over six hundred years. The center piece of Los Luceros Historic Site is a magnificent Territorial-style Hacienda that houses centuries of history within its walls.

LOS LUCEROS hisnmhistoricsites.org/toricsites/loslucero

OWINGEHOHKAY Ohkay Owingeh is one of the largest Tewa-speaking pueblos with a population of about 6,748. Today, the pueblo is the headquarters HOTEL HOTEL fosters1881.com575.756.2296393TerraceAveChama OHKAY OWINGEH

of the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council and home to the Oke-Oweenge Crafts Cooperative, which exhibits the art of the eight northern pueblos.

FOSTER’S

FOSTERS

The anchor for Plaza de Española is the historic Bond House, now a museum that highlights the transition of Española from frontier outpost to commercial center. The Frank Bond family established the Españo la Mercantile, invested in sheep and land, and began the construction of an adobe home.

The Los Brazos Historic District in Los Ojos, New Mexico is a historic district which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The listing included 35 contrib uting buildings on 32 acres.

Travel the scenic Turquoise Trail and experience the village of Madrid nestled in a narrow canyon in the Ortiz Mountains. Once a historic coal mining town and ghost town, Madrid is now a creative community with over 40 shops and galleries, several restaurants, a spa and museum.

MERCANTILEPFLUEGGER’S EL DERANCHOLASGOLONDRINAS

El Rancho de las Golondrinas, located on 200 acres in a rural farming valley just south of Santa Fe, strives to maintain examples of historic life-ways. The museum opened in 1972 and is dedicated to the history, heritage and culture of 18th and 19th century New Mexico. Original buildings on the site date from the early 1700s

The Palace of the Governors is said to be the oldest continuously occupied public building in the country. Built around 1610 by Spanish colonists, it is a one-story adobe structure that was the seat of government over hundreds of years. Owned and operated by the State of New Mexico, it has served as the state museum since 1909 and continues to preserve and interpret the history of the many peoples who have called New Mexico home over the last four centuries.

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Lamy151legaltenderlamy.com505.466.1650OldLamyTrl

MERPFLUEGGERSCANTILE

IN SANTA FE COUNTY

HISTORICMADRID

MERCANTILEPFLUEGGER’S EL DERANCHOLASGOLONDRINAS

The Palace of the Governors is said to be the oldest continuous ly occupied public building in the country. Built around 1610 by Spanish colonists, it is a one-story adobe structure that was the seat of government over hundreds of years. Owned and operated by the State of New Mexico, it has served as the state museum since 1909 and continues to preserve and interpret the history of the many peoples who have called New Mexico home over the last four centuries.

Santa334505.471.2261golondrinas.orgLosPinosRoadFe

DISTRICT When the Legal Tender was opened in 1881, it operated as Pfluegger’s Mercantile, serving as a general store for the tiny community in Lamy. The railroad built all the houses, put in a water system, and the train station, and everything, except for the general store. And the general store took care of the 300 people that lived here after the railroad moved on.

visitmadridnm.com505.471.7605Madrid

DISCOVER THESE HISTORIC SITES IN SANTA FE COUNTY

Lamy151legaltenderlamy.com505.466.1650OldLamyTrl

DISCOVER THESE HISTORIC SITES

EL RANCHO DE LAS GOLONDRINAS

MERPFLUEGGERSCANTILE

MADRID DISTRICTHISTORIC

MADRID DISTRICTHISTORIC visitmadridnm.com505.471.7605Madrid

HISTORICMADRID

PALACE OF GOVERNORSTHE

Santa334505.471.2261golondrinas.orgLosPinosRoadFe

EL RANCHO DE LAS GOLONDRINAS

Built between 1770 and 1776, the San José de Gracia Church is a prime example of the Spanish Pueblo Colonial architectural style. The church was constructed by Spanish settlers during the colo nial period. Constructed out of adobe and mud plaster, the church’s walls are 34 feet tall.

PState201575.587.251picurispueblo.orgPuebloViewRoad7eñasco

PUEBLOTAOS Located at the base of the Sangre de Cristos on the Rio Pueblo, Taos Pueblo is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a member of the Eight Northern Pueblos. The ancient pueblo of Tiwa-speaking Native Americans is considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States.

MARTINEZ HACIENDA

DISCOVER THESE HISTORIC SITES IN TAOS COUNTY taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 35

Martínez Hacienda, also known as Hacienda de los Martínez, was built during the Spanish colonial era. It is now a living museum listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is located on the bank of the Río Pueblo de Taos.

Picuris Pueblo is nestled in a setting of serene beauty in what is known as the “hidden valley” of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. The tranquil village rests along the banks of the Río Pueblo River, which nourishes the evergreens, cottonwoods, aspens, grasses and flowers that blanket the valley and surrounding mountains.

PUEBLOPICURIS

LA HACIENDA DE LOS MARTINEZ taoshistoricmuseums.org, 575.758.0505, 708 Hacienda Way, Taos SAN JOSE DE GRACIA CHURCH 505.351.4360, NM State Hwy 7, Las Trampas PICURIS PUEBLO

SAN JOSÉ DE GRACIA CHURCH

36 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime ENVISIONING TAOS

taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 37 capturescolorfultowhiteandblackFrom PHOTOGRAPHS USED AS VISUAL REFERENCES BY E.I. COUSE YIELD A SURPRISING SLICE OF TAOS LIFE | BY RICK ROMANCITO

COURTESY LUNDER RESEARCH CENTER

some fine art instructors view the use of photography as a visual reference for paintings to be a mark of laziness. That impression has been around for a long time, especially when it comes to art used for advertising illustration where speed and accuracy counts when trying to please a client. This axiom has become even more entrenched as mountains of content have become available on the web. But, as in anything art-related, there are always excep tions to the rule, and, with apologies to esteemed professors, not everything an instructor says is necessarily binding.

38 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime EVEN TODAY,

Previous page: JERRY MIRABAL poses near a waterfall for one of E. I. Couse’s photo studies. Undated. | Above: A YOUNG GIRL looks at the camera as people gather at Taos Pueblo. Circa 1903.

Take Eanger Irving Couse, for instance. Couse, born in Saginaw, Mich. in 1866, was one of the founding members of the Taos Society of Artists (1915-1927), a group of professional painters who settled here and wanted to promote and sell their artwork. His friend and eventual neighbor, Joseph Henry Sharp, along with fellow artist Ernest Blumenschein, had encountered Taos after a wagon wheel broke while on a painting trip to Mexico in 1898. As the wheel was repaired, they wandered through town and immediately recognized its creative possibilities. Later, in Paris, Blumenschein met with Couse and spoke glowingly of this small, picturesque community of Hispanos and Native Pueblo Indians. In 1909, Couse traveled to Taos to see for himself and built a studio on what is now Kit Carson Road. There, he set about building a phenomenal body of work, numbering more than 1,500 oil paintings of western subjects inspired by what he saw and imagined in Taos. In so doing, he also benefited from the deep friendships he cultivated with his models and their families.

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Fast forward to 2018 when the Lunder Foundation of Portland, Maine announced that it was providing a $600,000 grant to create an archive and research center focused on the Taos Society of Artists. Its location was the former Mission Gallery building at 138 Kit Carson Road, adjacent to what is now the Couse-Sharp Historic Site. Before its quiet opening in 2022, Director Davison Koenig not only has supervised the immense job of creating a state-of-the-art museum, research library, learning center, archive and exhibit space, he is also overseeing the careful cataloging of a kind of hidden treasure within the Couse Foundation’s walls.

PHOTOS

PAINTBRUSHTOSHUTTERFROM

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Couse was a prolific painter, to be sure, but he was also a talented photographer and, after his death in 1939, he left behind a massive collection of negatives. These photos were not only used by the artist as reference images for his paintings, but they also created a visual record of his everyday life, including candid and rare images of early Taos and Taos Pueblo. “He was such a prolific photographer,” Koenig told the Taos News. “And, a lot of the photos you see are of (Taos Pueblo tribal member) Ben Lujan, because that was one of his main models. This is in 1907, when they were both still pretty Lunderyoung.” Research Center Director and Virginia Couse Leavitt Archivist Chair Marissa Hendriks said the negatives are undergoing a rigorous high resolution scanning and documentation process. “The new digital positives we are creating from the cellulose nitrate negatives provide us with an astonishingly high quality image compared to Couse’s original contact prints. The digital technology that was unavailable in Couse’s day generates extremely clear and detailed photographs that look like they were captured in 2022 rather than 100 years ago.” BY NATHAN BURTON/TAOS NEWS

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42 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime CENTERRESEARCHLUNDERCOURTESYCouse.ofthewithLujan)(wifeLUJANANTONITAofBenposeschildinstudioE.I.1910.

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44 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime BEN LUJAN at CENTERRESEARCHLUNDERCOURTESYCouse.ofandresidencethestudioE.I.1916.

HACIENDA DE LOS MARTINEZ .BLUMENSCHEIN HOME & MUSEUM TAOS HISTORIC MUSEUMS and Memberships available at taoshistoricmuseums.org StreetHOME Blumenschein "Ranchos de Taos Church" CANVAS GICLEES AVAILABLE HERITAGE AND CULTURAL ARTS OF NORTHERN NEW MEXICO. LA HACIENDA DE E. L .BLUMENSCHEIN TAOS HISTORIC Donations and Memberships taoshistoricmuseums.org THE BLUMENSCHEIN HOME AND MUSUEM 222 Ledoux 575-758-0505Street Ernest Blumenschein "Ranchos CANVAS GICLEES PROMOTING THE HISTORY, HERITAGE AND CULTURAL taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 45

46 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime

At the time, Couse knew nothing of how these images might be judged in the future. He was just making photos of things he saw and the people he knew. “So, Ilona was essential in helping to review all of the photographs,” Hendriks said. “We also talked to tribal archivists at Hopi (in Arizona). We do have a number of photos that are not accessible to the public without written permission.”

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A shot being set up for one of

In addition, Lunder archivist David Mapes, whose task it is to scan each negative, said, “We have some amazing photos of Taos Plaza. I know, if you go to the (University of New Mexico) digital archive in Taos Plaza’s tag, there’s not a lot of photos, like the one that comes up a lot from like the 1940s or 50s. But, you know, this is from 1912. And you know, you’re going to see all these great buildings that are just gone today.”

CENTERRESEARCHLUNDERCOURTESYhorse.steadyingbehindCOUSEandfromfacesBENphotoCouse’sstudies.LUJANawaythecameraVIRGINIAstandsatreea1907.

IN 2020, she said the Lunder received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to digitize all of Couse’s contact prints. “We’ve got over 16,000 facsimiles up there as of early June 2022 and that number will continue to grow. We scanned the entire collection for preservation purposes and reached out to relevant tribal community representatives to review the content for cultural sensitivity before publishing them online. Any materials that were flagged as sensitive have been re stricted and require written permission sent directly to us from the community whose culture is represented before access will be Amongprovided.”thosecontacted was Ilona Spruce, Taos Pueblo tourism director, who examined them for imagery that local tribal elders might consider sensitive in relation to their Native religion and customs. To this day, Taos Pueblo maintains strict control over any access to its language and spiritual activities.

48 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime

“Couse’s own use of the camera in preparing studies for his paintings undoubtedly reinforced and perpet uated these elements in his style,” Leavitt writes. Now, students of the life and times of artists like Couse have a valuable and lively resource.

AN ARTISTIC DEEP DIVE

In the 1940s and 50s, Taos underwent a tourism boom, which meant many visitors from all over the world came to Taos to see the Pueblo and walk through the meandering dirt roads of Taos. From that time, many took snapshots that show that period. But, photos from before then are rare, especially since a good portion of Taos Plaza, including the county courthouse, was destroyed in a 1932 fire. Then in 1933, the Don Fernando Hotel also burned in a fire. In 1933, Taos was incorpo rated and, soon after, a number of renovations to the plaza area were undertaken. When ex amined, the Lunder staff knew they had an invaluable record of the Equallypast.asimportant has been the staff’s effort to identify Taos Pueblo people in the photos. It is an unfortunate fact that many artists who traveled throughout the Southwest during the early 20th century tended to view Native people they painted as archetypes rather than individ uals. Many of these people who live on in historic paintings have become nameless.

The Couse-Sharp Historic Site, located at 145 Kit Carson Road, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties. Visit

CENTER A shrouded figure can be seen walking towards San Francisco de Asís Church in Ranchos de Taos. Circa 1903.

Fantastic. Our goal is to share these stories, to provide a more nuanced understanding of Taos and the Amer ican PuttingWest.”names to images, creating a record that forges a bond that is no longer a one-way mirror, that’s one of the most interesting functions of the Lunder.

accuracy and overlooking the subtler implications of Muchinterpretation.”ofthiswas accomplished by the deep con nections he forged with the people he worked with as models. These were not simply people he hired to come into his studio to sit for his photographic, drawing or painting studies. These were people who came to see him as family, and vice versa.

“The Taos Society of Artists came to town not only for the light, landscape and culture, but many of them wanted to record this before it changed drastically,” Koenig said. “And so they could easily see how things were changing already in the rest of the world … Paradox ically, they enabled a lot of that change themselves by bringing attention to this area.”

“With Indian subjects, the artist and public alike some times found it difficult to distinguish between art and ethnology,” Virginia Couse Leavitt, the artist’s grand daughter, writes in the book, “Eanger Irving Couse: The Life and Times of an American Artist 1866-1936” (2019, University of Oklahoma Press). “In their desire to record what was perceived as a vanishing race, Couse and other artists attempted to capture something in the spirit of the American Indian through mood and color, myth and artifact. But the public was often overwhelmed by the pictorial aspects of the exotic subject matter, seeing and expecting ethnographic

Back to Couse and his approach to depicting the humanity of his subjects, it is clear he was looking for a way to illuminate the viewer in ways that were more personal than the common ethnographic depictions.

Koenig said it was remarkable to see images of the area looking so different from the way it is now. “And it’s just empty. Nothing between here and Ranchos (de Taos) … One hundred years later, everyone’s talking about development in real estate and apartments and [back then] they’re having the same conversation … about what’s happening to our town. Can we control it? Is it out of our control? How do we preserve it? You know the cultural integrity of this town that keeps it unique that we live here for … Because, you know, people come here and they think they are all enlight ened and have this brand new idea. And it’s like these issues have been around forever."

COURTESYcouse-sharp.org.LUNDERRESEARCH

Koenig said he was struck by the recent memory of a woman who visited the site “and she said, ‘well, I’ve been researching my great grandmother for years now. And I have all this wonderful information about her and the family. And I’d love to talk to you sometimes.’

RARE IMAGES

4146 State Highway 68, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico 87557 575-758-7322 866-758-7322 www.rbravens.com

4146 State Highway 68, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico 87557 575-758-7322 • 866-758-7322 info@rbravens.com www.rbravens.com

RB Ravens Gallery

info@rbravens.com www.rbravens.com

TRIBUTE TO THE COMMUNITY. This mural on the wall of RB Ravens Gallery depicts the ages old tradition of farming and devotion in the Ranchos de Taos community. It was originally begun by artist Mary Iron Eyes, but time had taken its toll on its beauty. Recently, the muralist Scripture stabilized the image and upgraded some of the painting. Now, it stands as a tribute to the acequias and generations of water stewards for our community. Tradition. Respect. Distinction. Find it all at RB Ravens Gallery.

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Tradition. Respect. Distinction. Find it all at RB Ravens Gallery. RB Ravens Gallery

•

info@rbravens.com

4146 State Highway 68, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico 87557 575-758-7322 866-758-7322

•

ONE WOMAN’S EYE ON THE LANDSCAPE BY LYNNE ROBINSON

Their letters, collected and edited by Sarah Greenough, (“My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz: Volume One, 1915-1933,” Yale Press) allow us a glimpse into O’Keeffe’s creative journey; her process, and life-long love of Northern New Mexico. After O’Keeffe moved to New York in 1918, they began living together almost immediately. Inspired by the city and Stieglitz’s charmed circle of friends and acquaintances, O’Keeffe bloomed like the flowers she would come to paint. They married in 1924, but there was always trouble in para dise; O’Keeffe wanted to have a child, and Stieglitz did not. The couple also lived with his family, which was immensely difficult for O’Keeffe — spending every summer at Lake George in upstate New York with the Stieglitz clan, whom she felt infringed on her painting time. Stieglitz’s avid promotion, and her own tremendous skill, soon made O’Keeffe a famous artist in her own right, and once she could afford to travel, she started taking trips. In the summer of 1929, she decided to visit New Mexico: a decision that would change the course of her life. She had first fallen in love with New Mexico in 1917, when she passed through Santa Fe with her younger sister, Claudia, on a trip to Colorado. “From then on, I was always trying to get back there,” she said, “and in 1929 I finally made it.”

Alfred Stieglitz was the most important person in the New York art world, and Georgia O’Keeffe was a schoolteacher, teaching art in Texas when they began a correspondence over a stack of charcoal drawings she had sent him that lasted until his death.

O’Keeffe’s faraway lens

O’Keeffe and Rebecca Strand, (a fellow artist married to the photographer Paul Strand), spent the summer of 1929 in Taos, staying in one of Mabel Dodge Luhan’s houses, the same house that D.H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, had lived in for a summer. “This really isn’t like anything you ever saw — and no one who tells you about it gives any idea of it,” she wrote to Stieglitz from Taos, on May 2, 1929. Stieglitz continued to spend his summers at Lake George without her. The annual separation appears to have been difficult; torn between her obligation to him and her dedica tion to her work, but in the high desert of New Mexico, she connected with her muse: 52

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taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 51 GEORGIA O'KEEFFE. UNTITLED (RED AND YELLOW CLIFFS), 1940. OIL ON CANVAS, 24 X 36 INCHES. GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM. GIFT OF THE BURNETT FOUNDATION. © GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM. [1997.6.36] PHOTO: TIM IMAGING4ARTNIGHSWANDER/

“The difficulty in getting out here was enormous, but I came,” she noted in an O’Keeffeinterview.came alive in New Mexico, painting the landscape that would ensure her legacy. Her letters to Stieglitz are filled with tales of adventure. That summer of 1929, she painted all around Taos, working directly from nature. “In the evening, with the sun at your back, that high, sage-covered plain looks like an ocean,” she said. “The color up there — the blue-green of the sage, and the mountains, and the wild flowers — is a different kind of color from anything I’d ever seen. There’s nothing like it in Texas, or even in MuchColorado.” toDodge Luhan’s chagrin, O’Keeffe spent only that first summer in Taos. She had already discovered the magical country to the west; 56 GEORGIA O’KEEFFE the Rio Grande Valley. “It was the shapes of the hills there that fascinated me,” she said. “The reddish sand hills with the dark mesas behind them. It seemed as though no matter how far you walked you could never get into those dark hills, although I walked great distances.”

“Lake George is not really painting country,” she said. “Out here, half your work is done for you.” O’Keeffe mentioned in a letter to Mabel Dodge Luhan that she was helping Stieglitz by not getting in his way, and that this was why she came west in the summers, but clearly she was as captivated by the landscape and changing light, as so many before and since.

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The letters to Stieglitz express all her emotions, her attempts to reconcile her desires for work, art and marriage — a thoroughly modern marriage that lasted until Stieglitz died in 1946.

taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 53 GEORGIA O'KEEFFE. BELLA DONNA, 1939. OIL ON CANVAS, 36 1/4 X 30 1/8 IN (92.1 X 76.5 CM). GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM. EXTENDED LOAN, PRIVATE COLLECTION. © GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM. [L.1997.3.3] PHOTO: NIGHSWANDER/IMAGING4ARTTIM OPPOSITE: GEORGIA O'KEEFFE. JIMSONWEED STRAMONIUM),(DATURA1964-1968.POLAROIDPRINT,33/4X2 7/8 INCHES. GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM. GIFT OF THE GEORGIA O'KEEFFE FOUNDATION. © GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM. [2006.6.1070]

Celebrating over 20 Great Festivals www.taosnews.com/magazines/fall-festivals FALL FESTIVALS MagazineCelebrating over 20 Great Festivals www.taosnews.com/magazines/fall-festivals FALL FESTIVALS MagazineDiadelosMuertos 54 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime

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Over the years since her death, many art critics have come to see O’Keeffe as an important precursor of contemporary American art; suggesting her work is in the true line of an authentic American aesthetic tradition, which was disrupted by European influences as a result of the infamous Armory Show, in 1913, when Marcel Duchamp turned the artworld on its Shehead.had her summerhouse at Ghost Ranch, but the Abiqiui house was in ruins when she bought it in 1945. It appealed to her because of its walled and well-irrigated garden — partic ularly during the war when gas rations prevented her from making more than one trip a week to Santa Fe, for produce. She decided to purchase it and live in it year-round.

EVERY

There were rumored difficulties about her relationship with Mabel Dodge Luhan after that first summer she spent in Taos, but in truth, she liked and was amused by her, but required more solitude to work.

It took three years to rebuild, but in ’49, when she moved west for good, the house was ready.

A great model, she used not only her beauty in youth to express herself through the lens, but also her impeccable sense of style, to create a sculptural form with self.

Independent to the core, O’Keeffe clearly wanted to keep a certain distance between herself and the Taos art colony.

After his death, she spent three more winters in New York, settling his estate and dividing his extensive art collection among six different institutions, including the National Gallery of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1949, she relocated to New Mexico.

O’Keeffe and Tony Luhan had become fast friends. He became her self-appointed guide, taking her and Rebecca Strand on camping trips to remote places, including Mesa Verde and Canyon de Chelly, revealing the landscape through Native eyes.

The outpouring of work that followed during the decades she resided there is of epic proportions. Prolific and motivated, she was creative all of her days, and evidently a camera was never far from her side.

Perhaps she never explored the medium before 1950, because Stieglitz’ prowess behind the lens and in the dark room intimidated her? His studies of her were some of the most beautiful figurative works ever made in the darkroom.

THEVERYWHOTORETURNEDO’KEEFFEFALL,STIEGLITZ,REMAINEDMUCH GEORGIA O’KEEFFE OFCENTERHER LIFE.

taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 57 GEORGIA O'KEEFFE. PEDERNAL, 1941-1942. OIL ON CANVAS, 20 1/8 X 30 1/4 INCHES. GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM. GIFT OF THE BURNETT FOUNDATION AND THE GEORGIA O'KEEFFE FOUNDATION. © GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM. [1997.5.12] PHOTO: TIM IMAGING4ARTNIGHSWANDER/

58 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime MARIA CHABOT. GEORGIA O'KEEFFE CLIMBING LADDER, GHOST RANCH HOUSE PATIO, 1944. GELATIN SILVER PRINT. MARIA CHABOT ARCHIVE. GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM. GIFT OF MARIA CHABOT. © GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM GEORGIA O’KEEFFE

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“The truth is, I’ve been very lucky,” she said in later years.* “Stieglitz was the most interesting center of energy in the art world just when I was trying to find my way.”

Theskyline.exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, which turns 25 this year. Their current exhibit, “O’Keeffe in the Landscape,” is a must-see.

*Quotes from: a New Yorker interview with Calvin Tompkin published in November 1974.

She had already had a long relationship with the camera before she came to use one. Perhaps it was a way to remain somehow connected to him? But after his death, she was free to express herself however she chose to. At the urging of her friend, photographer Todd Webb, she purchased her first camera; a Leica. In the 60s, she bought a Polaroid. She photographed the landscape and made the largerthan-life paintings that captured the vast horizon with their simplicity of form and fields of color. She photographed and painted bones, stones and skulls, the New Mexico desert and the cycles of life. With more than 100 works, the show at the Denver Art Museum (July 3-Nov. 6) is the first large-scale exhibition to focus on Georgia O’Keeffe’s photography, which has long been overshadowed by her paintings, but clearly Stieglitz’s influence was farther-reaching than previously thought.

The show includes many of her most well-known subjects through the camera’s lens; the flower studies and high-desert landscapes along with modernist views of the New York City

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Letters quoted from “My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz: Volume One, 1915-1933,” edited by Sarah Greenough, Yale University Press for purchase at okeeffemuseum.org/product/my-far away-one. GEORGIA O'KEEFFE. GHOST RANCH LANDSCAPE, CA. 1936. OIL ON CANVAS, 12 X 30 INCHES. GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM. GIFT OF JEROME M. WESTHEIMER, SR.. © GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM. [2005.2.1]

PHOTO: TIM IMAGING4ARTNIGHSWANDER/ GEORGIA O’KEEFFE

For more information visit okeeffemuseum.org.

“When we hosted the ANHA in Augusta and took the participants on a bus tour we stopped at the site where we preparing the foundation to move a historic church to, in order to save it. Although time was short Tomas jumped off the bus and took a shovel from one of the workers and started digging on the foundation. That was so like Tomas, always willing to help!”

Julie Chacon, Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area Executive Director

Tomás Romero was a tremendous asset to preserving and protecting the uniqueness of Northern New Mexico. We spoke for hours of similar histories, traditions, cultures, arts, possible collaborations and projects. Tomás’ singing, jokes, conversations, ideas, and friendship are truly missed. Thank you for being my friend, confidant, supporter, guide, counselor, your time, and mostly being my New Mexico dad!

National Heritage Areas work tirelessly to uncover the souls of places that have shaped America. Tomas Romero gave his heart as the ultimate “story-protector” to ensure that the remarkable tapestry of the Northern Rio Grande NHA reflected the people, places and stories that comprise the great state of New Mexico.

“My friend Tomas you were pure of heart, a kind yet firm leader, and a great, yet humble singer. I cherish the memory of you and Rolando and I getting others on the bus singing in harmony one evening driving back into Yuma....rest in peace dear brother.”

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-Dayton Sherrouse, Augsta Canal National Heritage Area Executive Director -Sara Capen, Niagra Falls National Heritage Area Executive Director

The Alliance of National Heritage Areas is grateful for his service and vision. We will carry his lega cy forward in the work we do in each of the communi ties we represent.

-Shawn Pamaville-Size, MotorCities National Heritage Area Executive Director

Thomas Romero was a true Story Protector. He had an aptitude in protecting heritages, languages, cultures, and traditions of the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area through partner ships, education, interpretation, and most impor tantly, friendship. When visiting other National Heritage Areas, he was so interested in learning and never hesitated in offering his assistance. Thomas had so much knowledge and many ideas he was willing to share with each person he came into conversation with. Thomas was very instrumental in all of the Alliance of National Heritage Areas efforts, program bills, and designations of other na tional heritage areas. Thomas made sure everyone he came into contact with thrived.

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With 11,000 years of documented human habitation, the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area is a cross roads of the centuries. Here a unique blend of Native American, Hispano and Anglo settlement is reflected in the diversity of the people, art and traditions. The geographic isolation of our high desert valley and the peoples’ enduring ties to the land have given rise to a rich cultural heritage and ensured its preservation. The area’s fertile cultural landscape is complemented by remarkable natural resources, including the mighty Rio Grande, majestic Rocky Mountain peaks, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, National Wildlife Refuges, and the high mountain desert, all of which lend the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area an unparalleled beauty that offers a sense of retreat and a powerful source of inspiration for visitors.

SANGREHERITAGE.ORG

Antiguos Scenic & Historic Byway Find our tour on taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME 63

Los Caminos Antiguos Scenic & Historic Byways is located in the most southern central part of Colorado. Located two hours north of Santa Fe, in the beautiful San Luis Valley be tween the Rocky Mountain Ranges of the Sangre de Cristos and the San Juans. Along its 129 mile route, interpretive markers tell the story of the land, the people and the history. The scenic drive will take you through the heart of the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area.

www.sangreheritage.org/los-caminos/ Los Caminos

The high desert of Northern Central New Mexico is home to the Native peoples, who have inhabited the area for thousands of years. Their descendants include the Jicarilla Apache Tribe and eight northern Pueblos.

Steal away a day on the award-winning, and leave your worries behind. From the window, this is a scenic train ride unlike Mountain West. Vibrant and beautiful as The modern world can wait while you take

HERITAGE

COURTESY BILL CURRY

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The area comprising the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area also includes the descendants of Spanish colonists who settled the area after arriving in 1598, nearly two centuries before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Within the boundaries of the Heritage Area, which covers over 10,000 square miles of land, there are a great number of natural, cultural and historical points of interest that, for centuries, have drawn visitors from all over. The Heritage Area is world-renowned as a center for the arts and the continuing presence of its cultural heritage.

The Ride Of Your Life. award-winning, historic Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. Climb aboard the open air gondola to the breathtaking views from your private unlike any other. Join us for a day trip through the unspoiled Rocky as always. Depart from Antonito, Colorado or Chama, New Mexico. take the ride of a lifetime. Book now at 1-888-286-2737cumbrestoltec.com

Steal away a day on the award-winning, historic Cumbres & and leave your worries behind. From the open air gondola to window, this is a scenic train ride unlike any other. Join us for Mountain West. Vibrant and beautiful as always. Depart from Antonito, The modern world can wait while you take the ride of a lifetime. Book now at 1-888-286-2737cumbrestoltec.com

America’s most historic scenic railroad

The Steal away a day on the award-winning, historic and leave your worries behind. From the open window, this is a scenic train ride unlike any other. Mountain West. Vibrant and beautiful as always. The modern world can wait while you take the

The Ride

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The Ride OfThe Ride Of Your Life.The Ride Of Your Life.The Ride Of Your Life.

Karl Cordova, who is the U.S. National Parks Service liaison to the NRGNHA, said that Tom “was a wise man who cared deeply about the heritage values of all of North ern New Mexico. He was a man of courage, compassion, grit and wisdom who will be sorely missed. The NPS is grateful for his great contributions to our mission.”

Thomas A. Romero

The publication Land Water People Time is one of Thomas A. Romero’s contributions to the overall mission of cultural advocacy and preservation. He was a prime mover in the realization of LWPT, first as an award-winning film documentary and then the publication. He wrote: “[LWPT] is an educational journey. A national heritage area is a place recognized by Congress for its unique contribution to the American experience. In an NHA, natural, cultural, historical and recreational resourc es combine to form a cohesive, nationally distinctive landscape arising from patterns of human activity shaped by geography. The Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area is dedicated to developing and sustaining the distinct cultures, values and history of north central New Mexico.”

BY DAVID FERNANDEZ THOMAS (TOMAS, TOM) A. ROMERO, our former Executive Director of the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area, wrote the following in the introductory article for the first published issue of Land Water People Time cultural guide magazine: “From ancient Native culture to Spanish exploration and colonization to Mexican independence and U.S. statehood, Northern New Mexico’s history is complex and intensely interesting. The combination of cultures, languages, folk arts, customs and architecture that emerged from these multifaceted inter actions continues to shape the heritage area today, giving it a flavor all its own. We add the current experience of Mexican immigration and Anglo migrations to the mix and the region becomes a place like no other.” (This is one paragraph from a comprehensive and exceptionally cohesive, deeply researched article.)That article was titled, “A Place Like No Other,” composed and written by Tom. Now, we, the Board of Directors, staff, partners, associates and friends of the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area (NRGNHA) are mourning his death. He passed away on March 12, 2022. Que Descanse En La Paz Eterna Y En La Divina Luz. We who have had the privilege of working with Thomas A. Romero recognize and know that his final departure means that we have all lost a masterful and exceptional resource of cultural knowledge and intelligence; we know at the same time, that his work and achievements during his lifetime have advanced the tasks, mission and vision of the NRGNHA to which he was dedicated in his decade-long tenure as a skilled executive director; as well as the work of other institu tions and organizations with which he was associated, including El Museo Cultural de SantaTheFe.NRGNHA region, a vast area that en compasses 10,000 square miles and includes the Counties of Taos, Rio Arriba and Santa Fe, also is the home of highly-gifted thinkers, writers, scholars, artists. In his own way, Tom proved to be exceptional in the area and among his peers as well. Tom was born in Santa Rosa, N.M. on Nov. 21, 1946. He loved his work with El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe and other organi zations that sought to promote the Hispanic and Native cultures of New Mexico. His family and friends recall him as a firm but gentle presence and possessed of a good sense of humor and kindness. We recall him as an exceptionally effective director of the NRGNHA during the 10 years that he and the Board guided the organiza tion.

‘TOM WAS A WISE MAN WHO CARED DEEPLY ABOUT THE HERITAGE VALUES OF ALL OF NORTHERN NEW MEXICO,’ RECALLS KARL CORDOVA, U.S. NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE LIAISON TO THE NRGNHA. ‘HE WAS A MAN OF COURAGE, COMPASSION, GRIT AND WISDOM WHO WILL BE SORELY MISSED. THE NPS IS GRATEFUL FOR HIS GREAT CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR MISSION.’ BY JOHN T. DENNE

MEMORIAM

An exceptional man in a place like no other

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We recall that, after much formulative groundwork by such cultural advocates as Kathryn Cordova, Juanita Cordova, Mary Mascarenas, Jose Villa and Samuel Delgado, the U.S. Congress enacted legislation creating the NRGNHA on October 12, 2006. Dedicated cultural advocacy volunteers on the Board of Directors have continued the work. And we now recognize, commend and salute the work and contributions given to the mission and vision of the NRGNHA by the longtime and effective Executive Director Thomas A. Romero, a truly exceptional man in a place like no other

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Sept.17-18 and 24-25: The 24th annual High Road Studio Tour along NM 76 and NM 518 between Nambe and Taos, with stops at dozens of arts and craft studios, plus working farms (highroadnewmexico.com or 866-343-5381).

NOVEMBER Nov. 5-6: The annual Dixon Studio Tour, the oldest continuously-run event of its kind in the area (dixonarts.org).

TBA: Christmas at the Palace includes free hot cider, live music and a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus, 5:30-8 p.m. at the Palace of the Governors on the Santa Fe Plaza (nmhistorymuseum.org).

Labor Day weekend: Fiestas de Santa Fe, including the annual burning of Zozobra on Sept. 2 followed by parades, music on the Plaza, arts and other events (santafefiesta. org).

Oct. 4-10: Churro Week, hosted by the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center, with work shops on natural dyes, colcha embroidery, and more films, plus field trips and lectures focused on churro sheep (evfac.org)

Oct. 2-3: The annual El Rito Studio Tour, with more than 30 artists opening their homes and galleries (elritostudiotour.org).

Oct. 19-23: Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, with screenings, panels, parties and awards (santafeindependentfilmfestival.com).

Christmas Eve: Taos Pueblo activities include bonfires, traditional dancing and mid night Mass (taospueblo.com or 575-758-1028).

2022 Northern New Mexico Events

Dec. 8: Free staging of Las Posadas on the Santa Fe Plaza, 5:30-8 p.m. (santafe.org).

Oct. 8-12: The annual Abiquiú Studio Tour, with more than 50 participating artists (abiquiustudiotour.org).

Sept. 21-25: The Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta, a leading event of its kind nationwide, with more than 70 participating restaurants, wine seminars, chef luncheons, cooking demos, auctions and more (santafewineand chile.org).

Sept. 17-18: The 13th annual Renaissance Fair at El Rancho de las Golondrinas (golondrinas.org).

Nov. 11-13: The annual Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival, with the Trash Fashion & Costume Contest and some 100 artists displaying their work at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center (recyclesantafe.org).

68 LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME taosnews.com/landwaterpeopletime SEPTEMBER

Sept. 16-17: The PASEO Project, a free and energetic festival on Taos Plaza, featuring performance art, installations, interactive arts, live music and more. (paseoproject.org).

DECEMBER

Sept. 23-Oct. 2: The Taos Fall Arts Festival, the town’s oldest arts festival, features exhibitions, talks, and more (taosfallarts.com).

Christmas Eve: Farolito Walk in Santa Fe’s Canyon Road neighborhood (santafe.org).

Oct. 14-15: The annual Taos Storytelling Festival, with local and visiting artists, a “story slam,” workshops and more (taosstory tellingfestival.com).

Rio Arriba, Taos and Santa Fe counties are enlivened year-round with special events spanning a broad spectrum of activities and interests. Here is a summary of major events. For additional details, see the arts and entertainment magazines published by the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Taos News.

OCTOBER Oct. 1-2: The annual Harvest Festival at El Rancho de las Golondrinas, just south of Santa Fe in La Cienega, with all the living history museum’s programs and activities in full swing, plus local foods, talks and demonstrations. Admission fee charged (golonindrinas.org).

CALENDAR

Thanksgiving weekend: Typical opening of regional ski areas, which remain open through Easter (skinewmexico.com).

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MICHAEL J. GARCIA was born and raised in Santa Fe, and serves on the Santa Fe City Council. His public service career began as an AmeriCorps VISTA member and has now spanned nearly two decades. Michael graduated from the University of New Mexico with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administra tion.

CHARLOTTE ROYBAL has spent more than 25 years working in health policy, foundation manage ment, community organizing, coalition building, campaign field organizing, organizational develop ment and management. She serves as the NRGNHA treasurer, and in the past, as a member of numerous public commissions and boards, including the Governor’s Children’s Trust Fund. She has two adult children and three grandchildren.

KARL CORDOVA has been the park superinten dent at Pecos National Historical Park over the past eight years and is the National Park Service liaison to the NRGNHA board. Born and raised in southern Colorado, he is a descendant of more than nine generations of family members who lived in the Northern Rio Grande area.

A PORTION OF THE WILD RIVERS RECREATION AREA BISECTED BY THE RIO GRANDE GORGE NORTH OF TAOS LOOKING NORTH. BY CHRIS DAHL-BREDINE.

Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area Board Members BY DANIEL 2022-2023GIBSON

DARLENE VIGIL is a Taos County commissioner and a lifelong resident of Taos. She has worked in public service for more than 32 years, and is com mitted to maintaining traditional and cultural prac tices that benefit present and future generations.

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MARY TRUJILLO MASCARENAS, who resides in Llano (near Peñasco), earned an Associate of Arts degree in business from Loretto Heights College in Denver. Her many roles have included serving as a member, vice-chair, and chair of the New Mexico Acequia Commission; a member, secretary, and chair for seven years on the Peñasco School Board of Education; and a member of the New Mexico School Board Association. She has been on the board of the NRGNHA since its inception, acting as secretary, vice-president and president; on the Taos County Planning Commission for 16 years; and president of the Altar Society at San Antonio de Padua Parish. Mary and her husband, Ambrose, were recognized as Living Treasures for Taos County in May 2005.

ROGER MARTINEZ is a native Taoseño, and has lived in El Norté between Santa Fe and Taos his entire life. He is an artist, photographer and writer, with a focus on local culture. His heritage in the North America region goes back to the early 1500s, and in the Land of Enchantment since 1598. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in social work from the College of Santa Fe, and has a certification in photography. He recently served as the executive director of the Taos Men’s Homeless shelter.

CORILIA ORTEGA is a newly-elected city coun cilor for the Town of Taos. She is also an advocate for the food systems in Taos, supporting growers, acequieros, seeds, and the next generation of landbased people in the Taos Valley.

SAM DELGADO is the NRGNHA secretary.

ANNA HANSEN is the president of the board of the NRGNHA, and a Santa Fe County Commission er representing District 2. A resident of New Mexico for more than 49 years, she earned both her master’s of art and bachelor’s of fine art degrees from the University of New Mexico. Hansen also serves on the Buckman Direct Diversion Board, and was chair in 2021. She is also a member of the following committees/boards: Metropolitan Planning Organi zation, chair of Santa Fe Solid Waste Management Agency, vice-chair of the Coalition of Sustainable Communities, the Santa Fe County Housing Au thority, and the Santa Fe County Audit and Invest ment committee. She is the vice-chair of the NACO Arts and Culture Committee, and vice-president of the Energy Committee of the National Association of Counties’ Energy, Environment and Land Use Committee. Hansen has served on New Mexico State Board of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (2003-2009), chair of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (1999-2004), the Santa Fe River Commission (2015-2022), and the City of Santa Fe’s Parks and Open Spaces Advisory Commission (2007-2015).

DAVID FERNANDEZ is a native-born resident of Taos. A writer, journalist and newspaper columnist, he authors “The Blessing Way” and “Espiritu del Norte” columns for the Taos News. He is a chron icler of the cultural, spiritual, historical, political, environmental and other fundamental elements of El Norte, and beyond. He is the father of four, and grandfather of six. He is an executive committee board member of the NRGNHA and currently serves as vice-president of the organization.

ERIC VASQUEZ is a native of Northern New Mexico, whose roots go back generations. In the past, he has been the executive director of the Re gional Coalition of Los Alamos National Laboratory Communities, publisher of the Valley Daily Post, executive director of the Española Valley Chamber of Commerce, and policy director for the Office of Lt. Governor. He currently works for Chicanos por la Causa, the largest Hispano nonprofit in the country.

Traditionsrundeep.

SantaFeNMTrue.com

MARGARET CAMPOS has served as the execu tive director of the NRGNHA since March 2020. A native of Northern New Mexico, she resides today in Embudo. A strategic, operations and project management specialist with an MBA from New Mexico State University, she has held positions with county, state and federal governments, and in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. She’s worked for entities as diverse as Los Alamos National Labo ratories, Rio Arriba County, as an adjunct professor at Northern New Mexico College and as business manager for Santa Fe Imaging. She continues to be a multigenerational farmer on the banks of the Rio Grande.

SantaFeNMTrue.com Traditions run deep.

We think of our land and water and human resources not as static and sterile possessions but as life giving assets to be directed by wise provisions for future days.