Taos was great. It’s a small town, but with friendly people and beautiful art galleries. But visually and culturally, the most interesting place for me was Taos Pueblo. It was very quiet the day we were there, given that it was off-season; however, we were lucky to be there, because the pueblo was going to close the next day for a two-month-long tribal gathering. Our tour guide was cagey in talking about the event, telling us only to say that it was a time when many members of the pueblo who lived outside the pueblo came home.

The patron saint of Taos Pueblo (because the conquering Spanish said so) is St. Jerome. The current church of St. Jerome (San Geronimo) is located on the main square of the pueblo. However, the history of the church is entangled with the history of the pueblo’s resistance to conquest. As the National Park Service explains,

Taos Pueblo received its first Catholic Franciscan priest in 1598, when Juan de Onate, after establishing a Spanish settlement at San Gabriel, assigned Fray Francisco de Zamora as missionary to the Taos area. In 1627, Fray Benavides reported that the church was under construction, but with difficulty due to the non-cooperation of the Taos Indians. In 1647, the tribe sent the Inquisition in Mexico an official complaint of the immorality of the priest assigned to pueblo. In 1640, Fray Miranda and several other Spaniards were killed by the Indians at Taos, the church was destroyed, and the people left the pueblo. They returned under the persuasion of Governor Lopez de Mendizabal around 1660 and reluctantly accepted another priest. The church was slowly rebuilt, impeded by local resistance, and the situation continued to deteriorate as tribute continued to be collected and traditional religious practices were suppressed.

In 1690, a coalition of pueblos revolted against Spanish rule and drove the Spaniards out of the area for 10 years. The Spanish finally reconquered Taos Pueblo in 1696, but did not complete a new church until 1726. In 1846, the mission again came under attack

as Mexicans and Indians resisted the American takeover of the territory during the Mexican-American War, killing the new American governor Charles Bent and marching on Santa Fe. Government troops and volunteers marched on Taos and attacked the Mexicans and Indians dissidents who had taken refuge in the San Geronimo church. The church, with walls 3-7 ft thick, became a formidable stronghold. The first day the American cannon balls lodged themselves in the thick adobe with little effect. Seeing that bombardment was not successful, the next day forces led by Colonel Price resorted to setting the roof on fire and storming the building. The American forces took the town and two years later the annexation of New Mexico was formalized by the Treaty of Guadalupe in 1848. The cannon ball riddled mission church was left to ruin and a new church was built in 1850.

So much for the idea of sanctuary. Today, the ground around the old church is a cemetery.

Next: New Mexico to Arizona and Utah.