Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-07-09
In ANCIENT TAOS VALLEY
The Seat of One of the Oldest Settle
ments in the Territory of
New Mexico.
SUPPORTING A VERY LARGE POPULATION
Traditions and Legends of This Pueblo
of Antiquity As Recited by Juan
Mirabal An Indian with
Memory.

Taos, N. NJ, July 5.-The valley , of
Taos is probably the seat of one of the
oldest settlements in New Mexico, while
the village bearing the same name can
almost dispute Santa Fe's claim tor dis
tinction as the Oldest town in the south
west, if not in the United States. On this
point, however, as in the history of the
capital city, there is nothing known def.
nitely concerning the exact date of the
founding of the place.
But be that as it may there is no ques-
tion concerning the antiquity of the set
Elements in the valley. When the Span
ish first visited the northern part of the
territory the Indian pueblo was standing
very much as it stands now, fields were
under cultivation, and large popula-
tion was scattered over the country to
the west of the mountains. Some six
miles below Taos are the ruins of an In
dian pueblo which can be traced along
the foothills for several miles, and no
doubt these crumbled walls represent a
pile of buildings and rooms capable of
housing thousands of people. 1t is said
that other pueblos were located on the
sites of several of the present Mexican
plazas, and in some instances the walls
of houses now occupied, were the walls
erected by Indians centuries ago. There
is nothing improbable in this supposi-
tion. The Taos valley is well calculated
to support large population, and CON
ditions were probably more favorable in
the ages that are past than today. Sew
eral streams issue from canons in the
mountains on the north and east and flow
in southwesterly direction through the
valley, making the distribution of water
an easy matter, and the tribes of Indians.
in passing through the country looking
for agricultural lands, would naturally
locate in spot 80 well adapted for their
purpose.
THE TAOS PUEBLO.
Today a trip was made to the pueblo,
and through the thoughtfulness and
kindness of Don Juan Santistevan, was
enabled to find an Indian, one Juan
Mirabal, who spoke English fuently and
took pleasure in telling number of the
traditions concerning his people and the
pueblo. According to the history "un-
written" as Mlrabal said, the different
tribes resulted in the following manner,
and in telling it the language of Juan
will be used as near as possible:
"Many, many years ago the Indians
came to this country in big ships, sailing
from the west TO the east, from what
country know not, neither do our tradi-
tions say. 1t was long voyage, but
when the new land was reached they were
all much pleased. After getting off the
ships some said, 'this is a good land,
therefor let US make homes and raise
much to eat.' Others said, mo, the hills
and valleys are full of game and the
streams are alive with fish. It is not
necessary to work, we can live by the hunt
and by snaring fish, Then great dis
pute arose and there was much talking.
At last vote was taken to decide the
matter, and the people who wanted to be
idle and do nothing but hunt and fish
we're more than those who wanted to live
in houses and farm. But the vote did not
decide the question. Those who wanted
to work left the Others and began the
search for good places to raise things to
eat; these were the pueblos. The others
who took to hunting became the wild
people and as years passed, divided into
the different tribes"
| Mirabal was asked how long the pueblo
had been standing, and in reply told an
other tradition, saying in way of preface
| that the Indians had no written history
and therefore he could not vouch for the
accuracy of the years given, but he be-
lieved the rest of the account to be true.
The history of the pueblo, as told by him,
is substantially as follows:
More than 300 years ago village stood
just east of the present village and con-
sisted of three great adobe buildings
many stories high, three piles of red
debris were pointed out as being all that
is left of the village. At the time men
toned very strong tribe of wild Indians
came from the west and wanted to give
battle to the pueblos, but the visitors
made such terrible noises that the people
became frightened and ran away. The
wild Indians at once set fire to the village
and destroyed it. When the invaders
were gone the homeless people came from
their hiding places and erected the pres
ent buildings which stand in four groups,
two of them having seven terraces.
While this account fixes no definite
time for the destructive fire, it does give
an idea of the age of the houses now
standing. If the burning of the former
buildings occurred before the arrival OF
the Spanish it was over $50 years ago
probably much longer; if after the com
ing of the conquerors, it must be as the
tradition states, little more than 30C
years.
PROSPEROUS PUEBLos.
The Indians own large tract of valua.
BILE land around the pueblo and extend
ing back into canon in the mountains
to the east A large stream of good
water runs down the canon and through
the village, and from this little river water
is taken for irrigation and domestic pur.
poses. The land is divided into plats
each man owning his own field and eact
man is responsible for it's cultivation
The fields of corn, wheat, alfalfa and
vegetables are we'll cared for and the out
look for Poor Los bread and butter
(they keep good cows) for the coming
year is very hattering. Quite large por
tion of their land is covered with groves
which are magnificent, aud woe to the
vandal who dares to cut even 80 much al
j sepling of living timber for fuel. Fire
wood is obtained by collecting the brok
! en- branches and cutting dead trees
nothing is allowed to 60 to waste.
Whether owned in common or not was
not learned, but the village is well sup
, piled with horses, cattle, chickens, ant
farming implements Of late patterns
( The live stock is in good condition, an,
! apparently we'll cared for. A more in
} dustrious lot of people would be sough
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