Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-10-06
THE FEAST OF
San GERONIMO
Thousands Of People Thronged Taos
to Witness the Unique Celebra-
tion a Week Ago.
The INDIAN CEREMONIES
All Kinds of Sports and Amusement-Oon'
trasts to Be Found Only in New
Mexico-The Pyramids of
Taos Pueblo.

ple> witnessed the festivities which
closed here tonight in the annual eel
ebration held in honor of the patror
saint of the Taos Indian pueblo, Sar
Geronimo. Ordinarily about twenty
four hours are yearly given up to this
joyous event. but for some years past
each recurring year has brought an in
creased number of strangers into the
community to witness the stirring Incl
dents connected with the observance OF
he, day, SO this year the residents OF
the place joined hands with their red
faced brethren of the Indian village
and took time by the forelock in pre-
pairing for the reception and entertain
| ment of visitors. The result was a most
| unique, original and inspiring program
a happy blending of the ancient with
the modern in manner to be witnessed
nowhere else on American soil.
THE PYRAMIDS OF TAOS.
And just here some idea of the ro-
nance and historic interest attached tC
this Indian pueblo by quoting from
Chas. F. Lummis' article on the "pyra-
mids of Taos" "They are simply Amer
lean pyramids" says he, 'or pyramoids,
and therefore about one ten-thousandth
as we'll known to Americans as is the
sepulcher of Cheops. They are prehis-
toric, but still in use. They are no
tombs of fabulous kings, nor impene-
trable secrets of which world has for
gotten more than it ever knew. They
are Just monuments to the human love
Of homeland the human ingenuity in
making home a safe retreat even in the
childhood of the race. In word, they
are the two great communal houses in
which the Pueblo Indians of the north
.rnmost valley in New Mexico have
oeen making their simple history for
probably 500 years.
When Francisco Vasquez de Corona
do, the first great North American path
inder, was making his astounding
+marches through our southwest, $50
years ago, his subordinate, Capt. Fran
cisco de Barrionuevo, marched with a
few men over 100 miles up the Rio
Grande valley from Tiguex "a pueblo
about where Bernalillo, N. M. now
stands), and finally reached the large
and powerful village Of Braba, as the
Indians called it. The explorers named
It Valladolid, and Castenada, the peev-
,sh chronicler Of Coronado's expedition,
describes it so well that it has been
conclusively identified with the present
Taos.
"They stand on the two sides of a
chuckling trout brook in lovely valley
among the last vertebrae Of the Rocky
mountains. Close on the north the mas
sive Truchas spring abruptly from the
little plain. East and south are the
dwindling and farther ranges of Picuris
and Santa Fe. On the west the great
canon of the Rio Grande splits the val
ley from the timbered uplands. 1t is one
of the finest landscapes in the south
west; and despite it's altitude of 1000
feet, one of the fairest valleys.
Nowhere in the world is there more
startling page of ancient history
brought down to date. All Of Europe
has nothing which remotely suggests
these human beehives, these fortress
homes of the northern Tiguas. Even
among the most strangely picturesque
populations Of China, India and the
isles of the sea, there is no mate to
Taos. 1t is only in America, and only
in New Mexico, that such things are to
be seen; and they are not common even
there. Zuni, the one village that Is left
of the Seven Cities of Cibola," whose
fame led to the first discovery of Arizo-
ma, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas
by Europeans, is of the same type as
Taos-bigger. but far less beautiful
And Acoma. the "Sky City," and the
pueblos of Moqui, are diminished speci-
mems of the same strange development
But Taos Is queen of all, the most per.
feet remaining type of the terracet
communal houses Of the ancient Pu
eblos, which was in Its turn the mos
astonishing domestic architecture eve
invented by man, savage or civilized.
Fancy some child of the giants try
| ing to build pyramid of its overgrowr
blocks; pyramid over 400 feet on
side,. the steps" formed by the super
imposed cubes being about 10 feet high
and six layers Of them, laid up will
childish irregularity. Fancy this vas
plaything turned into labyrinth o
cells of stone and adobe, with snow.
walls Of gypsum, and crooked doors ant
earthen chimneys on each stage, ant
bristling ladders from step to step. Pop
ulate it with few hundred mysteriou
beings of active bronze, clothed IL
strange oriental garb, inscrutable bu
human, reserved but gentle, living thei
quaint lives, with our selfsame joys AM
sorrows, passions and hopes and fears
and with more than our balance in |
all--and you begin to have rudiment
ary notion of Taos.
Life and customs Of this six-storie'
republic of two houses and 500 peopl
are precisely like those of other Puebl
towns.
They are, indeed, Of the Tiguas, tn
second Of the six linguistic stocks Of tn
Pueblos. Their language is the same a
that of Isleta-the southernmost Of a
the Pueblos, as this is the most north
erly. Between them are villages speak
Ing the entirely different languages Q
the Tahuas. the Jemez, the Tanos an
the QUERIES.
Like all other Pueblos they live b
agriculture; and their small farms ar