TAOS

TAOS (rhymes with house) means "in the village." The northernmost of the Pueblo Indian villages in New Mexico, Taos was described first in 1540 by Spanish explorers. This agricultural community, distinguished by its five-story buildings, had been residence to several hundred Tiwa-speaking inhabitants since at least a.d. 1200–1250. The Spanish renamed the town San Gerónimo de Taos, and Fray Pedro de Miranda built an outpost near the village in 1617. Taos participated in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, which drove the Spaniards out of New Mexico. The community endured the reoccupation in 1692, but it rebelled again in 1696. This rebellion was quelled by Don Diego de Vargas.

After 1696, Spanish authorities and their Mexican successors ruled Taos peacefully by tolerating traditional religious practices and recognizing an annual trade bazaar that attracted plains Indians eager to acquire Pueblo wares and crops. Known as the Taos Fair after 1723, the institution brought a short season of peace to the province and boosted New Mexico's economy. In 1796, Fernando Chacon granted land to seventy-three Hispanic families to settle where the present incorporated town of San Fernando de Taos is located, three miles south of the pueblo.

During the Mexican era (1821–1846), Taos became important as home to many American traders, most notably Christopher "Kit" Carson. Taoseños revolted against Mexican rule in 1837 and against American rule

in 1847, killing the trader Charles Bent, the first American territorial governor. Retribution led to strained relations among Anglos, Hispanos, and Taos Indians for decades to come.

By 1900, Taos had become home to the Taos school of American painters, most notably Bert Phillips and Ernest Blumenschein, who attracted many other artists in the early twentieth century, among them Mabel Dodge, Andrew Dasburg, Georgia O'Keeffe, and John Marin. Since the 1950s, Taos has become a favorite Western resort for tourists and skiers. In 1970, after a half century of legal battles, Taos Pueblo regained title to Blue Lake, a sacred site off-reservation within the nearby Carson National Forest.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bodine, John J. "Taos Pueblo." In Handbook of North American Indians. Edited by William C. Sturtevant et al. Volume 9: Southwest, edited by Alfonso Ortiz. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1979.

Grant, Blanche C. When Old Trails Were New: The Story of Taos. New York: Press of the Pioneers, 1934. Reprint, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1991.

Porter, Dean A., Teresa Hayes Ebie, and Suzan Campbell. Taos Artists and Their Patrons, 1898–1950. Notre Dame, Ind.: Snite Museum of Art; distributed by University of New Mexico Press, 1999.

Simmons, Marc. New Mexico: A Bicentennial History. New York: Norton, 1977.

William R.Swagerty

See alsoPueblo .