December 2017 Green Fire Times

News & Views

from the

Sustainable Southwest

STORIES of HOPE and HEALING

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Vol. 9, No. 12 • December 2017 Issue No. 104 PUBLISHER

Green Fire Publishing, LLC Skip Whitson ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Barbara E. Brown

News & Views

from the

Sustainable Southwest

Winner of the Sustainable Santa Fe Award for Outstanding Educational Project

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Seth Roffman DESIGN

Green Fire Production Department

CONTENTS

COPY EDITOR

Green Fire Times: New Publisher, Structure and Management in Jan. 2018 — Seth Roffman. . .. .6

WEBMASTER

Getting a Grip on Christmas ­— Alejandro López. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 7

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Sunny Dooley, Ann Filemyr, Susan Guyette, Juanita J. Lavadie, Alejandro López, Maya Peña, Anita Rodríguez, Seth Roffman, Miguel Santistevan, Patricia Marina Trujillo

Envy, the Devil and Our Lady of Remedies — Anita Rodríguez . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 10

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Thomas Hamm, Juanita J. Lavadie, Alejandro López, Kateri Peña, Maya Peña, Seth Roffman, Melanie Rosenthal, Miguel Santistevan, Patricia Marina Trujillo, Marty Vigil

This Woman — Poem by Sunny Dooley. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 15

Stephen Klinger Karen Shepherd

PUBLISHER’S ASSISTANTS Cisco Whitson-Brown, Steve Jinks, Gay Rathman ADVERTISING SALES Call: 505.471.5177 Email: Info@GreenFireTimes.com John M. Nye 505.699.3492 John@GreenFireTimes.com Skip Whitson 505.471.5177 Skip@GreenFireTimes.com

Prophecy of the Seventh Fire: The Time is Now — Ann Filemyr . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 13

Reflections on Historias / Histories of New Mexico Conference — Patricia Marina Trujillo. . .. . 18 Learning from the Land: Agricultural Continuation and Innovation in Taos — Miguel Santistevan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 New Mexico Acequia Association 2017 Photo Contest Winners . . .. . .. . .. . .. . 24 Making the Cibolero Shirt — Juanita J. Lavadie . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 27

Anna C. Hansen 505.982.0155 DakiniDesign@newmexico.com

Everyday Green: Child Hunger in New Mexico — Susan Guyette . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .31

Steve Jinks 505-303-0501 SteveJ@GreenFireTimes.com

2017 Santa Fe Mayor’s Sustainability Award Winners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

DISTRIBUTION

Newsbites . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 37

Linda Ballard, Barbara Brown, Co-op Dist. Services, Frankie García, Nick García, Scot Jones, PMI, Daniel Rapatz, Tony Rapatz, Wuilmer Rivera, Denise Tessier, Skip Whitson, John Woodie

What’s Going On. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 38

CIRCULATION: 30,000 copies Printed locally with 100% soy ink on 100% recycled, chlorine-free paper

GREEN FIRE TIMES

c/o The Sun Companies P.O. Box 5588, SF, NM 87502-5588 505.471.5177 • info@greenfiretimes.com © 2017 Green Fire Publishing, LLC

Green Fire Times provides useful information for community members, business people, students and visitors—anyone interested in discovering the wealth of opportunities and resources in the Southwest. In support of a more sustainable planet, topics covered range from green businesses, jobs, products, services, entrepreneurship, investing, design, building and energy—to native perspectives on history, arts & culture, ecotourism, education, sustainable agriculture, regional cuisine, water issues and the healing arts. To our publisher, a more sustainable planet also means maximizing environmental as well as personal health by minimizing consumption of meat and alcohol.

Green Fire Times is widely distributed throughout northcentral New Mexico as well as to a growing number of New Mexico cities, towns, pueblos and villages. Feedback, announcements, event listings, advertising and article submissions to be considered for publication are welcome.

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ON THE COVER

Angels, Ancestors and Living Walls of Mud by Anita Rodriguez (www.anitarodriguez.com, See page 10)

Green Fire Times • December 2017

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Green Fire Times:

NEW PUBLISHER, STRUCTURE and MANAGEMENT in JAN. 2018

N

From the Editor-in-Chief – Seth Roffman

e w s ro u t i n e l y p re s e n t e d i n mainstream media can be perceived as acts of rhetorical violence. When a student in a UNM Public Health class asked, “Where are the stories of hope, of healing?” the teacher held up copies of Green Fire Times (GFT). “In that moment it really sank in for me,” she said. “Your paper gives us a media to heal. That’s powerful.”

For over eight years, GFT has made a unique contribution to our region’s media landscape by providing multicultural perspectives on the interrelationship of communities, cultures, environment and economy, while providing a needed platform for writers, photographers and other contributors. In this time of deepening social and environmental crises, media consolidation and fake news, it is my hope that GFT will continue to showcase time-honored traditions along with cutting-edge initiatives.

GFT has achieved measurable success— without adequate operational funding. To be able to survive and better meet the needs of

our communities, next month GFT will transition to become part of Southwest Learning Centers, Inc., a Santa Febased nonprofit organization (est. 1972, swlearningcenters.org) focused on multicultural education and community development. This transition will allow us to develop GFT’s online potential while maintaining a viable print publication. It will also allow us to formalize a training/ mentorship program for aspiring writers, journalists and documentarians.

We a p p re c i a t e o u r re ad e r s a n d advertisers. Advertising has made GFT possible. To supplement ad revenue to be able to move forward with this transition, GFT will now be able to apply for foundation funding. We are also hoping that some of our loyal readers will consider a tax-deductible contribution to help GFT reestablish itself. Checks may be made to Southwest Learning Centers, Inc. (with a notation “for GFT”) and sent to P.O. Box 8627, Santa Fe, NM 87504-8627.. ■

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GETTING a GRIP on CHRISTMAS

A lejandro López

In my youth, Christmas was not the problem that it is now. Back then, Christmas was about purchasing a seven-dollar pine tree at a local tree yard, bringing it home and decorating it with a single electrical string of small colored light bulbs, a little tinsel and a fabric angel with outspread wings to go at the very top. The illuminated tree in our living room, almost more than anything else, made Christmas the magical event that it was, even more than presents. In our modest, workingc lass household, we were all quite content to receive an orange or a toothbrush and give away a comb or a 25cent can of shoeshine.

Ever yone was happy because happiness filled the air!

of this cult.

No doubt about it, Christmas was about the origins of Christianity, a religion which the Emperor Constantine had, in the year 330 A.D., decreed to be the state religion of the Holy Roman Empire. This decision had dire and momentous consequences for both Jews and pagans who inhabited this enormous empire that stretched from Western Europe to the Middle East and from the Mediterranean to the shores of Scandinavia. In time, the Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch and other seafaring colonial European powers whose histories were intimately connected to the Holy Roman Empire were to export this religion and its beliefs to nearly every corner of the world, including northern New Mexico.

It is for this reason that one finds the massive, ancient Catholic churches in the heart of Pueblo Indian villages so very far from this messianic religion’s point of origin near the Sea of Galilee in what was then the Roman province of Judea.

Nevertheless, my father observed an interesting custom that I have ne ver forgotten and whic h, in my mind, is as much about the Christmas season as any other. Early in the afternoon of Christmas Eve, he would order his sons to chop and gather piles of long sticks of pitch pinewood. Not far from our house on a hill, he would carefully build a few small wooden towers—no more than four feet tall—by carefully crossing each stick over each other in a rectangular pattern.

I have decided that, for me, Christmas will just be about a few things, and nothing more.

Other things that helped define the specialness of Christmas at little or no cost, were the school plays and caroling that took place in our parochial school and the obligatory two-hour midnight mass at our hundreds-of-years-old church, which tested everyone’s stamina for staying awake. Both of these events drove home in no uncertain terms that Christmas was about celebrating the birth of Christ and about offering devotion to a newborn babe who had been born in a stable in the Middle East nearly two thousand years before.

Going up to the altar in a long, slowmoving line and kissing the tiny feet of an exquisite effigy of the baby Jesus held in the hands of a priest (and wiped clean after every kiss) was the epitome

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Sometime during the evening, when darkness had descended over the land, he would bid us to come out from inside the house. He would set fire to the luminarias and we would gather round the bonfires with their leaping flames. As children, we romped around this scene like agile deer, only too happy to be outside and in an arena illuminated so dramatically. W hile the bonfires were still at their height, my father, without warning, would

© Seth Roffman

A

s a time that is normally too busy to even think straight, the Christmas season, with its myriad demands, brings an added challenge to my life—one I would rather not face until Christmas Eve, if I had my druthers. However, denying the eventual arrival of the 25th of December only creates additional stresses that could have been prevented by taking the time, months before, to reflect on what this mid-winter holiday is all about, and what one is willing and not willing to do in the face of so many deeply ingrained religious, social, cultural and economic pressures.

The Ortiz family celebrated Christmas Eve in 2016 at their home on Acequia Madre in Santa Fe by singing carols. Eleanor Ortiz’s mother, Luisita, promised to burn luminarias each year in thanksgiving for her brother being safe after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.

suddenly let out a series of coyote-like yelps that punctuated the evening with an otherworldly eeriness and mystery.

He would eventually grow quiet, the fires would die out and we would all go inside for some posole laced with red chile. Since, on some level, all of this made sense to us, we never inquired about these practices. It is only now as an adult, that I speculate that the custom of the bonfires and animal howls may in fact go back to a time before Christianity when the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere was marked by the lighting of fires and by the imitation of the ways of animals (the sole winter food source), as is still done in Pueblo Indian communities of northern New Mexico.

In our contemporary world, fake gaudy Christmas trees go up in many of the big box stores just after Halloween, reminding people to begin setting aside money to purchase a new $1,400 refrigerator for the wife, a $675 table saw for the husband, or $700 computers for each of the children. Christmas music, whether you like it or not, is piped into many public spaces at a time when caroling is thought of as “quaint,” as many people no longer do it.

R e f l e c t i v e o f o u r c o u n t r y ’s h u g e economic divide are a few streets and homes that are turned into virtual winter wonderlands, with thousands of dollars worth of lights and other fixtures, in

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

Green Fire Times • December 2017

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Getting a Grip on Christmas continued from page

7

See the world around you.

© Alejandro López

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Green Fire Times • December 2017

Robin Moore of Vallecitos, New Mexico, delivers a homemade Christmas present to a friend.

contrast to many others that do not even sport a simple farolito on the curbside or a candle at the window to guide a traveler home. References to corporateserving Santa Clauses are ubiquitous, but there are few to the newborn babe and fewer still, to the winter solstice that may have originally spawned all of this extraordinary activity.

Flurries of greeting cards are put in the mail (or email) to everyone one knows, and invitations for people to gather together to celebrate Christmas are dispersed in so many directions that one needs a special calendar app just to keep track of them. People gather on Christmas Eve or morning to exchange presents, and then, just as quickly as Christmas comes, it goes, with hardly anyone mentioning it a few days later when New Year’s Day becomes the holiday upon which all energies are focused.

Even with minimal preparation, Christmas always sets my other duties back a couple of weeks. Not until the end of January, do I seem to fully recover from the avalanche of cards, wrapping paper, presents, sweets in every form,

non-stop visits, and a public art scene populated by 10-foot-tall, black-andwhite plastic blow-up snowmen and other such confabulations.

After much reflection, I have decided that, for me, future Christmases will just be about a few things, and nothing more. Among them will be attending my sister and brother-inlaw’s annual family gathering. It will also be about honoring the solstice, honoring light (or “The Light”) and spreading goodwill to all by verbal greetings, a simple homemade card and a handcrafted gift with alternative wrapping. The latter, hopefully, I will have made back in June, amid much “peace on earth,” before commercial Christmas hysteria approaches and transforms our hear tfelt need for obser vance of light in the midst of darkness into a spree of buying. ■ Alejandro Lopez is a native nor ther n New Mexico writer, p h o to g ra p h e r a n d educator.

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ENVY, the DEVIL and OUR LADY of REMEDIES

A rticle and Paintings by A nita Rodríguez

I

La Envidia (envy) was a constant theme in Grandma’s stories, in adult conversation and popular belief. Some variation of “Eeeeee!

La Raza is so envidioso that we will never get anywhere!” was intoned with almost the same monotonous regularity as the rosary. That was long ago, and I have ceased to believe we are more envious than anyone else, or that envy is an adequate name for something so universal, it must have some survival function.

Seven decades of winters have passed since I fell asleep dreaming of La Tuerta. I have had plenty of time to observe and think about envy and evil.

I have seen that—depending on psychological and political conditions—envy is sometimes motivational and creative, sometimes pathological and destructive. From Cain and Abel to Huitzlipotzli and Quetzalcoatl, to Osiris and Set, there is no continent or culture where envy has not furnished storytelling, literature, drama, myth and art with subject matter.

The painting (page 11, top) called Envidia, is a death scene. The scorpion-like puppeteer above is La Tuerta. The drama below is so charged with emotion that the wallpaper is twisted with its force, and each character, each detail, is part of the narrative. On the left an altar and menorah suggest a Crypto-Jewish family, comfortable with the synergy of Catholicism. Beside it a statue of the Virgin is covering her face. Does she weep in grief and shame at the spectacle unfolding in the room? One skeleton is lifting a gilded mirror off the wall, but his reflection is that of a man of flesh and blood, giving a surreal twist to the script. Another skeleton hunched in the shameful posture of a thief seems to be slipping something into a purse and sneaking off. The dying figure, reaching weakly for a glass of water, spills it, while at the

Courtesy of Fine Art New Mexico, LLC

remember the whisper of snow pelting the antique glass in my grandmother’s deep windows while struggling to stay awake and hear the end of the story. The blizzard whipped and whistled outside, but embraced by thick adobe walls we cousins snuggled like a litter of puppies under layers of Chimayó blankets. The fire chuckled, throwing warm flickers of light on the latilla ceiling. I fell asleep and dreamed of La Tuerta’s one eye bobbing and dipping just above the horizon. She grew bony hands and, like a giant puppeteer, made people dance on her strings.

foot of the bed someone is going through an ammunition box—searching for documents?

Notice the character at the head of the bed.

Gripping the headboard as if in rage, he is listening to a cloaked character whispering in his ear. Why the gesture toward the fireplace poker? Does this suggest murder?

Perhaps making art out of something painful or dark sanctifies it, de-claws or neutralizes it. Turning a trauma into art commits the artist to engage in a prolonged symbolic process, an indirect encounter with the trauma.

It requires thoughtful placing of charged symbols in a balanced composition, making it “work,” integrating it. It requires containing a painful narrative within the boundaries of a frame. The colors must be harmonized.The act of taking a dark, scary thing and making it beautiful heals the artist—and the viewer. It bears witness and puts the trauma “outside” in the magical container of art. This painting is a healing ceremony. I hope that it can serve someone as a map to guide him or her through the universal experience of envying and being envied.

Perhaps making art out of something painful or dark sanctifies it, de-claws or neutralizes it.

10

That long-ago storytelling voice evokes another figure that lived from the landscape of my childhood, El Diablo. He was

Green Fire Times • December 2017

particularly prone to accost daughters who disobeyed their parents and went to bailes without permission, as I recall. The legend about how the devil appeared to dance with a young girl and then, exactly at midnight, vanished in a flash of sulfurous smoke was one of Grandma’s stories. At a bar called Los Compadres in Taos, there was a stain on the wall where patrons claimed the devil had passed through the adobes at midnight.

The painting above, El Diablo Volviendo de las Parranda (The Devil Coming Home from a Night Out), tells a story that speaks to temptation. You can see from the smoke on the right that wherever the devil has been, he was up to no good. Ever eager for new prey, here he steps out of his sinister Ford Victoria, tipping his hat, making an offer that would be wise to decline. The devil is never shabbily outfitted. Here he is elegant in cashmere, he has fire-engine-red velvet diamond tuck upholstery, and a $100 dollar bill floats from his aerial. Notice his cloven hoof and horns.

This painting is a universal metaphor for the seductive approach of evil, the offer that is too good to be true, the allure of addiction.

But there was always a refuge—Our Lady. She never let you down. Earthly flesh-and-blood mothers are human, but She does not fail those who love Her. My Indo-Hispano soul is drawn to the archetype of the Great Mother, perhaps more than any other theme in my body of work. Images of the Divine Feminine keep

“El Diablo Volviendo de las Parranda” (The Devil Coming Home from a Night Out)

appearing. Among them is (page 11, bottom) Nuestra Señora de los Remedios (Our Lady of Remedies), more beloved in the Americas than even the Guadalupana.

Her image was brought to this continent by a soldier of Cortez named Gonzalo Rodríguez.

He buried it under a maguey, promising that if he survived the coming battle he would build her a shrine. But he vanishes from history on the night of La Noche Triste, when the Aztecs drove the Spaniards out of Tenochitlán. About 30 years later a campesino found it and took it home. In the morning it was gone. He went back to the maguey and there it was. This happened several times, and then everyone understood that Our Lady wanted her shrine.

So the church in the center panel was erected to her on the site of the biggest pyramid in the Western Hemisphere; one of the most sacred sites in the Americas—Cholula, outside of México City. Her specialty is that she heals the wounds of the conquest—which are still bleeding today.

From this powerful site in the center of the Americas her shrines have spread across the continent. She is the mother whose mixedblood children were born of violent conflict and creative confluence in a great, agonizing birth trauma that shook a continent. A new race was born—Indo-Hispanos, mestizos— whose language is second only to Chinese in

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the sheer number of speakers.

At her feet are narratives of recovery—in the center are two veterans with the dove of peace over their heads. A man is getting out of a wheelchair, mothers are bathing their children in medicinal waters, someone is being carried in a litter, a child holds up a puppy with a bandaged paw. Nopales rise in the foreground. Nopales are only a staple food in México, enshrined on the flag and in myth; they are a remedy for diabetes—a legacy of historical trauma and the colonization of food production. Under the triptych is a repiso, or shelf, studded with milagros, ready to receive offerings of candles, flowers, crystals. (Milagros are little silver charms that you can buy in the churches of Central America. You pick the one for the thing that needs healing—an eye, heart or leg, your car or hand—and pin it to the robe of Our Lady or your favorite saint.)

Courtesy of Fine Art New Mexico, LLC

We carry the colonizer and the colonized in our blood and karma, along with the blood of all races. We are European, Chinese, African and indigenous. Our Lady of Remedies is the Mother who heals our historical trauma, reconciles our cultural differences and gives us the wisdom to accept our contradictions.

She rises out of the land; the mountains are her body and her head towers into the sky— where angels swirl in the clouds. She holds the caduceus (European symbol of healing) in one hand, and out of the other hand flow healing waters. Who could doubt her power?

“Envidia” (Envy)

This triptych is a marriage of art with curanderismo, a healing ceremony in traditional folk art form. Ranging from a mini-altar to the household altar to the gilded altars in a cathedral, this particular form creates a locus of power or focused concentration. Our ancestors knew the power of a simple ritual that engages the body, the psyche and the emotions.

Anita Rodríguez’s family goes back to De Vargas in her beloved Taos Valley.

Creating art and “making things”—unique in style and content—has been a lifelong love. Rodríguez has traveled the world, observing many cultures. She conducts workshops on subjects such as envy and racism, tamales and painting. She has published Coyota in the Kitchen, a book of thought-provoking stories around food (including recipes) that range from historical to funny to tragic. Prints of her triptych painting are available through her web site: anitarodriguez.com

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Courtesy of Fine Art New Mexico, LLC

This triptych is 7 feet long, and belongs in a hospital, church or healer’s reception room. I imagined people sitting in a doctor’s office, worried, “Is it cancer? How will I pay for it?”

I wanted to create something beautiful to look at, something to inspire and activate the mystery of healing. ■

“Nuestra Señora de los Remedios” (Our Lady of Remedies)

Green Fire Times • December 2017

11

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PROPHECY of the SEVENTH FIRE: THE TIME IS NOW A nn Filemyr

I

Trail, Our Good Way of Life—some call it the Good Red Road. Here our value is determined not by how much money we have or how much property we own but by the gratitude in our hearts. We are judged by our kindness and generosity, not by our obedience. We are part of all that is and not the boss of all that is. We honor all nations of people, all plant, animal, mineral and spiritual life as we honor our own life, for we clearly understand our kinship.”

n 1979, I met a charismatic storyteller, a wise old woman, an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe or Chippewa) mashkikikwe (herbal medicine woman) named Keewaydinoquay, Woman of the Northwest Wind. She took a look at me, a bright-eyed, precocious white girl seeking a way to live that did not perpetuate the violence of civilization, and she tucked me under her wing. I was 20, eager and willing to change my life, for I was seeking a new story. I refused to exchange my joy for a corporate paycheck like my father did. The passivity required to consume life as a mere spectator bored me to death. I yearned to do, to be, to live! Kee invited me to become her oshkibewis (helper), so I dedicated myself to learning everything I could. She taught me traditional prayers, songs, stories, medicines, ceremonies and lifeways of her Anishinaabeg people. I studied Anishinabemowin, the Ojibwe language, and learned to listen.

She stopped and peered into our faces one at a time. “Each of you matter, and each one of you must choose. You are like the individual cells in a body. If even one cell does not participate in the health of the whole, the body is not well.”

I sighed. How could we ever cooperate together when we are each so different?

Leaning forward on her worn wooden staff, her clan staff, with its signature sandhill crane carved on top, she spoke quietly. “Our Ancestors told of this time, the coming of the Seventh Fire. A fire is a generation, and they told us seven fires after contact with the Black Robes (French priests), all of humanity would arrive together at a fork in the Great Road of Life. And together, humankind would have to choose which way to go. The choice will determine life on Mother Earth. We face a grave decision, my grandchildren, for the road ahead splits in two. One path leads to creation, and the other leads to destruction.

The choice is yours to make.”

She fell silent. The truth of her words sank into my consciousness. I understood from her that everything was at stake.The shadows beneath the white pines grew deeper. The crackling fire filled the silence. I shuddered to think of the choice we needed to make.

We waited for her to resume speaking.

I began to twitch impatiently, though I knew this was not proper behavior.

Finally, I interrupted the reverie, “Nookomis (Grandmother), how can we be sure to choose the Path of Creation?”

“Granddaughter,” she answered softly, “the way is clear. You just need to pay attention.

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© Alejandro López

One summer night, I sat with her and others beneath the Milky Way. The fragrant smoke of a cedar and birch fire filled the air on a small wilderness island in the northern Great Lakes somewhere between the U.S. and Canada. It was here that I first heard the ancient Ojibwe prophecy called The Seventh Fire.

One road is built from conquest, bloodshed and dominance, continuous warfare. Fear and hatred rule. Reliance on technology increases until weapons matter more than a child’s life. Human beings are reduced to robots, performing mechanized tasks, unable to feel connection with other living beings.

yet imagined. Yet the Prophecy of the Seventh Fire held a warning.

Suddenly she cried out, “Look what they have done to our corn! They took the sacred gift given to us by our ancestors and spliced it with biochemicals to make it compatible with herbicides and pesticides to kill what they do not understand—the insect people and the holy plants they call weeds! Once we were all gardeners tending our food and medicines.

The y made far ming a poverty and invented agribusiness, factory farms! Now our once fertile corn is a hybrid and it’s sterile! What will happen to us when a man and a woman will no longer be able to come together in the sacrament of creating new life? What has already happened is that woman as mothercreator has been reduced to shame.

We are judged by our kindness and generosity, not by our obedience.

“ O n t h i s d a n g e ro u s road of separation and suffering, this road we know all too well already, all existence, including human existence, will cease to be as we know it. Yet this Road of Destruction is seductive. It appears to promise power and control, pleasure and freedom, but it is a path of addiction, greed, distrust and isolation.”

She paused as we shivered in disbelief.

At that time, personal computers, cell phones, c loning, the Internet, artificial intelligence, neurotechnology, c yberkinetics, c yborgs and all the ways our brains and bodies might be restructured by merging organic life with biomechatronic components was not

“You are the People of the Seventh Fire!”

She called to us as she poked the fire with the tip of her clan stick, causing the embers to swirl upward. “You must learn to walk the Giizis Mikana Ni Bimadisiwin! The Sun

“The question you must ask yourselves: how will you live in relation to others?

Right relationship is the key to healing. It cures every disease.” Right relationship, I considered this new term I had not heard before. Keewaydinoquay continued, “Every time you refuse to listen to a different opinion, you choose the Road of Destruction. Every time you choose to share your time or food with someone in need, you choose the Road of Creation. Each day you choose to love, create, give or forgive yourself or another, you take another step forward on the Path of Creation. Each time you choose hatred, fear, revenge or betrayal, you strengthen the Road of Destruction. Truth telling advances creation. Deception brings destruction. It is up to each of you each day to choose.”

“I choose Creation!” I called out with unbridled enthusiasm. She turned to face me, her eyes stern and solemn. “Not so easy.

Most of us straddle the two roads. One foot in creation and the other in destruction.”

“How is that?” I asked, perplexed. “Many feel choiceless,” she responded. “People have been corralled like cattle into a crowded pen and prodded to move this way or that with an electric rod. They will do whatever they can to avoid the pain. They will hurt others the way they have been hurt. Or they will go numb. Drink, do drugs, eat too much, distract themselves with useless worry. People will be jealous, judgmental, spiteful—anything to not feel connected to the Source of Life.

Today living a compassionate conscious life is no longer the goal of being alive, as it once was for us. We were a people who believed everyone had a right to realize and fulfill their true purpose, and seeking a vision was part of that. But now so many people feel useless and CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

Green Fire Times • December 2017

13

Prophecy of the Seventh Fire: The Time Is Now continued from page

13

worthless because the Path of Destruction does not value our unique talents. People are taught they are not enough and must buy and own things, for things are more valuable than living beings. This makes us less alive, less joyful, less capable. Most of us are not yet awake to the truth.”

for those who have been treated unfairly.

We are good people. We want ourselves and others to thrive. We love horses or birds or dogs or gardens or rivers or mountains. We care about clean water. Yet to live fully aligned with our values seems almost impossible. We may feel stretched beyond what we can bear.

With her crane clan stick she gestured toward us. “This is why I need you and you and you.

You are my sticks for the Seventh Fire. I am throwing you into this sacred fire so you can burn with understanding. Be a spark that ignites others to burn brightly! Then together you will light up the fork in the road and help others see which way to go.”

We also understand that what we choose now will determine the future of life on Earth. The prophecy continues to grow like a fire in my breast. Every time I add my breath, blowing on the embers by speaking of it, the flame grows brighter.

I face the fork in the road. The choices I make through my thoughts, feelings and/or actions will contribute to either the Path of Creation or the Path of Destruction. This knowledge has guided me for many years.

On that night long ago the dawn lights began to dance in the eastern sky as we rubbed our sleepy eyes. We let the campfire die down as the inner fire grew brighter.

Finally, it was time to go.

Before we parted, Keewaydinoquay took my hands in hers and said to me, “Now

you must travel with conscious care, for you carry the seeds of the future.” ■ Ann Filemyr is a poet, writer, vice-president of Academic Affairs, director of the Transformational Ecopsychology Certif icate P rogram and dean at Southwestern College, in Santa Fe, NM. She is trained in traditional medicine practices of the Great Lakes Objibwe and was Academic Dean at the Institute of American Indian Arts for nine years.

She sprinkled some of her plant medicine onto the fire and smiled brightly as flames leapt into the air. We could smell the fragrant prayers of NiNookomis Giishik (Grandmother Cedar) and NiMishomis Wigwaas (Grandfather Birch) mingle and rise into the night.

“My beloved grandchildren,” she addressed us tenderly. “ There will be terrible difficulties ahead as you try to straddle the two roads. With one foot you will be invested in oil, gas, mining and waste, hate and despair, and with your other foot you will be creating new ways to live and love.

You must remember down to your bones that we are all related, and you must learn to live again in the Circle of Creation.”

She gestured with her arm describing a large circle in the air. “At times the way forward will appear blocked by the force of civilization and its endless cycles of war and destruction. Do not lose heart. Keep choosing the Road of Ongoing Creation.

It will take great imagination, courage, love, patience and stamina. Like the elk, it requires going it alone and being a member of the herd. Can you do it? Can you be like the elk?”

Her question lingered in the forest clearing.

Her question lingers with me still after all these years. I can clearly see the fork in the road. There are two distinct, different paths, and up ahead they veer far from each other.

Yet most of us continue to straddle the two roads, driving our cars to and from work, shopping in big box stores, buying food that is shipped half way around the world, paying taxes that subsidize corporate globalization and undermine local economies. We value community and connection. We seek justice

14

© Seth Roffman

I understood in that moment that I was one of her precious fire sticks. She expected me to carry the bright light of the prophecy forward. I was part of the sacred fire and had a role to play, just as we all do.

A path at Los Luceros, a historic site in Alcalde, New Mexico

Humankind’s stream of waste is often unseen.

Green Fire Times • December 2017

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This Woman This Spring When fragrant mud seeps through half frozen crusts of the Eagle Nesting Moon You hear her awakening yawn as she stretches Out to the sunbeams of This Summer Dressed from toe to head in delicate streams of rain showers, Rainbows and dew dusted pollens of evergreens Now wreathed in the Moon of Big Leaves She turns, as sunset glints of white in her hair, Her voice strong like rumbling thunder She spreads forth the abundance of harvest and lies down To embrace This Autumn Murmuring deep sighs, rolling, caressing, entwined Licking moisture found in faint winded streaks of traveling clouds She is the Moon of Back to Back Connecting Winds Hear her collect the ices of This Winter Quietly, very still she whorls frosts across the frozen tracks, sprinkles Shimmers of wisdom into depths of snow You see her on that very fine early morning, as the Sun touches the finest layer Of a Crusted Snow MoonFrost spun into threads of icicles Holding webs of frozen dreams To be awakened This Spring

Sunny Dooley of the Salt Water People and By the Water’s Edge People lives in the Checkerboard Region of Eastern Navajo in Chi Chil Tah (Where the Oaks Grow), NM. She is a traditional Diné storyteller and poet.

–— Sunny Dooley

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REFLECTIONS ON HISTORIAS

Historias de Nuevo México/Histories of New Mexico Conference Patricia M arina Trujillo

T

he Historias de Nuevo México/ Histor ies of Ne w Mexico conference convened on the campus of Northern New Mexico College in Española, and at the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Center, Alcade, on Oct. 12-14, 2017. The theme, “Querencia Interrupted: Native American and Hispano Experiences of the Manhattan Project,” provided a framework for Manhattan-era workers, their families, community members and academics to talk about the historical impact of the nuclear project on the region, on ending World War II, environmental and health implications, and the project’s continued pressence in the world. During the three days of events, more than three hundred people participated in a complicated dialogue about how “the labs” have shaped and continue to shape northern New Mexico.

The opening reception,hosted by the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area, kicked off the conference by acknowledging the legacy of laborers from this region who

worked during the Manhattan Project.

Hundreds of northern New Mexicans were trucked, bused or moved into barracks to be support laborers of the new labs since its inception in 1942. For most, this was the first job they held that took them off their ranchos and thrust them into a cash economy.

The established dependence on subsistence farming and related occupations gave way to paid employment, daily travel outside the community for work, and a new dependence on fixed wages. This time period has been heavily recorded and written about, but often the contributions of Native American and Hispano laborers has been excluded.

Manhattan-era workers were invited to the reception to be publicly acknowledged for their efforts and were recognized with a medal as “Story Protectors.”.

Day 2 and 3 were held at the Nick Salazar Center for the Fine Arts at Northern New Mexico College. The schedule included a keynote by Estevan Rael-Gálvez entitled, “Remembering and Recovering from the

‘Radiance of a 1,000 Suns’,” and communitybased plenaries that addressed “Life Before the Manhattan Project,” “Not Just the Labs: Contexts of Community Stories and Their Meanings,” and “The Future’s Stories: Community Health and Our Futures.” Additionally, there were breakout sessions, pláticas, a recording booth, and an interactive “Hack the Gallery” exhibit where participants were asked to engage with archival photos of Native Americans and Hispanos from the Manhattan era.

Many of the photos were lacking the names of people, or referred to individuals as “An Indian” or “a custodian.” Our invitation to hack the photos asked participants to write the names of people they knew, write in the margins, tell stories and ask questions.

The overarching thread throughout the conference was, “If we do not tell our stories, who will?” Willie Atencio, a community historian, worked on recording the oral histories of these northern New Mexican laborers for over a decade before his project

became the inspiration for the conference.

He often gave the organizing committee direction by asking about how Native American and Hispano workers’ voices should be included in the history. The conference did not necessarily provide answers to our region’s difficult questions, but it gave community members an opportunity to connect, share their stories and what those stories meant to their lives and their families. As one participant said, “This is the conference we’ve been waiting for; I’ve been waiting for it since the ‘90s after the RIFs (Reduction in Force: major layoffs of support staff ). And here we are. It feels healing.”

And ultimately that is the goal of sharing our historias, que no? Healing, connectivity and coming together to re-member and re-imagine our beloved communities. To reflect on historias is to reflect on the fact that access to our true histories is an essential part of community health. Grácias á todos who made it happen. ■ Here are some highlights from the events:

Green Fire Times • December 2017

© Melanie Rosenthal

© Melanie Rosenthal

© Patricia Trujillo

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Three Manhattan Project workers (l-r): State Rep. Nick Salazar (New Mexico’s longest-serving legislator), Nestor Dominguez and Severo González await the presentation.

The medal presented to workers from northern New Mexico. It reads Historias de Nuevo México in Tewa and Spanish, and states, “In acknowledgement of your role as a Story Protector.”

Over 150 people gathered at the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Center for an honoring of northern New Mexicans who worked for the Manhattan Project (1942-47)

Camila Bustamante, board president of the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area, points to her tía, Ana Vieira, in a USO photo from the era.

© Melanie Rosenthal

© Melanie Rosenthal

© Melanie Rosenthal

Day 1: Opening Reception at the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Center, Alcalde, New Mexico

The recognition also included Manhattan Project employees (l-r) José Vigil, Ester Vigil and Isabel Vigil-Torrez (in black hat).

Family member Alicia Sánchez sits with them.

Willie Atencio, community historian whose oral histories of Manhattan-era workers were at the heart of the conference.

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© Melanie Rosenthal

© Melanie Rosenthal

Day 2: Conference Begins at Northern New Mexico College

© Melanie Rosenthal

Plenary 2 speakers Peter Malmgren, Ken Silver, Kathy Sánchez and Myrriah Gómez added context to people’s understanding of the labs.

Carmen Rodríguez contemplates an image in the “Hack the Gallery” exhibit.

How do archives change when people from traditional and indigenous communities get to be the curators?

L-R: Myrriah Gómez, Joni Arends and Tina Córdova are members of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium who, along with other Tularosa residents, compile data on cancers and other diseases that plague communities surrounding the Trinity Test that occurred on July 16, 1945. Arends demonstrates how survivors often hold completed health surveys to their chest, understanding that it represents their struggle for health and justice. (www. trinitydownwinders.com)

© Patricia Trujillo

© Melanie Rosenthal

Kathy Córdova, author of Life on the Pajarito Plateau, shares with the audience her family’s history before they were forcibly removed from the Pajarito Plateau.

© Melanie Rosenthal

L-R: Thomas Romero, executive director of the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area; Charles Strickfaden, National Forest Service; Cindy Kelly and Nathan Weisenburg from the Atomic Heritage Foundation were all participants in an encuentro about national projects (like the Manhattan Project National Park) that seek to include Native American and Hispano voices.

Patricia Trujillo, conference committee chairperson, thanks the organizing committee. Historias utilizes a community-based participatory conference structure, and the committee was comprised of community members who worked during the Manhattan ear, or worked for LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) themselves.

© Patricia Trujillo

The Historias committee provided sage bundles for conference goers, keeping in mind that many of the subjects being discussed conjure up distress and pain for listeners. Herbs and quiet spaces for reflection were an acknowledgement that healing is part of the story work we must do in our communities.

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© Melanie Rosenthal

Day 3 : Thinking about the Future: Continuing the Project

Mujeres poderosas! Plenery 3 brought Mayor Alice Lucero, Liddie Martínez, Ana X Gutuiérez Sisneros, Polly Cisneros and Corrine Sánchez to talk about the area’s collective futures.

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LEARNING from the LAND:

AGRICULTURAL CONTINUATION and INNOVATION in TAOS A rticle and Photos by Miguel Santistevan

T

aos has always been on the edge and a land of extremes. From hot dry summers to intense winters, people have had to adapt and learn by trial and error how to survive with limited resources and unpredictable weather. The present situation is no different except that we are able to experience some security with the availability of electricity and gas, food from grocery stores, and water that comes from wells or public works. As we forge a future that will have to contend with climate change, historical agricultural practices and contemporary agricultural tinkering provide some tools that support our capability for adaptation and resilience.

As we consider how we might adapt to the future food and water needs, we can reflect on the lifeways of the past. People of the pueblos and acequias of northern New Mexico were able to make use of the abundance inherent in our desert ecosystems. People may consider the desert to be devoid of abundance compared to more humid ecosystems but the opposite is true. The desert is actually one of the most abundant ecosystems on Earth.

Seniors from a Washington D.C. Waldorf high school learn about acequias and plant corn at a Sol Feliz Farm workshop sponsored by the nonprofit Agriculture, Implementation, Research & Education (AIRE).

Small-scale agriculture with a variety of crops and trees is maintained with acequia flood irrigation at Sol Feliz Farm.

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Green Fire Times • December 2017

People of the desert have always relied on gathering. In historical times, nomadic cultures would often look for areas that had an abundance of food that could be gathered and would hunker down for the winter in camps to make use of wild foods like piñón, wild grass seed, or acorns, and would supplement these foods with hunting and fishing. As agriculture began to take hold, cultures in the region became more sedentary and eventually made dwellings out of mud, rock and wood. These provided shelter from the summer sun and winter cold, and served as storehouses for food. In the early Spanish colonization, the Natives had as much as seven years of food in storage that could be used if there was a drought or other food scarcity.

As the Spanish influence and acequia culture took hold, the practice of flood irrigation from acequias nurtured many wild plants that were gathered as food, medicine, and other utilitarian uses, in a strategy known as “jardín de riso.” Harvests of wild spinach (quelites) and purslane (verdolagas) could provide fresh greens that

could be dried and preserved for the winter months. Families would come together for activities that required mutualism such as cleaning the acequias, constructing and repairing houses, harvesting and food processing, such as making chicos or having matanzas, and of course, celebrations and holidays. People would also often see each other in church or when visiting neighbors.

While there was less connection to the outside world than nowadays, there were more connections in the community.

As the modern age came about, especially with the passing of events such as World War I and II, many people left their land-based way of life in search of the conveniences and benefits of a more urbanized, market-based society. People were now able to travel, get a formal education and experience food availability, electricity, indoor plumbing and motorized transportation.

These conveniences have had lasting impacts on natural resources around the world. Almost all of our activities are now connected to some kind of resource extraction and out-of-sight pollution. Whether it is the impact of eating industrial meat, the use of touchscreens on cell phones, or driving—we all share responsibility for the causes of environmental devastation and climate change. Some of us express our concern by signing petitions or getting politically involved. Many others are looking for alternatives in our lifeways to forge a future that can meet challenges such as climate extremes and soil and water depletion.

We are seeing a rise in small farming operations, farmers’ markets and local food, and a growing interest in eating and shopping more responsibly.

In looking for lifeways that are more sustainable and resilient, it is possible to find pockets of agricultural and land-based knowledge systems that continue almost unnoticed by the modern lifestyles of convenience and impatience. In nooks and crannies of northern New Mexico, people get together to clean acequias, plant fields, process the harvest, and continue annual traditions and ceremonies. These activities continue without much fanfare and provide living examples of ways with which we

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are able to better provide for themselves by growing in soil that is teeming with microorganisms. We employ a variety of composting methods that allow compost to mature with minimal disturbances. Instead of mixing our compost piles, we strive to maintain moisture and oxygen levels so that compost can develop through a process that maximizes and balances the representative bacteria and fungi. To support this process, we create activated charcoal in a Dutch oven in the wood stove, inoculate it with a compost extract, and apply it to our fields or compost piles.

might want to reconnect. In addition, many people are stepping forward with other forms of expertise that include alternative energy, innovative water systems and soil building techniques.

I have been looking for the sweet spot that integrates the best in traditional knowledge and contemporary innovation since I first started becoming aware of the world’s problems as a teenager. I am the product of a quality public school education that was subsidized by the Department of Energy in Los Alamos, New Mexico. I was raised with the latest math, science and technology to prepare me for a successful and lucrative career. But occasional air-raid sirens wafted across the hills and mesas of Los Alamos, rattling my eardrums and provoking thoughts that maybe something was not right with some visions of a collective future. As I searched for answers, my memories would drift to being with my grandparents on the lands and waters in the Taos Valley.

I spent much of my youthful summers in Taos with my grandparents. And there were great holiday gatherings of aunts, uncles and cousins under my grandparents’ loving roof. My brother, cousins and I would play in the acequia flowing by the house and spend hours frolicking in the vast irrigated fields and gardens that had no houses or fences around them as they do today. As I became more aware of contemporary issues, I sought a more meaningful livelihood.

The “Sol Feliz” (Happy Sun) sign serves as a beacon for sustainable agriculture education.

of knowing the seeds are learning to adapt to climate changes, alongside the farmer. Along with saving seeds, we are reconnecting with the gathering traditions of the jardín de riso, and thinking of ways to expand our gathering traditions by establishing and encouraging useful native plants to be more prolific.

This year was particularly interesting in that much of our corn and beans did not emerge in late May as had been typical.

I believe the daytime temperatures in

news is that seeds that persisted through the early season are more likely to survive in similar conditions in future years. These shifts in temperature are likely to be typical of a climate-change future.

One way to support the seeds is to make sure their soil environment is conducive to their survival and success. A big idea in soils right now is to nurture the soil biology and cultivate diversity within soils, as opposed to the more common

It is our hope that our little farm will be a nugget of conservation and innovation to help address some the regional and global challenges we anticipate. Being connected to one of the oldest acequias in Taos, the Acequia Madre del Sur del Río de Don Fernando, we hope our continued operations will help conserve water for agriculture and maintain local food traditions. We also hope that visitors and other farmers in the region will be inspired to adapt crops, build soils and create community. In this way we will support a legacy of living in Taos, one of the oldest and possibly the most sustainable communities in North America, if not the world. ■

I was able to move into my grandparents’ house in 2003. The reconnection has been incredible as I learn from the land and look for artifacts that can shed light on the thoughts and actions of my grandfather as he built the house and developed the land with irrigation channels, fields and trees.

The road is now called Sol Feliz, a name anchored on a signpost by the foresight of my aunt Marie, who is now my neighbor.

Sol Feliz Farm is a sandbox of a garden, with the messiness of useful wild plants alongside cultivated rows of garlic, alternating types of corn, squash heritage grains and legumes.

Many fruit trees are planted, compost piles abound, and chickens scratch the earth looking for worms and bugs. Groups come to visit, share and learn traditional agriculture and Permaculture. We also try to cultivate something just as important: innovation and hope.

Some of the lessons we have learned from the land are the need to adapt our seeds, build soils and cultivate diversity as a fundamental approach to resilience. Adapting seeds requires additional infrastructure and more time than cultivating crops for food or market, but the end result is the satisfaction

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Nurturing biological diversity is a great way to prime your farm for resilience.

Biodiversity creates stability in an ecosystem. Stability is then defined as a system’s ability to resist a disturbance (like climate extremes) and its resilience, or ability to grow back. Every farm should be thinking about ways to accommodate and nurture biological diversity, either within the field or on the edges.

Unfortunately, much of our industrial agriculture considers biological diversity an adversary, and spends billions of dollars worldwide to control insects, weeds and microorganisms. An approach we take at Sol Feliz Farm is to construct birdhouses, bat houses and establish pollinator plants and even pollinator hotels to provide a haven for organisms that are more beneficial than not. Interestingly, many pollinator plants can be used by people for food or medicine.

Quinoa and amaranth are heritage grains that can be produced in the high desert environments of northern New Mexico.

the early season were sufficient for seed germination, but nighttime temperatures were too cold to allow seedlings a steady upbringing. A second planting brought about an adequate harvest, but much seed from the initial planting was lost. The good

practice of soil amendment to support the plants’ needs. It is also beginning to be recognized that soils can have an incredible capacity to absorb carbon and therefore mitigate climate change impacts by addressing carbon pollution. Plants

Miguel Santistevan is an educator and researcher with a master’s degree in Agriculture Ecology from UC Davis. His demonstration farm in Taos, New Mexico, hosts visitors and workshops.

His consulting business offers services in Permaculture design and sustainable/regenerative agriculture. Email solfelizfarm@gmail.com or visit his blog: www.GrowFarmers.org

Green Fire Times • December 2017

23

NEW MEXICO ACEQUIA ASSOCIATION 2017 PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS

Mayordomo Noah Trujillo (center, bottom of shaft) repairing the head gate at San Gregorio reservoir, which had broken off deep inside the dam. The shaft descends about 15 feet. The gate was stuck partially open due to debris. Like a bathtub with its plug pulled, the lake had drained to the level of the gate, allowing Trujillo to get to it. This is an example of one of the challenges acequias face with aging infrastructure. The reservoir is at an elevation of 9,300 feet. It is about a mile within the San Pedro Parks Wilderness Area, where access is limited to hiking or horseback. Photo by Thomas Hamm

Acequia Madre del Sur del Río de Don Fernando de Taos after sunrise, where it crosses Witt Road and is divided by one of the main compuertas, the Vigil head gate. The water was moved from the Randall Community Ditch just moments before, so this is the first water making its way to a parciante’s field. It will flow through this channel for 12 hours before being switched back. This practice represents a water-sharing agreement between acequias that has been in place for many generations.

Photo by Miguel Santistevan

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Two-year-old Ethan Vigil, youngest parciante (water rights holder) on the San José de la Ciénega acequia, helps his grandparents irrigate with a shovel made by their mayordomo, León Tafoya. He learned to use the shovel by watching his family. Ethan likes to play in the acequia. He was working/playing hard until he fell in the water.

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MAKING the CIBOLERO SHIRT

Juanita J. L avadie

“W

e want an exhibit about traditional cloth from the New Mexico Río Grande Valley Hispanic tradition.” Looking at the faces of the board members, my thoughts flowed through years of weaving, oral history research, published manuscripts and conversations that brought me to discuss an exhibit that was shown in the historic Gutiérrez-Hubbell House, a cultural center in the South Valley of Albuquerque.

Drawing on my broad family roots, I have been mentored by generations of educators.

Since childhood I heard stories of my maternal grandfather and his sisters, my tías, as they taught in Taos and throughout northern New Mexico. While they were responsible for one-room schools and the academic futures of students of varied ages and abilities, they traveled and interacted with village families. I am also descended from the Montoya family of El Valle, New Mexico, intergenerational weavers who predominantly produced wool tapestry frazadas (blankets) with the “El Valle” 8-pointed star pattern. Since childhood and beyond my university studies, I have listened to many family elders who still owned El Valle star blankets, which we examined together.

Vivid stories connected to those textiles

Lavadie embroidering a historic map

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©Juanita J. Lavadie

Honoring a tradition that had sustained many families during New Mexico’s colonial days

emerged; stories were about weavings, about life experiences, shared chores and work, about singular individuals, and about joys and tragedies of ancestral events. Weaving on a traditional loom had skipped two generations until I picked up the practice.

Often, I had to troubleshoot solutions to technical problems I encountered. Through dreams, I would channel inspiration from ancestors I came to know through the gathered stories.

Over time I produced handspun sabanilla (plain weave wool cloth) and durable jerga (twill weave cloth), while experimenting with varied wool fibers, including South American alpaca. Along with family stories, I learned about the late-1700 to mid-1800 ciboleros, Spanish buffalo hunters. The stories romanticized what these hunters faced in the eastern llanos (plains) of the Comanchería (Comanche) territory. Expeditions were filled with many dangers, including the possibility of getting caught in early winter blizzards. I remember when Cleofes Vigil, a nationally celebrated folk artist and philosopher of San Cristóbal, New Mexico, would sing the ballad of Juan de Dios Maes, a lancer killed in a buffalo hunt accident.

Work shirts for these intrepid hunters were often made of jerga cloth. Photos from the 1860s show burros packed for caravan travel with goods bound in jerga.

Today, one can see this same block-plaid in commercial flannel work shirts, described in catalogues as “buffalo plaid.”

Cibolero (New Mexico buffalo hunter) shirt woven by Juanita J. Lavadie. Lavadie’s work is based on extensive research of oral history and historic photos. She has also traced the lineage of male and female weavers of the late 1800s and early 1900s and identified their individual motif preferences.

Over the years, I played with the idea of making an old-time shirt for an imagined lancero hunter, heading out with his lance and a crucial, intimate working relationship with his horse as they chased down in a stampeding buffalo herd. He needed functional clothing that would not impede or be dangerous on the job.

My Proposal: At the board meeting, I expressed the idea, which had been brewing in the back of my mind for a long time. I would make a prototype of the original buffalo plaid work shirt to honor a hunting tradition that had sustained many families during New Mexico’s colonial days. I would spin wool and weave it. The prepared cloth would be cut and hand-stitched, with the same wool yarn, into a work shirt. My idea was met with unanimous support. The title of the exhibit was decided: Ciboleros, Comancheros and the People Back Home. The exhibit would not be limited to the shirt’s production. Family participation for a successful buffalo hunt expedition would also be highlighted.

Conceptualizing and Making the Shirt Approximately five yards of jerga cloth was needed. The process began with spinning.

Fleece–white and rich dark brown and fat in lanoline–from Jaramillo family RambouletCorriedale sheep was used. The shirt needed more than a mile of spun yarn, half and

half of each color. Spinning took months.

I had previously woven sabanilla cloth and vegetal-dyed handspun yarns to produce an additional colcha-stitch embroidered buffalo image. An Ojo de Perdiz (diamond) twill jerga cloth made a chaleco (vest).

Research continued for more stories and details on cibolero expeditions. A bibliography of resources continued to grow. What would a work shirt from colonial days look like? No examples are available. Think about it. What would be a typical destiny of a work shirt in times of survival with limited resources? My grandmother’s emphatic words echoed, “¡Sabíamos como sernos buen pobres!” (“We knew how to be smartly poor.”) Nothing was left to waste; a good work shirt would be patched and recycled until all that remained was cloth remnants, used to wipe up and clean.

Jerry Padilla’s posthumously published Taos Ciboleros: Hispanic Bison Hunters–Taos, A Topical History, provided great information.

A Cibolero expedition needed a specific permit from the Santa Fe Precidio’s (governor’s) headquarters. For efficient operation, a campaign was organized with the mayordomo (foreman-boss), hunters, skinners and meat packers, along with a camp crew and hard-working family members. Survival was key and efficient CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

Green Fire Times • December 2017

27

Making the Cibolero Shirt continued from page 27

work habits were crucial. Everyone, young and old, helped in preparation of provisions, food, primed equipment and clothing. In the event of encounters with Comanches or other tribes, specific trade items were taken to use for negotiating permission to hunt on sovereign tribal lands. Expeditions typically set out right after cosecha (harvest).

With the austerity of survival, any work, including spinning and weaving, could not be taken for granted. The shirt pattern had to be basic woven rectangles, eliminating any unnecessary confection fluff.

© Juanita J. Lavadie (3

While seeking out local historians and families with ancestral cibolero connections, I also communicated with curators of textiles and Spanish colonial arts at the Santa Fe International Folk Art Museum, as well as the Nebraska Museum of Fur Trade, and museums in Oklahoma and west Texas.

Conversations with aficionados of the Mountain Man Rendezvous confirmed my thoughts. A basic work shirt was made of woven rectangles: bodice, sleeves, armpit gusset and tab collar, loose enough to slip over but not too long to create chaffing discomfort with hours of sitting on a saddle. At the same time, it had to be long enough to protect the kidneys and lower back from cold winds. It would be worn loosely to facilitate work. To eliminate a need to roll up sleeves for work, the sleeve pattern would be three-quarter length without cuffs, slightly tapered below the elbow to prevent wind from going up the sleeve. The shirt would have an ample gusset for armpit aeration and easy movement. This was particularly crucial for hunting within a stampeding buffalo heard while utilizing a lance, munition, or bow and arrow. The

hunter could wear a chaleco over the shirt.

A leather sheepskin coat could be worn over that during bad weather. A final layer would be a wool poncho, which also served as part of a bedroll. Leather pants, hat, boots, pouches, knife sheaths, bufandas (scarves), gloves or mittens, belts… all would add to the completed outfit according to the needs and taste of the individual hunter.

Around 6,000 feet of yarn was spun and the weaving began. My loom has a maximum 22-inch weaving width. Length was limited only by the amount of available spun yarn. During colonial days, many family members of varied skill would spin yarn. Plaid patterns visually disguised the yarn variations. Skilled family weavers would do the weaving.

The patrón and the mayordomo of the expedition would organize the preparations, while a stalwart matriarch efficiently managed the family hacienda or rancho. Survival depended on everyone’s contributions. A successful hunt would ensure plentitude during cold winters.

Smoked buffalo tongue, a highly valued delicacy, was packed and transported down the Camino Real to Mexico City. Once the expedition set out on the perilous journey to the east, family members who stayed home would maintain routines that included diligent prayers for the expedition’s safety.

Hunting accidents, inclement weather and encounters with hostile tribes brought on a constant wariness, if not fear. One can imagine the frequent sound of clicking rosary beads during dark nights.

Jerga is easy and fast to weave. The durable cloth still has utilitarian uses in Mexico. Once pulled off the loom, a simple method of alternating boiling and ice water dips allowed pre-shrinking, and would partly felt the cloth to avoid unraveling once it was cut for stitching together. To further stabilize the jerga, stay-stitching was added along the anticipated cut-lines. The cut out block pieces were sewn together with additional blanket-stitch edging– more insurance against unraveling. Nineteenthcentury historian, Josiah Gregg, in his accounts of Two thin-weave plaid belt pieces from the same yarn were added encounters of Ciboleros, indicated that the hunters to widen the shirt. wore clothing with tassels

28

Green Fire Times • December 2017

The cibolero shirt being woven on a loom

Juanita J. Lavadie’s embroidery with handspun yarn on woven sabanilla tells a story.

and fringes. Without use of buttons, lacing and fringed edges of woven clothing could show these embellishments as part of the composition structure. Aesthetics of dress would evolve through trades. Indulging in the aesthetics of tribes encountered would ensure better negotiations. A good shirt would be a worthy trade item.

The shirt I created was ready to make a strong visual presentation in the exhibit.

It had presence, but there was no time for fitting or alterations. I knew that the girth was not ample for comfortable wear. Can one imagine going out onto the llano on a buffalo hunt without generous feasting on buffalo? Clothing was often altered or patched to accommodate body changes.

Once the exhibit was over and the shirt was returned, I wove two long basic-weave belts from the same yarn. To my satisfaction, the belt weight matched the cloth. Unstitching and separating the sleeve and gusset from the bodice, the belts were added front to back on

each side to widen the shirt around the body.

Using two thin-weave plaid belt pieces, I attached each under the bottom point of the armpit’s rhombus-shaped gusset. With the addition of about 10 inches around the waist, I had the shirt I wanted. Of virgin spun yarn and weave, and from local wool, it could be worn on a rugged outdoor quest. One could sleep in it if needed. After days on end over a five-six weeklong hunt, with sweat and weather exposure, it would likely adapt to the contours of the hunter, making it a very personal shirt. This shirt could have been a life-saving garment for outdoor expedition experiences. One can imagine more stories to be told. ■ Juanita J. Lavadie, from Taos, New Mexico, a fiber and graphic artist, is a retired teacher. She is active with acequias (traditional irrigation water sharing) and has a companion dog, Chulita, who is very smart.

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EVERYDAY GREEN

CHILD HUNGER in NEW MEXICO

Susan Guyette

The family context of child hunger is essential to understand. Hunger does not only affect the homeless. Of the food insecure: • 89 percent have permanent housing, such as a home or an apartment • 89 percent of hungry households have an annual income of less than $20,000; and • 53 percent of hungry households include at least one person who has worked in the past 12 months.

Malnutrition affects not only the immediate health of children, but also their future health and ability to become engaged citizens, productive workers and community participants later in life. Yes, economy and health are inextricably linked.

Hunger and poverty go hand-in-hand in New Mexico. Families are faced with difficult choices, affecting overall well-being: • 61 percent of households choose between food and utilities • 66 percent of households choose between food and transportation • 59 percent of households choose between food and medical care; and • 48 percent of households choose between food and housing.

The ripple effect caused by food insecurity profoundly contributes to the low socioeconomic indicators of New Mexico. It’s time to look at and address the root causes.

Developmental Consequences The connection between diet and learning ability is profound, for child hunger affects cognitive development. When a child doesn’t receive enough of the nutrients the body requires for optimum development and metabolic function, there are lifelong consequences.

Nutrition during pregnancy and in the first years of a child’s life provides the essential

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building blocks for brain development, healthy growth and a strong immune system. Undernourished children are more susceptible to infections and illnesses. The foundations of lifelong health, including a person’s predisposition to obesity and certain chronic diseases—such as, heart disease, diabetes and certain types of cancers later in life—are set in childhood.

The 1,000-day window between a woman’s pregnancy and her child’s second birthday represent a unique window of opportunity to build healthier and more prosperous futures.

Adequate nutrition during this period builds a child’s brain and is the fuel for growth, improves school-readiness and educational achievement; reduces disparities in health, education and earning potential; and helps to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Studies have shown that a hungry child tends to grow up to be a poor adult.

Malnutrition affects disease risk. Here are a few examples: • Vitamin A Deficiency: affects the development of immune function and eyesight.

• Niacin Iodine Deficiencies: cause pellagra, characterized by diarrhea, rashes on the skin and enlarged thyroid.

• Vitamin D Deficiency: causes rickets, weak bones, skeletal deformities, impaired growth and dental deformities.

• Iron Deficiency: results in a deficiency in hemoglobin for the production of red blood cells, with less oxygen carried to cells—causing slowed brain development, decreased immune function and decreased sc hool performance.

Food-insecure children are more likely to experience colds, stomachaches and headaches, and suffer from generally poorer health than food-secure children.

A nutritious diet—away from processed foods and sugars—nurtures developmental growth.

What You Can Do The New Mexico Association of Food Banks, coupled with a statewide network of more than 500 partner agencies, reports that between 30 percent and 40 percent of the clients they serve are children under the age of 18. The Food Depot (based in Santa Fe, serving nine counties) and Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

© The Food Depot

T

he unthinkable or reality? Both.

New Mexico has the secondhighest rate of child hunger of any state in the country, with one in four suffering from persistent hunger. According to a comprehensive national study (www. feedingamerica.org), 332,610 (one in six) people are struggling with hunger in New Mexico—and 124,980 of them are children.

In Taos, Torrance and Guadalupe counties, more than 30 percent of children don’t have enough food on the table. The better news: there is much you can do.

The Emergency Food Assistance Program

The Community Pantry (Gallup) P.O. Box 520 Gallup, NM 87305-0520 505.726.8068, 726.9022 (fax), thecommunitypantry.org ECHO, Inc. (Farmington) 401 S. Commercial Farmington, NM 87401 505.325.8222, 324.6502 (fax), echoinc.org

The Food Depot (Santa Fe) 1222-A Siler Rd. Santa Fe, NM 87507 505.471.1633, 471.2025 (fax), thefooddepot.org Roadrunner Food Bank (Albuquerque and Las Cruces) 5840 Office Blvd. NE Albuquerque, NM 87109 505.247.2052, 242.6471 (fax), rrfb.org

Food Bank of Eastern NM (Clovis) 2217 E. Brady Clovis, NM 88101 575.763.6130, 763.2240 (fax), fbebn.org

Green Fire Times • December 2017

31

Child Hunger in New Mexico 31

© Alejandro López

continued from page

Young Antonio Perea about to enjoy a slice of melon at a relative’s home in northern New Mexico

provide services in northern, central and southern New Mexico.

This issue is a reflection of New Mexico’s overall low socio-economic indicators. Programs for children, in addition to the backpack program, include: the Square Meals Program, which provides after-school nutrition; the summer Lunchbox Express delivery to community locations; and the Boys and Girls Clubs.

You can click on a program you want to support on the organization’s website. Contact the Food Depot at 505.471.1633 (www. thefooddepot.org) or Roadrunner Food Bank at 505.247.2052 (www.rrfb.org).

You can feed four hungry people with every dollar you give. Or consider volunteering your time to help stretch donation dollars.

And spread the word about hunger in New Mexico. Your compassion can make a substantial difference! ■ Susan Guyette, Ph.D., is of Métis heritage (Micmac Indian/Acadian French). She is an Integrative Nutrition Health coach and a planner specializing in cultural tourism, cultural centers, museums and native foods. Her passion is supporting the cultural retention of time-honored traditions. sguyette@nets.com

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2017 SANTA FE MAYOR’S SUSTAINABILITY AWARD WINNERS Leaders in Sustainability Recognized

T

he City of Santa Fe and the Sustainable Santa Fe Commission presented the winners of the Sustainability Awards on Nov. 9. Five firstplace winners, and four runners-up were recognized for their work contributing to sustainability principles and practices in the community at the annual ceremony at La Fonda Hotel.

The winners and runners-up by category are: Environmental Resilience WINNER: Santa Fe Conservation Trust, for effectively harnessing nature as an ally through it's conservation easement program. The program aims to enhance the natural environment and make it more resilient to climate change and increase the sequestration of carbon.

RUNNER-UP: Santa Fe Watershed Association, for engaging the community to enhance the watershed as means of

protecting water resources.

Social / Quality of Life WINNER: Homewise, for its Sol Fund, through which solar is made more affordable to low-income households.

RUNNER-UP: Architecture for Everybody + Archinia, for Rachel Preston Prinz’s holistic approach to architecture and historic preservation for underserved communities, and architecture education for all.

Economic Vitality WINNER: Amenergy, for its innovative AMPower Unit, a unique application of solar energy and battery technologies to provide packaged solutions for emergency and disaster-stricken areas.

Sustainability Leadership WINNER: Randy Grissom, former president, Santa Fe Community College, for creating the School of Trades,

In a disaster, where would you turn for clean drinking water?

Technology, Sustainability & Professional Studies that advances sustainabilityrelated technology education, training and deployment; providing stimulus to the local economy.

solar project at Santa Fe High School, which provides energy cost savings for the community, and for providing education in clean energy solutions for students and the community.

RUNNER-UP: Rose Tourje, founder and president of ANEW, and the “L.A. to Santa Fe Project,” which supports underserved communities with furniture that would otherwise go into the waste stream.

RUNNER-UP: Verde Community Project, for creating a unique set of partnerships to address triple-bottom-line issues at the intersection of climate change and poverty alleviation, as administered by YouthWorks and Homewise.

Tr i p l e - B o t t o m - L i n e ( S o c i a l , Environmental, Financial Framework) WINNER: Santa Fe Public Schools, for its

For more information on the awards, contact John Alejandro: jealejandro@ santafenm.gov ■

News & Views from the Sustainable Southwest

Community / Culture / Environment / Economy In January 2018 Green Fire Times will have a new publisher, new structure and new management.

If you could deliver a method to generate potable drinking water to disaster areas using renewable fuel, how many lives might you help, or possibly save, in an emergency situation?

A New Mexico-based non-profit is working to develop a method to do just that. Green & Sustainable, LLC is reaching out to all interested parties to help make this concept a reality.

Learn more at:

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Please support GFT by helping make this transition possible.

ADVERTISE: greenfireadvertising@gmail.com Or consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Southwest Learning Centers, Inc. (with a notation: For GFT).

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NEWSBITEs SANDOVAL COUNTY OIL & GAS ORDINANCE

Sandoval County commissioners heard hours of public testimony last month on a contentious proposal that would set parameters for energy development on 4,000 square miles of unincorporated lands bordering New Mexico’s largest metropolitan area and many Native American communities. Many residents expressed concerns that the proposed ordinance would fast-track more oil and gas development, threatening groundwater and agriculture, and bringing other negative impacts.

The All Indian Pueblo Council approved a resolution in opposition to the ordinance. Tribal leaders testified that they had not been consulted. Sandia Pueblo Lt. Gov. Lawrence Gutierrez said his tribe is concerned about groundwater quality and quantity in the mid-Río Grande area, and the fact that billions of gallons are already used annually by oil and gas production in New Mexico.

Geological maps show numerous seismic fault lines running to the Río Grande between Cochiti Pueblo and Santa Ana Mesa, and a large water basin below. In October, scientists announced that they have more evidence that wastewater injection from oil and gas production has increased earthquakes along fault lines on the Colorado-New Mexico border.

Industry spokesmen at the hearing maintained that, due to geology and modern technology, water contamination in Sandoval County should not be a concern.

Along with the Sandoval Economic Alliance and students from New Mexico Tech, they touted the industry’s role in supporting the state’s economy and urged the commission to approve the ordinance as written. The county’s planning and zoning commission has hired New Mexico Tech to study oil and gas potential throughout the county. The $60,000 study is due in May 2018.

Sandoval County doesn’t currently have any rules governing the oil and gas industry. Commission Chairman Don Chapman said that fracking (hydraulic fracturing) has already been going on and that the ordinance would hold the industry more accountable. It would establish buffer zones banning drilling within 750-feet of homes, schools hospitals and fresh water supplies. Energy companies would be required to have at least a $5 million insurance policy.

Environmental oversight and monitoring would be left up to state and federal authorities, superseding county authority.

The hearing concluded after the commission made amendments to the proposal, which will require discussion at a future meeting.

WATER CHALLENGES IN THE SOUTHWEST

According to the recently released Climate Change Special Report and the fourth volume of the National Climate Assessment, we are living in “the warmest [period] in the history of modern civilization.” The report consists of research and analysis by 13 federal agencies. It states that human activities— such as the burning of fossil fuels—are the dominant cause of this warming and that “there is no convincing alternative explanation.”

Warming in the Southwest is occurring at about double the global rate, resulting in earlier spring snowmelt, reduced snowpack and drought-stricken areas. With rising carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, warming is expected to accelerate in New Mexico, which is noticeably warmer than a generation ago. Some predict that the state could be four to six degrees warmer by the end of the century, making Albuquerque more like El Paso is now.

Groundwater levels have been dropping at an alarming rate across the western United States. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has launched groundwater basin studies in Arizona and New Mexico to evaluate imbalances between supply and demand. The Río Grande Basin Study is focused on the Middle Río Grande from the Colorado-New Mexico border to Elephant Butte Reservoir.

As soils dry, reservoir levels will be lower and groundwater recharge will not be as efficient, despite expected wet decades. Agricultural wells have to be drilled much deeper. In New Mexico, domestic wells are reportedly going dry across the Sandía Basin, a 400-square-mile area crossing four counties. Many wells have also dried out in the Estancia Basin in Torrance County, and near Portales and Clovis.

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The Ogallala aquifer has been dropping for decades due to over-pumping.

Parts of eastern New Mexico are facing a crisis as the Ogallala is depleted.

Two oil and gas producers are suing the State Land Commissioner over a policy that limits the use of underground water for drilling.

NEW MEXICO WATER QUALITY CONTROL COMMISSION HEARING

A four-day hearing before the state Water Quality Control Commission on water quality standards was held at the New Mexico Capitol last month. Dozens of attorneys representing the mining and dairy industries, the military, Laun-dry Supply Co. and the consortium that operates Los Alamos National Laboratory debated proposed changes to allowable contamination levels with an attorney from the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, representing advocacy groups Amigos Bravos and the Gila River Information Project. A representative from the Pueblo of Pojoaque expressed that pueblo’s concerns.

The New Mexico Environment Department says changes to surface and groundwater regulations would more closely align the state with federal standards. Some of the new policies could eliminate public notification and hearings when a company seeks an exemption and limit oversight of polluters.

The state does not currently have a system in place to assess companies’ compliance reports.

A hearing officer will issue an opinion this month and the commission will issue a decision in March or April.

TEXAS-NEW MEXICO WATER BATTLE

The New Mexico-Texas water battle is to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 8. Texas is asking that New Mexico stop pumping groundwater along the states’ border so that water from the aquifer that would otherwise drain into the Río Grande and flow to El Paso won’t be depleted. If Texas wins, New Mexico could be forced to pay millions of dollars in damages. Farmers, municipalities and commercial water users in New Mexico have been meeting to discuss managing the aquifer in new ways and to attempt to craft a settlement.

TAOS COUNTY APPEALS WATER TRANSFER

Taos County has appealed the State Engineer’s ruling that up to 1,717 acre-feet per year of water can be transferred 85 miles downstream to Santa Fe County as part of a multimillion dollar regional water system to be built as a result of the final decree that was issued in the Aamodt water adjudication settlement. An attorney representing hundreds of non-Indian water users in northern Santa Fe County is also appealing the settlement of the 51-year-old case.

NEW MEXICO RANCHERS WIN WATER RULING

Bolstering a claim that state law allows for the protection of water rights— some dating back hundreds of years to Spanish colonization—last month a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge sided with a New Mexico ranching family in a decades-old feud with the U.S. Forest Service. The outcome could impact ranchers and rural communities that have complained about federal land managers overstepping property and water rights, despite policies that recognize traditional and cultural ties to the land.

Over the years, the Goss family was forced to decrease its herd as Lincoln National Forest officials fenced off areas to protect habitats and endangered species. The family, which has been working with the Forest Service in recent years to find alternative sources of water, claimed that the federal government violated their constitutional rights by not providing just compensation. A final judgment is pending.

NAVAJO-GALLUP WATER SUPPLY PROJECT

The U.S. Department of the Interior has awarded a $62 million contract to a Texas company for construction of 300 miles of water pipeline in northwest New Mexico, including a 28 mile section between Naschitti and Twin Lakes.

The project, which includes two water treatment plants, 19 pumping stations and several storage tanks, is intended to create a sustainable water supply for the Navajo Nation and Jicarilla Apache communities. Construction is scheduled to start in January and is expected to take more than two years to complete.

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WHAT'S GOING ON! Events / Announcements ALBUQUERQUE Dec. 3, 10 am–5 pm FREE ENTRY – NM MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 1801 Mountain Rd. NW On the first Sunday of every month, admission is free to NM residents with I.D. 505.841.2800 Dec. 4–14, 9 am–4:45 pm LAND ARTS OF THE AMERICAN WEST John Somers Gallery, Art Building, Rm. 202, UNM Opening reception for the 2017 exhibition: 12/8, 5–8 pm. Landarts.unm.edu, unmlandarts.blogspot.com Dec. 7, 6–9 pm TREEHUGGER BASH The Grove Café, 600 Central 11th annual fundraiser for WildEarth Guardians. Food, silent auction, entertainment. Learn about WEG’s efforts to protect the Gila bioregion, restoration of streams on the Valles Caldera, biodiversity and local monuments. $35. RSVP requested.

505.440.7158, wildearthguardians.org Dec. 12, 1:30–3:30 pm FUNDIT MEETING WESST, 609 Broadway NE NMEDD is hosting this meeting to help local leaders identify funding for economic development projects. The meeting will bring together local, state and federal funding agencies. Projects should be of public interest; commercial businesses are not eligible. 505.827.0264, Johanna.

Nelson@state.nm.us, gonm.biz Dec. 13, 9 am–5 pm; Dec. 14, 9 am–3 pm STATE WATER PLANNING TOWN HALL Mariott Pyramid North, 5151 San Francisco Rd. NE “Advancing NM’s Water Future.”

Opportunity for people from all over the state to help develop policy priorities for the State Water Plan. Small group discussions. Free. Presented by NM First.

505.225.2140, nmfirst.org Through Dec. 16, 9 am–4 pm SHARE THE JOURNEY Santa María de la Vid Abbey, 5825 Coors SW Art exhibition featuring 48 local artists and community projects reflecting on life as a journey to foster solidarity with immigrants and refugees. Free. www.norbertinecommunity.org/ event/share-the-journey/ Dec. 16, 23, 30, 5–6 pm STORIES BY THE FIRESIDE Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, 2401 12th St. NW A storyteller will weave a Pueblo tale, after which the education team will guide children in an art activity that relates to the story. Free with museum admission.

Indianpueblo.org/centerevent/stories-bythe-fireside-2/2017-12-09/ Jan. 18–19 URBAN TREE CARE CONFERENCE Crowne Plaza ABQ, 1901 University Blvd. NE Professional arboriculture speakers and exhibitors. $75–$190. Presented by Think Trees NM. 505.243.1386, thinktreesnm@ gmail.com, www.thinktreesnm.org

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Feb. 16–17, 2018 NM ORGANIC FARMING CONFERENCE Marriott Pyramid www.nmofc.org, https://tinyurl com/2018NMOFC Feb. 24, 8 am–4 pm NM WELLNESS SYMPOSIUM DoubleTree by Hilton, 201 Marquette Ave. A gathering of some of NM’s experienced integrative medicine and alternative care practitioners in fields such as Oriental medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, massage, Kinesiology, nutrition and physical therapy. Cross-disciplinary panels will share diagnostic and treatment protocols.

Early-bird tickets until Dec. 15. $20–$35.

505.433.7138, NMWellnessSymposium.com Through July 2018 LONG AGO… IPCC, 2401 12th St. NW We Are of This Place: The Pueblo Story.

Historical overview and contemporary artworks. Weekly weekend Native dances.

Open daily. Indianpueblo.org First Sundays NM MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 1801 Mountain Road Museum admission is free to NM residents on the first Sunday of every month.

505.841.2800 Saturdays, 1 pm WEEKLY DOCENT-LED TOURS National Hispanic Cultural Center, 1701 4th St. SW Tours of different exhibits and themes in the Art Museum. $2-$3, free with museum admission. 505.246.2261, nhccnm.org

Dec. 4, 4–6 pm 12 AUTHORS SIGNING Collected Works Books, 202 Galisteo St. Hampton Sides, James McGrath Morris, David Morrell, Lynn Cline, Deborah Madison, William DeBuys, Priscilla Stucky, Jann Arrington Wolcott, Rob Wilder, Gene Peach, Dan Flores and Ricardo Cate.

505.988.4226 Dec. 4, 6 pm LOWRIDERS I HAVE LOVED Hotel Santa Fe SW Seminars lecture by photographer/ author Don J. Usner. (See pg. 14) $15. southwestseminar@aol.com, SouthwestSeminars.org Dec. 5–10 WISDOM HEALING QIGONG RETREAT Center for Wisdom Healing Quigong, Galisteo, NM Intensive retreat for health service professionals, leaders and practitioners.

ChiCenter.com/HPPRetreat Dec. 6, 11:30 am–1:30 pm MAYORAL CANDIDATE FORUM ON SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES SF Area Home Builders Association 2520 Cam. Entrada Presented by the Santa Fe Green Chamber of Commerce. 505.501.0222, Lunch: $15. glenn@nmgreenchamber.com Dec. 7, 9 am–1:30 pm KITCHEN CREATIONS: COOKING FOR DIABETICS SF County Fairgrounds, 3229 Rodeo Rd. NMSU County Extension cooking classes for people with diabetes, or who are pre-diabetic or caregivers. 505.471.4711, cydney@nmsu.edu

ABQ 2030 DISTRICT A voluntary collaboration of commercial property tenants, building managers, property owners and developers; real estate, energy, and building sector professionals, lenders, utility companies; and public stakeholders such as government agencies, nonprofits, community groups and grassroots organizers. Property partners share anonymous utility data and best practices. Professional partners provide expertise and services. Public partners support the initiative as it overlaps with their own missions. Info: albuquerque@2030districts.org

Dec. 8, 5–8 pm CLARE’S CREATURES Phil’s Space, 1410 2nd St. Sale of Clare Dunne’s artworks of wolves, owls and other creatures. All proceeds benefit WildEarth Guardians. 505.440.7158, cnorton@wildearthguardians.org

SANTA FE

Dec. 8, 7:30 am–5 pm 14TH ANNUAL NMPHA HEALTH POLICY LEGISLATIVE FORUM Hilton SF, 100 Sandoval St. “Daring to Dream in Troubling Times; A vision of Health Equity in NM.” Learn the latest health policy issues. $30/$40/$60.

Presented by the NM Public Health Association. Abuko.estrada@gmail.com, www.nmpha.org/event-2690126

Dec. 1–31 BEYOND BOUNDARIES: NATURE’S ANCIENT ART Night Sky Gallery, 826 Canyon Rd. Fine art photography show by J. Madison Rink and nine members of last graduating class of the SF University of Art and Design.

10% of sales benefit SF Conservation Trust.

Daily—except Mondays—11 am–6 pm.

12/13, 5 pm: free gallery talk, 5:30–8:30 pm: reception for student show producers. https//naturesancientart.wixsite.com/ beyondboundaries

Green Fire Times • December 2017

Dec. 8–16 SONGS OF PEACE SF Women’s Ensemble 37th anniversary choral performances. 12/8,9,13,14, 6:30 pm at the Loretto Chapel, 207 Old SF Tr. $20 to $35. And 12/16, 3 pm at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel, 50 Mt. Carmel Rd. $25/$10. info@sfwe.org, www.sfwe.org, https://brownpapertickets.com

Dec. 9, 9 am–4 pm IAIA HOLIDAY MARKET IAIA Academic Building, 83 Avan Nu Po Rd. Works by over 70 Institute of American

Indian Arts students, faculty, staff and other Native American artists in the Balzer Contemporary Edge Gallery. 505.424.5704, cbrossy@iaia.edu Dec. 9, 9 am–4 pm HOLIDAY ARTS & CRAFTS FAIR SF Community College Main Hallway, 6401 Richards Ave. 75 students and local artists. Fine art to regional handcrafted goods. Jewelry, baked goods, woven handbags, pottery, painting, scarves, tinwork, straw appliqué, woodcarvings and more. 505.428.1675, www.sfcc.edu Dec. 9, 3:30–6:30 pm KINDRED SPIRITS HOLIDAY PARTY 3749-A Hwy. 14 Tour the senior animal sanctuary. Tree lighting, snacks, hot cider. 505.471.5366, kindredspiritsnm@earthlink.net, www. kindredspirtsnm.org Dec. 9, 12–1:30 pm THE RISE OF PERMACULTURE NM History Museum, SF Plaza Gallery talk with Roxanne Swentzel, from Santa Clara Pueblo, in conjunction with Voices of Counterculture in the SW exhibition. Free with museum admission.

Media.newmexicoculture.org/event/3273/ counterculture-the-rise-ofDec. 9, 4–6 pm JOANNE SHENANDOAH PERFORMANCE IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts 108 Cathedral Pl. Grammy winning Iroquois singer, composer and acoustic guitarist. Free to MoCNA members. 505.428.5907, ahanley@iaia. edu, https://iaia.edu/iaia-museum-ofcontemporary-native-arts/ Dec. 11, 6 pm VOLCANIC GEOLOGY OF THE JÉMEZ MOUNTAINS Hotel Santa Fe SW Seminars lecture by volcanologist/ geologist Dr. Kurt Kempter. $15. southwestseminar@aol.com, SouthwestSeminars.org Dec. 11, 7 pm SF CONCERT BAND The Lensic Annual Christmas concert. Free dress rehearsal 12/9, 7 pm at Santa Fe Place food court. Dick.Hogle@gmail.com Dec. 11, 7–9 pm SF #METOO MONOLOGUES Teatro Paraguas, 3205 Calle Marie An event of unity, resistance and healing will take place in 12 cites across the country, bringing women from all walks of life together to share their personal stories about sexual harassment and assault.

Facilitated by Mary Rives and Marsha Pincus. $10 suggested donation. www. teatroparaguas Dec. 15–31, 5–8 pm GLOW: BRIDGING TIME SF Botanical Garden, 715 Cam. Lejo, Museum Hill Thousands of lights, holiday music.

Closed Dec. 24, 25. Last entry: 7:30 pm. $10, discounts available. 505.471.9103, Santafebotanicalgarden.org Dec. 16, 9 am–5 pm; Dec. 17, 10 am–3 pm SWAIA WINTER INDIAN MARKET

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La Fonda, 100 E. San Francisco St. Authentic Native works. One-day pass: $10, Two-day pass: $15. 505.983.5220, Swaia. org/events/2017_winter_indian_market Dec. 17, 2–5 pm SF ARTISTS’ MEDICAL FUND BENEFIT Yares Art Projects, 1222 Flagman Way Holiday party and silent auction. 250 artists donate 6”x6” artworks. Funds administered by the SF Community Foundation.

805.722.9776, eventswithLerin@gmail.com, www.santafeartistsmedicalfund.org Dec. 17, 5:30–7:30 pm WINTER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION SF Children’s’ Museum, 1050 Old Pecos Tr. Farolito labyrinth, bonfires, African drumming, marshmallows, hot chocolate.

505.989.8359 Dec. 18, 6 pm LOSING EDEN: AVOIDING THE GREAT FILTER Hotel Santa Fe SW Seminars lecture by environmental historian, professor and author, Dr. Sara Dant. $15. southwestseminar@aol.com, SouthwestSeminars.org Dec. 31, 6–8 pm KIDS' NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY SF Botanical Garden, 715 Cam. Lejo The ball drops at 7 pm. Special activities for children and families. $8/$10/children 12& under free. 505.471.9103 Jan. 13, 12–1:30 pm LA ACADEMIA DE LA NUEVA RAZA NM History Museum, SF Plaza Gallery talk with Enrique Lamadrid, professor emeritus of Spanish at UNM will speak about the NM-based group that aimed to rejuvenate Hispanic culture within a context of homeland. Free with museum admission. Media.newmexicoculture.org/ event3274/la-academia-de-la-nueva-raza Jan. 22–Feb. 23, 2018 NM ENVIRONMENTAL JOB TRAINING SFCC, 6401 Richards Ave. Intensive training program funded by an EPA grant, which covers training costs for unemployed, underemployed, low-income applicants or veterans who are accepted into the program. Graduates receive federal and state certifications in areas such as hazardous waste and emergency response, CPR and first aid, forklift operator and OSHA construction standards. Info: 505.428.1866, janet.kerley@ sfcc.edu. Applications: www.sfcc.edu/ programs/environmental-job-training Through Feb. 11 VOICES OF COUNTERCULTURE IN THE SOUTHWEST NM History Museum, SF Plaza Exhibit spans the 1960s and '70s exploring the influx of young people to NM and the collision of cultures. Archival footage, oral histories, photography, ephemera and artifacts. Curated by Jack Loeffler and Meredith Davidson. http:// nmhistorymuseum.org/calendar.php?

Feb. 15 Application Deadline TRUTH & RECONCILIATION From Sept. 2018 through Aug. 2019, the SF Art Institute will bring together 70 artists, creative practitioners, content experts and innovative thinkers from all over the world to explore how uncovering and acknowledging the truth can be used as a means of reconciliation. https://sfai.org/truthreconciliation/

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Sundays, 11 am JOURNEY SANTA FE CONVERSATIONS Collected Works Books, 202 Galisteo St. 12/3: Garrett Veneklasen, exec. director, NM Wildlife Federation, candidate for Land Commissioner; 12/10: Biologist Dave Parsons on the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program; 12/17: Attorney Daniel Yohalem will discuss the lawsuit filed against the NM Public Education Department alleging that schools are not receiving sufficient state funding. 1/7/18: Sen. Peter Wirth on the upcoming legislative session. Hosts: Alan Webber, Bill Dupuy and James Burbank. Free. www.journeysantafe.com Sundays, 10 am–4 pm RAILYARD ARTISAN MARKET Adjacent to the Farmers’ Market 1607 Paseo de Peralta (& Guadalupe) Art & gift galleria by local artists and crafters. 505.983.4098, https:// santafefarmersmarket.com/railyard-artisanmarket/ Mon.–Sat. POEH CULTURAL CENTER & MUSEUM 78 Cities of Gold Rd., Pueblo of Pojoaque In T’owa Vi Sae’we: The People’s Pottery.

Tewa Pottery from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Nah Poeh Meng: 1,600-sq.-ft. core installation highlighting the works of Pueblo artists and Pueblo history.

Poehcenter.org Tues.–Sat. EL MUSEO CULTURAL DE SANTA FE 555 Cam. de la Familia Rotating exhibits, community programs and performances designed to preserve Hispanic culture. Elmuseocultural.org Tues., Sat., 8 am-1 pm SF FARMERS’ MARKET 1607 Paseo de Peralta (& Guadalupe) Northern NM farmers & ranchers offer fresh tomatoes, greens, root veggies, cheese, teas, herbs, spices, honey, baked goods, body-care products and much more. santafefarmersmarket.com Weds.–Sun. SANTA FE CHILDREN’S MUSEUM 1050 Old Pecos Tr. Interactive exhibits and activities.

505.989.8359, Santafechildrensmuseum.org Sat., 8 am–3pm; Sun. 9 am–4 pm WINTER MARKET El Museo Cultural, 555 Cam. de la Familia Art, antiques, folk & tribal art, books, jewelry, beads, glass, rugs and more.

505.250.8969 Daily SANTA FE BOTANICAL GARDEN 715 Cam. Lejo, Museum Hill Living museum on 14 acres. Ojos y Manos, Orchard Gardens, The Courtyard Gardens and the Arroyo Trails.

Santafebotanicalgarden.org Registration Open FOUNDATIONS OF HERBALISM 250-hour intensive, bioregional program using local plants to heal. Milagro School of Herbal Medicine. 505.820.6321, info@ milagroherbs.com

TAOS Dec. 7, 9 am–12 pm ACEQUIA PATHWAYS TO FUNDING Juan I. Gonzales Agricultural Center 202 Chamisa Rd. Workshop offers an opportunity to learn about funding opportunities for acequia infrastructure projects and state financial compliance requirements. Cosponsored by the Taos Valley Acequia Association and TSWCD. 505.995.9644, www.lasacequias.org Through Feb. 18, 2008 CORN: SACRED GIVER OF LIFE Millicent Rogers Museum 1504 Millicent Rogers Rd. Images of corn in Native American textiles, pottery, paintings, baskets and jewelry.

575.758.2462, www.millicentrogers.org Third Tues. Monthly, 5:30–8 pm TAOS ENTREPRENEURIAL NETWORK KTAOS Networking, presentations, discussion and professional services. Free. 505.776.7903, www.taosten.org Open Daily LA HACIENDA DE LOS MARTÍNEZ 708 Hacienda Way Northern NM-style Spanish colonial “great house” built in 1804 by Severino Martínez.

575.758.1000, Taoshistoricmuseum.org

HERE & THERE Dec. 6, 8:30 am–4 pm INNOVATIVE FARMING CONFERENCE Belen Business Center, 715 S. Main St., Belen, NM Discover methods for improving your soil. RSVP: 505.864.8914, ValenciaFarmConference@gmail.com, www.valenciaswcd.org Dec. 2–10 WINTER FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS Moving Arts Española Student Performance Showcase. 12/2, 4–6 pm, 12/3, 2–4 pm: Level 1 performances; 12/8, 5–7 pm, 12/10, 2–4 pm: Level 2 performances. Tickets: $6. 505.577.6629, info@movingartsespanola.org, www. movingartsespanola.org Dec. 9, 11 am–2 pm HOLIDAY ARTS & CRAFTS SALE Cochiti Lake Firehouse, 6514 Hootchaneetsa Blvd., Cochiti Lake Local artists’ works in a variety of media.

Bake sale. Children can create holiday crafts. Free. lifes_art@icloud.com Dec. 13, 8:30 am–4:30 pm NM SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE CONFERENCE UNM-Valencia Campus, 280 La Entrada Rd. Los Lunas, NM Free conference, funded by Western SARE, designed to enable farmers, educators and stakeholders to learn more about prospective new and profitable crops for NM such as guayule, guar and papa criolla potatoes. Farm finance and marketing will also be discussed. Agenda/registration: rsvp.nmsu.edu/rsvp/sustainable2017 Jan. 3, 2018 Application Deadline LOS SEMBRADORES FARMER TRAINING

Northern NM Learn how to be an organic acequia farmer, increase production, put your agricultural land and water rights to use. Includes business planning.

Program dates: mid-Feb. to mid-Dec. Trainees must commit to 3 days/ wk. Presented by the NM Acequia Association. 505.955.9644, Serafina@ lasacequias.org Jan. 6 BALD EAGLE COUNT Abiquíu Lake, NM Join the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the NM Wildlife Center to count eagles from monitoring stations. Data collected helps biologists monitor the health of the population. 505.685.4371 Feb. 9 Application Deadline ALDO LEOPOLD WRITING CONTEST NM students in grades 6–12 can win several $500 awards. Entries should tell the story of a local/regional land ethic leader, reflecting an understanding of Aldo Leopold’s land ethic but not limited to it. A sponsoring teacher must sign the entry form. Golden Apple Foundation of NM. 505.268.5337, www.LeopoldWritingProgram.org First Mondays each month, 3–5 pm SUSTAINABLE GALLUP BOARD Octavia Fellin Library, Gallup, NM The Sustainable Gallup Board welcomes community members concerned about conservation, energy, water, recycling and environmental issues. 505.722.0039.

Mon., Wed., Fri., Sat., 10 am–4 pm PAJARITO ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CENTER 2600 Canyon Rd., Los Alamos, NM Nature center and outdoor education programs. Exhibits of flora and fauna of the Pajarito Plateau; herbarium, live amphibians, butterfly and xeric gardens.

505.662.0460, www.losalamosnature.org BASIC LITERACY TUTOR TRAINING Española area After training by the NM Coalition for Literacy, volunteer tutors are matched with an adult student.

505.747.6162, read@raalp.org, www.raalp.org/become-a-tutor.html NM BICYCLE NETWORK PLAN Cyclists and others can share information on an interactive website as part of the state transportation department’s planning process for prioritizing routes that are safe and offer the most connectivity. The plan is to be completed by summer 2018. www.bhine. com/nm-bike-plan/ SPIRIT OF THE BUTTERFLY 923 E. Fairview Lane, Española, NM Women’s support group organized by Tewa Women United. Info/RSVP: Beverly, 505.795.8117 WILDLIFE WEST NATURE PARK 87 N. Frontage Rd., Edgewood, NM 122-acre park just east of ABQ. Interactive trail focuses on rescued, non-releasable, native New Mexican wildlife and native plants. http://wildlifewest.org/wwblog/

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WINTER / SPRING 2018 EVENTS

Lannan Foundation presents its

24 JANUARY NOMI PRINS WITH JULIET SCHOR

winter/spring events

31 JANUARY COLUM McCANN WITH GABRIEL BYRNE

READINGS & CONVERSATIONS

brings to Santa Fe a wide range of writers from the literary world of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to read from and discuss their work.

In Pursuit of Cultural Freedom is a lecture series on political, economic, environmental, and human rights issues featuring social justice activists, writers, journalists, and scholars discussing critical topics of our day.

28 FEBRUARY ALEKSANDAR HEMON WITH JOHN FREEMAN 7 MARCH NANCY M ACLEAN WITH GREG GRANDIN – NEW EVENT! 14 MARCH ROXANE GAY WITH TRESSIE McMILLAN COTTOM 11 APRIL DIANE RAVITCH WITH JESSE HAGOPIAN 18 APRIL RACHEL KUSHNER WITH MICHAEL SILVERBLATT 2 MAY CLIVE HAMILTON WITH LISA SIDERIS 9 MAY COLSON WHITEHEAD WITH KEVIN YOUNG

ALL EVENTS BEGIN AT 7PM

Lensic Performing Arts Center 211 West San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, NM Tel. 505.988.1234 ticketssantafe.com Tickets for each event go on sale the first SATURDAY of the month prior to the event.

General admission: $8 students/seniors with ID $5 Ticket prices include a $3 Lensic Preservation fee.

lannan.org Green Fire Times • December 2017

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