Raíces – Tradiciones 2017

2017 TRADICIONES • THE TAOS NEWS

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Courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Negative Number 011469

View of Taos Plaza, New Mexico, circa 1915.

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Our identity is in our roots

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A tree without roots is really just a piece of wood. And while a tree can stand tall on its own, it is strengthened and protected by the other trees around it.

Everyone comes from somewhere. Some people believe we chose our parents before our souls entered our bodies.

Others say such a thing is just fate.

Although the cultures we were raised in may share similarities, no two are identical. But the raíces (roots) planted for us by our ancestors, immediate

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family and the role models who came before us, laid a foundation — a system of learning and rules of nurturing.

From our raíces rise dance, music, art, food, clothing and language.

In Northern New Mexico, family is upfront.

Taos’ mixture of roots reside in the hearts and souls of its striking, resourceful people. Our roots planted before us and the ones we leave behind are our identity.

While some communities in other parts of the country, and world, seem to be in

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serious need of digging up their roots and replanting them in more fertile soil, Taos’ Raíces — whether native to Taos or not — are as strong and assimilated as ever.

As Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur and orator Marcus Garvey once stated, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”

Taoseños understand their history and are proud of their culture because they know that a tree without roots cannot stand.

— Scott Gerdes special sections editor

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3 Battery H

16 Pathways to the past

By Jerry Padilla

By Donna Kout Ikard

6 What’s in a name?

18 Hooked on fish

By Larry Torres

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Larry C. Kelley

12 Not just surviving

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL • HONRAR A NUESTROS HÉROES

By Scott Gerdes

14 Southwestern fantasy

Tradiciones Robin Martin owner Andy

Nicolais

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Chris Baker publisher

production

manager

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Staci Matlock editor Jordan

Miera

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By Harrison Blackman

Chris Wood advertising manager

copy

Tom Harper, Donna Kout Ikard, Larry C. Kelley, Jerry Padilla, Larry Torres

By Tom Harper and

editor

•

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Harrison

Scott Gerdes special sections editor Blackman

reporter

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Staff

Karin Eberhardt art director

Katharine

Egli

photographer

contributing writers

“A concerted effort to preserve our heritage is a vital link to our cultural, educational, aesthetic, inspirational, and economic legacies - all of the things that quite literally make us who we are.”

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Battery H The 75th anniversary of the Bataan Death March

by Jerry A. Padilla

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Courtesy Taos County Historical Society

Group portrait of New Mexico POWs at Zentsuji Camp at Shikoku, Osaka, Japan. Left to right: Capt. Claude W. Stump (Deming), joined the New Mexico national Guard (111th Cavalry) in 1921; 2nd Lt. Clinton C. Seymour (Gallup), was transferred to the 26th Cavalry as a platoon commander; Capt. George W. Henfling (Albuquerque), died in 1969 at 56 years; Capt. Dow G. Bond (Taos), was recommended for the Silver Star while holding the enemy at bay at Balanga while Army engineers blew up a bridge during the retreat into Bataan; Capt. Jack K. Boyer (Taos), was appointed to the State Park and Recreation Commission by Gov. David Cargo in 1968; and 1st Lt. Jack W. Bradley (Albuquerque), was a founding father of West Valley College, Saratoga, California, in 1964. Bradley, who died in 2005, wrote the text of the “History” columns at Bataan Memorial Park in Angel Fire.

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hile much has been written about the World War II campaign of Bataan and the defense of the Philippines, let it not ever be forgotten that many Taoseños helped hold the line.

The sacrifices made by the 200th Coast Artillery — among other units — in the long run helped delay and ultimately prevent a Japanese invasion of Australia. Some have said this unit of the New Mexico National Guard was assigned to the Philippines because the Taos soldiers, whether Hispano, Anglo or Native American, for the most part were fluent in Spanish and English — skills necessary for cooperation and coordination in the defense of a Spanish-speaking country in the Orient.

The 200th Coast Artillery evolved from the old 111th Cavalry, New Mexico National Guard, of which the Taos unit was Troop K. Early in 1939, with modernization of American military forces, the Adjutant General’s Office received direction from the War Department to convert the cavalry unit to Coast Artillery. This conversion began in 1940, according to John Pershing Jolly, former adjutant general of New Mexico, in his book, “History of the National Guard of New Mexico 1606-1963.” Taos and its citizen soldiers became Battery H. These men

BATAAN MEMORIAL ON TAOS PLAZA

On the east side are the names of those who made it home.They are as follows, as found on this memorial cross:

traded horses for anti-aircraft cannons.

Maj. Jack Boyer, one of the commanders of the Taos unit, said in a Taos News special section dedicated to Taoseño World War II veterans published on March 25, 2005, that the regiment consisted of 60 men and four officers, all from the Taos area.

“We trained hard at Fort Bliss, without full compliment of weapons and equipment and with little or no firing of those weapons we had,” Boyer wrote. “Still, by August 1941, the 200th had been officially named as the best AA regiment, regular Army or otherwise, available for use in an area of critical importance. As the Philippines had become such an area, the 200th was then ordered there.”

With war looming on the horizon, the 200th readied for its overseas assignment, and after completing training at Fort Bliss, Texas, arrived at Fort Stotsenberg, 75 miles north of Manila, Philippines.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the 200th mobilized, awaiting impending hostile air attacks.

Although not fully equipped with the correct powder-train fuses, the soldiers prepared to defend Manila, Clark Air Field and help train Filipino forces. Further, the Japanese were also attacking the Philippines simultaneously, according to Jolly. By the next day, during a high-altitude attack by Japanese bombers, the 200th shot down five aircraft. The American regiment

lost two guardsmen to the first bomb dropped, making a direct hit on their truck.

It was only the beginning — the American and Filipino forces were under constant air attack over the next two weeks, and the Japanese invasion troops began landing on Luzon, the main island. Battling those constant attacks, the 200th fought delaying actions without any sign of reinforcements,

‘New Mexicans must never forget the many hundreds of men of the 200th who did not survive on Luzon, Bataan and in various Japanese prisoner of war camps and those who lost their lives at sea.’

essentially making an orderly retreat to San Fernando while being everywhere at the same time. The 200th and its provisional unit of Filipinos, trained and led by New Mexicans, successfully covered the evacuation of forces, equipment and supplies into Bataan. American forces were now under the command of Gens. Jonathan Wainwright and Edward P. King Jr., Col. Charles Sage and Lt. Col. Harry M. Peck.

By April 3, 1942, the Japanese, having received enough reinforcements, started the final drive through the Bataan peninsula. All told, the defenders had resisted the enemy for three months.

Surrounded, outnumbered and running low on food and medicine, suffering from malaria, with many casualties, King reluctantly and formally surrendered about 75,000 Filipino and American soldiers to Japanese Gen. Masaharu Homma on April 9, 1942.

In intense heat, the prisoners were forced to walk the infamous 65-mile “Death March” from Mariveles, on the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula, to San Fernando. From there, the groups of about 100 men were transported by train to prison camps. En route, they were beaten randomly and denied food and water.

Many were tortured to death. Those who survived the approximately five-day march endured 40 months of incarceration in various Japanese prisoner of war camps, where cruel treatment, disease and

Maj. Dow Bond, Jack K. Bower, Capt.

Dallas P. Vinette, Sgt. Robert Boggs, Jack Fuller, Earl R. Harris, Jimmy K. Luhan (Lujan), John M. Vickery, Paul Trujillo, Luis G. Leroux, Ben Montoya, Jose A. Segura, Miguel A.Tafoya, Horacio Montoya,Tony Reyna, Felipe E. Rivera, Jose A. Medina, Cpl. George Mares, Juan J. Martinez, Roberto Medina,Teodoro J. Montoya, Onofre Montoya, Santana Romero, Steve J. Sanchez, Armando E. Trujillo, Valdemar DeHerrera, Bud Garcia, Eloy Valdez,Tomas Garcia, Antonio B. Martinez, Vicente Vigil, Ray Burch, Virgilio Gomez, Gustavo Santistevan, Andres Montoya and Eugenio Romero.

On the west side of the cross are the names of those who sacrificed their lives in the Battle of Bataan or during its aftermath, as follows: Lt. Reynaldo Gonzales, Sgt. Alfred E. Brink, Felipe Trejo, Jimmie Luhan (Lujan), Charles M. Mares,Thomas Santistevan, Charles A.Trujillo, Martin Trujillo, Cpl. Maclovio Gonzales, Arturo Sandoval, Private Jose L. Coca, James H. Hopkins, Lupe Lucero, Jake J. Padilla,Telesfor Gonzales, Richard G. Romero, Felix Aragon, Fernando Concha, Abonais Cordova, Manuel J. Garcia, Gustavo Lucero, Jerry Lucero, Jose I. Lujan, Luciano Martinez, Ambrosio Sandoval, Marcelo Tafoya, Jose E. T. Mascareñas, Jose C. Cruz, Moises Miera and Jose L. Mascareñas.

Courtesy Taos County Historical Society

After U.S. Gen. Edward P. King, Jr. surrendered 70,000 Filipino and U.S. soldiers to Japanese Gen. Masaharu Homma on April 9, 1942, the prisoners began the infamous 65-mile “Death March” to a prison camp.

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RAICES Courtesy Taos County Historical Society

The Battery H regiment consisted of 60 men and four officers, all from the Taos area.

malnutrition continued to take its toll.

The Americans were forced to march on the right side of the roads, while the Filipino prisoners were made to walk on the left side so the Japanese soldiers escorting them could tell the difference. Some Filipinos resembled Americans, just as some New Mexicans resembled Filipinos, and this confusion gave some of the guards an excuse to further mistreat the men.

Upon arriving at San Fernando, some survivors interned there. Others were forced into 1918 model railroad boxcars with more than 100 men to a car, continuing on to various camps, such as the pre-war training area turned prison camp called Camp O’Donnell, which was another 10 kilometers away (just more than 6 miles).

It is believed that at least 1,500 American prisoners died, and at least 25,000 Filipinos fell victim to their captors’ mistreatment.

Ranking officer Boyer survived the war.

During a 1987 speech at the dedication of the old Taos Armory as a Bataan Memorial Building, Boyer said, “The Philippine campaign, which culminated with the fall of Bataan on 9 April, and Corregidor on 6 May, 1942, should never have happened.

The whole campaign is a classic example of unpreparedness, lack of communication, lack of knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of equipment, lack of training and of equipment and the extreme jealousy and antipathy of high-ranking officers –

and the decision of President Roosevelt and his staff in Washington toward the defense of the Philippine islands.”

The late Tony Reyna (Taos Pueblo) of the 200th Coast Artillery and fellow survivors, however, never gave up, even though the danger never ceased. After Russian troops set them free in August 1945, an airplane crashed into their compound.

Then, the hospital ship transporting them to Okinawa hit a mine. In Japan, the wheel of their airplane fell off. It seemed as if the odds were against their ever coming home to Taos again.

Reyna explained that only six of 11 guardsmen from Taos Pueblo survived.

Fernando Concha, Big Jim Lujan, Jerry and Lupe Lucero and Joe I. Lujan perished.

Reyna weighed only 100 pounds when he returned. After recovering in a Santa Fe hospital, he returned to his life at Taos Pueblo, where he served as Taos Pueblo governor twice and continued to manage his own art shop on the Pueblo. He served on many boards and was instrumental in bringing a health clinic to the Pueblo – and in getting it designated an official United Nations World Heritage site.

War was an atrocity like no other.

“Those who survived,” said Reyna, “were determined to survive. One man next to me just plain gave up. He quit seeing the future.” Reyna was forced to bury Concha, his Taos Pueblo comrade.

Survivor Roberto Medina, a Taos native son, did as many New Mexican patriots have always done. Medina volunteered for military service. In a 2004 Taos News special section article, Scott Gerdes wrote that some family members believe he embellished the truth about his age and that instead of 21, he was actually 17 when he enlisted in the New Mexico National Guard and then assigned to Battery H. “All of these veterans are modest and for the most part reluctant to talk much about their war experiences,” Medina told The Taos News. “It would be like bragging [to say much about having survived the war].”

In retrospect after the conflict, Col. Peck said, “New Mexicans must never forget the many hundreds of men of the 200th who did not survive on Luzon, Bataan and in various Japanese prisoner of war camps and those who lost their lives at sea.” (Several of the prisoners drowned when a ship transporting them to Japan was torpedoed by an American submarine, whose captain and crew were unaware the prisoners were on board.)

Continued Peck, “Somewhat less than 20 of these casualties occurred as a result of battle action, a remarkable record for units engaged in combat with the invaders several times every day for four continuous months. Those who survived this war and who had the good fortune to know the 200th and the 515th — ‘The

Brigade’— will always remember their patience under adverse conditions, their uncomplaining care of each other and the inevitable guitars, which played a requiem to those who died.”

The New Mexico Brigade brought home three Distinguished Unit Citations and the Philippine Presidential Citation.

These awards are also personally held by each individual who was a member of the units during the periods covered by the citations. According to Jolly, it is believed that no unit participating in World War II was awarded more than three Distinguished Unit Citations.

Taoseños continue to serve in our nation’s military forces, a tradition that began during the American Civil War. However, no unit suffered more personal loss or sacrificed more souls than those who gave their all at Bataan. Let us never forget their contribution in order to help secure the blessings of liberty we continue to enjoy.

This article was originally published in the Taos County Historical Society’s newsletter, Ayer y Hoy, Issue 39, 2015.

It has been lightly edited for length and is reprinted with permission.

In November, the Taos County Historical Society will host a presentation about the 75th anniversary of the Bataan Death March.

Rick Romancito

Mary Bernal Moody of the Taos Pueblo Color Guard, right, embraces tribal elder Tony Reyna during Memorial Day ceremonies in November 2016 at Taos Pueblo. Up until his passing in December 2016, Reyna, 96, was one of the last remaining survivors of the Bataan Death March of World War II.

Rick Romancito

Taos Pueblo in winter

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What’s in a name

?

File photo/Greg Kreller

Entering Taos — the view of the Río Grande George after the “Horseshoe” curve.

Courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Negative Number 014820

By the time this view of Taos Plaza was taken in 1880, “Taos” had become the universal name.

Courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Negative Number 011469

View of Taos Plaza, New Mexico, circa 1915

By Larry Torres

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Taos means ‘home’

pproach any person who lives in Taos and ask them why they live here, and you will be likely to receive various responses. Most common among them will be: “My ancestors have always lived here.” “I was driving through, ran out of gas and got trapped here and I wasn’t able to escape.” “I came to be part of ‘The Commune’ in the 1960s because Taos is a four-letter word, like ‘love.’” “I came for the red and green chile.” “I wanted to be a Taos artist.” “The mountain called me.”

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These and many more reasons define a people who have come to make their home in the land of cool, refreshing sunrises and brilliant, dramatic sunsets. The problem here, though, is that the last person to come to Taos wants to be the last person to come to Taos and lock the gate behind him. Once we are firmly retrenched here, we all become very possessive of this, our treasured chosen homeland.

Looking beyond the personal reasons for living in Taos, we can find just how many times this place has changed names across the centuries, depending on available records. This “place at the red willows” has been recorded in the annals of local history successively as “Brava” in 1540, when Don Hernando de Alvarado (a native of the small town of Las Montañas in northern Spain who became captain of artillery for the Coronado expedition) mentioned it to his superior, Don Francisco Vásquez de Coronado. It was then rechristened “Tlaxcala,” recalling an earlier symbiotic encounter between Spanish settlers and friendly natives near Mexico City. ©Lisa Law

Rainbows and tepees — adding more ingredients to the Taos mystique.

By 1598, “Tuah-Tah” was the name recorded by Juan Belarde, who was secretary to Don Juan de Oñate (a conquistador, explorer and colonial governor of the Santa Fe de Nuevo México province in the viceroyalty of New Spain).

He wrote: “On this day, after Mass, we went on to the province of La Tuah-Tah, the place of the red willows ...” For years, there was even a motel in Taos bearing this name.

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From the Archive

AQUÍ EN TAOS It’s not just a slogan.

It’s a way of life.

Since 1908, our family has kept New Mexicans on the road.

You could say our roots run deep around here.

FOUND IN NEXT WEEK’S EDITION: AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK INTO MARTIN SHAFFER’S HISTORIC TAOS IMAGES.

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File photo/Tina Larkin

This place we call Taos, home of the Red Willow People and of breathtaking sunsets.

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Sometimes the place reference was to th “Tayberón” in 16 -century records.

Subsequently, a document in Mexican archives also refers to this place as “Valladolid”; the kingdom of El Cid, who was the symbolic hero of Spain’s liberation from the Moors. It had also been recognized in letters of the time intermittently as “Don Fernando,” “San Fernández” and “Fernández-Chávez de Taos” by 1760.

It had been named for Capt. Fernando de Chávez, who had settled in this area prior to the Taos Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

People, such as tutelary goddess cum Taos doyenne Mabel Dodge, promoted the idea that “Taos” was possibly a reference to a way of life. “Taoism” [Romanized as Daoism] is a term meaning “the way” or “the path.” It is a Chinese philosophical tradition that emphasizes living in harmony.

Katharine Egli

Maintaining cultural traditions is synonymous with the name “Taos.” A young girl dances in a Grand Entry at the 2017 Taos Pueblo Powwow.

The first known reference to the quest for the meaning of Taos in a book was recorded by artist and author Blanche Chloe Grant (1874-1948) in her classic “When Old Trails were New.” Grant was the first person who donated a piece of art, which launched “The Firehouse Art Collection.” She mentions that Dodge was the first to promote the idea that we are all “called by the mountain,” referring to Taos Pueblo Peak. The mountain will then either “accept you or reject you.” Since then,

legend has become recognized as fact.

Based on Dodge’s proposal, the flower children and their descendants made a brilliant calculation: Taos is exactly 180 degrees opposite the world – in longitude and latitude – from holy Tibet.

It is for this reason that Buddhists have been attracted to this spot for several decades. Some will even tell you that we have legends that tell us on this side, the world was light for a year. They have opposite legends that mention for a year the world was dark. “We are here to complete a spiritual journey,” they say.

Performers and singers have also popularized the name of Taos in song.

It is not generally known, but after years of imitating other country singers, the late Waylon Jennings found his voice in the music scene in 1967 with his album, “Love of the Common People.”

Among the songs in his album was one written by songster Bob Ferguson.

It was titled “Taos, New Mexico.”

Part of the lyrics to this romantic ballad say:

“To Taos Pueblo, out in New Mexico, one night my weary feet did go, so I stopped that night in Taos.There’s a story in Taos town that if a stranger comes around when a fresh snow is on the ground, a new love will be born in Taos. … Some night if it should snow, there’s a place you really ought to go.There’s a legend that is true I know in Taos, New Mexico.”

Following in his footsteps, another Taos transplant was guitarist Antonio Mendoza, who would regale the crowds at Taos Plaza restaurant The Cocina. His slant on Taos music included the lyrics:

“You can be anything you want to be in Fernández de Taos by the Río Grande … be a louse to your spouse in Taos. … In Taos, New Mexico, we have no sexico; just intellexico, in Taos, New Mexico.”

In 1972, Canadian-born Richard Dean Taylor wrote about serving time here in his song, “Taos, New Mexico.” Part of his lyrics are desperate pleas from a mom to her son who can’t move because he’s stuck in Taos: “My mama wrote a letter. In it,

she said, ‘Son, you better hurry, get home quick. Maria’s tired of waitin’ and you know she started datin’.’ Then she got her kick. Here I am in jail with no one to pull my bail. And I just wanna go home and when I do, I’ll never leave Maria alone.

I’m serving time in Taos, New Mexico …”

Other fans include writers such as Lyn Bleiler of the Society of the Muse of the Southwest (SOMOS). She has set legends and rose-colored glasses aside and tells us that Taos was first inhabited by the Anasazi Indians circa 1000 A.D. It has seduced myriads of other notables, like Carl Jung, Jaime de Angulo, D.H. Lawrence, Willa Cather, Thomas Wolf and Martha Graham.

Then there are the rest of us non-notables who persist in living here. The question, then, is why people might choose to settle in Taos. It is not easy to live here.

Many Taoseños have to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet. Many are single parents trying to raise children by themselves while they go to classes at night in pursuit of a college degree and straddle various languages. And yet we stay.

Perhaps it is the famous Taos mystique that binds us all together, despite a history of revolt and rebellion, arguments over land and water usage. Perchance we like gluten-free and social change. Maybe it is the electromagnetic emanations from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains that give us the will and courage to stay.

It could be the Taos hum that lulls us into a sense to security, much like a child resting in his mother’s arms. Could be that we come because of the slogan, “‘Taos’ is a four-letter word for ‘snow.’”

Why question heaven on Earth or the proverbial gift horse? Taos is a fourletter word. Taos means “home.”

Larry Torres is a local historian and foreign language coordinator at the University of New Mexico-Taos.

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RAICES Katharine Egli

A rainbow appeared over Taos Mountain (aka Pueblo Peak) during Taos Pueblo’s Jingle Dress Prayer Ceremony in Support of Standing Rock Water Protectors on Nov. 5, 2016.

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2017 TRADICIONES • THE TAOS NEWS

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Courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Negative Number 068820 T. Harmon Parkhurst photograph.

“Threshing with sheep,” Picuris Pueblo Valley, circa 1940-1945.

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The boys marked the sheep’s ears (a type of branding) and sheared them.

“It took a week to shear all the sheep,” Romero recalled from his family’s accounts.

“They would stuff wool into big bags and take it the railroads in Alamosa and Jaroso, Colorado, to be shipped. From there, it went all over the country.”

Fall was the harvest season when they “culled” (separated out) the females from the flock to prepare for winter grazing near Carson, New Mexico, Romero explained.

Every winter, the sheep were trailed to Carson, right next to the “dry” reservoir.

They made just one stop at Taos Junction to rest. Older sheep were either butchered or sold to neighbors with no sheep.

Times change Entrepreneurs like Mondragon were looking for other markets for their influx of sheep. One such market presented itself during the gold rush.

Courtesy photo

Palemon Mondragon, son of Rosalio, in the middle of a flock on the west side of La Jicarita Peak, July 2, 1950.

NOT JUST SURVIVING Early sheepherding in Taos

By Scott Gerdes

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n any given day, driving around Taos and its environs, spotting a few sheep grazing in a random fenced backyard is not unusual. The off-white, rotund, coarsely curled critters almost look more like pets than agricultural property.

Sheep are not a major source of income for most Northern New Mexico ranchers anymore. But during the turn of the 19th century in the colony of Taos, for some families, sheepherding was a lucrative financial venture in a place that had limited economic avenues. Wheat farming was the other predominant basis for Taos’ agropastoral economy.

Today, sheepherding provides an agricultural history of Taos through Spanish, Mexican and American history.

The Mondragons

Ultimately, the Civil War put a cramp in herding to California since many people left to fight. Instead, ranchers sent much of their flocks north to Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. The herders often remained with their sheep to establish the industry. This did, however, lead to some heated exchanges with cattle ranchers.

“Some scuffles ensued over grazing land,” Romero described. “Eventually, the two sides saw benefits – the sheep were actually fertilizing the land while grazing it.”

Bob Romero, author of the book, “History of Taos” and a lifelong educator, is Rosalio Mondragon’s grandson. Romero’s descendants traveled from the Basque region of Spain and settled in what is now the Ranchos de Taos/Llano Quemado area.

Mondragon saw a bankable commodity in a sheep population that by 1800 was growing exponentially, mainly through the use of the “partido” system.

Originating in Spain, this system of raising sheep allowed anyone with an established flock (the patrón) to go into contract with someone (the partidario) who assumed responsibility for a certain number of ewes over a decided-upon time period. Every year under contract, the partidario paid interest – generally about 20 percent ­– to the owner in wool and lambs. When the contract ended, the partidario was expected to return the same number of ewes – and at the same age – as the ones he had initially received.

Mondragon entered such an arrangement, starting with a dozen ewes. Sheep may seem weak, but they multiply fairly quickly. It isn’t uncommon for a ewe to give birth to twins or even triplets.

“In five years, 12 sheep can turn into 30 or 40,” Romero said. By the mid-1880s, the Taos area was seeing more and more sheep in its pastures, and so was Mondragon on his land. Romero estimated there were 75,000 sheep in the Taos area before the Civil War. By 1880, there were 186,000.

Mondragon married and started a family in the early 1900s. With the help of 10 children (five others did not survive), he grew his flock. The boys started working the ranch at age 6 and moved on to herding at 10.

Left to right: Selso Aragon, Rosalio Mondragon, Joey Romero and Juan Mondragon dock a lamb in Ranchitos in 1947.

Mondragon never ventured that far, instead preferring to sell wool, meat and whole sheep/lambs in Northern New Mexico and Colorado. He saw the railroads as a means to expanded his market.

One such family was the Mondragons, led by patriarch Rosalio. The other two prominent sheep ranchers in the 1800s to the mid-1900s were the Gabriel Chavez and Severino Martinez families.

If all went well, the partidario had amassed a flock of his own. “It was a win-win for all,” Romero explained. However, if all did not go well, the partidario risked going into debt to his patrón.

Courtesy photo

Some ranchers, such as Kit Carson, herded their flocks into the San Luis Valley toward Grand Junction, Colorado, and then followed an immigration trail through the Nevada desert toward Salt Lake City, ending up in Sacramento, California.

There, they sold their few thousand sheep for $8.50 a head, Romero said, adding that was good money for the time.

In the summer, the sheep grazed on land in a Jicarita allotment near Peñasco, along with a Chavez family herd. Two herders walked with the animals. Departing from Llano Quemado, it took four days to get to Peñasco by way of Miranda Canyon.

If they had a horse or two, they were only used to pull supply wagons. The Mondragon boys mostly lived off the land, but did go for supplies every two weeks.

“It wasn’t easy,” Romero said of living in the wild with the herd. “But it kept them healthy. It was a hearty life.”

June through August was a typical time for them to sell some of the rams. November through April was the “lambing season” and a time to diligently watch for birds of prey. Males were castrated in the spring.

Courtesy photo

Jose de la Luz shearing a sheep.

With such a large growth in the Taos area’s sheep population, however, it was inevitable that the land here would struggle to sustain them.

“It was an ecological disaster,” Romero said. “The waist-high grass in Taos Valley was replaced by sagebrush.” (Sagebrush seeds were mostly dropped by herded animals brought in from the south.)

The ecology of herding eventually altered the economics of it. European entrepreneurs, according to Romero, came in and bought up sheep and acquired interests in communal lands. The industry fell into decline in the early 1900s.

The Mondragons and some other families, such as the Chavez and Martinez clans, however, stayed in the business and adapted. One major change had to do with grazing lands, which now required permits from the U.S. government. President Teddy Roosevelt’s creation of national parks and forests resulted from much of the grazing land becoming public land. Mondragon received his first permit to graze in 1917.

From the 1930s to 1950s, Mondragon’s herd grew to 1,500, including lambs.

At that time, Romero estimated wool from 400 to 500 lambs fetched about $5,000 and $10,000 for the animals.

“My grandfather turned much of that money into purchasing more grazing land,” Romero shared. “He ended up with over 2,000 acres in Northern New Mexico. A poor sheep herder just making ends meet ends up a multimillionaire.”

The Great Depression also threatened

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RAICES Courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Negative Number 068820 T. Harmon Parkhurst photograph.

“Threshing with sheep,” Picuris Pueblo Valley, circa 1940-1945.

sheep ranchers’ livelihoods after prices for lambs and wool collapsed. But, the Mondragons continued to thrive when others moved on to other industries, such as mercantile and banking.

Romero’s father, Jose de la Luz, kept a small herd and tried to maintain it until the late 1990s. He sold the sheep eight years before he died. The last family ranch still stands on Camino del Medio.

The patriarch of the Mondragon family died in 1974 at 87 years old. His land was divided evenly among his remaining children and continued to be divided up and passed down through the generations.

How they got here

Because of the perceived unfeasible economics of sheep ranching, many of the family members have since sold off parcels of Rosalio Mondragon’s land.

The sheep came with the Spanish conquistadors and explorers – as did horses, hogs and mules. All of them herded onto ships, the first load was brought

by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado in

the 1500s. He brought more sheep to the area in 1540 and Juan de Oñate (of Spanish descent, born in Mexico) added to the wooly population in 1598.

Oñate was named both governor and captain general by Spain during the colonization of Nuevo México. Sheep were present in the New Mexico territory before the Spaniards arrived, Romero explained, but they were never found in great numbers due to predators. When the Spaniards were ran out of the area in 1680, some of their sheep were left behind. But even 20 years later, survival was difficult in Northern New

Mexico due to the constant raiding and pillaging of Taos Pueblo by nomadic tribes.

“By the 1770s, people were just hanging on by a thread,” Romero said. That is until the arrival of Juan Bautista de Anza in the later part of the decade, who successfully led a punitive expedition against the raiding Comanches at Taos Pueblo and into Colorado.

After Bautista’s dividing and conquering of the Comanche, “People felt better about getting land through five early land grants,” Romero said. “They weren’t just surviving anymore.”

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Southwestern fantasy John Gaw Meem, Frank Lloyd Wright and the emergence of Pueblo Revival architecture in New Mexico Story by Harrison Blackman • Photographs by Katharine Egli

A

I

n August 1915, Rudolf Schindler, a Vienna, Austria-born architect and resident of Chicago, Illinois, toured the Southwest, a trip that included stops in Santa Fe and Taos. Schindler, a protegé of Frank Lloyd Wright, was particularly taken with the Pueblo adobe-style architecture of New Mexico, taking more than 75 photographs of local buildings and their surrounding landscapes.

“While he only stayed one week in Taos, it was an experience that would have a lasting impact upon him and influence the course of his architectural design,” architectural historian Eric Lutz wrote in a 2005 journal article.

Later that fall, Schindler was commissioned to design a house for Dr. Thomas Paul Martin, or “Doc Martin,” as he was commonly known, one of the first doctors in Taos County and the namesake of the famous Taos restaurant. Although the plan for Doc Martin’s “country home in adobe construction” was never built, its plan called for a modern re-envisioning of the Spanish-Pueblo vernacular architecture, featuring adobe walls, vigas, a low-rise structure and a large courtyard.

As planned, the house sought to achieve “harmony” with the landscape.

“The horizontal stretch of the house, reminiscent of Wright’s description of the desert as linear, well-armed and abstract, emerges with an almost geological profile,” architectural historian Albert Narath wrote in a 2008 analysis of the project.

“Like the nearby pueblo, it takes on the natural tectonics of the desert at large.”

Schindler’s inspired design sought to evoke an architectural style that in the 1910s was just beginning to define Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico. The only problem? As conceived, the Pueblo Revival movement is a relatively recent

invention, one that perpetuates a historical fantasy and ignores the greater history of New Mexico since the early 1600s.

Santa Fe’s ‘revival’ In Santa Fe, countless tourists take photos of the Palace of the Governors, perhaps with the the thrill of witnessing the same building that coincided with the city’s 1610 founding. What visitors might not realize is that the famed facade of the structure, with its log pillars and adobe-style arcade, is not original to the building. In fact, the facade we see today was originally built in 1909. According to historian Paul Gleye in his 1994 analysis of Santa Fe architecture, the 1909 design was preceded by a fanciful Victorian arcade dating back to 1870.

Before that, the facade was probably a more modest construction of wooden beams.

Soon after its 1909 renovation, the Palace of the Governors became the nexus of the movement that popularized Pueblo style. In 1912, the palace hosted an exhibit promoting a “New-Old Santa Fe Style” of adobe walls, vigas and flat roofs. Helping to formalize the Pueblo architectural look, the exhibit made a lasting impression on the city.

“We never considered Spanish homes or five-storied communal Indian buildings as architecture, and we were all much surprised, when gradually, by public opinion, the Spanish-Pueblo Revival style of architecture was being adopted by the entire state, as not only practical and fitting, but most of all, as [an] attractive drawing card to visitors,” Ernest L. Blumenschein said in 1953, a founder of the Taos Society of Artists, a group that had supported the widespread adoption of Spanish-Pueblo Revival in the 1920s.

In Taos, said local architect Bob Parker

of Robert Parker Associates AIA, the principal examples of the Pueblo Revival style architecture are The Harwood Museum of Art, Hotel La Fonda de Taos, the Blumenschein House and Casa Benevides. The Harwood, built

by Bert Harwood in 1926, he added, is considered the first town structure designed in the Pueblo Revival style.

Despite any internal skepticism, the design movement quickly caught fire.

A 1930 contest challenged architects to develop plans to remodel the buildings of Santa Fe’s plaza to conform to the Pueblo Revival theme.

The winner of that contest was John Gaw Meem, an architect who would eventually become the preeminent advocate of “Santa Fe style.” Meem’s design for remodeling the plaza in Santa Fe was implemented over the next 20 years, in the process replacing or renovating the existing plaza buildings that reflected other, less romanticized moments in Santa Fe’s past.

Meem became a prolific architect in New Mexico, particularly in Santa Fe. Among his many projects, he was involved with Santa Fe’s Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (a project funded by John D. Rockefeller Jr.), the La Fonda Hotel and St. John’s College.

As architect of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque from 1933 to 1959, he presided over the architectural planning of the campus to reflect Pueblo Revival styles.

As many as 500 structures in and around Santa Fe were guided by Meem’s hand.

The design motif wasn’t for everyone.

Even Wright, no stranger to hyperbolic remarks, expressed his distaste for the University of New Mexico’s architecture.

“This is imitation and all imitation is base,” the legendary architect reportedly said during a visit to the campus, a comment recorded in historian Arthur DeVolder’s

Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, photographer Tyler Dingee, Negative Number 020749

Gustave Baumann, John Gaw Meem and Ernest L. Blumenschein circa 1955

1979 retrospective of Meem’s career.

“If by imitation is meant the recalling or the reflection of the past,” Meem commented in response to Wright’s observations, “[Wright] would condemn the whole of the Renaissance.”

Despite these nagging critiques, Meem was hired to design the major library and auditorium additions to the Harwood Museum of Art in the early 1940s.

Pueblo Revival and tourism today Around 30 million tourists visit New Mexico each year. One of the main draws to the region, besides the state’s natural splendor and hot air balloon events, is the state’s cultural appeal as projected through architectural design. That was the style that captured the imagination of Schindler in 1915, and it continues to charm visitors to New Mexico today.

Many of these old plazas in New Mexico’s cities and towns, such as Taos, are tourist-centric — they tend to be mostly populated by boutiques, art galleries, jewelry stores and gift shops.

15

RAICES C

B

D A

THE HARWOOD MUSEUM OF ART IS ONE OF THE EARLIEST EXAMPLES OF THE PUEBLO-REVIVAL STYLE IN TAOS.

B

LOCAL ARCHITECT BOB PARKER POINTS TO THE BLUMENSCHEIN HOME & MUSEUM AS EXEMPLIFYING THE PUEBLO-REVIVAL STYLE.

C

PUEBLO-REVIVAL STYLE ARCITECTURAL DETAILS AT CASA BENAVIDES INN ON KIT CARSON ROAD.

D RESIDENTIAL HOME ON ROSARITA LANE

DESIGNED IN THE PUEBLO-REVIVAL STYLE

BY ROBERT PARKER ASSOCIATES AIA.

E

E

HOTEL LA FONDA DE TAOS ON THE PLAZA IS ANOTHER EARLY EXAMPLE OF THE PUEBLO-REVIVAL STYLE IN TAOS.

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16

Pathways to the past The namesakes of Lund Street and Guyora Lane and La Enjaradora Courtesy photo

Ethel Lund driving a horse and buggy.

By Donna Kout Ikard

M

ore than a century ago, my ancestors left White Oaks, Lincoln County, New Mexico, with all of their possessions looking to settle in the upper Rincon Valley.

The Lunds were a prospecting family.

Patriarch Fletcher Lund was Canadian, hailing from Port Perry, Ontario. He and his family had been mining for gold in White Oaks since the 1880s. Fletcher and his wife, Eva, also ran a large hotel in White Oaks during the gold boom.

They arrived in Northern New Mexico in 1904 wanting their children, Ethel and Guy, to get a formal education at the San Francisco de Asís Mission in Ranchos de Taos. Ethel Lund was part of the first class to graduate high school at the mission in 1909.

The family lived on a farm in the upper rim of the Río Grande Canyon. To make a living, they grew acres and acres of pinto beans.

Courtesy photo

Ethel and Guy Lund as teens, circa 1908.

They moved to Taos in about 1919 when their ranch home burned to the ground. Fletcher and Guy Lund owned a butcher shop in town and also owned mines outside of town.

In Taos, their closest friends were cowboys, American Indians, merchants and artists.

The Lunds lived on what is now called Civic Plaza Drive. Their home was decorated with fine paintings, American Indian rugs, pottery and an old stone metate for grinding corn; most are still in the family.

The Lunds’ granddaughters, Margaret Louise and Eva Adelaide, share memories of the Lunds’ home life in Taos: “The Hindes family lived next door to my grandparents’ house facing Main Street.

Mr. Hinde had a blacksmith shop facing the alley. On the other side of the Lunds’ home was an empty lot, which Ila McAfee and Elmer Turner bought in 1924. On the other side of the Turner home was the power plant, run by Mr. Burke. My mother’s brother, Guy Lund, also lived nearby.

“From the beginning, Ila and Elmer became part of the Lund family. As children, we were instructed to call them Aunt Ila and Uncle Elmo.

Courtesy photo

From left to right, Fletcher, Eva, Guy and Ethel Lund at the family ranch in Ranchos de Taos, taken in 1912.

“Taos was just a little town with dusty unpaved streets then. And across the road from where my grandparents lived, there

were open fields of alfalfa and clover. Taos was unknown. There were no tourists, and Ila often drove us down to the Pueblo to watch the [American] Indian dances.

“By invitation, I followed Ila everywhere and on the streets, we talked to everyone.

I realize now that many of the people we spoke to were ‘famous’ original Taos artists. Also, after Uncle Elmo’s nap, I was invited into the studio because I was always enthralled by the smells, the paintings, the butterfly collection, the gramophone, Sanka the cat and all of the visitors.

“My grandmother (we always called her ‘Grandmary’) did many things to help make a living. She often served evening meals to couples. She had a reputation as a fine cook. Grandmary was a seamstress, grew flowers for the flower shop and often baked bread for sale by order. I was allowed to take a gift loaf to the Turners and one to the Phillips [Bert Phillips, co-founder of the Taos Society of Artists, lived just across the alley]. Grandmary always cautioned me not to stay and bother them. I am sure that I always did.

“One of my playmates was Elizabeth Couse, the daughter of Irving Couse [the other co-founder of the Taos Society of Artists]. We walked everywhere together — just exploring — and the two Burke girls who lived at the power plant were also my companions. We especially liked to wade in the irrigation ditch all the way to the Pueblo. To this day, the sight of orange, oriental poppies and the smell of cilantro remind me of those times. Both plants grew in profusion on the banks of the irrigation canal.” — Margaret Louise “I had to stay with my [Lund] grandparents four summers in a row, and let me tell you, Grandmary kept me busy. She raised flowers in her own yard — she grew bachelor buttons and carnations.

She had a very large garden with rows and rows of flowers. She would whip up little bouquets of flowers and sell them.

“They lived in a huge 2 ½-story house in Taos. I slept in the attic when I visited.

Grandmary’s lilac bush came clear up to the attic window. During one visit, the circus came to town and set up nearby. I was able to see all of the action from my attic window. There was a giant cherry tree in the side yard, and I sat in the top of the tree eating cherries all day long.” — Eva Adelaide

Courtesy photos

Left: Guy Lund; Right: Ora Lund.

Fletcher Lund died in Taos in 1943. Eva Lund then relocated to Fort Stanton, New Mexico, where she lived with her daughter and her family until her death in 1953.

Ethel Lund remarried to James H. Howard, a Capitan, New Mexico, pioneer and cattle rancher from Texas. Ethel and James raised four children and three granddaughters. Ethel Lund is recognized as the first birth registrar in Carrizozo, New Mexico. She died in 1984.

Lund Street in Taos is named after Fletcher Lund and his family.

Guy Lund was drafted to serve in World War I in June of 1917. Upon his return from the war, he married Ora Seats in 1921 in Gallup, New Mexico, where they lived. In

1931, Ora and Guy Lund set up home in Taos near Guy’s family. They resided there until 1941. Guyora Lane in Taos is named after Guy and Ora Lund. It intersects with Lund Street. The word “Guyora” is actually Guy and Ora’s names put together.

In 1941, Guy and Ora Lund relocated to Questa, where Guy owned a local general store until his death in 1959. Sometime after his death, Ora Lund left New Mexico to live with her family for the remainder of her life.

Guy and Ora Lund never had children together. Guy Lund had a son out of wedlock named Tranquilino, born to Leociada Valencia, of Arroyo Seco.

Tranquilino Valencia (Lund); his wife, Luisa; and their five children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren still live in Ranchos de Taos and the surrounding area. Leociada Valencia was known as “La Enjaradora,” or “one who plasters.”

The following is written by her grandson, Robert T. Valencia: “My grandmother passed away in 2010 at

98 years of age. She was a strong woman of Hispanic descent. She worked hard and loved her children with all she had. She was a breast cancer survivor, diagnosed in her mid-70s. Aside from this, she lived a full life.

“She was 5 feet, 5 inches tall with long black hair like the American Indian women in Taos. She had a beautiful caramel skin tone. I remember her braiding her own hair and having two huge braids, one hanging to the left and the other, to the right. Her eyes were as clear as the clearest sea — the prettiest blue eyes I have ever seen. Most Hispanic women in Taos have dark eyes but not her, she was a true Spanish woman.

“She developed a mud mixture to plaster the church walls that consisted of all natural materials. The mixture has been passed down to my father and to me and my brothers, and we still use this mixture today.

“My brother, Phillip, owner of Mountain River Plastering & Renovations, uses the same mud to give properties in our area an authentic finish just as our grandmother did over a century ago.”

Donna Kout Ikard, the author of this story and the Lunds’ great-great-granddaughter, resides in the Gulf Coast area of Texas near the southernmost point. Her town was spared

by Hurricane Harvey.

Our Roots Run Deep...

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ain of Youth

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‘I was always enthralled by the smells, the paintings, the butterfly collection, the gramophone, Sanka the cat and all of the visitors.’

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18

Hooked on fish Preserving trout for future generations

By Tom Harper and Larry C. Kelley

U

nder a turquoise sky, casting a line into glassy, sparkling water is a serene start to a day before the rod bends and dances during a welcomed battle to land a catch.

Traffic noise is miles away. Video game controllers have no usefulness. Out here, texting is for the birds. What matters is the connection between mankind and nature, between father and daughter, mother and son, grandparents and grandchildren.

Whether fly-fishing, standing on a riverbank or from a boat, fishing for wild brown trout, RĂ­o Grande cutthroats and rainbows has been a popular yearround excursion for many a Northern New Mexican. A passion for fishing is passed down for generations. To keep fishing a family tradition, the fish and their environment must be protected.

The Enchanted Circle Trout Unlimited (ECTU) chapter traces its roots back to 1959, when the national chapter was formed. A group of sportsmen in Michigan formed an organization that was to be called Trout Unlimited. The primary focus was dedication to ensuring that wild and native trout populations were allowed to thrive as nature intended. This dedication spawned a movement that embraced the concept of conservation at its highest level. This organization now has more than 400 chapters and more than 300,000 members throughout the United States, including the Enchanted Circle chapter, which currently has 140-plus members.

The ECTU chapter was formed in 2007. Doug Palmer was living in the northeastern part of New Mexico and was a member of Trout Unlimited. A friend stopped by as Palmer was reading the latest issue of Trout Unlimited magazine and a conversation ensued about his hope for a local chapter to be formed. As circumstance would have it, his friend happened to be on a flight a couple of weeks later and seated next to him was the president of Trout Unlimited. The president called Palmer and they began laying the groundwork that would eventually become the Enchanted Circle chapter.

In trying to define what is the Enchanted Circle chapter and the national organization it represents is best served by reviewing the various programs and philosophies. The vision of the national organization is that by the next generation, Trout Unlimited will ensure that robust populations of native and wild cold-water fish will once again thrive within their North American range, so that our children can enjoy healthy fisheries. It is a belief that conservation should be a true partnership between landowners, agencies, municipalities and all stake holders. The ETCU embraces this vision on a grass-roots level.
 The vision is identified in four core areas:

PROTECT

(native and wild trout watersheds).

RESTORE

(habitat, flows and water quality).

RECONNECT (watersheds by removal of migratory barriers).

SUSTAIN

(by land conservancy, youth education and membership development).

Katharine Egli

Tom Harper shows off a brown trout caught just south of the Red River Fish Hatchery in March.

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The following is a brief summary of ECTU’s involvement and projects in furtherance of Trout Unlimited’s mission and vision: • An effort to have 4 miles below the Red River Hatchery foot bridge designated special trout water, adopting catchand-release regulation using artificial flies and lures with single barbless hooks only. Completed July 15.

• Red River Angling Park and hatchery stream improvements and restoration. In addition, a stretch of the Red River upstream of the Questa Ranger Station has been identified and scheduled for improvement and restoration.

• Columbine and Hondo tributaries hold genetically pure strains of Río Grande cutthroats.The project involves placing barriers to protect these pure strains of cutthroat from other fish.

• ECTU is a member of the Cimarrón Water Alliance, which is a collaboration of agricultural, municipal and recreational water users. ECTU partners with Philmont Scout Ranch in River Corridor as a classroom engaging communities in the health of the Cimarrón River watershed.

• Fence and horse trap repair and construction on the waterways in the northeast area of New Mexico.

• ECTU sponsors Trout in the Classroom. ECTU provides aquariums, water chillers and related equipment to school programs in the cities of Taos, Cimarrón and Red River. Students rear trout from eggs to juvenile, then release them into streams. Students went to Eagle Rock Lake for a fish release on May 5.

• The Taos High School science project involves working with teachers and students. ECTU provides funding for water quality and biological sampling.

The results provide baseline information to ECTU and resource agencies, which is used to evaluate the effectiveness of stream habitat restoration projects.

• ECTU organizes or participates with other groups in periodic trash cleanups along rivers and streams with support provided by the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. Past projects have included the Red River, Cimarrón, Río Hondo, Río Grande and Río Fernando.

• ECTU is deeply committed to Project Healing Waters.

Members serve disabled military veterans with monthly fly-tying sessions, casting lessons and fishing trips.

• ECTU provides support for Casting for Recovery, serving breast cancer survivors at all stages of recovery with an annual retreat for 14 women at no cost to the participants.

The project introduces women to the physical and emotional healing qualities of fly-fishing activities.

• ECTU participates in water sampling and testing in streams and rivers with other volunteer sampling groups (e.g., Water Sentinels). Volunteers are trained to sample water on a regular basis and send samples to certified laboratories for analysis.

• ECTU is currently involved in planting willow trees along the Red River near Eagle Rock Lake.The willows provide shade to cool the stream water to promote healthy fish habitat and stabilize the banks to control erosion.

• ECTU was engaged in presenting the annual Kids Fish Fiesta in conjunction with the village of Questa, town of Taos, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and U.S. Forest Service.The event was held at Eagle Rock Lake on June 3.

• Each year, ECTU puts on a two-day guided fishing tournament for teams of three fishermen and a guide.

It both raises money for the chapter and also provides a lot of fun and great prizes for the best teams.

• The annual banquet is ECTU’s largest fundraiser of the year.

Katharine Egli

Planting the roots for a love of fishing often comes from being passed down from generation to generation. Pictured is Finn McMullin who fishes the Pueblo del Picuris in 2015.

F

or more information, go online to tu.org and ec-tu.org. If you are already a member, don’t forget to renew. If you are not a member, please join us. Call Chapter President Tom Harper at (602) 206-0296 if you have questions or want to get involved.

Most importantly, get involved. You have the opportunity to do a great deal of good for our environment, the community and the sport of fishing.

Scott Gerdes, Taos News special sections editor, contributed to this story.

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20

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Taos Pueblo War Chief Curtis Sandoval

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