Thomas Romero

“Through history those men are heroes whose deeds have been given proper recognition by the historian’s pen. Others, whose lives are unrecorded, so far as posterity is concerned, did nothing, for of these our annals are silent and we know them not.

“No greater misfortune could possibly befall a people than to lack a historian properly to set down their annals; one who with faithful zeal will guard, treasure and perpetuate all those human events which if left to the frail memory of man and to the mercy of the passing years will be sacrificed upon the altars of time.”

Gaspar Perez de Villagrá, Historia de la Nueva México, 1610

BACKGROUND

There are two broad geographic areas of the United States with colonial histories and cultural references that differ from and predate the founding of the US. In these areas, Louisiana and New Mexico are often considered “foreign” places. Indeed, the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area in Louisiana has branded itself as “America’s Foreign Country,” owing to the heavy influences of its French and Cajun history.

In the broad Southwest, the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Texas and Arizona, which surround NM, share its developmental history as part of the Spanish empire and Mexican territory. These lands were ceded to the US by Mexico as part of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, but it was primarily NM that came into the US as a conquered land, taken at the start of the Mexican-American War. However, it is only NM among these states that is sometimes still referenced in other parts of the country as being in a foreign land.

Interestingly, NM (especially in the northern region surrounding the Río Grande) contains the heart of Pueblo settlements, with some extending over the last millennium, and those of the earliest Spanish colonists, reaching over the last four centuries. It is perhaps this association with centuries of settlement of different cultures and the entrenchment of the indigenous and Spanish languages and traditions that have framed the mindset surrounding NM.

The Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area (NRGNHA), a 10,000-square-mile area of outdoor wonders and historic treasures, contains the centers of Pueblo and Spanish governance and settlement. The area extends north to south from the Colorado border to the center of the state, and east to west between the Sangre de Cristo range and the San Juan Mountains, crossing the Continental Divide in the process. The northern Río Grande River flows through the center of the Heritage Area, but the area is strongly defined by its mountains, mesas and high-desert terrain. Within its boundaries lie a variety of cultural and recreational resources, and its residents and visitors look to cherished places for recreation and for connecting with nature, culture and history.

Of the 6.5 million acres comprising the NRGNHA, about half is federal, state or tribal land. The remaining land in private ownership—approximately three million acres, or 4,700 square miles—has a population density of 48 persons per square mile. In all, about 64 percent of the population in the three-county area is urban, much of it concentrated in the city of Santa Fe and the northern portion of Santa Fe County. The remaining 36 percent of the population, about 80,000 people, live in small farming villages and scattered communities along the Río Grande and its tributaries.

NATIONAL HERITAGE AREAS

WHAT IS A NATIONAL HERITAGE AREA?

A National Heritage Area (NHA) is a place recognized by the US Congress for its unique contribution to the American experience. In a NHA, natural, cultural, historical and recreational resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally distinctive landscape arising from patterns of human activity shaped by geography. These patterns make NHAs representative of the national experience through the physical features that remain and traditions that have evolved in these areas. Continued use by the people whose traditions helped to shape the landscape enhances their significance.

Beginning in 1984, NHAs were created by Congress as a new vehicle by which a region, through collaboration and partnerships, could conserve and promote its natural, cultural and historic resources, linking resource conservation, tourism and economic development. It is important to note the voluntary nature of this initiative, as it does not require, create or permit any regulatory layers or restrictions on private property. Each NHA is governed by separate authorizing legislation and operates under provisions unique to its resources and desired goals.

Creation of a NHA is primarily an outgrowth of local grassroots efforts. Local supporters bring a proposed Heritage Area to the attention of legislators and advocate for its passage while working with the National Park Service to determine whether it meets the designation criteria. After designation, a locally controlled management entity guides the development of a management plan, and then coordinates the many partners in the implementation of the plan’s projects and programs.

WHY A NATIONAL HERITAGE AREA?

Ernesto Ortega, a retired employee of the National Park Service, is often referred to as the “Padrino” of the NRGNHA, owing to his early and intense efforts to conceive, foster and promote the designation. Asked about the reasons for establishing the NHA, he proclaimed, “We’re at the brink of losing Native American and Hispanic culture and Mestizaje!” He spoke about loss of native and Hispano languages, and the loss of customs, traditions and values when the language bases are not preserved.

The three-county NRGNHA comprises 10,000 square miles and counts a population of 219,719 (US Census Bureau, 2009), including eight Indian pueblos: Taos, Picuris, Ohkay Owingeh (previously known as San Juan), Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Nambé, Pojoaque and Tesuque, most of which occupy the same site, or nearby land, where their 14^th and 15^th century ancestors lived. Also within the Heritage Area boundary is the Jicarilla Apache Nation, which has headquarters at Dulce, in western Río Arriba County. Native Americans account for 10 percent of the Heritage Area’s population, while another 54 percent are Hispanic.

From ancient native cultures to Spanish exploration and colonization, to Mexican independence and American statehood, northern NM’s history is complex and intensely interesting. The combination of cultures, languages, folks arts, customs and architecture that emerged from these multifaceted interactions continue to shape the Heritage Area today, giving it a flavor all its own. Add the experience of Mexicans and Anglos to the mix, and northern NM becomes a place like no other.

The NRGNHA will tell the often-turbulent story of these diverse cultures—of their interactions with the landscape and with each other—and of the rich traditions that have created what today is a living mosaic of history and culture. Traditions go to the heart of the NRGNHA. They not only define its past, but also continue to provide sustenance, inspiration and cultural identity for residents today. The purpose of the Heritage Area is not just in preserving sites, but the way of life. It is dedicated to developing and sustaining the distinct history of north-central NM, and to maintaining its cultures and values.

CONGRESSIONAL ACTION

INITIAL EFFORTS TO CREATE THE NATIONAL HERITAGE AREA

The NRGNHA is a reflection of public involvement that took root soon after Congress designated the first NHAs in 1984. At that time, New Mexicans began to express a desire for greater recognition of the contributions of Native Americans and Spanish colonists in the history of the US.

Fueling this desire was passage, in 1988, of the Spanish Colonization Commemorative Act, which directed the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study of Spanish frontier and borderlands culture. The 1991 National Park Service study, Alternative Concepts for Commemorating Spanish Colonization, identified several alternatives consistent with the establishment of a NHA.

In 1993, US Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici of NM jointly sponsored Senate Bill 294, the Colonial NM Commemorative Act, which called for the Secretary of the Interior to formulate a program for the research, interpretation and preservation of various aspects of colonial NM history. Although the act did not pass Congress, the idea earned enthusiastic support from the National Park Service.

In 1994, Río Arriba County opened the Oñate Monument Resource and Visitors Center, to promote the Hispanic heritage of the county and the Española Valley. Four years later, the 400^th anniversary of Spanish settlement in NM and the development of a historically inspired plaza in Española furthered discussion for exploring ways to preserve, interpret and economically sustain northern NM’s heritage.

Efforts to create the NRGNHA formally began in September 1999 when a general meeting of citizens and representatives from a variety of government entities met in Española to explore possibilities. Follow-up meetings in nine targeted communities in the three-county area followed to explain the Heritage Area concept and gauge interest. In September, 2000, a steering committee, titled the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Committee, comprised of representatives from each county, took shape. The committee negotiated an agreement with the Regents of Northern NM College in Española to serve as our fiscal agent.

The Heritage Area designation was slow in coming. Sen. Jeff Bingaman twice introduced legislation in Congress to create the NRGNHA—once in the 107^th Congress (2001-2002) and once in the 108^th Congress (2003-2004)—but both bills failed. A bill introduced in 2002 by Rep. Tom Udall in the House of Representatives also did not pass. It was not until Oct. 12, 2006, that Congress formally established the NRGNHA under Public Law 109-338.

Heritage Area designation culminated nearly 20 years of community efforts to identify ways to conserve and sustain the area’s life ways, languages, folk arts, and sacred spaces, as well as its architecture and spectacular natural landscape.

The NRGNHA is rich in cultural resources; it is home to 16 National Historic Landmarks and 270 listings on the National Register of Historic Places. Its geologic history and wealth of natural resources is no less vivid. Water is the starting point, the lifeblood of this semi-arid-to-arid land where one river, the Río Grande, occupies center stage. The Río Grande and one of its major tributaries, the Río Chama, are part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. The Heritage Area also counts nine National Scenic Byways. Two national forests cover vast acres in the three-county area, which also is home to a half-dozen Wilderness Areas and two listings on the National Registry of Natural Landmarks. Bandelier National Monument skirts the western edge of the Heritage Area, and Pecos National Historical Park the eastern edge.

THE MANAGEMENT PLAN

A comprehensive plan for a well-managed NRGNHA will set the stage to connect the great variety of resources within the Heritage Area and create support for local businesses, traditional artisans and others, while increasing the quality of life for residents and enhancing the experiences of visitors.

The NRGNHA seeks to strengthen community identity by fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Heritage Area’s resources. This will be accomplished by creating connections and partnerships with individuals, communities and tribal and local governments to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation for northern NM’s unique story and to use its important resources to benefit the community.

KEY ELEMENTS OF THE MANAGEMENT PLAN

The NRGNHA Management Plan articulates a framework with specific recommendations to connect and enhance the Heritage Area’s rich offerings. The plan is a result of extensive public input from citizens, governments, and other stakeholders who are committed to preserving and promoting the heritage area’s special character. The plan serves as a model of public and private partnerships working together to implement policies that protect and connect the heritage area for future generations. It presents a comprehensive strategy for future management and protection of the heritage area’s diverse historic sites, unusual natural habitats and cultural traditions.

MISSION AND VISION

The mission of the NRGNHA is to sustain the communities, heritages, languages, cultures, traditions and environment of Northern NM through partnerships, education and interpretation.

Partnerships are created and enhanced through the shared vision of respecting, protecting, conserving and celebrating the landscape and the historical, social and cultural characteristics of the Indian, Hispanic and other communities of Río Arriba, Santa Fe and Taos counties.

Our vision is community and economic viability rooted in the heritage and the environment of Northern NM.

GOALS

The vision for the Heritage Area is supported by six goals:

• Enhance understanding and awareness of the heritage area’s stories and resources
• Sustain traditions, heritage, and culture
• Involve youth
• Create partnerships
• Conserve natural resources and outdoor spaces
• Promote economic development and heritage tourism

Broad objectives linked to the vision, mission and goals of the NRGNHA are:

To build understanding and identity, raising local, regional and national awareness of the Northern Rio Grande region; to strengthen the fabric and sustainability of the place; to expand economic opportunities and to increase the community collaboration and involvement within communities that constitute the Heritage Area, while supporting a healthy ecosystem and enhancing natural resource-based recreation opportunities.

INTERPRETIVE THEMES

Three interpretive themes have been identified. Each theme is connected to a variety of resources that represent the themes in various depths.

Theme 1—Cradle of Settlement: The history of the Heritage Area is one of migration and settlement, with each wave of settlers bringing its own elements of culture. The stories are about the people.

Theme 2—Adaptation and Survival: The demands of the land, climate, geography and isolation from other centers of habitation force adaptation and unity with the harsh environment to permit long-term survival.

Theme 3—Identity Through a Cultural Blend: The region’s identity evokes the mingling of cultures. The specific interplay of land, water and people over an extended time defines the heritage of this special place.

Thomas Romero is executive director of the NRGNHA. For more information, visit riograndenha.com.

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Katherine Mortimer

When I first heard about the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area (NRGNHA), I wondered what the heck it was. I’d never heard of such a designation. I’ve come to understand it as a way for the federal government to recognize and give resources to local people within an area that has a unique cultural heritage in order to preserve those resources and share them with others. Unlike a national park or even a national monument, it is less about the land itself and more about how people have lived in an area. Most Heritage Areas celebrate historic cultures that no longer exist. The NRGNHA is different in that many of the cultural traditions continue to this day. People still farm using acequias; raise sheep, make yarn and weave according to age-old traditions; buildings are still built using adobe; stories are still told to each succeeding generation using oral traditions; ranchers still move cattle from winter to summer pastures and back each year; and native people still dance traditional dances, cook traditional foods and speak their own unique languages. While some traditions have been lost over time, those that remain are still practiced, even as with each succeeding generation more are lost.

Designation as a Heritage Area provides federal funding, which must then be matched by non-federal funds or in-kind contributions, to preserve, document and even teach the next generation so these rich traditions are not lost. The requirement of local partnerships means that communities keep ownership of the priorities and methods of that preservation.

I don’t personally share in the history of this land, which is my adopted home, though I have come to love the rich and varied traditions that comprise the mosaic of cultural traditions that make northern New Mexico unique and compelling. The deep rootedness that people who have lived here for generations have for this place is palpable in a way that I envy. Many of us who have chosen to make northern NM our home have developed strong attachments to this place because of the complex yet compelling history and traditions. I count myself among those who have found that the people of this region are the strongest pull that has compelled me to make this place my home.

So far most of the work of the Heritage Area has been to provide grants to people who are preserving, restoring, recreating or teaching cultural projects or practices unique to this area. We are finalizing a Management Plan that outlines our plans for expanding that work into more outreach and documentation as well as expanding the grant program. We have started to form partnerships with key organizations such as the Northern New Mexico College and the governments of the three counties and county seats, as well as the state government. Both the NM Senate and House of Representatives have recognized the unique contribution being made by the NRGNHA. We plan on expanding those partnerships and strengthening the ones we have in order to leverage the resources available to us to further the common goals we have with those partners.

The Board of Directors of the NRGNHA is a collection of residents who bring a wide understanding of much of the cultural heritage. The board includes those whose ancestors have been here for thousands of years, those descended from the Spanish who came here 400 years ago, and those who arrived in a Volkswagen van to a place they had never laid eyes on, looking for that place that seemed to be calling them home. The board is not complete. We still need representation from several Pueblos and the Jicarilla Apache Nation, as well as community members and city and county representatives from the three counties that make up the Heritage Area. People who want to contribute to the preservation and continuance of the rich cultural traditions of this region are encouraged to get involved, support the work of the Heritage Area and even become members of the board.

Katherine Mortimer is president of the board of directors of the NRGNHA.

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Willow Powers

The creation in 2006 of a National Heritage Area out of Taos, Rio Arriba and Santa Fe counties, began through the activities and energies of a group of people, encouraged and supported by Sens. Domenici and Bingaman. The organization’s board includes two of the founders, Mary Trujillo Mascareñas and Samuel Delgado.

The following excerpted interviews with several board members and an early supporter, illustrate their passionate interest in and dreams for sustaining the rich cultures of the area as a whole. That passion has infused the NRGNHA from its earliest beginnings and continues through the contributions and advice of the founding members as well as all of the board members and others who have been involved in the creation of the Heritage Area. Encouragement for the initial efforts also came from Ernesto Ortega, retired National Park Service employee, who has been acknowledged as the “Padrino” of the effort.

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Mary Trujillo Mascareñas is one of two founding members who have remained on the board. She was board president from 2004 to 2010 and continues to serve as vice president. Mary was born and raised in Llano, NM. She uses her whole name because she doesn’t want to leave out her parental heritage. Her father, Virgilio Trujillo, was born in Llano, and her mother, Tonito, in Llano Largo. Her parents had a store and a ranch in Llano. Mary was taught by the Dominican sisters and then by the sisters at Loretto Academy in Santa Fe. “I had good models,” she said, “in holding onto family traditions and values and faith that were installed in us by our ancestors.”

Mary married her high school sweetheart, Ambrose Mascareñas. Both of them were always involved in the community and the parish: Mary ran for the school board, and was on the Commission for Acequias, appointed by Gov. Richardson. Because of her involvement in acequias, Mary attended the meetings held to discuss the possibilities of applying for National Heritage Area status for the Northern Río Grande area. At the first meeting at Picuris Pueblo, she was asked to be on the steering committee. When the NRGNHA was created by the 2006 Act of Congress, she was named as president of the board.

“Our main concern was for us to tell the story of this area and not have people from another state come and be the people to tell us about ourselves. We have to be born in it, live it, and to continue to grow in it. That really was our purpose. The cultures that have existed here have all contributed to what we have today. It’s important that we all respect each other, live with dignity, help each other and treat each other like brothers and sisters.”

“I learned a lot from my Dad; my Dad was very studious. He was a very helpful person in passing on history, not only about the family but also about the place. You wish you had so much more time to learn about the area and your family history.”

“When we were in school, we were given demerit slips for speaking Spanish. So we had to watch that we didn’t get caught speaking Spanish. But the true history of NM—we who know a little bit more about situations, about history—I think we have to volunteer to go and give presentations. If not, it is dead. You carry it with you and you bury it with you, and nobody else knows.”

Camilla Bustamante, board member since 2006 and faculty member of Northern New Mexico College (NNMC) in Española, is a multi-generation native New Mexican. She is mestiza of both Spanish and Native Keresan ancestry. Part of her family arrived in the Southwest in the 1700s and intermarried here. Her parents’ families came from the village of La Cienega, where Camilla now lives, the village where her grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother were born. Her uncle, historian Adrian Bustamante, investigated the Bustamantes, and she feels it a privilege to know, through his work, her family history. “I really don’t take it for granted; I feel very honored to have that background.”

Camilla is an environmental scientist, trained in environmental health, and directs the Sostenga Center at NNMC. She has been involved with the NRGNHA since 2002, before it was created. She is now on the executive committee.

“It’s essential to learn multi-generationally how to actually live in a location and what that means to sustainability. …As the European influence has come in, we all had to look over to those who’ve been here to say, how do we live here and do this work? …The more I look at the practices of my ancestors and what people are defining as healthier ways of doing things, the more it becomes evident that by integrating technology, but moving away from some of those practices that have been detrimental, we can re-learn what it means to survive in a location that tends to be threatened, given water availability and climate.”

“I truly believe the Heritage Area is important for supporting identity, for helping people who may have lost a sense of purpose and self to regain that identity. It’s about recognizing our interdependence, not just with each other, but with the place where we are, and what it means to be a people.”

Katherine Mortimer, an environmental planner with a background in land use, grew up in a New England town where her family had lived for at least five generations. She moved to northern NM 10 years ago. Katherine was appointed by Mayor Coss to represent the city of Santa Fe on the board. From working on the board she was recognized for her administrative skills acquired from working for government and running meetings; as she put it, “working through situations so that people feel heard even when they don’t agree with the solutions chosen.” Katherine was asked to become board president two years ago. She feels that she is a transition president for the period in which the Management Plan is being drafted and finalized. In time, she hopes to return to representing the city of Santa Fe on the board; currently she does not. What inspires her and fuels her commitment to the Heritage Area and the board is the people, the communities and the culture.

“I just feel that the living culture embodied in the people here is the most valuable of the assets of this place. While I am a newcomer here, I am always impressed when I see young people returning here because of a deep sense of rootedness. Even though I grew up in a place where I had that similar kind of history, I don’t have a rootedness connection there because there is a difference in the culture of the community.”

Richard Lucero, though not a board member, was Mayor of Española when the idea of a National Heritage Area was being worked out for the Northern Río Grande, and was instrumental in its creation. He has been invited to join the board repeatedly, but prefers to provide support from the sidelines. Born and raised in Española, his roots go back to his ancestor, Pedro Lucero de Godoy. Being Jewish, Godoy could not obtain a grant of land from the Spanish Viceroy, but his daughter married Sebastian Martin, who, not being Jewish, was given a land grant. He shares a great grandmother with San Ildefonso Pueblo people. Richard studied at UNM and went to work in an executive position for 14 years with the Boy Scouts of America. In that time, 53 percent of the boys in his region (Santa Fe, Taos, Sandoval and Río Arriba counties) went scouting. Richard resigned from the Boy Scouts when his parents were ill. He ran their store in Taos and looked after them. In 1975 he bought the Country Store in Espanola. Richard was mayor from 1986 to 1992 and again from 1998 to 2006.

“During this time,” he said, “I was working with Sen. Domenici and Sen. Bingaman on the issue of cultures. I told them, ‘You are going to lose some of the most valuable things you have—the Native American culture and the Spanish culture—if you don’t protect them.’”

“The greatest pleasure I’ve had in my life was sitting at the feet of my grandparents and hearing them talk to me, telling me what it was like many years ago; their stories, my stories. Historians,” he said, “tell us what they think, but it’s important to have all the details, all the stories. People should be able to draw their own conclusions. …I am what I came from. What did my ancestors teach me? To respect others, and to not look at anything except their spirit.”

Other current board members are:

• Eddy Sánchez (Cebolla), chair of the Nominations Committee
• Vernon Lujan (Taos Pueblo representative), treasurer
• Willow Powers (Santa Fe), chair of the Fundraising Committee
• Naomi J. Barnes (Santa Fe)
• Alberto Baros (Española)
• Sam Cata (representing NM Department of Cultural Affairs)
• Matthew Foster (representing Town of Taos)
• Ben Chavarría (Santa Clara Pueblo representative)
• Patricio Garcia (representing Río Arriba County)
• Rick Hendricks (NM State Historian)
• Milton Herrera (Tesuque Pueblo representative)
• Timothy Martinez (San Ildefonso Pueblo representative)
• Christy Medina (Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo representative)

The board is continuing to fill open positions representing other tribal and local governmental organizations contained within the Heritage Area and to add community representation from Taos County.

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Camilla Bustamante

Established by Congress, National Heritage Areas are intended to be a grassroots and community-driven approach to heritage conservation and economic development, according to the National Parks Service website. The NPS is the federal entity that has oversight of the establishment of these areas. The NPS website further states that NHAs are not national park units. Rather, NPS partners with, provides technical assistance, and distributes matching federal funds from Congress to NHA entities. The Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area (NRGNHA) is one such entity that benefits from this legislation in the interest of supporting community-defined heritage conservation and economic development.

Concepts of heritage conservation and economic development can be discordant, particularly where core values between cultures collide. Consider for example, the European colonization, where common lands became commoditized and inaccessible to the commons, and to indigenous peoples who had accessed the land freely, often times for sustenance. Consider cultural differences among Native peoples and how notions of “economy” and societal value were determined. Most academicians agree that information regarding the economic history of Native Americans is sparse and that differences in values among tribal communities abound. It is not enough to ask how an area with a diverse identity that includes European settlers predominantly identified to be of Spanish decent (and all that entails), as well as multiple tribes of Tewa, Tiwa, Towa, Keres and Apache, can begin to conserve heritage while fostering economic development that is meaningful and on terms consistent with cultural identity. It is shared responsibilityin that, in the process of conserving heritage, and as economic identity is defined, it is not concurrently unraveling the heritage it seeks to conserve. An economy based on the exchange of goods and services is as old as humankind anywhere. But whether the exchange has been on civil terms or coercion requires ongoing consideration. Such a community-driven approach requires community members, tribal, county and city governments, and those who serve to evaluate and recommend funding for community defined projects to collectively participate in defining and respecting core values.

A basis for the development of the Sostenga Center at Northern New Mexico College in Española is the comprehensive evaluation of tradition as sustainability. Traditions, by definition, are practices, beliefs and behaviors that have been handed down through generations—essentially sustained. The NRGNHA is rich with traditions that provide a heritage of resilience, value for family and community, fortitude in working with respect for the land—all of which are strong indicators for sustainability. The NRGNHA, Inc., a non-profit corporation chartered in the State of New Mexico, serves as the local coordinating body for the heritage area. The opportunity provided by Congress that will remain with the non-profit is to provide seed funding to help support community-defined efforts of heritage conservation. The NRGNHA has an established grant program that serves to foster locally driven community development in the tri-county heritage area region. This initiative serves to protect local community interests since the local community defines projects. Who better to actively participate in culturally defined economic development than those deeply familiar with the dynamics of the local economy, who have been actively participating in it for generations? The dynamics of democracy must play out at the most local level before any external entity, such as the Heritage Area, could support it, particularly where issues of identity, culture and potential for exploitation may occur. It is incumbent that any effort that is supported, is done so con Respeto y Permiso—with Respect and Permission, a value taught by activist Ernesto Galarza and brought to the NRGNHA by one of the early founders of the Heritage Area, José Luz Villa. Respect and permission are crucial to ensuring that the harm and pain of colonization that continues to this day are reduced if not eliminated.

The NRGNHA encompasses an area that has seen migration of peoples since the end of the Ice Age, where the economy was defined by families of hunters who found large and small game in the mountains and along the run-off waterways. In time indigenous farming practices developed, which have held for centuries and were further supported with the introduction of the ancient acequia systems brought by Spanish settlers. When English law confronted Spanish law, centuries-old traditions continued, and only traditions proven to be sustainable continue to survive; economic practices that are unstable and unsupportive devolve out of societal practice, in some cases when harm has already been done.

Dr. Gregory Cajete’s indigenous metaphor for sustainability in A People’s Ecology (another founding premise of the Sostenga Center), “healthy environment, healthy culture, healthy people,” continues to provide basic guidance for evaluating and better understanding the heritage along the northern Río Grande. It requires that collectively we review relatively new practices and how they might supplant traditions of community health. As the early indigenous peoples served as early adopters of practices from one tribe to the next, using what made sense and discarding what did not, the NRGNHA, Inc. is poised to assist efforts that illuminate and support the fostering of the heritage that community defines as valuable.

Camilla Bustamante is a dean at Northern New Mexico College, director of the Sostenga Center and a board member of the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area.

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1. Española Valley High School—Cultural Heritage Videos

This project encourages students to develop their knowledge of their Hispanic and Native American cultures and to share this with their community, the region and the nation via a series of videos produced by the school’s TV production class. Each video features youth who are actively involved in some aspect of the cultures of northern NM. The projects are planned with a mentor who is an expert in the aspect of culture they are filming. The students edit their projects with an instructor to gain skills in state-of-the-art digital video editing. This project has been ongoing since 1992. The students have produced approximately six Cultural Heritage Videos each year since then.

2. Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos—Folk Life Festival

Art has always played a strong role in the cultures of northern NM. Art education here is steeped in cultural education and history. It is sometimes one of the few ways children have an opportunity to learn about aspects of their cultural traditions. This project is one of the museum’s Community Day Events—the Folk Life Festival, which is held in May. The museum is set up with demonstration areas and tables for hands-on, culturally relevant arts and crafts projects. There are performances of traditional Hispanic, Native American and other music and dance. Children and their families who do not normally come to the museum are exposed to its collections and to other members of the community. They can also create an art project to take home.

3. La Sala de San José, Galisteo—Historic Building Preservation

This project is designed to increase the utilization of a historic community building through safety and historic preservation enhancements. La Sala is listed as a contributing property on the State Historic Register and is in the process of being nominated for inclusion on the National Register. The NM Heritage Preservation Alliance selected the building as one of the Most Endangered Places for 2010-2011, and it is included on the Alliance website. This project continues the renovation begun in prior years.

4. Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project

To accomplish its mandate to protect and preserve the petroglyphs and other archaeological features on Mesa Prieta, this project conducts several educational initiatives that focus on heritage preservation and stewardship. Public and private tours of the Wells Petroglyph Preserve are offered, archaeological features are recorded, and the data is preserved in a complex multi-layer Geographical Information System database and on remote hard drives. This project also includes implementing the NM Heritage Preservation Division’s Site Watch Program.

5. Site Steward Foundation—Traditional Pottery-Making DVDs

Fifty copies of an educational DVD on traditional pottery making in northern NM are being professionally produced. This DVD describes and illustrates pottery-making steps from the beginning of clay gathering in the natural environment, methods of preparing the clays and slips, methods of creating utilitarian and artistic pottery vessels—through the end process of firing techniques. The DVD will be distributed to various schools and libraries throughout the NRGNHA area.

6. Española Farmers’ Market—Land-based Traditional Practices

The Espanola Farmers’ Market is open every Monday from 10 am-5 pm, mid-June through October. There is also a Friday afternoon market from 2-7 pm during the height of the harvest. Farmers come from Santa Cruz, Chimayó, Peñasco, Nambé, Abiquiu, Velarde, Chile, Tierra Azul, Chamita, Cuyamungue, Lyden, La Puebla, Taos, Kewa, Hernandez and other communities to sell their fresh produce, including a wide variety of heirloom and traditional vegetables, fruits and herbs.

The market’s Wildflower Garden Area has 11 flowerbeds cultivated by community volunteers. The market honors and nurtures a variety of land-based traditional practices with “Market Mondays: Cooking Up Traditions.” This features demonstrations related to cooking in the horno and working with wild food and dye plants. The project culminates in a potluck feast on the last market day in October, with bread, chicos, pies, squash and other foods, utilizing the NNMC Commercial Kitchen for food preparation and the horno for baking. Students learn about how to use a traditional oven and how to identify and prepare traditional food. Customers get to see the horno used and sample the foods.

7. Acequia Agua Fria

Agua Fria Village near Santa Fe was settled in 1693, but not much is documented about the founding families and the agricultural lifestyle that sustained them. This project is creating an inventory of water-rights documents to document acequia management techniques employed over the last 400 years. A final project report will address how these practices apply to today’s fields, to assist present day agricultural revitalization projects and drainage issues.

2011 GRANT RECIPIENTS

1. Historic Pinto Bean Museum (Edgewood)—Enclosure for historic bean-processing machinery and interpretive signs

2. Santa Clara Pueblo—Tewa language project.

3. San Ildefonso Pueblo: Revitalizing Agricultural Traditions—Purchase of hoop house and other farming equipment, return of fallow land to production, involvement of Pueblo families in planting, harvesting, using and selling agricultural products

4. Cornerstones Community Partners—Workshops on adobe making and restoration of the 1610-1710 National Historic Landmark District, which includes the San Miguel Mission Church in Santa Fe

5. Site Steward Foundation—“Linking the Past to the Present” interpretive brochure addressing the continuing importance of historic and archaeological resources in the National Heritage Area

6. Arts Works—Sustaining heritage through education by the Partners in Education Foundation for the Santa Fe Public Schools, including traditional music, art and poetry enrichment for elementary school students

7. La Sala—Rehabilitation of steps and railing at “La Sala,” a National Register-eligible building in Galisteo

THE FIRST GRANTS: 2009-2010

1. Plaza de Española Visitor Center—A new sign for the Northern New Mexico Regional Art Center

2. Española Farmers Market—Horno construction for use by local farmers for baking bread and to process foods, including chicos

3. Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Recording Project—Educational partnership with Ohkay Owingeh youth, descendants of Spanish colonists and private landowners to photograph, draw and map rock imagery originating from many cultures over thousands of years

4. Land Water People Time—Documentary film featuring NRGNHA people, places and the cultural ties that bind them together

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Jack Loeffler

The bioregion of the northern Río Grande watershed has been recognized by the U.S. Congress as part of the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area (NRGNHA), thereby providing potential to nurture both the people of this area and the habitat itself. Geopolitically, the area is contained within Taos, Santa Fe and Río Arriba counties of northern New Mexico. The western reaches of Río Arriba County extend over the Continental Divide into the San Juan River watershed and include the Jicarilla Apache Reservation.

The meld of human ethnicities that culturally define this region is profound. The late cultural anthropologist, Edward T. Hall, was recorded saying, “…Ethnicity is one of the greatest resources if not THE greatest resource that we have in the world today. What we have here are stored solutions to common human problems. …The fact is that Nature is so extraordinarily complex that you can look at it from multiple dimensions, and come up with very different answers—and each one of them will be true. And we need all of those truths.”

According to the NRGNHA website, a very high percentage of the folks who live within the area are indigenous. They have been rooted to the soil of this homeland for many generations, be they Tiwa, Tewa, Jicarilla Apache or Hispano. They have survived here through the centuries, even though enormous changes have occurred in both global perspective and post-industrial revolution mono-cultural practices. And though each of these cultures has been deeply affected by the economically dominated mono-cultural paradigm that envelopes our planet, each has refrained from having been entirely subsumed, largely because of deep spiritual ties to both homeland and tradition.

A perspective that has prevailed among indigenous cultures of the northern Río Grande bioregion (and beyond) is the collective understanding that natural resources including land, water, firewood, piñon nuts, game for food, the air we breathe and far more—are common pool resources owned by no one, available to everyone by virtue of Natural Law. Using an example in Great Britain of four or so centuries past, human ecologist Garrett Hardin pointed out that the concept of “the commons” worked well until the carrying capacity was exceeded as a result of over-population, at which point the ecosystem crashed. He concluded that the “commons” must inevitably be controlled through governing agency or privatization. Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom disagreed with Hardin, citing controlled experiments she conducted using game theory to test human selfishness versus altruism. The deciding factor was the introduction of mutual cooperation, at which point altruism triumphed over individual greed. Of course this is a scientific peer debate citing miniscule examples within the overall continuum of human history. However the debate has captured a fair amount of attention.

Gradually over the centuries, the Pueblo Indians and their Hispano neighbors settled into a state of mutual cooperation over the use of the commons. Recalling the words of Santa Clara Pueblo elder Rina Swentzell, “From a Pueblo point of view, the commons is everything. It is the context that we live in. …The wind is blowing, the water’s flowing, and we’re actually walking around and talking. It’s all part of this idea that we all share. It’s that notion of sharing.”

Hispano elder Estévan Arellano writes the following about his cultural sense of querencia in his essay The Commons in the Acequia Landscape. “It [querencia] is that which gives us a sense of place, that which anchors us to the land, that which makes us a unique people, for it implies a deeply rooted knowledge of place, and for that reason we respect our place, for it is our home and we don’t want to violate our home in any way. We like it pristine, healthy and productive. Our philosophy is one borrowed from our Native American brothers, for we are brothers and sisters, ‘We do not inherit the land from our parents, we have borrowed it from our children and grandchildren.’”

The mestizaje, or mixture of customs and bloodlines between Pueblo Indians and Spanish colonists, began with the arrival of Spanish-speaking people in 1598 when, under the leadership of Juan de Oñate, they founded a village near Ohkay Owingeh (a.k.a. San Juan Pueblo) at the confluence of the Río Chama and Río Grande. The first century was marked by stiff resistance of the Pueblo Indians to the sons and daughters of the Iberian Peninsula and beyond, whose cultural mores and religious perspectives pummeled native traditions. Gradually, the Hispanos tapped roots into this harsh, beautiful habitat and began to develop that deep sense of querencia that comes only after the land welcomes you. Thus, a fragile sense of intercultural reciprocity resulted in the mestizaje.

Throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries, Puebloans and Hispanos had to defend themselves against raiding Navajo and Apache Indians. In the early 19^th century, Anglo traders, many of whose ancestors hailed from northern Europe, wended westward in the name of Manifest Destiny and cast a new economic mantle over the land, whose shadow seeped into the soil. Author Paul Horgan provided excellent history in his Pulitzer prize-winning book, Great River: The Río Grande in North American History. In a recorded interview, he said, “Of course, the very first motive was commercial, the coming of the Anglos. And though not a wholly ignoble motive, it certainly was a selfish one. Therefore, something of that emotional commitment to a purpose had enduring effects on all relationships that resulted between the occupants—namely, the Indians and the Hispanos and the incoming Yankees, Anglos.” Between the late 16^th and mid-19^th centuries, the bioregion of the northern Río Grande had become part of a geo-political entity first claimed by Spain, then Mexico and finally the United States. The patina of several human cultures had shaded the hue of the sacred landscape that was now becoming secularized for profit.

The primary characteristic of this mythic landscape is aridity. What is now known as New Mexico has minimal surface water relative to land area. The Río Grande is the great oasis that bisects the landscape north to south. Estévan Arellano perceives the northern Río Grande bioregion as extending from the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado to the top of La Bajada Hill several miles southwest of Santa Fe, a region cradled by mountaintop ridgelines east and west of the Río Grande. This is the watershed of the northern Río Grande. Tributaries include the Conejos, Alamosa, Trinchera, Culebros, Costilla, and Taos rivers, Río Embudo, Río Chama, Santa Clara Creek, Rito de los Frijoles, and Río Santa Fe. The elevation varies roughly from 5,500 to 14,000 feet above sea level. The vegetation varies with altitude and includes piñon-juniper grassland, sagebrush flatland, ponderosa pine forests extending into aspen, then to high-elevation spruce, to peaks rising above the tree line. The animal kingdom is well represented throughout this bioregion, although the howl of the wolf has not been heard in the wild for many decades.

The Pueblo Indians and the Hispanos are historically master gardeners and expert hunters of wild game. However, Estévan Arellano from the Hispano village of Embudo, and Herman Agoyo, a respected elder from Ohkay Owingeh both tell me that the young people from their respective cultures are rarely practicing the agricultural traditions that sustained their peoples through the generations. Historically, both Puebloan and Hispano cultures practiced irrigation techniques that made large-scale gardening possible, returned surface water to the aquifer and expanded riparian habitat. Early Spanish colonists introduced domestic cattle, sheep and pigs. Bison that roamed the eastern plains for millennia were all but exterminated in the 19^th century by Yankee riflemen who wanted to deprive Plains Indians of their primary food supply.

During the first years of the 20^th century, bohemian culture began to settle into the bioregion as artists, writers, poets and musicians were rendered awe-stricken by the land of clear light, where Pueblo Indians, ever-urging the clouds to release moisture, danced in great ceremonials celebrating the seasonal cycles, thereby aligning themselves with the flow of Nature. Hispanos prayerfully marched in their own procesiones seeking blessings from their patron saint of the New World homeland, la Virgen de Guadalupe, or their patron saint of farmers, San Ysidro. And with each heartbeat and footstep, the sacred nature of homeland was ever restored.

America has become a warrior nation, an empire to be defended, a world power, the planet’s peacekeeper, a geo-political entity of such enormous magnitude and influence as to rise to the very top of the heap, its governing force casting such a blinding light as to relegate its components to the shadows. Once a self-proclaimed melting pot, it has of late had to tighten up the ports of entry in the face of a burgeoning planetary population that has grown from just over two billion human beings in the 1930s to seven billion today, an increase of over 300% in a single human lifetime.

During that same time span, we have emerged from a post agrarian/industrial revolution nation to a major participant in global culture inhabiting a biosphere now overlain by the Internet, wherein one may participate to the extent—according to my friend John Nichols—“that there’s no excuse for not knowing everything!”

We are so centralized that biodiversity, cultural diversity, cognitive diversity define an endangered characteristic required by Nature for every kind of healthy and balanced state of coherence. We find ourselves in such a state of economically dominated, digitized, undernourished, chaotic, fragile, global cohesion, largely manned by those who hunger for power, that we are fast losing our sense of coherence. Coherence runs deeper than cohesion and is fragile in a different way. We find true coherence in a healthy bioregion wherein all the characteristics occur in relative balance, whether or not they are understood by the conscious mind. However, conscious understanding of how a bioregion works reflects a model of perception that occurs through intellect, intuition and instinct, with a bit of emotional reaction that may help or hinder. Hence, human consciousness is itself a commons. Thus are we equipped to understand the bioregion of the northern Río Grande——prepped as we are by our myriad cultural biases.

“Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise.” So said Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings. Thus, it is with no mean trepidation that I humbly offer a few tidbits of uninvited advice to those who are manning the NRGNHA committee and website.

First, I would put the northern Río Grande bioregion, the habitat itself, at the head of the table, and let that be the model for self-governance. The habitat “knows” what’s best for itself and has evolved over many millennia into its current incarnation.

I would strongly suggest recording lore recollected by the elders of each community, gathering information regarding not only how to culturally and individually sustain in the traditional ways, but also what systems of attitudes are vital to maintain proper relationship to homeland.

The NRGNHA is mostly contained within a clearly definable watershed wherein aridity is the primary characteristic. Research reveals that due to global warming and climate instability, water is likely to become ever less abundant, and that practices such as showering golf courses with precious drinking water are unacceptable. Watersheds are once again being recognized as foodsheds, and it is clearly possible that in the near future, we will come to rely on the yield of our home bioregion for much more of our food.

Traditionally, the cultures indigenous to this region have regarded water as one of many common pool resources. The concept of privatization of water rights violates Natural Law and must be thwarted.

Our current system of economics is based on unlimited growth. This system has been transplanted into this region that obviously cannot sustain limitless growth. Steady state systems prevailed here in the past and should gradually re-emerge and serve as models of future cultural conduct. This does not necessarily mean relinquishing everything that the modern world has given us. My friend Roy Kady is a Navajo who is trying to restore appropriate native practices to his community at Teec Nos Pas near Four Corners. When asked about returning to the old ways, he replied, “Well, it’s not really to go back because we can’t go back. It’s more to get the intention back. It’s really to take those tools that were very effective, that had made our people the way they were, to go back and get them, to bring them up at this time and to utilize them again. Because they worked then, and they can work here, too.”

We live in an age of applied science and technology. Science is a remarkable and valuable culture of practice responding to human curiosity that cannot be denied. But there is far more to wisdom than technological application of science. Indigenous-minded people are aghast that scientists in Los Alamos would have ever even considered dumping toxic waste to ultimately drain into the sacred waters of homeland. And that scientific culture of practice that thrives in Los Alamos lies within the home bioregion.

Geo-political boundaries empower bureaucracy that may toll the knell for grassroots activism. Politics thrives on bureaucracy, itself a novel human invention designed to defend often ill-conceived procedure, and thus becomes self-fulfilling. Beware bureaucracy!

There is an invaluable opportunity to respond to Congressional Act, Public Law 109-338 designating this bioregion as the NRGNHA. In part, it reinvigorates the grassroots approach to sustainability. It provides an opportunity to gradually decentralize prevailing political governance while generating a growing level of self-governance. And perhaps most important of all, it serves as a potential model for conveying the vastly important role of Indigenous Mind in restoring a sadly ailing mega-culture to balance, a culture that mandates turning habitat into money, a culture that eternally turns to the entertainment industry as the alternative to contemplating the mystery of existence, a culture that has secularized the landscape and now has little inkling of the importance of querencia.

A true sense of coherence is only possible within a clearly defined and well understood homeland wherein the flow of Nature is the study of a lifetime. The bioregion of the northern Río Grande watershed is a natural masterpiece of every kind of diversity. Those who understand it best have tapped their feet to its heartbeat for generations and take great joy in celebrating the Spirit of this Place. They get it. The rest of us have a lot to learn.

Jack Loeffler is the author of numerous books, including Healing the West: Voices of Culture and Habitat. Jack Loeffler and Celestia Loeffler are contributors to and co-editors of Thinking Like a Watershed, an anthology of essays published by the University of New Mexico Press intended for release October 15, 2012. For more info, visit www.loreoftheland.org

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Juan Estévan Arellano

The land covered by the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area (NRGNHA)—Río Arriba, Taos and Santa Fe—can be said to be the heart and soul of New Mexico. Not only are there numerous indigenous communities—several Pueblos and the Jicarilla Apache—this is where the oldest Hispano settlements are also located.

It’s here also where the oldest heritage crops are still grown, and not only chile and corn. Much of what you find today in supermarkets and farmers’ markets has called NM home for centuries.

It’s a good thing the settlers under Juan de Oñate kept a very good inventory of the seeds they brought with them. And then in 1625, Fray Alonso de Benavidez came through what today is northern NM and took an inventory of what was growing here at that time. In 1630 he published his “Memorias,” in which he listed everything the colonists were growing.

He wrote, “All this land is very fertile; it gives forth with great abundance everything which is sown in it: corn, wheat, beans, lentils, garbanzos, fabas, peas, pumpkins, watermelons, canteloupes, cucumbers; every kind of vegetable: cabbage, lettuce, carrots, cardons, garlic, onions, cactus fruits (tunas), pitahayas, apricots, peaches, nuts, acorns, blackberries and many others which I won’t mention to avoid exaggeration; I should also mention the piñon trees, which are a different species from those in Spain, because the nuts are large and easy to open, and of all the annuals it is very abundant.”

Not mentioned are chile and apples. We know that by then chile was already grown in NM since Obregon mentions he brought some chile seeds with him during his 1580 expedition. It might have been one of those he didn’t list so as not to seem like he was exaggerating. Apples didn’t appear until 1635 in the Manzanos, the Spanish word for apples.

There is no better documentation as to what are the original heritage foods of the NRGNHA than the list left by Fray Benavidez almost 400 years ago. Every one of the above crops is still grown today and can be found in most farmers’ markets.

The nopal is also an indigenous food that is still widely consumed in Mexico, but not so much in the Heritage Area, though with more Mexican nationals now living in the north, some stores are starting to sell nopales. I have a nopal plant in my greenhouse that I brought from Las Cruces. It produces wonderful, succulent pads.

When talking about heritage foods, we usually think of maíz Concho and Chimayó chile, but that’s only because they are the best known. Some people still have “melones mexicanos,” a Mexican melon; others have the old variety of watermelons, as well as a certain type of peas, habas (fava beans), and of course pinto beans and bolita, which are considered a gourmet type of bean.

The way the land is still farmed and irrigated in the Río Arriba bioregion, which includes the counties that make up the NRGNHA, and the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, is similar to how it has been worked for over 400 years. Río Arriba County has the most acequias in NM, and Taos is close behind. At one time there were 37 acequias in what today is the city of Santa Fe; at present there are only a couple that still carry water, though not all the time.

In Mesoamerica, what might be considered the traditional garden was called the milpa (from the Nahuatl milli, place, and pan, on top), meaning a place that is planted on top. The milpa usually included rows of corn with beans and squash, and between the rows of corn there would be chile, tomatoes, and then more rows of corn, beans, squash and so on. That’s the way the people still plant their milpas in the chinampas of Xochimilco in Mexico.

Today, in northern NM, a milpa is usually only a cornfield, though some people still plant the “three sisters” together. Or, some plant “calabazas mexicanas” on the side of the corn plants, then rows of corn, and on the other side, beans.

Where chile is planted it is usually referred to as a “huerta de chile,” meaning it is planted separately from the milpa, or corn. The word “huerta” comes from the Latin, hortus, which is a small space to grow vegetables or fruit trees. Exactly when chile became separated from the milpa and became part of the huerta, I don’t know. But this is only in NM, not in Mexico.

In terms of heritage crops, besides the native chile, corn for chicos and posole known as Concho is the most prized of all. In Mexico, the corn used for posole is known as Cacahuacintle. Again, I don’t know if it’s related to the Concho. No one knows for sure where the Concho originated, but simply by its name it would appear it came from the lands irrigated by the Conchos River, which originates in the state of Chihuahua and empties into the Río Grande.

Therefore, when we think about the heritage crops, don’t think only of those that are planted and irrigated. As much a part of those crops are the different types of quelites and verdolagas that grow wild in the milpa and huerta. But also those such as oregano de la sierra, chimaja (a form of wild parsley), osha, which is used as a medicinal herb, as well as poleo and yerba buena. And don’t forget capulín, used for making jelly and also a very fine wine.

We are blessed that still today we find the same foods our ancestors have been eating for centuries, except arugula, which wasn’t grown then.

Farmer, researcher and community leader Juan Estévan Arellano has devoted most of his life to documenting the traditional knowledge of the Indo-Hispano in Northern NM, especially as it relates to land and water. He is the translator-editor of the bookAncient Agriculture. 505.579.4027, estevan_2002@yahoo.com

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Ganados del Valle (Herds of the Valley), located in Los Ojos, was established in 1983 as a nonprofit economic development corporation. Ganados’ mission is to demonstrate how the Hispano and Native American cultures of northern NM and southern Colorado can decrease poverty and protect ancestral lands and waters by creating programs and enterprises that add value to cultural, agricultural and natural resources in an environmentally sustainable way.

In 2010 Ganados was entrusted with stewardship of 200 acres of conservation easement. Ganado initially leased 140 acres as hay fields while deciding how best to sustainably use its resources while protecting the adjacent riparian area. In 2011 a greenhouse was built, and gardens were started in 2012. A produce stand to provide fresh vegetables to the local communities opens this month, and Ganados is launching a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. www.ganadosdelvalle.org

Tierra Wools,a retail store in Los Ojos, is operated by Los Ojos Handweavers, a company owned by the growers, spinners and hand weavers that produce its goods, as well as supporting investors. The company, started in 1983 as part of Ganados del Valle, also offers spinning, hand dyeing and weaving workshops.

By buying local wool, hiring local people and carrying on the Rio Grande weaving tradition, the company fills a gap in this remote mountainous area by providing training and experience in business management and the art of weaving. By developing new skills and participating in a successful business, members and employees have developed self-esteem and have been empowered to take leadership in their homes and in the community. Tierra Wools employs 10-15 people, depending on the season. Most of the money the company generates recirculates within the local economy.

Tierra Wools has revived natural dyeing of organically raised wool yarns. The Rio Grande weaving style was influenced by Spanish, Mexican and Indian designs. It is characterized by the use of stripes and bands, Saltillo diamond patterns (usually in the center of the weaving) and Vallero (six-pointed) stars.

The initiative has received support from Valley National Bank, the NM Dept. of Agriculture, NM Sheep and Goat Council, Regional Development Corporation, NM Community Foundation, SCI/ZERI-NM and the NRGNHA. Tierra Wools may be contacted at 575.588.7231 or visit www.handweavers.com.

Los Ojos is a mountain village in Río Arriba County. Native American communities in the region are said to go back to AD 800. Spanish and Mexican settlers arrived in the early 1600s and developed a traditional pattern of cooperative land tenure. The agro-pastoral economy evolved, based on horses, cattle and the hardy long-wool Churro sheep, which are well suited to this mountainous region and arid climate. The sustainable system of pooling flocks and herds for grazing using high meadows in the summer and lower river valleys in the winter was disrupted when the US took over NM in 1948 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and contrary to the treaty’s provisions, imposed barbed wire fences to enforce individual ownership. Local farmers lost millions of acres of communal and private land through fraud, swindling, lawyers’ fees and outright sales.

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Pinto beans have long been a key part of the agricultural economy in central New Mexcio. The Route 66 town of Moriarty, which calls itself the Pinto Bean Capital of the World, hosts a Pinto Bean Fiesta each year. In nearby Edgewood, Wildlife West Nature Park has completed construction of a Pinto Bean Museum. The museum, which is adjacent to a 1900s pinto bean barn, gives visitors an opportunity to experience the rich history of pinto bean farming in the area.

The Pinto Bean Museum displays antique bean processing equipment, farming artifacts and local historic photos. There are trade etchings on the bean chutes that were made when farmers weighed and bagged the crop during the peak of the season. There is also a timeline on the historical use of pintos dating to 2000 B.C. Local historians and farmers Chapo Mc Combs, Carroll Bassett and Dean Schwebach were interviewed for a film that is shown in the museum.

The museum, which is among the NRGNHA’s grantees, is open daily, year-round. For more information, call (toll-free) 877.981.9453 or email Info@WildlifeWest.org.

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Española

By Camilla Trujillo

Images of America Series – Arcadia Publishing

ISBN: 9780738579672

After retiring from 25 years as artist-in-residence at northern New Mexico schools, Camilla Trujillo, in the interest of preserving the memory of the old Española (pre-Walmart), spent a year interviewing families, collecting historical photos and writing a series of essays. The result is a 128-page photographic journal of the Española Valley. Most of the photos have never been published before.

“Española, historically,” Trujillo says, “had been a complex community of about 20 villages, three Indian pueblos and a small city.” The scope of her book ranges from “El Encuentro,” the first meeting between the Spanish colonists and the Pueblo inhabitants of the upper Rio Grande – to the establishment of the first capital of NM, San Gabriel del Yungue, with its river cobble foundations – to the American invasion in the mid-19^th century – to the Manhattan Project and its economic interdependence with the Española Valley one hundred years later.

The book’s final chapter, “La Cosecha,” (The Harvest) focuses on historic local food production, including molinos (flour mills) that were built over acequias or creeks, and apple and chile production, which was aided by the Chile Line railroad that served Espanola from 1880 to 1941.

The Española book is available at Hastings in Santa Fe, the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market and the Palace of the Governors museum bookstore. In the Española area, it may be found at the Chimayó Trading Post, Cook’s Hardware and the Galeria Santa Cruz. It may also be ordered online: www.arcadiapublishing.com/9780738579672/Espanola

Encyclopedia of Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico

Caminito Publishing, LLC

The Encyclopedia of Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico is a compilation of the people, places, arts, cultures and colloquialisms unique to the City Different and the Land of Enchantment. From Aamodt to Zuni, this entertaining and informative book covers elements of the region’s history, literature, politics, geology, local lore, food, customs, gossip and much more. Some entries are a few paragraphs, some a couple of pages. There are 1,000+ alphabetical entries (fully indexed), 180 illustrations (photos, maps and charts) and a phonetic pronunciation guide for selected terms.

The author, Mark Cross, is a Virginia native with a master’s degree in American history from George Mason University. He has worked for Santa Fe public schools, written book reviews for The New Mexican and worked as a proofreader and editor for the NM Legislature. He began compiling the regional encyclopedia soon after moving to Santa Fe in 1996, first for his own education, then as a resource for visitors or even lifelong residents who want to learn more about their home territory.

Cross never intended to include everything, and isn’t an expert on Spanish culture or pronunciation. “I’m just trying to help the poor gringo say, ‘A-bih-cue’ instead of ‘A-bih-KWEE,’” he says. The Encyclopedia’s companion website includes audio recordings of how locals pronounce the names of places or things. It also provides updates on information included in the book, pending a future edition.

The Encyclopedia of Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico, published by Cross’ Caminito Publishing, is available at area bookstores or may be ordered online: www.encyclopediaofsantafe.com.

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