Vacation- day 3

On Monday, we traveled to Pecos to go on a tour of where the Pueblo Indians had lived. It was very interesting and we took a lot of pictures.
For some odd reason, as we followed the guide, no one wanted to be right behind her and she was constantly getting ahead of us. I think they were shy. : )

At stop number 1, our guide told us to look up on the far hill, and try to imagine a 5 story adobe house and approximately 1000 people milling around. It was a little hard, but if you have a good imagination, it gave you quite a picture!


This is partway up the hill you saw in the last picture. The wall of rocks was put up, by the Pueblo Indians not so much as a protective wall, but as a 'boundary' line saying, 'This is as far as you go. Don't come past this unless you're invited.' Our guide also told us that back then (the early 1600s) when it was described by the Spanish, they said that there were no trees in sight. Now, this was a little hard for us to imagine, but, our guide told us to try and picture no trees and instead of trees, tepees and fire pits. This 'valley' is were all of the 'plains' Indians came to do their trading with 'mountain' Indians. They would trade things such as buffalo for nuts and other such articles.

About half-way up, we came upon our first 'monument'. It was a ceremonial 'building' called a kiva. It had a ladder going down into a dimly lit, round, dirt/rock.....hole. Basically. : ) It was used for all their ceremonial dances that related to the 'underworld'. Everything was done in a certain way. Even how you enter the kiva had to be done right. When you descend the ladder, you go to your right and circle around till you reach the ladder again and then wait for everyone else to line up after you. When you exit, you start with the person to the left of the ladder and ascend up that way. Directly under the ladder was a firepit and a vent behind it. Across the room from the ladder, was a small hole in the ground. When we asked our guide about what that was for, she told us that it was called a sipapu. (sip-a-poo) It represented how the Indians believed how you come from the underworld and into the upper-world, just like when they came out of the kiva. It was quite interesting, though perhaps the dust made it a bit uncomfortable.


Ruins of the 5 story pueblo.



When the Spanish came to New Mexico, they not only brought the first horses, cows and firearms, but they also brought their religion. This sign shows the Catholic church they built for the Indians. The problem: the Indians didn't want the church. So, they burned it and built their own. On the exact spot. It wasn't as big, but the Indians didn't care. They just didn't want to be bullied by the Spanish and made to go to a church they didn't even build.
The building behind Jordan is the church that the Indians built after they destroyed the church the Spanish had built. Our guide informed us that the original church's foundation, was almost twice as large as the one the Indians built.
These are the classrooms and the bedrooms where the monks slept. There was even a pen where they kept turkeys!


The church.



This shows an artist's version of the description given by Fray Francisco Atanasio Dominguez in 1776. Every year, on the first day of August, they hold a giant mass and they hang up a picture at the far end of the room (pictured in the center of the picture) that was found in the church and that the Pueblo Indians had asked the state to preserve when they left.

Looking towards the stage where the alter was.


Another view of the classrooms and bedrooms.
After lunch, we took a Civil War tour, but it was a van tour and so we could not get many pictures. Not any really worth sharing. : ) But it was very interesting and we would definitely recommend it.