Surviving participants in the earlier Taos murders were arrested, tried in American-dominated courts, and, within weeks, hanged for their actions. The murder of Bent and the others at Taos and the subsequent trials and executions brought with them misunderstanding, controversy, mistrust, and recrimination on both sides of the issue. The events also subjected President James K. Polk?s administration to censure over what some critics believed was an overextension of presidential authority in claiming New Mexico as a territory. In Revolt at Taos: The New Mexican and Indian Insurrection of 1847, writer and historian James A. Crutchfield explores the fast-moving events surrounding the bloody revolt which left native inhabitants of New Mexico wondering how their neighbors and kinsmen could be legally tried, found guilty, and executed for acts they considered to have been honorable ones committed in defense of their country.
First hand narrative of overland travel along the Sante Fe Trail to Bent's Fort, Colorado and then on to Taos, New Mexico. This book is supposedly the only eye witness account of the trials and hangings of the revolutionaries who attempted to overthrow the newly acquired American occupancy in Taos by murdering Govenor Charles Bent and several others.
DIVNearly 100 tales offer an unparalleled glimpse into beliefs, culture of Pueblo Indians: "The Kachina Suitors and Coyote," "The Envious Hunter," "The Jealous Girls," "Echo Boy," many more. /div
The underground world of con men, winos, prostitutes, laborers, and artists has been an abundant source of material for great writers from Dickens to Bukowski. The underground world of Taos, New Mexico, is no different. In the late 1950s this mountain town was higher, brighter, poorer, and farther removed than London, Paris, or Los Angeles, but it was every bit as rich for the explorations of a young writer. Max Evans, the beloved New Mexican writer of such enduring classics of Western fiction as The Rounders and The Hi-Lo Country, returns to form with The King of Taos. Set in the late 1950s, the novel tells the stories of sharp-witted Zacharias Chacon, aspiring artist Shaw Spencer, and a circle of characters who drink, fight, love, argue, and—mostly—talk. Readers will enjoy this witty and moving evocation of unforgettable characters as they look for work, love, comfort, dignity, and bottomless oblivion.
In Indians in Color, noted cultural critic Norman K. Denzin addresses the acute differences in the treatment of artwork about Native America created by European-trained artists compared to those by Native artists. In his fourth volume exploring race and culture in the New West, Denzin zeroes in on painting movements in Taos, New Mexico over the past century. Part performance text, part art history, part cultural criticism, part autoethnography, he once again demonstrates the power of visual media to reify or resist racial and cultural stereotypes, moving us toward a more nuanced view of contemporary Native American life. In this book, Denzin-contrasts the aggrandizement by collectors and museums of the art created by the early 20th century Taos Society of Artists under railroad sponsorship with that of indigenous Pueblo painters;-shows how these tensions between mainstream and Native art remains today; and-introduces a radical postmodern artistic aesthetic of contemporary Native artists that challenges notions of the “noble savage.”
"When Taos Pueblo, his first book, was published in 1930, Ansel Adams was just 28 ... Adams had only recently put aside a nascent career as a concert pianist to pursue photography full time, but he still wasn't sure he could make a go of it when he took up the Taos project in collaboration with Mary Austin, a popular novelist and nature writer based in Santa Fe. ... The twelve photos in Taos Pueblo--each an original print on silver bromide paper prepared especially for the book by Adam's San Francisco custom-paper supplier, William Dassonville--include several formal portraits reminiscent of Edward Curtis and nearly circumscribed, almost intimate landscapes that are a far cry from the inflated magnificence associated with Adam's later work. ... The book's solid success at the height of the Depression (all 108 copies sold over two years at $75 a piece) encouraged Adams to continue in his course as a photographer of the American landscape."--The Book of 101 Books : Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century / Edited by Andrew Roth. New York : PPP Editions in association with Ruth Horowitz, 2001.
A triumph of the human spirit. This story deserves endless retelling. (Stewart L. Udall) In the mountains of northern New Mexico above Taos Pueblo lies a deep, turquoise lake which was taken away from the Taos Indians, for whom it is a sacred life source and the final resting place of their souls. Marcia Keegan's text and historic photographs document the celebration in 1971, when Taos Pueblo got the sacred lake back after a 60-year struggle with the federal government. Her photographs of everyday life at Taos Pueblo and quotes by members of the community capture the spiritual beauty of Taos Pueblo and its people. All royalties from the sale of this book are donated to the Oo-oonah Children's Art Center of Taos Pueblo.