W/NW At the Cemetery

skopar steve said:
Toas Peublo NM



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I took visitors to Taos Pueblo in July, and the guide pointed out that the top of the bell tower, visible in your photo, had just very recently collapsed, leaving the bell inside the tower and barely visible. There is some debate in the Pueblo community as to whether the tower and bell will be repaired, but at the time of our visit, it seemed that the general consensus is to leave it in its present state. This has a great deal of significance to the Pueblo, given their history.
In 1847, Spanish residents of the area, along with the Indigenous residents of the Pueblo, revolted against the US government's incursion into what had been Mexican territory. Though both the Spanish and Native populations initially offered no resistance, they were treated brutally by the US troops, and their long-standing property rights were revoked. This eventually prompted a bloody armed rebellion in Taos, and when troops retaliated, the Pueblo residents, mostly women and children, sought shelter in the sanctuary of the Catholic church. Against long-standing civil and religious tradition, the US troops fired on the church with cannons, demolishing all but the bell tower, and burying the many dead and wounded under tons of rubble. The dead were left buried in what was essentially a mass grave, with the tower standing as a marker. Shortly thereafter, the bell was re-installed.
Being made of adobe, the tower is slowly decaying and subsiding into the earth, and to the best of my understanding, the Pueblo residents feel that it is appropriate to let it do so, along with the bell.
Another ugly and little-known chapter in the Conquest of the West.
 
Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery
Mt. Fuji in the distance
DSCF1812.jpg
Fujifilm X-T5 camera
Fujinon XF 33mm f1.4 R LM WR lens
February 2025 - Yokohama, Japan​
 
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