No Taos Pueblo Powwow this year
Organizers vow to return with an even bigger event in 2023
IT WAS A HARD DECISION, but organizers of the Taos Pueblo Powwow have announced the event cherished by locals and many Native people along the Powwow Trail will not be happening this year.
Tribal members Debbie Lujan and Richard Archuleta have been at the forefront of putting on the event, which has — since the mid-1980s — gained a reputation for being one of the favorite events of the summer in Taos. The last powwow was on the second weekend in July 2019, as it always has in the past, but in March of 2020, all the planning that poured into production that year came to a halt due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
That’s when the Taos Pueblo tribal government took the unprecedented step to close all entry to its lands. The only way in and out was through the southern entrance on Veteran’s Highway via a tribal law enforcement-managed guard station. Even the entrance to the powwow grounds on Ben Romero Road in El Prado was blocked by an earthen berm.
“We don’t know when it’s going to reopen again,” Lujan said. “It’s really hard to access a place like this when it’s closed.”
“There’s a big dirt berm at the entrance [at Ben Romero Road] so we would have to seek permission from the War Chief to open it up for us,” Archuleta said. The War Chief is tasked with the protection of tribal lands and resources. “And, I’m not sure that’s something we wanted to do because they’ve closed all the roads into the Pueblo, and it’s hard to get in from the Pueblo side. We would need to go in and talk to tribal government about staging this tribal celebration, but we already know what the answer would
be considering the circumstances.”
According to its latest statement, the Taos Pueblo Governor’s office has stated the village and its lands are closed “until further notice.” Although the state of New Mexico and town of Taos have lifted most coronavirus safety mandates, tribal leadership has maintained the closure for the safety of tribal members.
“Yes, unfortunately there will be no powwow this year,” said Tribal Secretary Dwayne Lefthand in an email issued Monday morning (April 25). “We plan to have a bigger event inclusive of the Blue Lake Commemoration celebration next year. We hope to revitalize the annual powwow, creating a larger event. We are looking at reopening midsummer if all goes well. This would not be a full 100 percent open, but could be certain days and times with limits on numbers allowed daily.”
While the Pueblo has been closed for two years, Archuleta added, “even our traditional events have been limited in participation. The Pueblo’s not open to anyone for anything — not even vendors. We have a feast day coming up on May 3. They’re not going to be able to sell. So, we’re going to have traditional activities, and nothing else.”
Asked if there are other ways the powwow might happen, such as changing its date if the Pueblo opened later in the summer or if a different location might be found off the Pueblo reservation, Lujan said both would be impossible.
The event requires a great deal of planning and preparation, she said, from securing hotel rooms in town for head powwow staff to finding and training a small army of volunteers to managing an infrastructure for the event from scratch. Changing the date is also not possible because the second weekend in July is the perfect time because it doesn’t interfere with other traditional activities and it occupies a spot on the Powwow Trail participants from outside Taos plan around. The Powwow Trail is a string of Native American intertribal gatherings for dancing and singing stretching across the nation. It includes the annual Denver March Powwow, the Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque and the Taos Pueblo Powwow.
The Blue Lake Commemoration mentioned by the tribal secretary is a recognition of the 50-year anniversary of the return of Blue Lake to tribal control after a near 60-year struggle against the U.S. government. The event was to have been celebrated in 2020 but was canceled due to the pandemic.
For more information, call the Taos Pueblo Governor’s Office at 575-7589593 or visit taospueblo.com.