‘Stay strong’
Taos Pueblo’s outgoing leadership looks back at pandemic year
Every year, for a few weeks, Taos Pueblo closes its borders to non-tribal members for special and sacred reasons. The traditionally short closure is a holy time for Taos Pueblo. This year, due to the pandemic, Taos Pueblo borders have remained closed to the public since mid-March. It was one of many difficult decisions tribal leadership didn’t see coming, but had to make.
“Every decision felt incredibly weighty, there were no easy decisions, no decisions that didn’t have a consequence,” said Ezra Bayles, Incident Commander for the Taos Pueblo Emergency Management Team.
Many struggles the COVID-19 pandemic has caused are universal across our state – compliance with social distancing, mask wearing, decreases in income and loss of jobs. But the pandemic at Taos Pueblo possesses unique obstacles and challenges.
Lt. Gov. Antonio Mondragon said it hasn’t been easy for the members of his tribe, citing the unfamiliarity of Taos Puebloans to a lockdown situation. “People are not used to not being let out, looked at when they come in (to reservation lands). People still think that so long as you wear a mask, you’re safe, and they mingle with other people in town and other places,” he said. “The challenge was for them (the people of Taos Pueblo) to realize that this is serious,” Mondragon added.
Despite the hardships, the governor’s staff said there’s largely been a positive reaction throughout the tribe toward the restrictions.
Reviving a team
Taos Pueblo launched the Emergency Management Team in the summer of 2003, when the Encebado Fire first struck Taos Pueblo, and again when the floods came the following season. According to Bayles it was midMarch when the team once again
started working with tribal government. Bayles credits War Chief Gary Lujan with the initial idea of the re-establishment of the emergency management team.
Like much of the rest of the country, tribal leaders were glued to news outlets following the course of the pandemic. When the novel coronavirus was confirmed in the state on March 11, the tribe took action to reactivate the Taos Pueblo Emergency Management Team.
“I think it’s important, with the War Chief at the end of February, and then supported by the Governor’s office, we were kind of, I don’t wanna say, ahead of everyone else, but if you look,” Bayles said via telephone, “like we were pretty much right on point.”
Shortly after that, Taos Pueblo’s leadership established protocols, approved health guidelines and locked-down the pueblo for the long haul, but that didn’t lessen the risk COVID-19 posed for the tribe.
Ongoing vandalism
Tribal leadership had to deal not only with convincing their Taos Pueblo people to take the virus seriously, but also with ongoing attempts by outsiders to enter pueblo land.
The threat of cut fences and downed barriers along tribal borders is the kind of vandalism the tribe’s leadership is well-versed in. Governor’s Office Secretary Joel Archuleta cited manpower as a primary concern when the closure of Taos Pueblo took place. Secretary Archuleta said, “Any kind of security becomes an issue when you have more people to secure than you have personnel.”
The tribe brought on four new security officers to man the check point this year, which allowed Taos Pueblo Police Department officers to patrol those areas where fence cutting has continued.
Positive impacts
Although the pandemic has changed life at Taos Pueblo, not all the changes have had a negative impact on tribal members.
“So far, a lot of these ( Taos
Pueblo) people have been receptive to the fact that we closed the pueblo,” said Taos Pueblo Gov. Edwin Concha. “We’ve heard a lot of our tribal members say that it’s nice to be able to be at the plaza, just to walk in there and see how quiet it is, they’ve never seen it like this without tourists walking back and forth, this way and that way. So socially, people have realized what a beautiful place we have, this pueblo of ours.”
Though not all tribal members agree with the closure, it appears the great majority of the tribe is compliant with the “new normal” at Taos Pueblo.
Another benefit of the pandemic for Taos Pueblo has been the evolution of communication between tribal leadership and the general public. Although communicating with tribal members became an immediate issue for tribal leadership when the pandemic struck, they quickly adapted their methods and took to Facebook, with educational and informational posts, and YouTube, with public service announcements in both English and the Pueblo’s Tiwa language, to reach their community, while still utilizing proven methods of communication with the public, such as handing out flyers at the entrance to the reservation and making announcements on Pat Romero’s popular KTAO radio program, Moccasin Wire.
“Us as tribal members, we’re
used to face-to-face contact, but this pandemic brought a lot of changes that us tribal members aren’t used to and it kind of opened our minds to different avenues of communication,” said Archuleta.
The Governor’s staff credits Kim Marcus with the initial idea to move in that direction. “When I went home, I had calls coming in from out of state, ‘I saw you and Governor on Facebook: good job,’” said Mondragon of some of the feedback he received.
Tribal leadership credits the cooperation and understanding of tribal members with the low positive test count.
“In regard to benefits, basically, we kept our numbers down tremendously, compared to a lot of places,” Mondragon said. Strict protocols were followed by tribal staff, programs and individuals. Non-tribal employees, contract service providers and anyone who had a reason to be on the reservation who wasn’t enrolled with the tribe, had to be masked and only go where they were needed and right back off the reservation. Often, essential visitors had to be escorted on and off the reservation by Tribal Sheriffs.
In order to continue serving their people, the tribal government itself has taken precise measures to limit their contact and practice social distancing among themselves.
Financial strain
The tribe’s casino has remained open, when allowed, but at a reduced capacity. The addition of the Hail Creek Travel Center has helped, but the tribe continues to struggle financially. Though the tribe has received aid from different private and non-for-profit organizations, and from the federal government by way of the Cares Act, funds have to go through many, often complicated, channels before they end up in tribal member hands.
Careful consideration was given to the artistic and entrepreneurial communities of Taos Pueblo during this year, as that part of the community was hit the hardest, according to tribal officials. Many artists and entrepreneurs of Taos Pueblo have completely lost their source of income, according to Gov. Concha, “Economic wise it’s been devastating to the community. When we closed the border to tourism, we had to close our tourism office. Ninety percent of our income is gone,” Concha said. “The tribal members who have shops there at the pueblo plaza, their income is 100 percent gone. Other tribal members who were used to putting out tables to sell their art work, their means of supporting themselves are also gone. To see that happen from where I sit is something that is very hard to take because you see these people on a daily basis and you see it on their faces, that something’s wrong, but something’s gotta give too.
Mondragon added, “If there’s any benefits to this, in regards to the hardships we’ve been talking about, we kept a lot of people out that were unnecessarily coming in. We kept people from coming in that could have possibly been carrying the virus.”
‘Stay strong’
In closing, Gov. Concha said, “When we activated them (the emergency management team) both tribal government offices took direction from the individuals who are on this emergency management team. And I’ll say from my perspective, that I owe these people a great deal of gratitude, I don’t know if this governor’s office or the war chief office would have been able to handle everything that has come through the pipeline from the state and federal government; Ezra Bayles, Cameron Martinez Sr., Shawn Duran, Shannon Lujan, David Archuleta, Delbert Chisholm, Kim Marcus and everybody else that I can’t remember. I as the governor owe a lot of gratitude to these individuals.”
Lt. Gov. Mondragon offered these words of encouragement, “I hope that this opens the eyes of a lot of youngsters who are uncertain about their future. Look at the help that they need in the medical field, shortages of nurses, doctors and caretakers. This is something they need to consider. I want to encourage the younger students to look into a field like this, the medical field.”
Secretary Archuleta said individual choices make a difference in this pandemic. “Stay strong. We’re all human,” Archuleta said. “As individuals it’s up to us to make that choice to wear the mask, to wash your hands, to not be in gatherings, it’s up to us to make that choice. But we’ll get through this.”
Under the microscope
Ask any Taos Puebloan who has ever served in tribal government what it’s like and you’re likely to hear comparisons with fish bowls and being under microscopes. The whole world watches their own leaders with keen eyes, and that is no different at Taos Pueblo. People who serve Taos Pueblo in an official capacity, whether in a leadership role or as a hired hand shoveling snow from the interior of the village, have all tribal eyes fixed on them. This year, COVID19 has tested the limits of the Taos Pueblo people and its leaders; and the tribe is proving its resilience, strength and unity.
As the 2020 Taos Pueblo leadership prepares for their departure in January, they recognize the immense amount of cooperation they have received from their tribe, and ask that tribal members continue to cooperate with the incoming staff of 2021.