HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025.10.23 - Taos Pueblo Tribal Council Statement PUEBLO
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Governor's Office
P.O. BOX 1846 • TAOS, NEW MEXICO 87571 • (575)758-9593 • Fax(575) 758-4604
Town of Taos Renaming Committee
Board Members
October 23, 2025
Taos Pueblo Tribal Council —Statement on the Renaming of Kit Carson Park, the History
of the Taos Valley, and the Requirements of Sovereignty.
We are the Tiwa people of Taos Pueblo. This valley is not a place we occupy — it is who we
are. For over a thousand years our people have lived, worked, prayed, married, buried, and
been born in this landscape. Our songs remember the rivers; our prayers speak to the
mountains; our language names the springs. These are not metaphors. They are relations:
land that teaches, ancestors that walk beside us, responsibility that binds generations.
This statement is for all who would claim to understand Taos: municipal leaders, civic
committees, academics, neighboring tribal nations, and citizens who love this valley. We
speak now to correct assumptions, to center truth, and to declare the conditions under which
any change to our place-names, monuments, or public memory may proceed.
Who We Are —A People and a Place
We do not tell a story that begins with outsiders. Our story begins with the water and the
willow and the first ceremony. Taos Pueblo's Plaza, acequias, fields, and houses were placed
and maintained long before modern borders or land offices. Our governance, our kinship, and
our responsibilities to the land sustained a living community generation after generation.
We have always been part of a regional fabric that included other Indigenous nations — Dine,
Apache, Kiowa, Comanche, Arapahoe, Pawnee, and others. Those relationships were complex:
there were raids; there were alliances; there were trade routes and marriage ties. Over
centuries, practices shifted from conflict to trade, from raiding to negotiated commerce, from
war pathways to shared markets. But through every change, Taos Pueblo remained rooted
here. We were not removed. We did not have to return. Our continuity is attested in our
songs, in our ceremony cycles, and in our mothers' voices.
Taos Pueblo Tribal Council Decision to Town of Taos Renaming Committee October 23,2025
When Spain came, when Mexico claimed this territory, when the United States imposed new
borders and institutions, the Pueblo adapted in ways necessary to survive. We learned
Spanish words, adopted some practices, negotiated with new powers — all while guarding our
language, our ceremonies, and our land. The pressures were many: missions, taxes, new
laws, forced conversions, and later American policies that sought to assimilate and remove.
Yet we persisted. Our plaza stood. Our prayers were kept. Our children are raised in this
valley. Most recently our forefathers spoke on the Federal Level to address our ancestral
lands and their testimony defending our sovereignty against the United States Government in
the battle for the "Return of Blue Lake". That documentation serves as a written testimony to
what are elders stated during those hearings, and serves as a foundation in resilience.
The Meaning of"Unceded"and Sovereignty in Practice
When we say this land is unceded Tiwa land, we mean what words cannot fully capture: we
did not lawfully transfer our homeland to another nation. The overlay of municipal
boundaries and land grants must not erase that deeper fact. Sovereignty is not simply a line
on paper; it is woven into ceremony, decision-making, and the responsibilities we carry to the
next seven generations.
Respecting our sovereignty requires more than symbolic gestures. It requires actions that
change how decisions are made about places on our lands:
• Formal, public acknowledgment in language agreed to by Taos Pueblo Tribal
Government.
• Procedural commitments that place Taos Pueblo as lead in matters concerning our
places and cultural heritage.
• Protections for ceremonial access and cultural practices.
Sovereignty is not optional. It is the ground from which all legitimate conversations must
begin.
Why Names Matter—Memory, Law, and Responsibility
Names hold law and memory. When a name is given to a place in the public sphere it frames
what people remember, who is visible, and whose authority is assumed. For generations,
colonial names and commemorations have honored conquest and masked suffering. This does
not teach history — it hides it.
Our Intertribal History and the Limits of Representation
We value the histories and voices of other nations. The region's history includes complex
interactions with Dine, Apache, Kiowa, Comanche, Arapahoe, Pawnee, and others. Those
histories include conflict, trade, negotiation, and shared pathways across the plains and
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Taos Pueblo Tribal Council Decision to Town of Taos Renaming Committee October 23,2025
mountains. Such interactions affected the valley. They shaped routes and stories. They taught
us how to adapt, how to defend, and how to trade.
But adaptation and respect do not mean surrendering our right to speak for our land. No
other nation has the authority to speak on behalf of Taos Pueblo. Other nations' solidarity
is welcome; representation is not. It is inappropriate for any tribe, organization, or individual
to assume voice for Taos Pueblo without our explicit invitation and consent.
The Present Problem —Procedural Erasure
The current renaming process has revealed the modern version of a familiar pattern:
committees, panels, and campaigns that appear inclusive but fail to center the living
sovereign people of the place they aim to change. Well-meaning actors — activists, scholars,
neighboring tribes, and municipal commissions — step forward and frame the narrative. They
speak of justice while leaving the original people on the margins. This procedural erasure
looks different than conquest by force but produces the same result: decisions made about us
without us.
We reject that process.
What Respect Must Look Like
To proceed with dignity,justice, and enduring recognition, we require the following actions
as conditions for moving forward with any renaming or reinterpretation of public spaces
within our landscape:
1. Formal Land Acknowledgment (Text&Ceremony)
The Town of Taos must adopt, in a form agreed to by Taos Pueblo Tribal Government,
a formal statement acknowledging that the lands in question are unceded Tiwa
territory. This acknowledgment must be public, recorded, and included in municipal
materials and digital presence.
2. Sovereign Leadership in Process
Taos Pueblo must lead the renaming process. Leadership means decision-making
authority over name selection, interpretive content, ceremonial protocol, and the
timelines for all public acts.
3. Tiwa-Led Interpretation and Education
All signage, materials, school curriculum components, and visitor resources about the
park and valley history must be developed and approved by Taos Pueblo.
4. Protection of Ceremonial Rights
The Town must formally recognize and protect our ceremonial calendar and access to
traditional spaces.
5. Restriction on Third-Party Representation
Other tribal nations, NGOs, academics, or organizations may provide support or
solidarity but shall not make unilateral public statements or take actions purporting to
represent Taos Pueblo. Any external efforts must receive prior written consent.
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Taos Pueblo Tribal Council Decision to Town of Taos Renaming Committee October 23,2025
6. Public Apology&Correction Plan
Where municipal or institutional practices have privileged outsider narratives or failed
to consult Taos Pueblo, the Town should issue a public corrective statement and
commit to correct interpretive materials and public records.
A Teaching to All —Inclusion vs. Centering
Inclusion without center is tokenism. Many actors use language of"including Native voices"—
but inclusion becomes meaningless if the people whose land is at stake remain peripheral. If
the Town wishes to be truly decolonial in practice, not only in words, it will yield authority. It
will let the sovereign people lead in how their land and memory are represented.
We invite allies to stand with us, but not to speak for us. Listen. Learn. Follow the leadership
of Taos Pueblo.
Council Determination and Direction
After full deliberation, prayer, and consultation within our community and governance
bodies, the Taos Pueblo Tribal Council issues this determination in our sovereign authority:
the Taos Pueblo Tribal Council supports the renaming of Kit Carson Park to "Red Willow
Park."
This support is an act of restoration and identity, not a concession. It affirms who we are —
the Red Willow People — and it asserts our right to name the land we continue to care for.
The Town of Taos and the Renaming Commission must meet the conditions laid out,
including a formal acknowledgment of unceded Tiwa land, full sovereign leadership in the
renaming process, Tiwa-led education and interpretation, protection of ceremonial access,
and clear restrictions on third-party representation.
To name this park"Red Willow Park"is not an act of erasure of historical facts. It is an act of
restoration. It places the Tiwa language and identity back into the public landscape where it
belongs. It tells the next generation: this land has a people who cared for it long before the
fort, long before the plaza became a tourist photo. It corrects the imbalance of public memory
and signals that the people who carry this place's life are present and leading.
Closing — We Are Here, We Will Remain
We are not a footnote. We are not a backdrop. We are Tiwa — the living people of Taos
Pueblo. This valley carries our memory, and our memory carries this valley. We do not yield
our voice to convenience, to academic framing, or to public relations.
We welcome true partnership grounded in respect and in the actual redistribution of
decision-making authority. We welcome citizens, neighbors, and friends who will listen and
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Taos Pueblo Tribal Council Decision to Town of Taos Renaming Committee October 23,2025
act accordingly. But make no mistake: we will assert our rights. We will protect our memory.
We will lead in our homeland.
Respectfully submitted and authorized by the Taos Pueblo Tribal Council.
With Respect,
....22.1._.: ,24,c.,4__
Edwin Concha, Matthew Montoya,
Governor, Taos Pueblo Lt. Governor, Taos Pueb o
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