Salinas, Part 5—Twilight of the Gods

At all three, Salinas Puebloans had to deal with the ecclesiastical demands on their time and souls, and civil demands for annual payments of goods, including corn, salt and cloth. Both “kings” expected labor. And while at first allowing the kiva rituals to continue, by the mid-1600s the priests had outlawed them. But, at least [...]

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Salinas, Part 4—Quarai

Of the three pueblo missions in the Salinas Monument, Quarai’s sheltered location up a narrow canyon complete with spring and cottonwoods is undoubtedly the most felicitous. With their neighbors at Tajique and Chilili just north, Quarains worked joint fields of corn. Across the valley, less than fifteen miles east, were numerous dry lakes, a vital [...]

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Salinas, Part 3—Gran Quivera/Las Humanas

Gran Quivera/Las Humanas (the original Spanish name) is the farthest south of the three units that make up Salinas Monument.  President Taft designated Gran Quivera a National Monument in 1909. The people of Las Humanas were different from their Quarai and Abó neighbors. They painted or tattooed the upper half of their faces, like the [...]

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Salinas, Part 2—Abó

The first time we visited Abó was in the early 1980s. Back then it was a state monument, its ruins partially restored by the Museum of New Mexico in the 1930s. Manning the visitor welcome center, a miniature adobe room heated by a potbellied stove, was a local Hispanic man who, once Abó was added [...]

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The Photographer’s I : Mists and Miasma

Spray and mist. Not exactly promising subjects for a picture. Photography books advise you to take early morning or late afternoon shots. Strong shadows and light; definite, sharp outlines; bold perspective; strong composition with curves, verticals, diagonals and horizontals. And yet for a contrarian with a camera, these are exactly the “rules” that are fun [...]

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The Photographer’s I: A Yellowstone Portfolio

In the Ken Burns-Dayton Duncan special “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” Yosemite and Yellowstone get the lion’s share of attention, both for their centrality to conservation history, and because of their iconic nature, double meaning of nature intended. Of the two,Yosemite is the most photogenic, with sculptured granite walls and domes, graceful but thunderous [...]

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