by The Laird o’Thistle
January 15 2006

[Note: I must apologize that my word processing program does not allow me to put in the appropriate Spanish accents and markings.]

I was privileged to attend the Feast of the Three Kings on January 6, in one of the ancient Pueblos of New Mexico near Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Marking the end of the Christmas festivities for another year, the day was a true feast for the spirit, the eyes, and the taste buds. And it also has enough of a royal connection to make it fair game as the topic of this month’s column.

We arrived at the Pueblo just as the procession bringing the statues of the Virgin and the Santo Nino from the home where they reside during the twelve days of Christmas was approaching the church. It was a simple timeless sight that, but for the automobiles and pickup trucks in the way, could have been from any time in the last four centuries.This feast day began, as most do, with Mass celebrated by the simply clad Franciscan priest at the old adobe church in the center of the Pueblo. At the end of Mass, the new Governor of the Pueblo addressed all present in the traditional language of the tribe. He broke into English only briefly to welcome the non-Indian visitors who had come to share the day’s festivities. Then we moved to the nearby plaza where for several hours (with a break at lunchtime) we watched a couple hundred dancers taking their turns doing the winter hunting dances accompanied by a chorus of drumming and chant. The dancers spanned the generations, right down to some tiny lads who looked like they were about three or four years old following at the heels of their fathers and big brothers. The barren mountains surrounding the flat-roofed adobe houses of the village were dotted with pinon pine and juniper trees. The sweet incense-like smell of pinon smoke filled the air. The sky was cloudless and the high desert sun (at around 7000 feet elevation) warmed the wintry chill. (New Mexico is not hot in winter like Arizona, and usually gets significant cold weather and mountain snows.) Later we were welcomed into a tribal member’s home for a true feast of enchiladas, posole stew (hominy), red chile, and New Mexico’s distinctive green chile. The table also featured turkey and dressing, pinto beans, oven bread and delicious homemade pies prepared in the horno (wood-fired clay ovens), and traditional biscochitos (crisp sugar cookies with cinnamon and anise). All in all, it was like being in another world, and the members of the group I accompanied felt like truly honored guests.

The Native American peoples of the U.S. southwest have a history stretching back over twelve centuries to the ancient Anasazi culture. Archaeological sites such as Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, and Canyon du Cheilly attest an advanced civilization in the mountainous desert lands of the region that was contemporary with Charlemagne’s empire. The harsh conditions, and possible intrusions from the south brought an end to Anasazi culture after a few generations and their great towns were abandoned, but their descendants regrouped and resettled in the river valleys of the region and became the ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians. These peoples coalesced around eight hundred years ago, contemporary with the later stages of the crusades and the writing of the Grail legends.

Within the Pueblos, a complex traditional religion evolved that might be most comparable to the Taoist and Shinto religions of Asia in their emphasis on maintaining the cosmic balance and the honoring of both earth and ancestral spirits. The most well-known manifestations of traditional Pueblo religious practice are the great dances that occur at various points throughout the year. In general, there is a division between the summer and winter dances, with the former featuring agriculturally oriented dances such as the Corn Dance, while the winter dances focus on hunting. The dance I attended on Epiphany featured Buffalo, Deer & Mountain Sheep, Antelope, and Eagle dancers.

Two new forces entered the American southwest beginning around 1500. First, there was the arrival of a new group of Native Americans. A migration of Athabascan peoples from Alaska and Canada somehow wandered down into the high desert region of what is now called the Four Corners, where the states of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado meet. These Athabascan people eventually divided into two principal groups, now best known as the Navajos and Apaches. Those groups had only been in the region a few years, however, when another incursion occurred… the Spanish arrived.

In the 1530s a Spanish shipwreck on the Gulf of Mexico left a few survivors, including the relatively well known Cabesa de Baca, who wandered lost for some years in the desert lands of northern Mexico, New Mexico, and Arizona. (Recent research disputes some of the traditional claims about how far north this group wandered.) When they finally made it back to Mexico City their report inspired the sending forth of exploratory expeditions. The first party was led by a rather flamboyant Moor named Estevan, who arrived at Zuni Pueblo and set himself up as a visiting Kachina spirit. (At least he did so until he made improper advances on the daughter of the head religious leader, and was slain.) A Franciscan Friar accompanying Estevan was able to return to Mexico City where his report led to the famous expedition of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in the 1540s. That expedition wandered as far north and east as the modern state of Kansas. And with Coronado came the first contingent of Franciscan missionaries, one of whom was killed in Kansas in 1542.

The first permanent European settlement in the region called Nuevo Mexico came in 1598, when a group of settlers led by Juan de Onate established themselves near San Juan Pueblo, just north of the current town of Espanola, New Mexico. (New Mexicans like to point out to others in the U.S. that these settlers arrived nine years before Jamestown was settled in Virginia, and twenty-two years before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock.) And one of the early accounts of that settlement tells of the great bonfires, the “luminarias”, kindled that first Christmas Eve in 1598 to celebrate the birth of the Christ-child. (The little brown paper bags with candles popularly called “luminarias” are actually “farolitos”, as any resident of Santa Fe will insist on telling you.) That first settlement was soon followed by others, including Santa Fe in 1610, and Albuquerque in 1706.

The coming of the Spanish introduced both Christianity and the Spanish Crown into the region. The great trading road from Mexico City up to Santa Fe and beyond became known as the Camino Real, the “Royal Road.” And along that road came the Franciscan missionaries who established churches in all the Pueblos, as well as in the Spanish settlements. At first, the friars tried to stamp out the Pueblo religion, but a revolt in 1680 – inspired in large part by the effort to destroy the traditional religion – drove the Spanish out of New Mexico for twelve years. (My understanding is that it was the only place in the Americas where the Spanish were driven out like this.) When they returned the friars were not allowed to be so aggressive in their suppression of the traditional beliefs and practices, and out of that evolved what a modern Pueblo leader has called “the four hundred year marriage” of the traditional religion and Catholicism that still dominates the Pueblos. U.S.-style separation of Church and State is not required on the lands of these sovereign tribes, and the best examples of the “marriage” occur on the great feast days when ancient dances intermingle with the historic rites and ceremonies of Catholic Christianity and the modern tribal governments.

BUT, you may say, I’m still waiting for the Kings! What about the Kings?

Well, there is a custom dating back to the days when the Spanish Crown ruled what is now the southwestern U.S. (ceded to the U.S. after the Mexican War in the 1840s). Back in those times, the officials of each Pueblo were gifted with batons or canes of office, similar to those carried by Spanish officers. They were the sign of office and authority. These canes are still given to the new officers of each Pueblo each year as they take office. And on January 6 the officers come to Mass in their Pueblo’s church to be blessed and to have the canes blessed, on the Feast of the Tres Reyes Magos (the “Three Magician Kings”). In many of the Pueblos, the new Governor and his assistants actively represent the royal visitors of biblical times as they come kneel at the crèche before, and again at the end, of the Mass. Thankfully, though, they don’t have to wear the bathrobes and paper crowns of too many Anglo-American Christmas plays past.

Over the years the collection of canes in the various Pueblos has grown. Some are very simple and not much more than a straight stick. The most important canes are those that were gifted to the Pueblos by President Abraham Lincoln during the U.S. Civil War in the 1860s. Having been told of the Spanish custom, the greatest of all U.S. Presidents decided to send these gifts in thanks for the tribes of New Mexico remaining at peace and loyal to the Union during that terrible war. They have become the greatest treasures of the Pueblo governments. The latest additions to the cane collections, however, are gifts from the current Spanish King.

In 1987 King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia became the first-ever reigning Spanish monarchs to visit New Mexico when they came to open the Hispanic Heritage wing of the International Museum of Folk Art in Santa Fe. During that visit, King Juan Carlos learned of the tradition of the canes. And so when he returned home he commissioned a set of new canes in rosewood with his royal arms inscribed on the heads, and he sent them to the governors of the nineteen Pueblos. Those canes are now given to the Lt. Governors of the Pueblos at their installation, with pride of place still going to the Lincoln canes carried by the Governors. The year the Juan Carlos canes arrived, however, there was a special Mass to which officials of all the Pueblos came together so that all the canes might be blessed together… by a Franciscan, of course!

On this current Reyes Feast-day, it was a privilege to see those canes borne into the church, bedecked with colorful ribbons, and laid by the altar. And for me, it was good to know that the tradition of the canes is alive not only in the tribes, but in a contemporary relationship with the renewed Spanish monarchy. Perhaps, someday Prince, or King, Felipe will carry on the tradition in turn. (He and his wife did recently visit New Mexico.) And maybe some of the Spanish royals will actually be as lucky as I was and get to stand in a plaza on January 6 as the drums beat and the sound of the dancers’ bells fill the air. And then they will get to taste the delicious chile.

Yours aye,

– Ken Cuthbertson

P.S. Lest you think I have strayed too far from my usual obsession, you would be amazed at how many Scottish ranchers, with names like MacKenzie and MacIntosh, were found among the early Americano settlers in Nuevo Mexico! There is now even a New Mexico Tartan.