In the final sequence of the wonderful Kurosawa film, “Dreams,” after a dark vision of environmental hell, a man wanders into a beautiful, shaded garden with a small, clear stream running through it.
He is bewildered; he has witnessed the horrors of a ruined world. How can this beautiful, tranquil place exist, he asks a man he encounters.
“We keep to the old ways here,” the man answers.
Just last week, I felt as though I had wandered into that dreamlike scene. I was in northern New Mexico, sitting on the shady banks of Red Willow Creek, the little stream that flows through Taos Pueblo, listening to the gentle murmur of pure water flowing over ancient rocks.
I had just come from a traffic delay in downtown Taos - a lovely place, but far from serene. Here, I could listen to what Red Willow Creek had to say to me. It sounded important.
For more than a thousand years, Native Americans have lived at Taos Pueblo. It is considered the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States, and is a United Nations Living World Heritage site. It nestles under the shoulder of Wheeler Peak, more than 13,000 feet high, which looms directly above the stacked adobe houses.
It is a truly magical place, not only for its striking setting, but also for the people who live there. In their native Tiwa language, they are known as the red willow people, for the shrubby red willows that still grow in and alongside the creek, and they, too, “keep to the old ways.”
A young Taos Indian named Aspen gave us a tour of the pueblo and told us about his people. He noted that Red Willow Creek and its source, the sacred Blue Lake high in the mountains, had been protected by the tribe after a 40-year fight in Congress. The Taos Indians still celebrate that victory.
Afterward, we poked about, visited some of the shops, ate some fry bread, and talked with some of the people we met there.
One woman, Dolly, recalled how she and her girlfriends, as young girls would lie awake at night in one of the Pueblo dwellings. Through the skylight they could hear the men of the Pueblo singing and drumming as they sat on one of the bridges over the little creek. It was a sound that connected her to her people, the Pueblo, and nature itself, all at the same time.
It would be a mistake to over-romanticize the pueblo. It is linked to contemporary American culture and economy in many ways.
Yet at the same time, it does seem that the Taos Indians have remembered the value of many things we Anglos may have forgotten – the importance of undisturbed nature, the beauty of an unpolluted stream, and the value of “the old ways.”
Their culture is still intact. And Red Willow Creek still runs clear.
