Laguna Pueblo and Mount Taylor, New Mexico

On I-40 in New Mexico, along about mm 106 or so, there’s a little parking area. If you’re ever out that way, pull in there. If you’re lucky, the Native Americans will be in the little sheds that line the edge of the area on the westbound side, outside the barb-wire fence so they are on reservation, not state DOT land, selling jewelry. Maybe there will be someone making fry bread.
One day many years ago when I stopped and was walking around with the camera, a boy about 3 or so begged ‘take my picture – please’. He sat on a table, with a bright blanket behind him, and I did – the picture shows him behind the fencing, which I thought was rather appropriate. He’s grown up now, a young man, and sometimes I look at the photo and wonder what he’s doing.
Look north from the area, and you see the little village of Laguna Pueblo. A mission is on a rise overlooking the dusty houses, shining white in the sun. You can get off the interstate at Exit 107, just before the parking area, and drive to the village, get closer to the mission. I did this one morning and got a great photo of the truck parked near it, another morning got pretty shots of simple Christmas wreaths decorating the doors and a star atop the building. That’s about all there is to the settlement, several dozen small houses, the mission and a little store at the corner of the central street and the state highway.
Look further north and you’ll see Mount Taylor, the Turquoise Mountain, one of the corners of the traditional Navajo lands, in the distance. It’s miles away, and if you get off further down the road and take the side trip to the Acoma Pueblo, think about the Indians hundreds of years ago carrying timbers from the mountain to the mesa the pueblo is on to make the mission that is there. There’s a lot of all kinds of history out there. Stop and look at it.