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Indian Pueblo Culture Center

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MikeInTown
MikeInTown
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5 out of 5
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Indian Pueblo Culture Center (The)

  • April 13, 2008
  • Rated 5 of 5 by MikeInTown from Norristown, Pennsylvania
Indian Pueblo Culture Center (The)

The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center is a circular museum whose purpose is to educate visitors on the 19 pueblos (Indian communities) of New Mexico. My AAA membership card got us a $0.50 discount on each admission ticket. The museum has a permanent exhibit, temporary exhibits, a gift shop, cafeteria, and a courtyard. We were lucky to be there on a weekend day because this is when the dancers perform in the courtyard. We had arrived at the museum about 30 minutes before the show, so we first spent some time walking through the "Corn To Commodity" temporary exhibit that highlighted the importance of the corn in pueblo societies.

The dancers we saw were from the Zuni Pueblo. Dressed in colorful traditional garb, they danced the Arrow Dance to the rhythm of a drummer and chanter. Various dances were done for about an hour but we moved on to other parts of the museum after about 20 minutes. We had wanted to see the horno oven cooking demonstration and sample some of the food.

The doom-shaped adobe (mud-brick) horno oven was introduced by the Spanish in the 16th century; however, the ovens are more often associated with the pueblo Indians that use it to make bread among other things. The demonstration was finished and the bread was gone, by the time we arrived at the demo area. However, upon learning that we missed the demo, one of the museum’s friendly staff members shared with my wife and me her loaf of bread she had bought from the cooking demonstration. The bread had a hard outer crust but soft interior.

Having teased our appetites with the bread, we decided to have lunch in the museum's Pueblo Harvest Cafe. The menu was mainly Southwestern cuisine which I don't really care for. My wife had chicken fajitas and I had a cup of pinto beans and ham. However, the thing I enjoyed most about this meal was my first encounter with Indian fry bread. It was included with my beans and ham.

Indian fry bread is basically puffy fried dough. It is served with honey. My small order was so big it hung over the sides of the plate. We started on this lovely treat and before long, we were left with nothing but sticky fingers and fry bread flakes. Delicious!

Our final stop in the museum was the permanent exhibit on the bottom floor. Through artifacts, craftwork, and models it explained the emergence of the pueblo Indians thousands of years ago, the pueblo architecture styles, the arrival of the Spanish, Indian uprisings, and today's American Indian culture. I was most impressed by the final section of the exhibit that has displays dedicated to each of the 19 pueblos. It describes their artwork, tools, location, and clothing. For example, we learned about the people of the Zia Pueblo who are known for their white and orange pottery. The Santa Clara Pueblo Indians are known for their carved black animal figureens called fetishes. Some pueblo Indians built their homes out of adobe bricks and others made cliff dwellings by carving their homes out of the soft volcanic rocks. Comparing and contrasting these cultures was fascinating to me. This exhibit had really made my trip to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center worthwhile and had given me some background on the places and items we would encounter during the rest of our Southwest road trip.

From journal An East Coaster in New Mexico

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