Centuries of stories within mission’s walls

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

ZUNI — Lena Tsethlikia wants to keep sharing the centuries of stories that surround Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission in Zuni Pueblo. During a tour of the old mission church on Saturday, Tsethlikia, a cultural interpreter for the Zuni Tourism Office, talked about the rich cultural heritage of the mission and showed visitors evidence of the moisture in the church’s adobe walls that is threatening to destroy the historical landmark.

Tsethlikia talked about the many changes to the church’s interior and exterior in stories that reflect the history of the Zuni people and the history of outsiders who have come to the pueblo since the early 1500s. Pointing out two original wooden beams near the entrance of the church, Tsethlikia explained one is the carved beam that supports the original east-facing front doors, and the other is a main support beam with a Zuni symbol, meaning “resistance to war,” carved into the corbels.

“The Zunis didn’t believe in war,” she said. “They never went to war against anybody.” Zunis only fought defensively, she explained, with the exception of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 when they joined other pueblo tribes to overthrow oppressive Spanish occupiers.

Tsethlikia also shared the Zuni story of “Father Gray Robes,” an early Catholic priest that was spared during the Pueblo Revolt because of his sympathy for the Zuni people. The Zunis adopted him, she said, and he served as a translator for the tribe. During the revolt, he saved important relics from the church and set up an altar in the fortified village the Zunis built on top of their sacred mountain Dowa Yalanne. When the Spanish reconquered New Mexico in 1692, she said, the Zuni people protected his identity.

Although the church’s altar includes an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that Tsethlikia believes came from Mexico in the 1700s, the altar is much simpler than it once was. The Zuni Visitor Center has a copy of an 1873 photograph by T. O’Sullivan that shows a very elaborate altar with bultos — carved and painted wooden statues — of the archangels Michael and Gabriel flanking the altar.

According to Tourism Director Tom R. Kennedy, the altar and the two bultos were carved in 1775 by noted Spanish artist and cartographer Bernardo Miera y Pacheco. They were taken from Zuni Pueblo by Col. James Stevenson during an 1879 ethnology expedition, Kennedy said, with Stevenson’s original notes stating he “removed them in the dead hours of night.”

The two bultos ended up at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, where according to Kennedy, the statue of San Gabriel was destroyed in a gallery fire in the mid-1960s.

The badly damaged statue of San Miguel was repatriated to the Zuni Tribe in 2004 and is now on exhibit in a display case at the Zuni Visitor Center. “We plan to pursue repatriation of the remaining original altar pieces, which reside at the Brooklyn Museum and to reinstate the San Miguel bulto,” Kennedy said.

In addition to the murals of Zuni religious figures that artist Alex Seowtewa has painted high on the sanctuary walls, the church’s north walls feature meters and drilled holes that were the work of a historic preservation group. The meters were installed to measure the movement of the deteriorating adobe walls, Tsethlikia explained, and the holes were drilled to measure the amount of moisture inside the walls.

Because of the moisture that is now trapped inside the walls, the interior plaster is falling off and threatening the integrity of Seowtewa’s murals. Outside, the church’s exterior cement plaster is chipping away in some places and falling off in chunks in other locations. Walking outside to the rear of the mission building, Tsethlikia pointed to a badly cracking exterior wall that exhibits signs of major buckling.

Like Kennedy, Tsethlikia is alarmed at the potential cultural loss if Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission isn’t saved soon by a restoration project. Standing in the muddy road next to the snow-laden church, Tsethlikia said she hoped the church will be able to survive so the many stories related to the historic mission will continue to be shared in years to come.

Information: Zuni Tourism Office, (505) 782-7238 or www.zunitourism.com