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[article provided by Pat Morris. Thanks...]

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/2news01-30-00.htm
Sunday, January 30, 2000

Jemez Pueblo Managing Tourists

By Leslie Linthicum
Of the Journal

PUEBLO OF JEMEZ -- The people of Jemez Pueblo were tired of
tourists maneuvering their wide minivans down the narrow dirt
roads of their village. They were weary of knocks on their doors from
strangers and sick of being interrupted by questions as they baked in
their hornos or hung out their wash.

So in 1993, the pueblo opened a small visitors center down a lane
off N.M. 4, the busy highway that splits the village, and put up signs
directing tourists there.

The problem got worse.

"People would come to that center and get curious," said Rebecca
Grandbois, director of tourism for the pueblo. "And they'd leave and
still want to take a peek."

By 1995, the message at community meetings was loud and clear:
Get tourism out of the village.

And so began a new approach to the relationship between a
traditionally private pueblo and the tourists it counts on to prop up its
economy. Call the new attitude: We love you -- on our terms.

That attitude is behind three undertakings -- a new road that will
carry traffic around the village; a newly opened, full-service visitor
center that aims to satisfy tourists' curiosity about pueblo village life
without allowing them to tour the village; and paid, guided tours for
those tourists for whom a trip to the visitor center is not enough.

Grandbois said the pueblo wants to say no to invasive requests and
encourage tourists to learn about Jemez under the pueblo's conditions.

"We're here to educate visitors and draw them here away from the
village," Grandbois said. "This will be their first and, most times, only
contact with the pueblo."

Visitors who want to meet a potter or buy directly from a potter can
arrange to meet at the center or at the potter's home.

And tourists who want to tour the pueblo and learn about village life
may join a group tour that includes a bread-making demonstration, a
pueblo feast and dances.
 

Difficult road

N.M. 4 has bisected the pueblo for decades, carrying thousands of
vehicles through the little village every day.

The Jemez people never wanted a paved road through their village.
They protested plans to widen and pave the route in the early 1940s
but were sued by the state of New Mexico for the right of way and
lost.

Today, about 4,000 cars and trucks rumble up and down N.M. 4.
Jemez is the only one of the 19 pueblos with a major highway cutting
through its center.

Cows, horses and dogs have been struck and killed crossing the
road at the pueblo. An elderly man was hit and injured by a car
several years ago.

On busy weekends, traffic is bumper to bumper.

When drivers on their way to or from the Jemez Mountains want to
buy pottery or take a look at how Indians live, they turn off the
highway and drive or walk through the village's narrow streets,
peeking into yards and houses.

"The way the pueblo is situated, it's very exposed," said pueblo 1st
Lt. Gov. Sam Chinana. "People get off that road and they're in
everybody's back yard. It's like at the zoo. You're on display."

A highway running through town has also been a blessing. The red
rock canyon north of the village is crowded on spring and summer
days with visitors buying Indian tacos, Frito pies, bread, enchiladas and
empanadas from pueblo families. And Jemez pots and storyteller
figures are collected worldwide.

The pueblo profits from tourism, Chinana said, but wants to direct
the process rather than be its victim.

"It's not that we're antisocial," he said. "We're trying to manage our
lives."
 

Taking their lives back

In the future, visitors will see Jemez Pueblo when and where the
pueblo chooses.

The planned bypass road forks off from N.M. 4 just south of the
pueblo village, follows a route about a quarter mile to the east of N.M.
4 and dumps travelers out north of the pueblo village and just south of
Red Rock Canyon, where the new visitor center sits. There, visitors
can tour an exhibit that explains the Jemez peoples' history, ask
questions and buy T-shirts, pottery, jewelry and other souvenirs.

Plans call for a nature walk and a two-room traditional pueblo field
house eventually.

About a dozen artists who market their pottery with signs on their
homes in the Jemez village will have to find new ways to advertise
and sell their work, either at the visitor center or by making
appointments to have buyers visit their homes, Grandbois said.

When the bypass is built, the road through the village will be
blockaded where it connects to the new road, Chinana said. Entry to
the pueblo village will be through a new main entrance road that will
intersect the bypass road.

It's all part of what New Mexico's Indian tribes will struggle with in
coming years: achieving a balance between preserving their unique
way of life while courting the tourist dollar.

Lorentino Lalio, director of Indian tourism for the state of New
Mexico, said interpretive centers like Jemez's and one at Acoma
Pueblo will be the salvation of pueblos as tourist numbers increase.

Lalio has been talking to officials at other pueblos about establishing
visitor centers a mile or more away from their village centers, with the
option of shuttle service into the villages for tourists who want that
experience.

"It doesn't pollute the main village area while it still offers controlled
access to visitors," Lalio said. "I would like to see that as a model."
 

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