Historic Santa Fe Indian School in ruins

(© 2008 Photo by George Johnson)

The turn-of-the-century buildings at the Santa Fe Indian School have been a part of the drive along Santa Fe's Cerrillos Road for the duration of the lifetime of virtually everyone alive in Santa Fe today.

So it's easy to relate to the shock described by those who witnessed their demolition without warning over several days last week. I felt it just seeing the pictures, several of which were posted by George Johnson on his blog, The Santa Fe Review, under the apt title "Indian Ruins."

As the first story in the Santa Fe New Mexican described it, demolition started with the destruction of historic homes reportedly once occupied by teachers, as bystanders stood by helplessly or videotaped what was going on. Joe Garcia, chairman of the All Indian Pueblo Council, which owns the site, told the New Mexican he thought the homes had asbestos, but the New Mexican noted that none of the workers was wearing masks while tearing them down.

Elaine Bergman of the Historic Santa Fe Foundation lamented the lack of warning, telling the New Mexican it would have been nice if historians at least had a chance to document the white-facade-and-brick homes before demolition.

School officials, however, declined to answer questions, saying a press release would be issued later on what it was doing on the 115-acre property on which the Indian school was established in 1890.

A couple of days later, the council issued its statement:

"After completing various assessments over the past 5 years, the Santa Fe Indian School exercised its sovereign authority and due diligence to take action by demolishing buildings to remove the imminent health, safety, and security threats to protect the students and staff of SFIS, including the general public."

In follow-up stories by the New Mexican and the Albuquerque Journal North, state preservation and state and federal environment officials were generally quoted as saying there wasn't much to be done as it was a sovereign decision by the tribes. Meanwhile, bulldozers began attacking the school's larger buildings and Cerrillos began to look, as the New Mexican put it, "like a war zone."

Preservationist Alan Watson deplored the waste in an opinion piece, pointing out that the action destroyed "irreplaceable murals by such revered alumni as Pablita Velarde."

Tom Drake of the state Historic Preservation Division told the Journal that 24 of the Pueblo Revival-style buildings on campus were eligible for placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

But as many residents have pointed out in comments on these stories, the building that were torn down have been sitting vacant and unused for several years. And the Journal story pointed out that the destruction revealed something else:

By tearing down a set of City Different landmarks, the school may have revealed a new one: a modern campus that opened in 2006 which many passing motorists likely never knew existed.

The $31 million project includes an activities center, dorms, classrooms and plaza, designed to be New Mexico's "20th" pueblo. Designed in a Pueblo Revival style using traditional building materials such as vigas, latillas and adobe, the campus is meant to echo students' home communities, according to design architect Van Gilbert of Albuquerque.

Gilbert also told the Journal the cost of bringing the old buildings up to code would have been higher than constructing the 21st-century campus. "I understand the historic aspects and all that, but those buildings were dangerous," Gilbert was quoted as saying.

The 19-pueblo All Indian Pueblo Council has had control of the school since 1975, and in 2000 Congress transferred the property to the council expressly for the purpose of education. Similarly, gaming is expressly prohibited.

Journal reporter Raam Wong's revelation of a new school behind the old brings to mind the image of a snake shedding its old useless skin, which in this case likely was unwanted for another reason: It was, after all, a boarding school where young children, taken from their families, were forcibly stripped of their heritage.

As one interested in historic preservation myself, I realized my reaction to the demolition of the Santa Fe Indian School was similar to how perplexed I felt as historic buildings at the Albuquerque Indian School fell victim to arson in the 1970s. How could anyone not like these buildings, I naively thought then, especially the California mission-style structures? Why isn't the All Indian Pueblo Council protecting them?

But those thoughts changed when I learned about life in the Indian boarding schools.

Many of those who attended the schools are still around and have very negative memories of the boarding school experience. Young men were forced to cut their hair and play "white man's games" like baseball, and their unhappiness is palpable in photographs of the time.

New Mexican reporter Staci Matlock picked up on that sentiment in her first story. She reported that one bystander said he was happy the historic houses were being torn down because when he was a student there in the early 1970s, that's where teachers lived, and he blamed them for abusing students.

The Albuquerque Indian School site is now a gleaming albeit rather generic headquarters for the Manuel Lujan Jr. Indian Affairs Building and National Indian Programs Training Center.

The evolution of the state's "20th pueblo" in Santa Fe sounds much more intriguing.

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