Fire threatens more than wilderness
The Thompson Ridge fire in the Jemez Mountains is threatening much more than valuable real estate and precious wilderness. For the people of Jemez Pueblo an entire way of life is in danger of going up in smoke.
To the Jemez people, the mountains are life itself. Their history and their religion is all entwined together in the steep canyons and high mesas and rugged peaks.
That's according to Paul Tosa, an elder and former governor of the tribe. He’s also a historian. Tosa said he fears that the fire may destroy hundreds of sacred sites throughout the mountain range.
“It is our burial grounds, it is our churches,” Tosa said, gazing toward Redondo Peak, the mountain the Jemez call Wavema. “The ancestral people are buried there, and yet at the same time, because of those people, we are still existing. We are still surviving.”













