Destruction at Indian School is wasteful

Alan Watson |

8/2/2008 - 8/1/08

As one who loves Santa Fe's historic architecture and who has worked many years to preserve it, I was heartbroken by the mass destruction of historic buildings at the Santa Fe Indian School along Cerrillos Road that occurred last weekend.

Representatives of the school are quoted as saying that the reasons for the demolition were that the buildings were structurally unsound and contained hazardous materials. As a preservation professional, I constantly encounter historic structures that can be made sound, hazardous materials that can be abated and buildings that can be made accessible to people with disabilities — all without destroying their historic character. To me, the school's owners have made willful excuses for behavior that was carefully planned to head off legitimate resistance.

The environmental excuse rings particularly hollow when we have no evidence that the hazardous materials were dealt with responsibly, but rather appear to have been spread carelessly into the surrounding ground and atmosphere. Further, there seems to have been no attempt to conserve or even to recycle materials that represent a huge investment in embodied energy that now must find a legal disposal site.

The State Historic Preservation Division leads the nation in its support of tribal consultation. During the planning and construction of our new convention center, the New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee, of which I am a member, was strong in its insistence on tribal consultation when it came to the protection of archaeological resources that were of tribal significance. It seems to me that consultation at its best is a two-way street, and that in this case representatives of the school, by avoiding consultation with the division, have responded to good will with bad intentions.

Whether the recent demolition was legal or illegal (as I strongly suspect) may be an issue we will never see resolved. What I am certain of is that the school's officials have set a poor example of civic leadership to their students, especially by their destruction of irreplaceable murals by such revered alumni as Pablita Velarde. They have acted as disgraceful neighbors to the community at large.