Beating Heart of The World

The fascinating true story of how Taos Pueblo’s Indigenous people recruited members of the famous Taos art colony to help spark a movement for Native justice that reshaped the nation. When the first white artists arrived in Taos by horse-drawn wagons, centuries of military conquest and brutal government policies had pushed Indigenous people to the brink of collapse. New Mexico’s pueblos had become some of America’s last holdouts of traditional culture, resolutely preserving their sacred lands in the face of mounting pressure. Many of the free-spirited newcomers in Taos came to admire the pueblos’ peaceful, communal societies and holy regard for the natural world. To these outsiders, pueblo civilization offered a marked contrast to America’s record of endless war, hyperindividualism, and environmental destruction. Among those attracted to Taos was the “Queen of Bohemia,” a wealthy New York heiress who dabbled in peyote and personified radical chic. Mabel Dodge Luhan fell in love with...