Exploring Native American lands

COVID hit for the second time in 2021 while I was living in the small town of Guilford in the state of Connecticut in the US when a close friend of mine who was essentially spending a lot of time living in her van with her Austrian shepherd — Wakpa, asked me to travel with her to New Mexico in her van so she could buy land for herself. She had native roots and it was a sweet opportunity for me to see America on the road! They call New Mexico the ‘Land of Enchantment’ and I wanted to be mesmerised, as I was going through a major personal crisis. Even though it was exciting, I was sceptical as the two of us were going to be on the road for 5 days before we could reach our destination — America is a HUGE country after all. We stayed at motels at night except for sleeping in the van twice when we couldn’t find one. For an Indian girl, it was pretty scary to be sleeping in a car overnight but my friend was pretty confident with our dog so I agreed and we survived!

America is not known for its beauty but when you drive on the countryside you wonder why is it not known for its natural beauty. We drove through the southern parts of the country crossing many beautiful quaint towns and learning about the history of the US — the history that is not marked by all glory but with many horror stories of the past. We crossed a few towns that looked dead with houses that were perhaps 100 years old — it felt eerie to even stop there for a selfie.

On our 6th day, we entered the beautiful spiritual land of Taos. The architecture, the land and those snow-peaked mountains in April were breathtaking. Lolly had booked us an ‘Adobe’ — a traditional house of Taos with our own fireplace and an uninterrupted view of the mountains for the next month. It all felt so different from the East Coast! The next few days were about exploring the town by ourselves and the first thing I discovered was that we were staying a few minutes away from Neem Karoli Baba’s ashram in Taos. It reminded me of my stay in the Himalayas a few years ago where I lived a few miles away from Baba’s ashram by co-incidence. A sweet nostalgia indeed. We visited Earthships — uniquely designed self-sufficient houses built out of waste in the middle of the desert. And to top it off, if you are spontaneous, you could jump in for a quick dip in the natural hot springs that can be found everywhere. Wakpa, our furry friend ensured that we were always protected during our random skinny dips in the hotsprings in the middle of nowhere. On one of the crazy nights, we camped in a barren forest with exceptional views and built a fire before we heard the mountain lion crying at a distance and we ran to sleep in our van. Mountain lions in New Mexico are extremely rare and we were in no mood to encounter one in the middle of the barren forest at 3 am.

Despite the narrow escape from the lion, the highlight of my entire stay was being surrounded by the natives who welcomed me into their world because I was a brown girl — yes, there is ‘brown privilege’ in that part of the world. Being friends with the locals, we were allowed to visit spaces that were strictly prohibited for outsiders. I learnt about their values and culture that echoed the spiritual wisdom of 40,000 years! Considering my love for meditating in highly energised spaces, I was in lala land. The nights were mesmerizing and getting together for community dinners had become a norm where we would sing our native songs and cook together. A lot of stories were shared that broke my heart. ‘Red Indians’ were the natives of America who were the first to be colonised after millions were killed, leaving them to suffer in poverty and trauma to date. This was a side of America I did not know about and the stories will never make it to the textbooks. Despite that, these beautiful people are immensely proud of their roots and will not tolerate any ‘Americanization’.

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Going to New Mexico, listening to stories that were never taught in history lessons, and connecting to the land that has been worshipped and kept sacred for many thousands of years touched me in ways I couldn’t decipher at that time but it solidified my core values, instilled pride in me for being an indigenous person to The land I was born in — India, and motivated me to connect with my roots. Two years later I made an impulsive choice to return to India because I needed to connect to my roots. Of course, I could live anywhere in the world and never lose my identity which is deeply rooted in my spirit but I needed to return to India for now.

A few things to keep in mind as women travellers on the road in the US:

• Having a ferocious-looking furry animal is a great decision.
• Do not drive at night and find a safe accommodation to stay at night.
• Get equipped with all the things your vehicle is going to need in case of emergency.
• There will be many spots where you’d like to step out and click selfies, try local food, or explore a forest — My recommendation is to research a bit before you step out of the car so you familiarise yourself with the terrain.
• Plan your itinerary. This one is the most important. Looking at social media posts, we tend to imagine these road trips to be all spontaneous but if things are not planned, more than half your time may be spent in navigating chaos.
• Respect your surroundings and the culture. Like they say in Rome, be a Roman.

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