AICL Best Books 2023!
The Winter book depicts life on the Taos Pueblo during the cold months of winter.

The delightful board books, written without text, were created by the Taos Pueblo’s Tiwa Language Program to preserve the Tiwa culture and revitalize the unwritten Tiwa language by teaching it to younger generations. Many other Indigenous languages also need to be revitalized, so it is the hope of the Taos Pueblo’s Tiwa Language Program that other American Indian nations will find the books useful to teach their languages to their  children. The beautiful, hand-drawn illustrations will also educate young children about the four seasons of the year. All proceeds of the book support the Taos Pueblo’s Tiwa Language Program.

We are the “Red Willow People” of Taos Pueblo and have sustained our ancient village as one of the longest continuously inhabited communities, for over 1,000 years. Taos Pueblo is located in northern New Mexico and our Tiwa language is a dialect of the Tanoan language, which is not a written language. Traditionally we learn our Tiwa Language through oral tradition but we are in danger of losing our ancient language due to colonization, modernization, and the shift from Tiwa as our first language to English as our first language. The efforts of the Taos Pueblo Tiwa Language Program are focused on revitalizing the Tiwa Language and culture by protecting and preserving it, through teaching it to our younger generations.

At an early age, Leonard Archuleta’s ingenuity was recognized, and he was encouraged to pursue and create emotionally evocative art. Depicting realistic scenes of day-to-day experiences, Leonard has been honing his artistic skills in both three-dimensional sculptures and two-dimensional paintings for many years. His deep respect and love for the beauty of his culture and the outdoors inspires his choice of subject matter. His colorful and vivid oil and acrylic paintings pay homage to his homeland, where many famous artists, past and present, have influenced his work.