NM Indian pueblo bans trick-or-treaters

JEMEZ PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) - Jemez Pueblo leaders have banned trick-or-treating, and said anyone trick-or-treating on tribal land on Halloween will be sent home.

Pueblo Gov. Joshua Madalena said it's dangerous for children to walk around badly lit, unpaved roads at night, and the practice of trick-or-treating doesn't fit with tribal culture.

"We want to continue to promote our traditional way of life in Jemez Pueblo," Madalena said. "Our day is All Souls Day ... where we pay tribute to our ancestors and our families that have passed on to the other world and ask them to continue to bless us."

Trick-or-treating has been common on the 2,000-member pueblo northwest of Albuquerque for years. But this year, police and tribal officials enforcing the ban will ask trick-or-treaters to go home.

The governor said he'd been discussing the ban with the Jemez Tribal Council, public safety officials and pueblo elders for a few months.

Public safety concerns played a big part in the decision, he said.

"Highway 4 lays through the heart of our pueblo," he said. "When children are out trick-or-treating along the highway and people are speeding, I don't want any of my people hurt or injured. And my pueblo is not conducive to a lot of people walking around at night. There are no street lights, no paved roads within the historical area of the pueblo."

Trick-or-treating also doesn't fit with efforts to preserve traditions, Madalena said.

"If native people lose their ways and their language, they lose their identities," he said.

Madalena said a gruesome killing on the pueblo a month ago was a factor in the public safety concerns.

"The killing itself was a rude awakening for the tribe to see that anything can happen on our pueblo," he said.

A 22-year-old Jemez Pueblo man, Lucas Toledo, faces a murder charge in the Sept. 29 stabbing death of a fellow tribal member, 21-year-old Matthew Panana.

Federal prosecutors accused Toledo of killing Panana outside his home after Panana kept knocking on his window while he tried to sleep.

A criminal complaint alleges Toledo stabbed Panana with a box-cutter razor and a kitchen knife before repeatedly hitting him with a shovel, stabbing his face and slashing his throat and abdomen. Toledo also is accused of pulling out Panana's entrails, then throwing some on Panana's body and wrapping others around his neck.