crews spent the day on and around santa clara canyon.. hoping to stop the fire from spreading farther onto sacred pueblo land. as heather mills found out, it's not just the loss of land for the people of santa clara pueblo.. but the loss of a home and a religion. she joins us live from los alamos... it's been an emotional 24 hours for the people of the santa clara reservation -- they just saw images of their canyon -- blackened by mother nature. we just lost everything by that fire burning. nearly 13-thousand acres of land in the santa clara canyon is now blackened from the las conchas fire. that land accounts for nearly a quarter of the santa clara reservation.. land considered sacred. many of us cried when we saw the fire it meant the world to me, everybody. not just me, like you guys wouldn't understand how much it means to us." yes, it is our home, but it's also our church and it's also our traditional lands that we've been entrusted to be the caretaker since time .." 13- year old mirdacia padilla lives on the reservation.. she says they won't be able to do traditional dances without the deer and elk that live in that canyon. im happy i got to at least see the canyon before it all burned, but im sad because my brother, and all these younger kids won't be able to see the canyon or remember what it looked like governor walter dasheno went to the canyon tuesday night.. and took these pictures.. those may have been the last photographs that we took this isn't the first time the canyon has been scortched by flames... and despite it's barren appearance now.. he says there's always hope. we can re-plant the trees, the plants will grow back up, the water will be cleaned out, the fish will come back and the birds will fly "it's hard for us, it hurts when we lose something or someone we recover, we become strong, we become better parents, we become better children and so we recover." the santa clara reservation will be asking for federal assistance to help re-forest the area. several new mexico lawmakers have also asked fema to assist the pueblo governors. reporting live in los alamos, heather mis, kob eyewitness news four. changes are coming to the evacuation shelters. starting tomorrow, the santa claran hotel will only be open from seven a-m until eight p-m. cities of gold casino in pojoaque will become the only full-time shelter, open 24 hours a day.
