FAVORITE THINGS FRIDAY #7...New Mexico...Discover Acoma Pueblo

Welcome back on our tour of New Mexcio. Our next stop is.....ACOMA PUEBLO.


One of the most interesting places to go in New Mexico is Acoma Pueblo. Acoma is one of the country’s oldest continuously occupied villages. It was founded around 1200, but the Native Americans will tell you that they have been there since 700. I've been there three times. It's about 65 miles west of Albuquerque. You can only access Acoma by a guided tour. Video recorders and digital cameras are not permitted and to bring a still camera it requires a permit. You can not photograph the church, cemetary or people. There is no electricity or plumbing. Water is brought up by truck and there are cisterns to collect rain water. Out houses are used. Originally, there were 18 clans living on the mesa, but today, there are only 14 clans or about 30 people. Another 1150 others live in villages throughout the area. The oldest living resident is said to be 103 and she has only left the mesa three times in her life.


This is a picture of the staircase, which until 1959 was the only access to the top of the 300 foot cliff. You can still cllimb down, if your brave. Can you imagine carrying water in clay pots on your head while climbing this. Now there is a road that takes the tour bus to the top.

These are the homes. It is a tradition that the youngest daughter of the family inherits the home. Their reasoning is that, as the youngest, she will outlive all of her siblings and she will take care of the parents.




All doorways to a home were through the roof. That's why you see so many street ladders. This was for defense. Most of the original homes are no more than 300 square feet and are one story.


The few street-level doors were imposed by the Spanish conquerors as a means to store their food, animals and to control the people. The homes the Spanish had them build were multi-story and quite large.



These are the traditional outdoor ovens used to bake bread and corn.








This is the pottery they make and hand paint.





You can't take pictures of the mission church, but I found this picture on the Internet. Outside the 17th-century San Esteban del Rey mission church, the cemetery has graves layered 10 deep. The building of the mission was very difficult. All the materials from sand to hand-cut timbers came from Mount Taylor, 30 miles away and had to be carried up the slopes of the mesa. Our tour guide told us that a priest would bless each tree that was cut on Mount Taylor and then the Native Americans had to haul them back, but if they dropped it they had to leave the log there and go back and get another one. We were also told that anyone who died while building the mission church had their body interned in the thick walls.

The history of this place is amazing. I found the following historical account and thought it would give you a good idea of how the Spanish treated the Native Americans.

"When the column of Spanish troops came into view on a cold winter afternoon of January 21, 1599, by European reckoning-the fighting men of Acoma fanned out from their village to guard the edge of the mesa. As the Spaniards drew closer, the defenders unleashed a barrage of insults, rocks, and arrows from more than 300 feet above. Just seven weeks earlier, a party of Spanish soldiers seeking food had been treated in a friendly manner until their demands turned aggressive and provoked a furious reaction. When it was over, almost all the intruders were dead, including their commander, Juan de Zaldivar, nephew of the military govenror of New Mexico, Juan de Onate resolved to make an example of Acoma. Onate dispatched 70 of his best men under the command of Vicente de Zaldivar.

These were the troops approaching the seemingly impregnable "Sky City" that January afternoon, and with them arrived a harsh new reality. Over the next 3 days the Spaniards fought their way to the top of the mesa, where they rolled out a fearsome new weapon, a cannon that spewed thunderous blasts of small stones, tearing flesh and shattering bones. The battle became a massacre. As many as 800 Acomans soon lay dead in the rubble of their ruined city. Some 500 survivors were herded into dismal captivity: all males over the age of 12 were condemned to 20 years' servitude; those over 25 were also sentenced to have one foot cut off.

In time, some of the Acomans managed to escape and made their way home, there to begin the long process of rebuilding. The Sky City has been continuously inhabited since then, and never again has it fallen to an invader."

I hope you have enjoyed Acoma Pueblo and if you're ever in the neighborhood drop by. I'll see you next week when we'll explore Santa Fe.