Pueblo of Acoma

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The Pueblo of Acoma is located roughly 60 miles west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The reservation consists of three main communities: Sky City (Old Acoma), Acomita, and McCartys. The traditional lands of Acoma Pueblo encompassed roughly 5 million acres. Of this, roughly 10 percent is included in the reservation.

The Rio Grande Pueblos are known as eastern Pueblos; Zuni, Hopi, and sometimes the Acomas and Lagunas are known as western Pueblos.

Official Tribal Name: Pueblo of Acoma

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Recognition Status:

Federally Recognized

Traditional Name / Traditional Meaning:

Acoma” is from the Acoma and Spanish acoma, or acú, meaning “the place that always was” or “People of the White Rock.” “Pueblois from the Spanish for “village.” It refers both to a certain style of Southwest Indian architecture, characterized by multistory buildings made of stone and adobe (pueblo), and to the people themselves (Pueblo).

Common Name / Meaning of Common Name: Acoma Pueblo

Alternate names / Alternate Spellings: Akome, Ak’o Ma, Aa’ku meh,  Aa’ku meh, Pueblo 

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Region: Southwest

State(s) Today: New Mexico

Confederacy: Puebloan

Treaties: None of the Pueblo tribes signed any treaties with the United States.

Traditional Territory:

Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico has been inhabited for more than 1,000 years

Reservations: Acoma Pueblo and Off Trust Land

Land Area:  roughly 500,000 acres 
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Population at Contact: The pueblo’s population was about 5,000 in 1550. 

Registered Population Today: In 1990,  the tribal enrollment was roughly 4,000, with 2,548 living at Acoma Pueblo. 

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Government:

Acoma Pueblo has been a member of the All Indian Pueblo Council since 1680. The cacique (a theological appointment, from the Antelope clan) appoints tribal council members, the governor, and his staff.

Charter:  
Name of Governing Body:  Pueblo governments are derived from two traditions. Elements that are probably indigenous include the cacique, or head of the Pueblos, and the war captain, both chosen for life. These officials were intimately related to the religious structures of the pueblo and reflected the essentially theocratic nature of Pueblo government.

A parallel but in most cases distinctly less powerful group of officials was imposed by the Spanish authorities. They generally dealt with external matters and included a governor, two lieutenant governors, and a council. In addition, the All Indian Pueblo Council, dating from 1598, began meeting again in the twentieth century.

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Language Classification: Keres – Is a dialect cluster spoken by the Keres Pueblo people in New Mexico. The varieties of each of the seven Keres pueblos are mutually intelligible with its closest neighbors. Keres is a language isolate. Edward Sapir grouped it together with a Hokan–Siouan stock. Morris Swadesh suggested a connection with Wichita. Joseph Greenberg grouped Keres with Siouan, Yuchi, Caddoan, and Iroquoian in a super-stock called Keresiouan. None of these proposals has gained the consensus of linguists.

Language Dialects: Western Dialect.

Number of fluent Speakers:

  • Eastern Keres: total of 4,580 speakers (1990 census)
    • Cochiti Pueblo: 384 speakers (1990 census)
    • San Felipe – Santo Domingo: San Felipe Pueblo: 1,560 speakers (1990 census), Santo Domingo Pueblo: 1,880 speakers (1990 census)
    • Zia–Santa Ana: Zia Pueblo: 463 speakers (1990 census), Santa Ana Pueblo: 229 speakers (1990 census)
  • Western Keres: total of 3,391 speakers (1990 census)
    • Acoma Pueblo: 1,696 speakers (1980 census)
    • Laguna Pueblo: 1,695 speakers (1990 census)

Number of fluent Speakers: Almost all the Acoma people speak both Acoma and English; many older people speak Spanish as well.

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Origins:

All Pueblo people are thought to be descended from Ancestral Puebloan, perhaps Mogollon, and several other ancient peoples. From them they learned architecture, farming, pottery, and basketry. Larger population groups became possible with effective agriculture and the development of ways to store food surpluses. In the context of a relatively stable existence, the people devoted increasing amounts of time and attention to religion, arts, and crafts.

The oldest tradition of the Acoma and Laguna peoples indicates they lived on an island off the California Coast. Their homes were destroyed by high waves, earthquakes, and red-hot stones from the sky. They escaped and landed on a swampy part of the coast of the North American mainland. From there they migrated inland to the north. Wherever they made a longer stay, they built a traditional White City, made of whitewashed mud and straw adobe brick, surrounded by white-washed adobe walls.

Their fifth White City was built in southern Colorado, near northern New Mexico. In the 1200s, the Ancestral Puebloans abandoned their traditional canyon homelands in response to climatic and social upheavals.

A century or two of migrations ensued, followed by the slow reemergence of their culture in the historic pueblos. Acoma Pueblo was established at least 800 years ago.

Bands, Gens, and Clans

Acoma Pueblo originally recognized roughly twenty matrilineal clans. Clanship affiliations are an important aspect of Pueblo culture. Nineteen clans remain, each organized by social function.

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Modern Day Events & Tourism:

Several seasonal feasts and ceremonial dances are open to the public. Photography and sketching is generally discouraged in all the Pueblos.

Before drawing the area and its people, or taking pictures, you should inquire if it is allowed, and if so, what the rules are. Some pueblos charge a fee for picture taking, depending on what you plan to do with your pictures. Your camera may be confiscated and you may be fined or asked to leave if you take pictures without following their procedures. They take this VERY seriously.

The Acoma Pueblo and surrounding houses are private homes and should be treated as such. Do not enter any buildings unless invited, or clearly marked as open to the public.

Chaco and Mesa Verde: Southwest parks with similar history but different visitor experiences 

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Art & Crafts:

Acoma artisans are best known for their beautiful pottery.

Animals:

The Acomas kept turkeys for meat and feathers. The Acomas also raised herds of sheep, goats, horses, and donkeys after the Spanish introduced these animals into the region.

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Housing:

The Acoma pueblo feature three rows of three-story, apartment-style dwellings, facing south on top of a 350-foot-high mesa. The lower levels were reserved mainly for storage. The buildings were constructed of adobe (earth-and-straw) bricks, with beams across the roof that were covered with poles, brush, and plaster. The roof of one level served as the floor of another. The levels were interconnected by ladders. As an aid to defense, the traditional design included no doors or windows; entry was through the roof.

Baking ovens stood outside the buildings. Water was primarily obtained from two natural cisterns. Acoma also features seven rectangular pit houses, or kivas, that served as ceremonial chambers and clubhouses. The village plaza is the spiritual center of the village, where all the balanced forces of the world come together.

Today, many people still live in traditional adobe houses, with outside ovens, but increasingly one finds cement-block ranch and frame houses with exterior stucco. Most people live below the mesa, in the villages of Acomita and McCartys.

Subsistance:

The economy was basically a socialistic one, whereby labor was shared and produce was distributed equally. The Pueblo people were agrigarian, (farmers) who basically stayed in one place and had an advanced irrigation system.

Before the Spanish arrived, people living at the Acoma pueblo ate primarily corn, beans, and squash. Mut-tze-nee was a favorite thin corn bread. They also grew sunflowers and tobacco. They hunted deer, antelope, and rabbits and gathered a variety of wild seeds, nuts, berries, and other foods. Favorite foods as of circa 1700 included a blue corn drink, corn mush, pudding, wheat cake, corn balls, paper bread, peach-bark drink, flour bread, wild berries, and prickly pear fruit.

Irrigation techniques included dams and terraces. Pottery was an important technological adaptation, as were weaving baskets and weaving cotton and tanning leather. Farming implements were made of stone and wood. Corn was ground using manos and metates.

All Pueblos were part of extensive Native American trading networks that reached for 1,000 miles in every direction. With the arrival of other cultures, Pueblo Indians also traded with the Hispanic American villages and then U.S. traders.

At fixed times during summer or fall, enemies declared truces so that trading fairs might be held. The largest and best-known was at Taos with the Comanches. Nomads exchanged slaves, buffalo hides, buckskins, jerked meat, and horses for agricultural and manufactured pueblo products.

Pueblo Indians traded for shell and copper ornaments, turquoise, and macaw feathers. Trade along the Santa Fe Trail began in 1821. By the 1880s and the arrival of railroads, the Pueblos were dependent on many American-made goods, and the Native American manufacture of weaving and pottery declined and nearly died out.

Economy Today: The Acomas grow alfalfa, oats, wheat, corn, chilies, melon, squash, vegetables, and some fruits. They also raise cattle. Acoma has coal, geothermal, and natural gas resources. Nearby uranium mines served as major employers until the 1980s. Since then, the tribe has provided most jobs. Tribal income is generated through fees charged tourists to enter Sky City (Old Acoma) as well as the associated visitor’s center, and the tribe has plans to develop the tourist trade further. Arts and crafts (pottery, silverwork, leatherwork, and beadwork) also generate some individual income. 

Acoma remains a relatively closed society, like other Keresan pueblos, especially in regard to religious matters. Acoma shares a junior/senior high school and a full-service hospital with neighboring Laguna Pueblo.

Since the uranium mines closed, Acoma has suffered high unemployment rates. The mines have also left a legacy of radiation pollution, resulting in some health problems and the draining of the tribal fishing lake.

Religion & Spiritual Beliefs:

One mechanism that works to keep Pueblo societies coherent is a pervasive aversion to individualistic behavior. Children were traditionally raised with gentle guidance and a minimum of discipline.

The Acoma have an intricate religious system which includes several hundred katsina (kachina) Gods. They have many sacred ceremonies, which are kept private for the most part.  In modern times, photography by outsiders is discouraged and in some cases even strictly forbidden.

At Acoma, a formal, traditional education system under the direction of the kiva headmen includes courses on human behavior, the human spirit, the human body, ethics, astrology, child psychology, oratory, history, music, and dance.

Many of the old ceremonies are still performed; the religion and language are largely intact, and there is a palpable and intentional continuity with the past. Indian Health Service hospitals often cooperate with native healers. 

Many Pueblo Indians, though nominally Catholic, have fused pieces of Catholicism onto a core of traditional beliefs. Since the 1970s control of schools has been a key in maintaining their culture.

Burial Customs:

The dead were prepared ceremonially and quickly buried. A vigil of four days and nights was generally observed.

Wedding Customs

 Pueblo Indians were generally monogamous, and divorce was relatively rare.

Famous Pueblo People

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Tribe History:

Acoma Pueblo was first visited by non-Indians in 1539, probably by Estevan, an advance scout of the Coronado expedition. The following year the people welcomed Hernando de Alvarado, also a member of Coronado’s group.

In 1598, Juan de Oñate arrived in the area with settlers, founding the colony of New Mexico. However, that year Acomas killed some of his representatives, for which they faced a Spanish reprisal in 1599: The Spanish killed 800 people, tortured and enslaved others, and destroyed the pueblo. The survivors rebuilt shortly thereafter and began a process of consolidating several farming sites near Acoma, which were later recognized by the Spanish as two villages.

Oñate carried on the process, already underway, of subjugating the local Indians, forcing them to pay taxes in crops, cotton, and work and opening the door for Catholic missionaries to attack the Indians’ religion. The Spanish renamed the pueblos with saints’ names and began a program of church construction.

At the same time, they introduced such new crops as peaches, wheat, and peppers into the region. In 1620, a royal decree created civil offices at each pueblo; silver-headed canes, many of which remain in use today, symbolized the governor’s authority. In 1629, the Franciscan Juan Ramirez founded a mission at Acoma and built a huge church there.

The Pueblo Indians organized and instituted a general revolt against the Spanish in 1680. For years, the Spaniards had routinely tortured Indians for practicing traditional religion. They also forced the Indians to labor for them, sold them into slavery, and let Spaniard-owned cattle overgraze Indian land, a situation that eventually led to drought, erosion, and famine. Popé of San Juan Pueblo and other Pueblo religious leaders planned the revolt, sending runners carrying cords of maguey fibers to mark the day of rebellion.

On August 10, 1680, a virtually united stand on the part of the Pueblos drove the Spanish from the region. The Indians killed many Spaniards but refrained from mass slaughter, allowing them to leave Santa Fe for El Paso.

The Pueblos experienced many changes during the following decades: Refugees established communities at Hopi, guerrilla fighting continued against the Spanish, and certain areas were abandoned. By the 1700s, excluding Hopi and Zuni, only Taos, Picuris, Isleta, and Acoma Pueblos had not changed locations since the arrival of the Spanish.

Although Pueblo unity did not last, and Santa Fe was officially reconquered in 1692, Spanish rule was notably less severe from then on. Harsh forced labor all but ceased, and the Indians reached an understanding with the Church that enabled them to continue practicing their traditional religion.

The Acomas resisted further Spanish contact for several years thereafter, then bowed to Spanish power and accepted a mission.

In general, the Pueblo eighteenth century was marked by smallpox epidemics and increased raiding by the Apache, Comanche, and Ute. Occasionally Pueblo Indians fought with the Spanish against the nomadic tribes. The people practiced their religion, more or less in secret.

During this time, intermarriage and regular exchange between Hispanic villages and Pueblo Indians created a new New Mexican culture, neither Spanish nor strictly Indian, but rather a blend of the two.

Mexican “rule” in 1821 brought little immediate change to the Pueblos. The Mexicans stepped up what had been a gradual process of appropriating Indian land and water, and they allowed the nomadic tribes even greater latitude to raid.

As the presence of the United States in the area grew, it attempted to enable the Pueblo Indians to continue their generally peaceful and self-sufficient ways and recognized Spanish land grants to the Pueblos. Land disputes with neighboring Laguna Pueblos were not settled so easily, however.

During the nineteenth century, the process of acculturation among Pueblo Indians quickened markedly. In an attempt to retain their identity, Pueblo Indians clung even more tenaciously to their heritage, which by now included elements of the once-hated Spanish culture and religion.

By the 1880s, railroads had largely put an end to the traditional geographical isolation of the pueblos. Paradoxically, the U.S. decision to recognize Spanish land grants to the Pueblos denied the Indians certain rights granted under official treaties and left them particularly open to exploitation by squatters and thieves.

After a gap of more than 300 years, the All Indian Pueblo Council began to meet again in the 1920s, specifically in response to a congressional threat to appropriate Pueblo lands. Partly as a result of the Council’s activities, Congress confirmed Pueblo title to their lands in 1924 by passing the Pueblo Lands Act. The United States also acknowledged its trust responsibilities in a series of legal decisions and other acts of Congress.

Still, especially after 1900, Pueblo culture was increasingly threatened by highly intolerant Protestant evangelical missions and schools. The Bureau of Indian Affairs also weighed in on the subject of acculturation, forcing Indian children to leave their homes and attend culture-killing boarding schools. In 1922, most Acoma children had been sent away to such schools.

Following World War II, the issue of water rights took center stage at most pueblos. Also, the All Indian Pueblo Council succeeded in slowing the threat against Pueblo lands as well as religious persecution. Making crafts for the tourist trade became an important economic activity during this period.

Since the late nineteenth century, but especially after the 1960s, Pueblos have had to cope with onslaughts by (mostly white) anthropologists and seekers of Indian spirituality. The region is also known for its major art colonies at Taos and Santa Fe.

Tiguex War
Pueblo Revolt of 1680
New Mexico’s pueblos have a history with the federal government unlike any other American Indian tribe
Pre-Columbian Cultures Timeline  

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