Places: Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico
Many Native tribes in North America live far away from their ancient homelands and much tangible evidence of their ancient pasts are lost. The Pueblo people of Acoma, near Albuquerque, New Mexico, have managed to buck that trend. The Acoma inhabit three villages that make up their pueblo, Old Acoma or Sky City, which sits atop a mesa, and two villages below the mesa, Acomita and McCarty's. Oral tradition states that they've been living on this mesa for nearly 2,000 years. Modern archaeology can account for at least 800 years of continuous habitation, a personal best by an standards. The Anglo-Spanish name Acoma was borrowed from a Pueblo word of which the exact meaning has been lost today. Some sources indicate that it may related to words meaning a Place of Preparedness, or a Place That Always Was, or possibly People of the White Rock. The Spanish mission established here was San Esteban de Acoma. Many people speak their ancient language in a...