Acoma Pueblo

I spent a recent day visiting the Acoma Pueblo, about an hour west of Albuquerque.  The Acoma have fascinated me for several reasons.  For one, I love their pottery which features very intricate, almost web-like designs.  On one occasion, I was fortunate to watch one of the women as she painted and found her work mesmerizing.  I also enjoy visiting the Acoma Pueblo because it is situated atop a very remote mesa.  It is very peaceful and relaxing.

Our tour guide walked us through the village explaining their history.  The culmination was the mission church and cemetery which we were not permitted to photograph.  The guide explained that the village had been receptive to the first priest who arrived, throwing rocks down upon him every time he tried to ascend the mesa. It had less to do with Christianity and more to do with their satisfaction with their own traditions and worship. 

With time, however, they did permit the priest to ascend.  The Spanish leaders sought to convert all the native peoples of the territory and decreed that churches needed to be built in all the villages, including Acoma.  One of the tragic parts of this story is that the site that was chosen for the church was atop their kiva, the sacred ceremonial site.  Years later, pueblos throughout the region would revolt and burn these churches.  The Acoma did not.  Although they refused to re-enter the church, they could not burn it down because it was situated on a holy site for their people.  To burn the church would be to desecrate the kiva. 

Now, more than three hundred years later, our guide explained that most Acoma honor both their Christian roots and their native roots.  And the setting for such worship is the same place, the kiva and church located on the same site. 

Perhaps if we excavated the depths of our personal faiths we would discover more compatibility than we realized.