Itasca Travels 2017: Rocky Day

Saturday, Oct 14…

To the right is a biker getting
his kicks on old Route 66.

Technically speaking, no GPS necessary for today’s drive – just follow Rte 40 west to Holbrook, AZ. We do have one little side trip planned at Acoma Sky City, a pueblo community dating back to 1100AD with families living in homes going back to the early 1600s. It’s about 90 minutes from Albuquerque, a straight shot south of Rte 40 at exit 102 (no GPS – the directions and map are on the brochure). We exit as directed, and then everything falls apart. Two awkward roundabouts, no signs for Sky City, no local route number signs – nothing that corresponds to the little map. After a few minutes we pull off, check GoogleMaps, re-orient the MH, and immediately pass 2 reassuring road signs. A few minutes later we hit fresh, un-oiled, un-watered, frightfully dusty and generally miserable gravel. We are still 9 miles from the site. Fortunately, paving resumed after 3 miles, but the dust and dirt clung to the vehicles the rest of the day. (The M3 was FILTHY!)

Aerial View (Wikipedia)

From Wikipedia, I gathered (and abridged) a firsthand report of an early visit of Spanish explorers to Acoma Pueblo. Hernando Alvarado (part of Coronado's 1540 expedition) described the settlement as “a very strange place built upon solid rock" and "one of the strongest places we have seen… Our expedition repented having gone up to the place. The village was very strong, because it was up on a rock out of reach, having steep sides in every direction... There was only one entrance by a stairway built by hand... There was a broad stairway of about 200 steps, then a stretch of about 100 narrower steps and at the top they had to go up about three times as high as a man by means of holes in the rock. There was a wall of large and small stones at the top, which they could roll down without showing themselves, so that no army could possibly be strong enough to capture the village. On the top they had room to sow and store a large amount of corn, and cisterns to collect snow and water.”

Neighboring Rock Formations

Pavement!

The tour was quite interesting. About 60 years after Alvarado’s visit, conquistador Juan de Oñate (later colonial gov) visited Acoma w/o incident. Within a couple months, however, misunderstandings led to conflict and the Acoma Massacre, in which some 800 natives were killed, all surviving native men over 25 had their right foot cut off, and male natives 12-25 and all females over 12 were made slaves. (The youngest women were considered innocent and shipped off to convents in Mexico City). Those male slaves trekked 40 miles out and (40) back to provide trees that would become beams in the ceiling of the new Catholic church. That simple church (dirt floor, no stained glass) still stands and is used by the Acoma at Easter and a few days surrounding Christmas. (Otherwise, the Acoma still follow their ancestral beliefs and worship.)

The double ladder leads to a kiva
(gathering place). Oñate offended the
Acoma by refusing to climb and
join tribal leaders there.

Church (with original beams). If you look
closely, you can see 3 small crosses.
(no pics allowed inside)

Random pics from the tour...

"Main Street" - oldest section of the
pueblo, with some foundations
dating back almost 1000 years.

The small center window is a thin
slice of gypsum, courtesy of nature.

Acoma Forest (only tree in the pueblo 😃)

Roof stones are still used.
(But I doubt they're used for defense.)

The community still has no running water, electricity or plumbing. Modern composting toilets are available. Nearly all residents have their main home in one of the small towns close by and retreat to these family dwellings as they feel the need or call. Many are pottery artists, and some beautiful pieces were on display at several homes. (I had zero cash w/ me on the tour, and we couldn't take pics so I stole this image from pueblopottery.com.)