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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Legacy of Acoma Pueblo
  • Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 09:30:43 -0600

Legacy of Acoma Pueblo
Posted: July 12, 2005
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096411217

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The legacy of Acoma Pueblo is one of survival and
reverence for the sacredness of life and land, C. Maurus Chino told
participants at the recent Huaba Hanu Listening Conference in Albuquerque.

Chino spoke of ''amuu han'u, aamuu haatsi (beloved people, beloved land),''
the principles and values that have long guided Acoma Pueblos.

''The religion of the people revolves around the land and our harmony with
the universe and our Creator. The land is a living being, in and of itself.
The land and the people are inseparable: they are one and the same,'' Chino
said.

''This land and the people have always been part of a sacred cycle of
struggle and harmony. This is the meaning of 'amuu han'u, aamuu haatsi': it
includes all people. It means we are responsible for the values we hold
precious.''

Chino, whose Acoma name is Ka-aimaisiwa, belongs to the Eagle Clan. Acoma
is part of the Keresan people which include the present day tribes of Santa
Ana, Zia, Cochiti, Santo Domingo, Laguna and San Felipe Pueblos.

''My people's origins are from the north. How far north is buried in the
collective subconscious, but where the conscious memory begins is at
Kashkatruti, Chaco Canyon and from various places, most of them
impermanent; momentary, for the people still had not found the place for
with they were searching.''

Stone remnants of these settlements, remaining from migrations from the
north, can be found at Mount Taylor and near the lava flow known as El
Malpais in present-day New Mexico.

Sharing this land of high desert and mountains were the Keres, Towa, Tiwa,
Tewa, Zuni, Hopi, Apache and Navajo. In the region, to the east were the
Comanche and to the north were Utes. While there were conflicts in the
struggle to survive, the people respected one another's ceremonies and even
borrowed certain aspects from one another's ceremonies.

While trading with the Mayan people to the south in present-day Mexico,
Acoma acquired precious stones, sacred parrots and sea shells. Today, Acoma
have the Parrot Clan. Trading with the people of the West Coast of
California brought abalone shell.

''The people speak of the Warrior Twins who guided the people from Siapapu,
our place of emergence in the north. Ak'u (Acoma Pueblo) was the
destination.''

This city of Acoma sits atop a 350-foot rock mesa with sheer sides,
situated in the middle of a fertile valley 6,300 feet above sea level. ''It
was referred to as 'Haak'u,' which means 'prepared,' because we believe it
was there already prepared for us.

''It was there waiting, Ak'u is and always was.''

Conquistador Juan de Onate's slaughter of Acoma and other indigenous
peoples of the Southwest in the 1500s changed the course of history.

Religions, practiced for thousands of years, were banned as paganism and
devil worship. Christianity was forced on the people, who accepted it in
order to survive. Tribes were forced to pay enormous taxes on harvests and
weavings. Many women were raped. Running was banned and runners punished
because they were used as a form of communication between isolated tribal
villages, he said.

Horse ownership by the Native people was also forbidden.

However, the survivors at Acoma Pueblo and elsewhere carried forward with
an even stronger reverence for the land and people.

''The effects of this trauma are evidenced today by the secrecy in which
the people govern themselves, and the secrecy in which the religion is
practiced,'' Chino said.

While Pueblos voice opposition to statues to honor Onate in New Mexico and
Texas, Pueblos honor the Pueblo leader Pope' (pronounced poh-PAY) who led
the revolution which drove Spaniards from their homelands for 12 years.

''The values we held precious were never lost; the people just held them
closer,'' he said.







  • [Livingontheland] Legacy of Acoma Pueblo, Tradingpost, 07/14/2005

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