Acoma Belfry
Plate 564 · Volume 16 · 1904
“With the possible exception of Sia, Acoma possesses the oldest church among the pueblos. Its bell is dated 1710, but the massive structure may have been erected as early as 1699.”
— Edward S. Curtis, The North American Indian, Volume 16Acoma Pueblo · Keres-Speaking Peoples
Acoma is a Keres-speaking pueblo, one of seven Keres pueblos in New Mexico (Cochiti, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Sia, Acoma, and Laguna). First mentioned in 1539 as Acus by Friar Marcos de Niza, discoverer of the Zuni towns.
Perched on top of a mesa some three hundred and fifty feet above the surrounding valley, accessible by difficult trails partly cut in the solid rock of its precipice, Acoma is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the United States.
Curtis documented the Keres peoples in Volume 16 of The North American Indian. The religious organization centers on ceremonial clans or fraternities, the office of cacique (head of the Flint society of medicine men, a life position), and two war chiefs — "country chief" and "go in advance" — charged with maintaining order, directing communal hunts, announcing ceremonies, and guarding the esoteric participants in rites.
Ceremonies described by Curtis include individual and society healing, winter solstice rites, clown societies, the Shiwanna dance, the Owe (crops) ceremony, the Scalpers, the Society of Hunters, and the Kusari.
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