10 



ACOLT A COMA 



[b. a. : 



a la Le., 242, 1802. Kinipissa.— Toiiti in Margry. 

 Dec, I, 604, 1875. Kolapissas.— Gravier (1700) in 

 French, Hist. Coll. La., ii, 88, 1S75. Nipissa.— 

 Iberville in Margry, Di'c, iv, 101, 1880. Pinis- 

 cas.— Sauvole (1700) in French, Hist. Coll. La.. 

 Ill, 23.5, 1851 (probably the same). Q,uenipisa. — La 

 Salle in Margry, D4c., I, .564, 1875. Quinipisas.— 

 French, Hi.st. Coll. La.,ii, 23, 1875. Quinipissa.— 

 Tonti (1682), ibid., I, 63, 1846. Quiniquissa.— Hen- 

 nepin (1680), ibid., 206. Quinnipissas. — La Me- 

 lairle (1682), ibid., ii, .50, 1875. 



Acoli. Mentioned by Onate ( Doc. Ined. , 

 XVI, 114, 1871) as a pueblo of New Mexico 

 in 1598. Probably situated in the Salinas, 

 in the vicinity of Abo, and in all proba- 

 bility a Tigua or Piros village. 



Acoma (from the native name Akante, 

 'people of the white rock,' now com- 

 monly pronounced A'-ko-ina. Their 

 name for their town is A^ko). A tribe 

 and i)ueblo of the Keresan family, the 

 latter situate on a rock mesa, or pefiol, 

 357 ft. in height, about 60 m. w. of the 

 Rio Grande, in Valencia co., N. Mex. 

 Acoma is mentioned as early as 1539 by 

 Fray Marcos de Niza, under the name 

 Acus, a corruption of Hakukia, the Zufii 

 name of the pueblo; but it was fir.^t 

 visited the following year by members 

 of Coronado's army, who recordeil the 

 name as Acuco. The strength of the po- 

 sition of the village, which has the dis- 

 tinction of being the oldest inhabited 

 settlement in the United States, is re- 

 marked by the early Sjmnish chroniclers, 

 who estimated its houses at 200 and its 

 warriors at the same number. Antonio 

 de Espejo also visited Acoma in 1583, 

 designating it by the name under which 

 it is now known, attributing to it the ex- 

 aggerated population of (),000, and men- 

 tioning its dizzy trail cut in the rock and 

 its cultivated fields "two leagues away," 

 probal)ly those still tilled at Acomita 

 (Tichuna) and Pue])lito (Titsiap), their 

 two summer, or farming, villages, 15 m. 

 distant. Juan de Onate, the colonizer of 

 New Mexico, visited Acoma in 1598, 

 when, during his governorship. Fray 

 Andres Corchado was assigned a mission 

 field which included that ]iue))lo, but no 

 mission was actually established there at 

 so early a date. The Acoma had been 

 hostile to the surrounding village tribes 

 during this period, and as early as 1540 

 are mentioned as "feared by the whole 

 country round about." Juan de Zaldi- 

 var, of Oiiate's force, visited Acoma in 

 Dec, 1598, with 30 men; they were sur- 

 prised l)y the Indians, who killed 14 of 

 the Spaniards outright, including Zal- 

 divar and 2 other cai)tains, and caused 

 4 others to leap over the cliff, 3 of whom 

 were miraculously saved. In Jan., 1599, 

 an avenging party of 70 Spaniards were 

 dispatched under Zaldivar's brother Vi- 

 cente, who, after a l)attle which lasted 

 3 days, succeeded in killing half the tribe 

 of about 3,000 and in partly burning the 

 town. The first missionary labor per- 



formed at Acoma was by Fray Geronimo 

 de Zarate-Sa 1 m eron , prior to 1629 ; but Fra y 

 Juan Kamirez, who went to Acoma in the 

 spring of 1629, and remained there many 

 years, was its first permanent missionary 

 and the builder of the first church, which 

 was replaced in or after 1699 by the pres- 

 ent great structure of adobe. The Aco- 

 ma participated in the general Pueblo 

 revolt against the Spaniards in 1680 (see 

 Pueblos), killing their missionary. Fray 

 Lucas Maldonado; but, largely on account 

 of their isolation and the inaccessibility 

 of their village site, they were not so se- 

 verely dealt with by the Spaniards as 

 were most of the more easterly pueblos. 



ACOMA MAN 



An attempt was made to reconquer the 

 village by Gov. Vargas in Aug., 1696, but 

 he succeeded only in destroying their 

 crops and in capturing 5 warriors. The 

 villagersheldoutuntil July 6, 1699, when 

 they submitted to Gov. Cubero, who 

 changed the name of the puel)lo from San 

 Estevan de Acoma to San Pedro; but the 

 former namfe was subsequently restored 

 and is i^till retained. The ])opulation of 

 Acoma dwindled from about 1,500 at the 

 beginning of the revolt to 1,052 in 1760. 

 In 1782 the mi.ssion was reduced to a 

 visita of Laguna, and Ijy the close of the 

 century its poi)ulatiou was only a few 

 more than 800. The present (1902) 

 number is 566. The Acoma are agrioul- 



