WHITE] HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ACOMA 25 



above Aconiita, 12 miles north of their present ■^'iilage." •* He also 

 mentions a number of small pueblo ruins near Acoma.^ 



Northeast of Acoma about 3 miles is the Enchanted Mesa (Mesa 

 Encantada), or K'atzim". It is a large mesa with sheer perpendicular 

 walls rising almost 400 feet from the flats below. Lununis, in his 

 Land of Poco Tiempo, recounts the Acoma tale that their people 

 once lived on the summit of this rock. A great storm, so the story 

 goes, broke away the rock trail which led to the top. Most of the 

 Acoma people were in their fields at this time, but those remaining 

 in the pueblo perished of hunger; they could not come down. In 

 1895, F. W. Hodge, of the Bureau of Aineiican Ethnology, climbed 

 to within 60 feet of the summit and examined the talus heaped along 

 the side. He reported finding some potsherds. Two years later 

 Prof. William Libbey, of Princeton University, reached the summit. 

 He reported that diligent search did not produce any trace of a 

 former occupation. So the Bureau of Ethnology directed Hodge to 

 make another ascent. This he did in September, 1897. This time 

 he found more potter}^, fragments of a shell bracelet, and a broken 

 stone implement on the sunimit. He also reported a small stone 

 structure which he was certain was not a natural formation." 



Granting that a few potsherds were found on the summit of 

 K'atzim" does not prove that the Acoma people lived there; a few 

 potsherds do not make a pueblo. Those sherds may have been left 

 there by people who ascended for ceremonial purposes. Hodge 

 found a prayer stick or two in a cleft not far from the summit. 

 Ceremonial visits are made to this mesa even yet. It would seem 

 that traces of rock walls would remain had there ever been houses 

 on the top of this great rock. 



The interval between the %dsits of Alvarado and Espejo was un- 

 eventful. In 1581 Fray Augustin Rodriguez and Sanchez Chamus- 

 cado visited Acoma with a small party.* In the year following, 

 Espejo arrived at Acoma, where he spent three days. He describes 

 the village much as Castaneda did, mentioning the cisterns, foods, 

 wearing apparel, etc. Two items of considerable significance he 

 mentions: "These people have their fields 2 leagues from the pueblo 

 on a river of medium size whose waters they intercept foi- irngating 



' Old Keresan potteiT which I have seen in museums shows far greater resemblances between .\conia 

 and Zia than between Acoma and either Santo Domingo or Cochiti. 



< Bandelier, Final Report, Ft. II. pp. 312-320. 



» See Hodge, F. W., in Land of Sunshine, November, 1897; also in Century Magazine, May, 1898; ako 

 in National Geographic Magazine, vol. viu, 1897. .\lso see Libbey, William, in Harper's Weekly, 

 -lug. 28, 1S97, and notes by Lummis and Hodge in Land of Sunshine, October and November, 1S97. 



» Historical Documents Relating to New Mexico, collected by Bandelier and edited by C. W. Hackett, 

 vol. I, p. 193. 



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