WHITE] GOVERNMENT 57 



School, but they do learn something. They are exposed to a great 

 deal. They are taught something of hygiene. They are treated by 

 physicians and dentists, and whether they get a clear notion of natural 

 causes of disease or not, they are brought at least face to face with a 

 system and a philosophy of medicine which completely ignores the 

 principles upon which their curing societies rest. The boys learn 

 something of blacksmithing, automobile mechanics, carpentry, etc., 

 in the shops at the school, which not infrequently causes them to seek 

 jobs away from the pueblo — in Albucjuerque, Gallup, with the Santa 

 Fe Railroad, etc. — for the home folks do anything but encourage the 

 introduction of new crafts and trades. 



The Federal Government has influenced agriculture to a consider- 

 able degree and hence, indirectly, religion and ceremonies. An excel- 

 lent irrigation system has been constructed in the Acomita Vfllley. 

 This has affected the Acoma people profoundly. For centuries they 

 had lived upon the top of the Acoma mesa; they had lived there for 

 many, many years when the Spanish arrived in 1540. Here they lived 

 in a very compact village and breathed the air of a hoary antiquity 

 which made innovation seem almost a sacrilege. Their farms were 

 scattered about in the flats below. Change in the old pueblo was 

 next to impossible, due to the difficulties of ascending the mesa, the 

 limits to expansion, etc. Forty years ago there were a few little 

 huts scattered among the farms in the Acomita Valley. Men went 

 down there during the growing season and tended their crops. A 

 little later some women went down to help; then the huts became 

 larger. The children came with their mothers, and homes made 

 their appearance along the little stream, and (later) the irrigation 

 ditch. The tide swelled until almost every family at Acoma had a 

 home in the new territoiy. The homes were built for permanence. 

 At first they built high up on a steep mesa side (the "east village" at 

 Acoma is the first site) from sheer force of tradition, for there was no 

 longer danger of attack; but later the houses spread out, often being 

 built quite apart from the others. At the present tinie there are 

 houses strung out along the stream and the ditch for a distance of 

 over 2 miles. Families now have more privacy than they ever had 

 before, and this freedom from constant scrutiny and supervision can 

 hardly fail to exert an mfluence upon freedom and independence of 

 mind and spirit. At first the families came down to the valley from 

 old Acoma for the summer season only. Then they began to spend 

 the winter in Acomita and McCartys, going up to old Acoma only 

 for the ceremonies." Now some of the families do not go back to 

 their old home, even for the ceremonies. 



" There are no ceremonial chambers except at old Acoma, and no dances except the Comanche dance 

 which is danced at fiestas. 



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