Legacy of Acoma Pueblo by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today

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.” …

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.”