Acoma
a.k.a. Acoma Pueblo;Sky City;See Also:San Estevan del Ray Mission C
13 mi. S of Casa Blanca on NM 23, Casa Blanca, NMNative American pueblo built atop a 225-foot sandstone mesa; one of longest-occupied places in North America.
Located on top of a giant craggy mesa south of Acomita, New Mexico, Acoma is one of the oldest continuously occupied villages in the United States (with the possible exception of Old Oraibi, Arizona). Its impressive location on the 357 foot high cliff made it an isolated and impregnable site in prehistoric times and gave it the name of Sky City. Founded perhaps as early as 1100 A.D., the village is still used today by the Acoma Indians for ceremonial purposes. Analyses of this long continuous span of use have the potential to increase the archeologist's understanding of Acoma Indian development, of the relationship of the Acoma Tribe to other Southwestern cultures, and of the Spanish-Indian interaction during the 16th and 17th centuries The European-Native American combination of cultural traits is certainly well-documented at Acoma with the presence of the Mission of San Estevan del Key, one of the earliest and most impressive of the Spanish colonial missions in New Mexico. This fine example of Spanish mission architecture exhibits the almost perfect blend of Indian and Spanish influence uniquely characteristic of the New Mexico missions.
Local significance of the district:Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1966.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.