Acoma Pueblo
Traditional Territory
A mesa approximately 60 miles west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Historic land totaled roughly 5,000,000 acres; currently control approximately 500,000 acres on their Indian reservation in parts of Cibola, Socorro, and Catron counties.
Overview
Acoma Pueblo is a Native American pueblo approximately 60 miles west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Acoma Pueblo tribe is a federally recognized tribal entity that has continuously occupied the area for over 2,000 years, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States. The pueblo consists of four communities: Sky City (Old Acoma), Acomita, Anzac, and McCartys.
Historical Notes
The Acoma say Sky City Pueblo was established in the 11th century, with brick buildings as early as 1144. The article states they have continuously occupied the area for over 2,000 years and are one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States.
Language and Culture
The Acoma Pueblo speak a language belonging to the Keresan language family, with historical presence recorded across New Mexico, documented from 1100 to present. Language family affiliation is one of the primary means by which historians and anthropologists identify historical connections between Indigenous peoples across time and geography.
Federal Recognition
The Acoma Pueblo hold federal recognition from the United States government, administered through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Federally recognized tribes have a government-to-government relationship with the United States and are eligible for services and protections under federal Indian law. There are currently 574 federally recognized tribal nations in the United States.
Indigenous peoples had inhabited North America for at least 15,000 years before European contact, developing complex societies across every region of the continent. The Mississippian culture, centered on the city of Cahokia near present-day St. Louis, reached its peak around 1100 AD with a population estimated at 10,000 to 20,000 — larger than contemporary London. The Ancestral Puebloans built multi-story stone complexes at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde between the 9th and 13th centuries. The Iroquois Confederacy, formed between roughly 1450 and 1600, united five nations under a constitution that influenced later American democratic thinking. Across the eastern woodlands, the Great Plains, the Pacific Coast, and the Southwest, hundreds of distinct nations maintained sophisticated trade networks, agricultural systems, and governance structures. European contact beginning in the late 15th century introduced epidemic disease — smallpox, measles, influenza — which devastated Indigenous populations by an estimated 50 to 90 percent within a century.
Content adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source: Wikipedia.
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