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Exploring 'Hidden' America: Its Unique Native Lands, People,
and Culture
From Native Peoples, March/April
2002
By Richard Mahler
When I step within the adobe walls of the potter's home,
it is as if I have walked a thousand years back in time.
Here at Acoma Pueblo's "Sky City," among the high
stone plateaus of west-central New Mexico, many aspects of
everyday life—particularly the creation of ceremonial or
household objects that outsiders classify as "art"—have
changed little since Spanish explorers and missionaries first
arrived nearly five centuries ago.
"Non-natives are really amazed that our people have
survived up here," says Jeff Valdo, who grew up in nearby
Acomita. "But many prefer this quiet and isolated way
of life."
The 15 or so families who live year ‘round in Sky City,
a village atop a 370-foot-high stone outcropping, do without
such modern conveniences as electricity, running water, or
flush toilets. There was not even a road to their community
until 1957, when a Hollywood studio built one as partial
payment for the use of the pueblo as a movie backdrop.
The steep access road is used most days to transport hundreds
of non-Native visitors on Acoma-guided tours of the traditional
community, one of the oldest continually inhabited villages
in the United States...
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