You could say that my childhood ruined me. Or at least ruined me out.
That being said, today I went with my daughter and her class to the Acoma Pueblo. Have you heard of it? Yeah, I hadn't either. But it is pretty amazing.
Yeah, I know. That just looks like a pretty cool land formation in the middle of nowhere. Right? But look a little closer:
A little closer....
An actual villiage. On top of the rock. And the cool thing is that some of the Acoma people still live there.
The field trip was wonderful. We had a great tour guide. He seemed to know a lot of information about the history of the pueblo and a lot of the legends of his people. Here was my favorite:
When the Acoma people came into the area, they were looking for a place to dwell. The came to one formation and began check it out to see if it was the right place for them. There were two women who had climbed the ladders up to the top of the rock. While up there, the rest of the tribe decided this was not to be their home. They took down the ladders and left, not realizing the 2 women were still on top. The women decided that instead dying from starvation, they would jump off the cliff. And they did. Except right before they hit the ground they bodies exploded into a million butterflies. So if you are near that land formation and you see a butterfly, remember those two women who were left behind.
I will have to remember that when I am about to explode from frustration. "Don't stress. The worst thing that will happen is I will explode into butterflies. I can handle that."
Another interesting story he told us was after the conquistadors had invaded, they built a church. It is a very large and impressive church. However, once it was built, they were in need of a bell. So to get the much needed bell, the Spaniards traded 4 Acoma boys and 4 Acoma girls as slaves. For a bell!! What the.... Well, they have a cemetery that is just outside the church. It is surrounded by a wall. And in that wall, there is a hole...about the size of two softballs. This hole is so that the spirits of those children can come back home whenever they need to. I love it!
So if you are ever in this neck of woods, stop by the Acoma Pueblo...it's worth seeing. Then drive another hour to my place, which is not on top of a 300 foot mesa, for some lunch. I would love to see ya!
(You can read more about the Acoma people here.)
4 comments:
that is beautiful and so interesting. I Love learning about things like that. Not sure I would climb to the top of that village but I could definitely look from the bottom and ooh and ahhh
Isn't it weird how we never see the things in our own backyards but we'll travel thousands of miles to see Mount Rushmore or the Empire State building? Thanks for a reminder. I need to head to Casa Grande and take the kids to the ruins again.
Thanks for sharing this. Some really cool history here.
=)
Very cool. We live in the land of the Pilgrims. People come from everywhere to see the plantation that is literally two miles away.
Have I been? NOPE. Not since grade school. Unless you count last month when I had to camp out there, after hours with all the cub scouts. It kind of loses the authentic feel when there are no pilgrims around, no native Americans, and you're sleeping on the floor of a classroom.
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