We visited the longest continuously occupied village in North America…Sky City. It was fascinating! The village is located on top of a free standing mesa 367 feet above the valley floor. Through carbon dating, sientists have verified that the village has been occupied since 1100 a.d. and the oral history of the Acoma people who live there indicates a much longer occupancy.

The oral history also mentions that the first mesa to be occupied in this valley was “Enchanted Mesa” which is higher than Sky City.  The mesa was abandoned when a fierce thunderstorm and lightning strike destroyed the only path up to the top of the mesa.  The people then moved to a nearby mesa and named it Sky City.

Until less than 50 years ago the only way up to Sky City was on foot or with burros up 2 step rock paths. During the 60s a movie was made using the village and in order to accomplish the movie the studio built a paved road for vehicles. The name of the movie is”My name is nobody” and started Henry Fonda. This road is still used today and is the only way up and down except for the foot paths.

The village is still occupied by a few dozen tribe members full time and many more move up temporarily for the two big feast celebrations every year. The village takes up the entire mesa and can house about 4,000 people. It’s very primitive in Sky City; no water or electricity. No sewer…they use outhouses. All supplies including wood for the fires must be brought up from the valley.

The history of the Acoma people is very peaceful until the very late 1500s when Spanish conquistadors found the valley and the mesa. At first they had peaceful relations with the Acoma people, but soon started demanding supplies from the villagers when they came through the area. When the Acoma people refused to hand over all their food and supplies to the Spanish, there was a massacre and the survivors were enslaved to support the Spanish soldiers and to build a Catholic mission church on the mesa which took 11 years and required all able bodied men to hand carry timber and stones from over 70 miles away. The villagers also were forced to convert and stop any “heathen” religious practices. They hid away their religious items and continued their ancient rituals in secret, on fear of death.

Now, the Acoma tribe maintains the mesa village with the tours and visitor center. They also have a casino on their tribal land…but not up on the mesa. Out of respect for the tribal elders and others who live on the mesa, photography is very restricted in the village.  We were not allowed inside any structures except the church, and photography inside the church was prohibited.

We bought some jewelry from an artisan who lives full time on the mesa and also bought a loaf of bread made in one of their outside oven; firewood is placed in the oven and when it turns into charcoal it’s removed and the round loaf of bread is placed inside and the opening closed up.  In about 35-40 minutes the loaf is done, having cooked by the residual heat from the fire.

We also made friends with Maya, a villager child who lives on the mesa and joined our tour chatting with us and reminding us no photos inside the church!

We both thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Sky City!

Here is a link to a website with more information (click here), and below are some pictures we took on the mesa: