ACOMA

Indian pueblo, Valencia county, west-central New Mexico, U.S. The pueblo lies 55 miles (89 km) west-southwest of Albuquerque and is known as the "Sky City." Its inhabitants live in terraced dwellings made of stone and adobe atop a precipitous sandstone butte 357 feet (109 m) high. They have always engaged in farming (on the plains below) and pottery making. Believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited place in the area of the United States (since the 10th century), it was described by the conquistador Francisco Vzquez de Coronado in 1540 as the strongest defensive position in the world. The massive mission church of San Esteban Rey was built there in 1629-41; its 30-foot (9-metre) log beams were carried from the Cebollita Mountains (30 miles southwest) and, with dirt for its graveyard, were hauled up from below. Access is now gained either by a staircase cut into the rock or by a vehicular road. The pueblo's name comes from the Keresan Indian language: ako meaning "white rock" and ma, "people." About 3 miles (5 km) northeast is the Enchanted Mesa, another butte rising 430 feet (130 m) above the surrounding plain, which is believed by the Acoma Indians to be the dwelling place of their nature gods.