Ácoma belongs to the most numerous of the six linguistic groups of the Pueblo Indians, called the Keresan (Queresan), and shares with Laguna a dialect differing somewhat from the rest of that “Nation.” Standing aloof as these two do from the other Keresan villages, they nevertheless own kinship with Sía, Santa Ana, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, and Cochití, who all claim the famous Rito de los Frijoles for their ancestral home. The researches of the best scholars find in the Ácoma ritual considerable affiliation with the Zuñi, and rather less with that of the Tusayán tribes of Arizona. The writer makes no claim to be more than a compiler, but she has endeavored not to include in the following pages the customs and beliefs of any group of Indians which the scholars have not shown to be more or less interwoven with those of Ácoma. In assembling these fugitive accounts of the Sky City from diaries and archaeological notes, as well as from appreciations of sympathetic visitors, she has hoped to lay a foundation for some scholar of the future to build upon. The writer has followed in the footsteps of genuine research, and she desires to offer these pages to be used, like the toe and finger holes of the mesa, chiefly as a guide to others to go further and to do the real work that must be done soon if it is not to be forever lost. The opportunity to collect and study these materials in the Bancroft Research Library at Berkeley has been most cordially given to the writer by Professor Herbert E. Bolton of the University of California. My thanks are due also to Dr. Leslie Spier for much helpful suggestion and criticism on the chapters dealing with the anthropology and native customs of the Southwest. To Professor Bolton, the master-mind, whose scholarship and insight are joined to a rare power of kindling in others something of his own enthusiasm for historical research, and of setting before them ideals of work which have broadened and deepened the world’s knowledge of early American history, I wish to express my deep gratitude for his never-failing encouragement and guidance. CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY I. Mesa Land 3 II. The Citadel of Ácoma 14 HISTORY III. First Expeditions from New Spain 51 IV. The Battle in the Sky City 69 V. Ácoma Rebuilt 88 VI. Father Ramírez at Ácoma 97 VII. Ácoma in the Pueblo Revolt 106 VIII. The Wonder-Working San José 127 IX. Ácoma and the Federal Government 134 LEGENDS AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION X. Origins and Migrations 147 XI. The Tradition of Katzímo and Ácoma 166 XII. The Social Organization 176 XIII. Folk-Tales of Ácoma 194