Acoma Pueblo Indian reservation

Next stop was Acoma pueblo, an Indian reservation where they offer guided tours in an old, but still active, village. When we bought the tickets the receptionist told me I had to change clothes before going into the village because they didn't allow short shorts or skirts. Something to do with their religion. I changed clothes and we got on the bus that took us up to the village, which was on a big rock. The views were great from up there, but that was not the reason for the location. It was because it would be harder for enemies (a.k.a. Christians) to find them and attack them. Back in the day they didn't have any roads leading up to the village, you had to walk by foot, climbing on rocks in order to reach it. However, as most of us probably know, greedy Christians are difficult to keep away. The Acoma people had a number of instances where Christians tried to take their land, burned down their houses (or adobes), killed some of their people, and tried to convert them to Christianity. However, the people living in this particular village stood their ground and kept living in their own traditional way, and kept their own religion. The Acoma people are a feminine culture, meaning the woman is the one with all the power in the family. The village does not have any running water or electricity, they do however have cars and most of the citizens only live there during the summer. Most of the people here sold their own craft and artwork to tourists to get an income. Most of which were very impressive, especially the hand painted pots. There were a couple of dogs walking around the village too, and in one instance two pups totally stole the show from our guide. Overall, this visit was very interesting and I could see how they would want to live like this to preserve their culture. When it was time to head back, instead of taking the tour bus, we walked down the cliff side. Exciting indeed!