Acoma, New Mexico, an Indian pueblo, is the oldest inhabited settlement in the United States. St. Augustine, known as the first permanent European settlement planted within the limits of the present United States, was founded in 1565. So early as 1539, however, we find mention of Acoma in the chronicles of Fray Marcos de Niza. Next year it was besieged by Coronado's army and captured only after a long resistance. It had evidently been built as a stronghold against the assaults of the Navajos and Apaches, who for centuries had made war upon the peaceful people. The site chosen was a great oblong rock some 400 feet above the plain. Here arose "the most wonderful aboriginal city on earth, cliff-built, cloud-swept, matchless." At the time of the conquest by the Spaniards, the inhabitants numbered about 6000. At present the population is barely 600. The village proper consists of three parallel rows of three storied adobe houses, terraced in form and some 40 feet high. On the first story live the senior members of the family. The daughter first married gets the second terrace. The next one married gets the third. All other members of the family remain with the old folk or seek quarters elsewhere. Entrances to the houses is effected by ladders over the roof.
The most conspicuous building in the pueblo is the ancient adobe cathedral, which stands near the edge on the east side of the mesa. It was built about the year 1600. It contains a wooden image of the "Sacred Saint," whose possession is believed to ensure good fortune and plentiful crops, so that it is naturally coveted by other tribes. Several times it has been captured by the Laguna Indians, and recovered only after bloody struggles. On the patron day, in September, this image is carried in procession from the church to the dancing ground, where it is placed in a temporary enclosure of cornstalks and green branches, until sunset, two Indians mounting guard over it with loaded rifles.
The top of the mesa is said to contain about a hundred and fifty acres. It is only accessible by three circuitous trails, over which, on the backs of theses people, had to brought form the plains below every bit of material used in the construction of the dwellings and church, besides all food, fuel, and other articles necessary to their livelihood. One of these trails has recently been enlarged so that material now may be brought up in a roundabout route on the backs of burros, with wich the tribe seems plentifully supplied.