Conquistador Juan de Onate, who blamed the Acoma for the death of his nephew, ordered his men to attack the village. In 1599 the Spaniards returned and things took a catastrophic turn. When they figured out we didn’t have gold, they left. As the Spaniards came across the valley, they saw the sun glinting off the windows up here. It’s very reflective, especially from a distance. It’s what every window in the pueblo was made of. They were searching for the Seven Cities of Gold.” He pointed to a small opaque window in an adobe wall. “Our ancestors lived peacefully in this valley for centuries,” Brandon explained. We squeezed past a dusty pickup truck parked next to a cluster of port-o-potties, rounded a corner and stepped into a small plaza facing the San Esteban del Rey Mission. Utility services are readily available, but the Acoma have chosen to maintain their traditional way of life on top of the mesa. There is no running water or indoor plumbing and portable generators are the only source of electricity. Sky City consists of about 300 structures. We followed him down a narrow, hard-packed dirt street lined with one and two story adobe houses butted up against each other.

There are tables in front of their houses. Everything is hand-made and the best part is you get to buy directly from the artists. “You’ll have plenty of shopping opportunities,” he added, “pottery, jewelry, figurines. Photography is prohibited in the church and the cemetery. No wandering off on your own.” Our ticket price included a photography permit, but there were still restrictions. As we rolled to a stop, Brandon explained the rules and told us what to expect on our 90 minute tour. The trip to the top took less than five minutes.

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