City in the sky: business ventures at Acoma Pueblo establish financial stability and spark a cultural renaissance for an ancient people in New Mexico.

• Author: Harris, Patricia

The people of the Acoma pueblo in west-central New Mexico understand survival. About 6,000 strong, they are heirs to one of the oldest continuous civilizations in North America. The abandoned cities of their Anasazi ancestors dot the canyons and mesas of the U.S. Southwest, and their forebears have lived on one particular high-desert mesa for centuries.

Their physical isolation has always set Acoma apart from neighboring peoples. Now they stand out in a different way. They have harnessed their business resources and entrepreneurial skills to ensure not just the tribe's cultural survival, but its cultural renaissance.

Last May, they gathered at the base of their mesa to dedicate a new cultural center that honors their past and embraces their future. Some wore the ceremonial costumes of dancers, from antelope-skin boots to brightly embroidered blouses and weighty turquoise and shell jewelry. A few others were in modern business suits, but most of the Acoma simply wore their casual best.

They live in a harsh landscape of eroded mesas just east of the raw lava flows and cinder cones of El Malpais National Monument. Even clouds are rare, let alone rain. The speeches continued one hour, two hours in the relentless sun. Audience members fluttered their programs to create a breeze. The visiting congressman shifted in his seal and mopped his brow.

After the final speech, tribal elder David Vallo rose from his seat behind the podium and led the VIPs to a red carpet rolled out on a concrete walkway. Ravens wheeled overhead in the midday thermals as he raised a cupped hand to his mouth and prayed. Casting sacred cornmeal before him, he walked up the carpet to the front door of the Sky City Cultural Center. The men, women, and children of Acoma followed him inside.

The new cultural center, with its state-of-the-art museum, is the most ambitious project of a single tribe among the New Mexican pueblos. It gathers under its roof the language, arts, songs, and dances--even the ceremonies--that constitute Acoma's identity. Indigenous peoples are often forced to choose between cultural or economic survival. The cultural center and the successful model of business activities that made it possible are Acoma's bid to have both. As tribal leader Steve Juanico observed in the opening ceremonies, "If we do not have a sense of the past, we get lost in our daily struggles."

Certainly the tribe has a storied past. Oral tradition holds that when the Anasazi abandoned their large cities at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde in northwest New Mexico and southern Colorado, respectively, small bands settled what would become the pueblos of modern New Mexico. In the Acoma migration story, their ancestors finally arrived at Haak'u, meaning "The Place Prepared," somewhere between 900 and 1400 years ago. ("Acoma" is a Spanish corruption of the native word.) Guides who lead tours of Sky City are quick to assert their seniority among indigenous communities. "We are the oldest continuously occupied city in the United States, regardless of what Tans says," boasted Orlando Antonio, referring to the northernmost of New Mexico's Rio Grande pueblos.

While historic bragging rights may never be resolved, Acoma entered written world history in 1540. A captain with an exploratory expedition dispatched by Francisco Vazquez de Coronado recorded that they had "found a rock with a village on top, the strongest position in all the land."

At more than 360 feet above the desert, Sky City literally commanded the high ground. That defensive position discouraged nomadic raiders, but was no match for Spanish colonial forces, who took the city in 1599. Franciscan missionary Juan Ramirez oversaw the...