The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-08-07
A PUEBLO CHURCH.

Like the people of all the other New
Mexican Pueblo tribes, the AcOmas have
their annual festivals, the origin of which
is lost in the mystery of the prehistoric
ages. The Catholic priests put all the
Christian veneering possible over the es-
sential heathenism of the ceremonials,
and under their influence these celebra-
tions occur usually on or near some
saints day. Conspicuous among these
jubilations is the harvest festival, when,
with flames and dances, the people re-
joice over the ripening of the fruits of
the earth. After the performance of
secret rites within the estufvs, to which
ceremonies no one not member of the
tribe is admitted the maskers, musi-
clans, and others, all decorated in paint,
ribbons, and brass ornaments, stream
forth into the open space before the vii
lage, where, with the peculiar stamping
step attending all Indian performances
of the kind, are continued the process
siOns and dances, to the music of rude
flies, drums, and gong-beating. In some
of their dances the performers are at
tired in complete suits of buckskin,
adorned with fringes, buttons, beads,
feathers, and ribbons, completely cover
ing the face and head, surmounted with
horns and having only small slits for
sight and breathing.
The Pueblos, a prOvident folk who be-
lieve in intrenching themselves with al
the supernatural powers, do not neglect
on these occasions to visit the church to
pay due Obeisance to the Christian Goo
and Q ser divinities. The church, a fine OLD
structre of adobe, was rebuilt in 1902,
after it had been dismantled in the In
dian revolt of 1850. 1t is a massive edi
flee one hundred and fifty feet long, forty
feet wide, and forty feet high, with wall,
seven feet thick, standing, frOnted by al
extensive and ancient burial ground, or
the southern brink of the mesa. The
sand for this cemetery was brought III
from the bluff, and placed in a depres
sion at this pOint-an operation which
according to priestly tradition, occupied
forty years. The huge buttresses, on,
at each front corner of the church, ar,
capped above the roof by rude berries, il
which swing two bells, which Indian ira
dition asserts to be the gift of the Queer
of Spain at some period in the eighteenth
century. One of these bells bears the in
scriptiOn, "San Pedro, A. d. no. l
is wonder how these heavy bells, ant
the great pine beams, forty feet long ant
of propOrtionate thickness, that eros
the body of the church, were eve
brought to the top of the mesa.
Adjoining the church are the ruins o
the old Franciscan mission of San Esteva
de Acoma, established, says the eminen
archaologist and historian Professor Ad
II. Baudelier, by Fray Juan Ramirez nc
long after the year 1923, he naming til
place after st. Sebastian on account q
rocky sides and the large number &
, pebbles accumulated on and about il
Fray Ramirez returned to Mexico, an
died there in 1864. His successor wa
Fray Lucas Maldonado, from TTibujoni
Mexico, also Franciscan. In fact, u
! to the uprising of the Indians of Me-
Mexico under Pope and Cattle in 1864
the Franciscan Order controlled all til
missions among the PueblOs. o
August 10, 1880, twenty-one Francisco
, friars were murdered in various part
? of New Mexico, and among them Fra
{ MaldOnado of Acomo. After the re-cOI
quest of the province, twelve years late
D by the Spaniards under Diego de Vargas
2 there were for several years occasions
! disturbances and bloodshed. But b
the beginning of the eighteenth centur
{ the province had become tranQuilizeC
I and the Pueblo Indians and the Spaniart
j had adjusted their requirements so as
5 get along together without a gre;
l amount Of friction.
1t is a strange and picturesque sigl
when within the thick walls of the ol
S church, dimly lighted by deep window
e like port holes, in which sheets lof mi