The old Acoma pueblo shown above rests atop a New Mexican mesa.  
Keres warriors used this defensive position in 1598 to resist Spanish 
conquistador Don Juan de Onate.  Spanish reinforcements returned to 
the village the following year, however, and the few survivors of the 
bloody massacre were treated cruelly by Onate.  Males over twenty-
five had one foot amputated and, along with younger males and 
women, were sentenced to twenty years of slavery.  Thereafter, the 
Pueblo people lived in fear of such brutality and quietly accepted 
Spanish exploitation for nearly one hundred years, until the Pueblo 
Rebellion o f1680.  Today, the population of Aroma exceeds three 
thousand, and the people of the village follow many of the traditional 
ways.