In not wishing to speak of evil, nor especially wishing to enlighten outsiders - So it's still more of an open question, on exactly what went on after the Pueblo was finally conquered in 1599 by the Spanish, and forced to build San Estevan del Rey Mission Church in 1629.
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Beginning in 1665 there was no rain for a number of years, and before that in 1540 there had been a significant number of deaths from a smallpox epidemic. Then in 1675 the Spanish Governor Juan Francisco Trevino ordered the kivas and ceremonial dances shut down. These things were blamed on Spanish witches.
We do know that the church was besieged in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, and the priests were killed, the nuns walled up alive. But unlike at many other Pueblos where the mission churches were destroyed, this Church remains the largest surviving 17th century example of a Spanish Mission church.
Although there are disturbing stories that I heard later on about how deadly their labors were in the building of this church, forced to gather materials far below the mesa and beyond; but when I visited Acoma nothing of the sort was even hinted at by the young guide who proudly thought of their church as an impressively important Pueblo feature to note.
She managed to briskly walk our tour group fast enough through the pueblo to the church so there wasn't much time to stop along the way for any lingering picture opportunities with light. Although not expressly forbidden, they didn't like my camera to be used in the pueblo. Even with an extra charge tacked on for the privledge.
In this instance though I stopped to tie a loose shoe lace, and noticed the group was nowhere to be seen - they'd hung a fast left to towards the church leaving me behind in the dust ...
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