Introduction

On the night of January 7, 1998, in the small New Mexico town of Alcalde, just north of Española, two individuals approached a bronze statue of Spanish colonizer Juan de Oñate and sawed off its right foot. The next day the Santa Fe Reporter received a letter stating the foot was removed on behalf of the Acoma People. ¹ The Acoma reservation sits sixty miles west of Albuquerque and the actual “Sky City” pueblo is located fifteen miles from Interstate 40. The Acoma who reside atop the imposing rock are descended from a tribe whose members have inhabited the mesa for more than 2,000 years. It is one of, if not the only site where people have continuously resided for that space of time in what is now the United States. Removing Oñate’s right foot was not an act of vandalism. ² It was a symbolic protest to remind the public that 400 years ago Oñate amputated the right foot of twenty-five Acoma Pueblo warriors during his colonizing efforts in New Mexico. ³