Note 136 — Chapter XI · THE TRADITION OF KATZÍMO AND ÁCOMA
Reading edition
After leaving Si-pa-pu, the mythical place of origin in the north, the Ácomas traditionally occupied: 1. Kashkachuti; 2. Washpashuka; 3. Kuchtya; 4. Tsiama; 5. Tapitsíama; 6. Katzímo (the Enchanted Mesa) three miles northward from the Crag of Ácoma.
According to certain legends collected by Dr. E. L. Hewett from San Juan, the Keresans did not originate, as most of the others did, at Si-pa-pu, but at Cueva (the hole or cave) in Taos country. Dr. Parsons was once told at Ácoma that Si-pa-pu was “north of Taos” and at another time that it was at “Los Vegas.” Dr. Hewett also visited a brackish lake in the sand dunes north of Alamosa, Colorado, which the greater mass of legend identifies with Si-pa-pu. The road was treacherous from quicksands, and so fast did the dunes shift that they were hardly recognizable from week to week. Though this is not a volcanic region, the small lake of very black, forbidding-looking water was much like crater lakes. It measured about 300 feet across and emitted an offensive odor. There was a continuous line of dead cattle on its shores and no settlements within many miles. See Haeberlein for Si-pa-pu, in Memoirs of the Anthropological Association, Vol. III, 1916.