By Slim Randles
Did you know …which is the oldest settlement in the United States? Forget Jamestown. Forget Roanoke. Forget St. Augustine. According to book learning, the oldest settlement in the United States is Acoma Pueblo, which sits on top of a 365-foot-high mesa in the middle of New Mexico.
It will come as no surprise that Native American settlements predate European ones, but it may surprise some people that Acoma Pueblo, west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been continuously occupied since the 12th century. The Acoma still inhabit their “Sky City,” a settlement of about 4,800 people. Traditionally hunters and traders, the Acoma people now make their income from a cultural center and casino complex. Coincidentally, the oldest state capital in the United States is Santa Fe, which recently celebrated its 400th anniversary.
Now that’s what it says in the fact book, but it’s quite common for those fact guys to not consider Alaska to be part of the United States. I can recall many times when I was freezing to death in Alaska at 40 below and the radio told me the coldest place in the nation was some town in Minnesota with 10 below.
Why do I mention this? Because, according to two archaeologists I interviewed for the Anchorage Daily News, the tiny Athabascan Indian village of Nulato on the Yukon River has been continuously inhabited since the end of the last Ice Age … about 10,000 years ago.
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Brought to you by the wonderful people who live in Kwethluk, Alaska, because they haven’t been there as long as their friends in Nulato, but they still say “forever” when asked.
