Underground Worship / Ceremonias clandestinas

Franciscan missionaries at first tolerated the kachina dances of Puebloan religion, and for a time a new church coexisted beside a kiva down the hillside. By the 1660s, however, changes in church policy forced traditional believers to hide non-Christian ceremonies in underground rooms within the pueblo complex. Many hidden kivas have been found among these walls. In 1601, Marcelo de Espinosa described a sweat room, or kiva, painted with large and small idols, with sculpted idols of stone or wood in the middle receiving offerings of maize, small birds of various colors, reeds, lizards, and other reptiles, while participants joined in a great circle to dance during sacrifices.

Deer Canyon, New Mexico · United States