Khristaan Villela’s informed, dispassionate report in Pasatiempo on Acoma Pueblo’s objection to the publication of its sacred origin tale, merits reflection.

Acoma claims that the story is Acoma’s intellectual property, that it is a secret story, that Peter Nabokov had no right to publish it last year, and that the publisher, Penguin Books, should suspend its sale. Nabokov responds that the tale was published by the federal government with no copyright in 1946, is part of the public domain and that Acoma stalled in its objections.

Acoma’s protest seems futile, a classic locking of the barn door after the horses are stolen. The story was first published 70 years ago and cannot possibly be restored to secrecy. The tribe’s objective might be broader, to help the Pueblo people generally to establish control over publicity about their culture, so as to protect their religious secrets and conceal their internal affairs from prying eyes. Some pueblos are publicly committed to this.