Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

April 08, 2018 • Leave a Comment

A STEP BACK IN TIME

New Mexico's Salinas Valley

Mission San Gregorio de Abo is one of three Indian villages/Spanish missions within New Mexico's Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. Pueblo Indians called it home for over 500 years starting in the early twelfth century. From 1622 to around 1673, Franciscan priests also lived here as they struggled to ‘civilize’ the Indians. Fifty years after beginning their attempts to Christianize the Indians, both the village and the mission were empty.

Gran Quivira began 1200 years ago and grew to become home to 2,000 people. It was an important trade centre for Pueblo and Plains Indians before and after the arrival of the Spaniards. But in the 1660 the rains stopped and famine followed drought. Some 480 people starved in a single winter. In 1670 the people fled to Abo, but seven years after that, all three Salinas missions were abandoned. They headed south to the still flowing Rio Grande river.

Quarai Indian Village/Spanish mission is believed to have housed up to 600 people in the 1600s with the earliest know dwellers (based on pottery found on site) dating back to the early 1300s. Quarai went through periods of abandonment and rebirth by both Indians and Spaniards.

Keywords: abandoned, ancient, ancient dwellings, gran quivira, indian villages, kiva, new mexico, quarai, salinas pueblo missions national monument, salinas valley, san gregorio de abo, spanish missions

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