Gran Quivira: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, National Park Service
University of New Mexico, Morrow, Reardon, Wilkinson, Miller, Ltd., Toms D, LeFrancois M, Mardorf C. 2010. Gran Quivira: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 850100. NPS Intermountain Regional Office. Intermountain Regional Office/CLI Database
Gran Quivira, known historically as Las Humanas, is a cultural landscape that includes ancient pueblo ruins and Spanish mission structures. The ridge-top site sits amidst the rolling piñon and juniper scrubland of central New Mexico. The site had been used by Native Americans for hundreds of years prior to Spanish colonization in 1598. In that year, Franciscan missionary activity began with the designation of Las Humanas as a visita of the mission San Gregorio de Abó. Missionary activities aimed to convert natives to Catholicism and use the native population to extract goods from the region using the encomienda system. The pueblos and mission were abandoned by 1672, and remained so until the 19th century. In 1875 and into the early 20th century, homesteaders settled in the area and used the land for agricultural purposes. The first archeological investigations of the site also began around this time. In 1909, Congress established the Gran Quivira National Monument, seeking to preserve the pueblo and mission ruins. In 1980 the site became one of three units within the Salinas National Monument, which became the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument in 1987. Although Gran Quivira is individually significant, it joins the other two pueblo missions in the Monument, Abó and Quarai, to form an image of the region’s rich history. Features at Gran Quivira include the buried remains of ancient pit houses; surface remnants of jacal structures; and a prehistoric and historic Tompiro Indian pueblo that developed over four hundred years, consisting of 20 house mounds at various stages of excavation, 14 kivas, and several plazas. Also present are two Franciscan mission churches, accompanying conventos, and a cemetery that were part of the Spanish mission complex as it stood prior to the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. The buildings are constructed of gray limestone, unique among the pueblos and missions. Man-made landforms also exist at the site, such as dams, earthen detention basins, and treasure pits. Additional resources include 19th and 20th century homestead debris, evidence of archeological excavations, and modern visitor facilities. Interestingly, the site has no perennial water source, which causes much discussion of survival strategies of the early inhabitants. Apart from a modern well on NPS property, the nearest surface water source is a spring two miles southwest of Gran Quivira. The unit is categorized as both historic vernacular (Pueblo) and historic designed landscape (Spanish mission). Four periods of significance are identified, including the Pit House Period (800-1200), Ancestral Puebloan Period (1200-1629), Spanish Mission Period (1598-1672), and Settlement Period (1875-1909). While each period bears unique traces, the overall landscape is important for its expression of a range of historic associations and use over a long span of time. The cultural landscape is associated with architecture, settlement and agricultural patterns, Spanish Colonial mission efforts, early homesteading in the United States, and early preservation movements. Gran Quivira also contributes to archeology as a discipline, and it is associated with significant individuals in the field such as Adolph Bandelier and Edgar Hewett. Other notable figures were Spanish explorer Don Juan de Oñate, Franciscan Father Alonso de Benavides, and U.S. Army Major James Henry Carleton. Overall, Gran Quivira is in fair condition and retains integrity. It retains its historic position, surrounded by scenic vistas and relatively undisturbed by modern development. The original materials and design are clearly evident in the ruins, although the height of the walls has lowered with time. Significant associations with prehistoric people’s adaptation to life in the landscape and with European exploration and colonization of North America is evident through the remaining landscape features.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- University of New Mexico; Morrow, Reardon, Wilkinson, Miller, Ltd.; Toms, Derek; LeFrancois, Marc; Mardorf, Carrie
- Date of Issue
- 2010-08-10
- Publisher
- NPS Intermountain Regional Office
- Units
- IMR , SAPU
- Keywords
- abandonment, Abo, Adolph Bandelier, Agriculture, Ancestral Puebloan Period, Archeology, Architecture, Charles Lummis, Colonial Exploration and Settlement, convento, Designed Landscape, Don Juan de Onate, Early Archeological Exploration, Early Homesteading, Edgar Hewett, Establishing Intercultural Relations, Ethnic Heritage-Native American, Ethnohistory of Indigenous American Populations, excavation, Expanding Science and Technology, Exploration-Settlement, Franciscan Mission, Homestead Act of 1962, Indigenous Peoples Use of and Response to the Environment, Jacal, Las Humanas, Major James Henry Carleton, Mission Complex, Mission San Gregorio de Abo, Native Cultural Adaptations at Contact, New Mexico, pit house, Pit House Period, Post-Archaic and Prehistoric Developments, Pueblo, Quarai, Religious Structure, Ruins, Settlement Period, Socorro County, Spanish Colonial Mission, Spanish Exploration and Settlement, Spanish Mission Period, Tompiro Indian, Torrance County, Vernacular Landscape, Visita, Westward Expansion of the Colonies and the United States 1763-1898