Pecos Pueblo


Today we visited the ruins of Pecos Pueblo. It was built around 1350.   Pueblo Indians were deeply religious.  They practiced their religion in Kivas, underground ceremonial rooms.  They believed that prayers, rituals, and offerings brought good fortune and helped bring balance and harmony to all things.  They lived in 4 to 5 stories high mud pueblos.  There was an open courtyard in the middle and their settlement was walled.  The Pecos Pueblo sat on top of a high ridge with ample water supply nearby.  2000 people lived within this structure.  They grew crops of corn and squash and set aside food for the winter in large storerooms.  They were considered skilled traders trading with the Plains Indians to the east.  By 1600 they were considered the most powerful natives in the mid west.  This would all change in a relatively short time.

I will try not to be too harsh or show my distaste of what happened to them with the coming of the white man and his religion.  However, it is hard not to ‘shake your head’ at what took place over the next 200 years.  Their story is probably not a whole lot different than what ‘we’ did to most North American Indians.  It is hard however, not to be critical.

Around 1600 the Spanish arrived in the area and along with them came the Franciscan Friars.  The Franciscans made it very clear that the Pueblo Indians were to become ‘loyal citizens’ to the Spanish Crown while converting them to Catholicism.  The original Franciscan Friars destroyed their Kivas, smashed their statues and banned Pueblo Ceremonies.  By 1620 they had built a large Church just outside the walls of the Pueblo using native labourers…slaves by any other term.  As years and then decades passed, the Pecos Pueblo Indians began to decline.  Their way of life was radically altered.  The Spanish felt that they should raise cattle and pigs so that they could trade and make money.  The cattle needed more land so the traditional fields they grew their crops in were taken over.  Cattle ranchers arrived around 1800 putting further pressure on the Pecos Pueblo way of life.  Drought, disease (brought by the white man), American Ranchers, and the suppression of their way of life all took their toll.  By 1838 the last of the Pueblo Indians left Pecos.  The White Man and Religion had taken its final toll!

Our stay in New Mexico has been longer than expected.  Our hiking adventure has been replaced by history lessons, and fascinating ones they have been.  Tomorrow we head off further west.

Distance Traveled = 151 km.  Wildlife Sightings = Rabbit, Turkey Vulture, American Robin, Mountain Chickadee, Lesser Goldfinch, Cactus Wren, American Pipit, Roadrunner.


Spanish Mission Ruins


Spanish Mission Ruins - The Altar


Kiva - underground ceremonial room


View from Pecos Pueblo

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