Salt, Societies, and Spirituality - A Visit to Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

Mountainair, New Mexico (very chilly, high 42 degrees, low 20's, clear blue skies)

"Listen to the wind,

it talks

Listen to the silence,

it speaks

Listen to your heart,

it knows."

Native American Proverb

ABO

One chilly morning we ventured out with our visiting friends Fran and Randy and went on a all day tour of the Salinas Pueblo Missions which are a part of a National Monument. They are not all together but spread out over a very scenic part  of New Mexico. It's an all day adventure but easily done with a good map and an early start. 

ABO

ABO

John, Fran, and Randy with ABO in the distance

The title of this post is taken from the parks website and it aptly summarizes what happened at these three beautiful missions. Here you can see ruins of churches operated by Franciscan monks which were  built by Tompiro Indians in 1150. The Pueblo Indians were the most recent residents.

We visited all three pueblos starting with Abo, then went downtown to Mountainiar visitor center to watch the historical film, ate a delicious lunch at a cute coffee house, and then on to Quarai, and finally Gran Quivira.  

This valley eventually because a major trade center with over 10,000 inhabitants. They traded pinyon nuts, maize, salt, pinto beans, pottery, and cotton goods for meat and hides. 

Quarai

Canyon  Towee

I won't go into all the history but it's important to know that  many cultures lived here including Nomadic Indians as far back as 20,000 years ago and later the Mongolian pithouse dwellers. The Spaniards eventually tried to settle this area and built churches to convert the Indians to Christianity. This clash of culture did not always go well. Eventually famine, lack of water, and relentless raids from the Apaches finally drove them away in 1670's never to return again. 

Gran Quivira

This is a very helpful map from the park website which shows the locations of the missions. It was a great road trip and the architecture was magnificent against the blue skies. We all thought these walls had many stories to tell.