Salinas Pueblo Missions

Once thriving Native American trade communities of Tiwa and Tompiro language-speaking Pueblo people inhabited this remote frontier area of central New Mexico. Early in the 17th century Spanish Franciscans found the area ripe for their missionary efforts. However, by the late 1670s the entire Salinas District, as the Spanish had named it, was depopulated of both Indian and Spaniard. What happened? One theory is that the Acoma people, bitter enemies of the Tiwas and Tepirous, poisoned the water supplies. Another is that a plague swept through the area. A third possibility is that the Spanish, worried about rebellion, simply massacred all of the Indians they could find. Whatever the reasons, the result was the same: a once-thriving region was suddenly abandoned and left to slowly fade into obscurity.