"Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, NM" Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument by MarkJochim

Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument consists of three sites - Quarai, Abo, and Gran Quivira - each with the ruins of a 17th century Spanish colonial Franciscan missionary church and an associated pueblo. The original Gran Quivira National Monument was established in 1909. In the 1930s, the State of New Mexico bought the Abo ruins; Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument was created in 1980 when Abo and Quarai were sold to the National Park Service and administratively attached to Gran Quivira.

Quarai (Mark Jochim)

The three sites represent the convergence of two Native American peoples. The Anasazi and the Mogollon lived here for centuries before the Spanish arrived.

Quarai, the nearest of the sites to Albuquerque, was a flourishing Tiwa pueblo whose inhabitants' pottery, weaving, and basket-making techniques were quite refined.

On the fringe of the Great Plains, all three of the Salinas pueblos were vulnerable to raids by nomadic Plains Indians and were abandoned before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

A video about the Salinas pueblos can be seen at Gran Quivira; the monument headquarters is in the town of Mountainair.