Celebrating Women’s History Month at Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

Southwestern rock art designs from the Desert View Watchtower ceiling mural.

Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument is proud to celebrate Women’s History Month by recognizing the important roles that women have contributed to the History and Legacy of the monument. Here are some of the important women that are part of our history, beginning with the most recent:

Professional women that have worked in the monument: Since the monument’s inception as Gran Quivira National Monument in 1909, numerous women have been a part of the monument’s scientific research. Archaeologist and author of the Antiquities Act, Edgar Lee Hewett, led the first excavations in the monument in 1913 and again in the 1920’s under the mantle of the School of American Archaeology, and was known to have mentored female students, probably due in part to the influence of his friend and peer, anthropologist Alice Cunningham Fletcher. Over the years, many women contributed to research and history that advanced our knowledge of the park, among those are archaeologist Bertha Dutton; Barbara Peckham and Joyce Fox, who were part of a team that excavated and documented Mound 7 at Gran Quivira in the 1960’s; archaeologists Katherine Spielman and Alison Rautman; archaeologist Polly Schaafsma and anthropologist Sally Cole, who both studied the pictographs and petroglyphs of the monument; geophysicist Lyndsay Ball, who led a team to conduct a near-surface resistivity survey at Gran Quivira; historian Jeanette Wolfe, who wrote the monument’s administrative history and performed many other important tasks; Emily Thorpe, our GeoScientist in the Parks intern who completed an outstanding paleontology survey for the monument; and all the women who have worked within the monument and the regional office over the years to perform research, provide interpretation, museum services, administrative tasks, and many other activities that keep the monument moving forward for the education and enjoyment of our visitors.

Mary Jane Colter: An accomplished architect in her own right, Mary Jane is well known for her contributions to southwestern architecture. An educator, Mary Jane eventually went to work for the Fred Harvey Company as a designer. Mary Jane’s work with the company blossomed into architectural design with numerous unique buildings to her credit, including most of the Fred Harvey Hotels, to include the La Fonda in Santa Fe, but also all of the significant structures at Grand Canyon National Park. Among these are Hopi House, Hermit’s Rest, the Lookout, and Phantom Ranch. Yet another Grand Canyon structure – the Desert View Watchtower – has a connection to Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. The interior of the watchtower is decorated with numerous reproduction Native American pictographs, including some from the Abó unit of the monument. Most prominent of these is a kochari figure depicted with an awanyu in the center of the ceiling. And while there are some differences between the original Native images and the reproductions, Mary Jane’s Desert View Watchtower helps to preserve these important images through their representation at the Grand Canyon.

Margaret Monroe Rudisille: Inspired by the ancient history of the Americas, Margaret was an educator and lecturer in Lincoln County, New Mexico and completed a manuscript of her knowledge of Meso-American history, particularly in regards to the colonial period. Margaret also visited Gran Quivira and created a series of rubbings of the architectural decorations (beam carvings) from what remained amidst the ruins at the time of her visit. This important archival material was generously shared with the NPS in 2009 by Margaret’s heirs and is invaluable to the history of Gran Quivira and in recovering physical knowledge of the mission architecture. Margaret was very intuitive and began her manuscript with the line, “The things that are new, in the modern times, are the things that are old.”

Clara A.B. Corbin: A colorful character, Clara was born in Lebanon, Ohio in 1847 and at the age of 27 married William G. Corbin, a Union Army veteran who had served with the 151^st Infantry and then as an officer with the 32^nd U.S. Colored Infantry. William died in 1898 after the couple had secured a Homestead Patent for a portion of what has become known as Gran Quivira, one of the earliest (1909) National Monuments in the nation’s history. Clara spent the rest of her life fighting to maintain control of her late husband’s claim. In 1904, Clara published a book entitled La Gran Quibira, A Musical Mystery, Opera Historique, A Romanza that is deeply steeped in allegory, utilizing Clara’s knowledge of Classical, Meso-American, and Biblical history, to cast a veil upon her thoughts and ideas as to the anthropological history of Gran Quivira. The book itself appears to be stylized after Dante’s Divina Comedia (Divine Comedy), that is the Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. Although deemed eccentric by her contemporaries and by historians, Clara did contribute to the history and preservation of Gran Quivira by leaving her insights for others, and through her part in popularizing Gran Quivira.

Virginia McClurg: A contemporary of Clara Corbin and an accomplished writer, Virginia became deeply inspired by the preservation of historic sites after a visit to Mesa Verde in 1882, and was instrumental in establishing the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association, dedicated to the preservation of Mesa Verde (now a NPS unit). The Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association was one of many preservation organizations that was modeled after the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union (MVLA) founded by Ann Pamela Cunningham, which was and remains an organization of women from across the country to preserve and protect Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. Other sites modeled after the MVLA include Historic Kenmore, Stratford Hall, and The Alamo, all of them championed by the efforts of women. Not long after participating in a lecture by Clara on the history of Gran Quivira, Virginia became interested in the site and its importance, and eventually became embroiled with Clara over control of the site in order to preserve it in the same manner as Mesa Verde, as administered by the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association. Clara won out even after threatening President Theodore Roosevelt, and the dispute between her and Virginia brought more preeminence to the idea of preserving Gran Quivira as an American antiquity.

Sôr María de Jésus de Ágreda: A cloistered Franciscan Conceptionist nun who lived from 1602 to 1665 in Ágreda, Spain, Sister Maria is said to have had mystical experiences of teaching Christianity to the Native tribes of the American Southwest and Mexico without ever having left her cloister – the ability of being in two places at once, known as bilocation. Sister Maria was and remains of great importance to both Native people and people of Spanish heritage, and her legacy and following continues to this day. She was a personal advisor and confidant to King Felipe IV of Spain, wrote an extensive set of manuscripts collectively known as La Mystica, Ciudad de Dios, and was a tremendous inspiration upon the missionaries of the American Southwest and Mexico. Native peoples influenced by the story of Sister Maria include the Tiwa, Piro and the Jumano, among others. The Jumano people in particular have a deep connection to Sister Maria and they believe that even today, Sister Maria goes wherever they go. The Tiwa people also have a deep connection to Sister Maria and retain her legacy with stories about her visits to Isleta Pueblo. She is featured in many artistic expressions throughout the southwest and northern Mexico, and other places around the world, and is most commonly depicted seated at her writing table with her quill in hand. Her connection to Salinas Pueblo Missions NM is due to the fact that Gran Quivira – originally called Las Humanas by the Spanish – is a Jumano Pueblo. There also exists an 18^th century reference to Sister Maria in the 17^th century having visited “many times” a group of Jumanos that were camped near the Pueblo of Quarai, one of the preserved units of the monument.

Native Pueblo Women: Most of all, the monument wishes to recognize the multitude of Native Puebloan women who lived and worked and contributed to the Pueblo communities. While their names are lost to us, the ruins and artifacts are testament to them, and a testimony to Pueblo lifeways. From the manos and metates they used to grind their corn, the decorative ceramic pots used for cooking and storage and the decorative ceramic canteens for carrying water, the stone walls that they built, to the adornments for their festival attire, their legacy and their hearts remain through these monumental ruins, for us to appreciate, admire, marvel at, and be inspired.

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