SALINAS "In the Midst of a Loneliness": The Architectural History of the Salinas Missions

EXPLORATION AND COLONIZATION OF NEW MEXICO

As Francisco Vasquez de Coronado tried to deal with the upper Rio Grande pueblos in 1540 through 1542, he heard of the Salinas pueblos, but apparently none of his party had the opportunity to visit them. The first Spaniards to see the Salinas area were the Chamuscado-Rodriguez and Espejo expeditions of the early 1580s. In the winter of 1581-82 the expedition lead by Captain Francisco Sanchez Chamuscado and Fray Agustín Rodriguez entered the Salinas Basin from the north and visited five pueblos. In Abó, the southernmost of these, the explorers heard of the three pueblos of the Jumanos to the southeast, but were unable to visit them because of the deep snow. [24]

In 1583 Captain Antonio de Espejo's expedition visited two pueblos just across the Manzano Mountains from the Rio Grande. One of these may have been Abó and the other the site now called LA 200, but Espejo was too vague about his location for this to be certain. [25] There is some disagreement about the place presently called LA 200, about four miles west of Abó. It has attracted attention because it is one of the two large sites in the Salinas area that were occupied after 1600 and for which no other historical association can be suggested. The other site is LA 83, also called Pueblo Pardo, about three miles south of Las Humanas. The archeological evidence for occupation of LA 200 after 1600 is not well documented. Based on his visits to the site, however, Alden Hayes has no doubt that LA 200 was occupied until at least the mid-1600s. [26] H. P. Mera decided that parts of the site were in use until almost 1700, based on a surface collection of ceramics. No surveys or excavations more recent than Mera's have been published. The Site Survey files of the Laboratory of Anthropology add little information to Mera's statements, but do not contradict them. One structure excavated within LA 200 was described in these files as a "Spanish structure, probably a chapel," but this claim has since been abandoned.

Bandelier and others after him have assigned the name "Ténabo" to LA 200. "Ténabo" is an almost mythical place whose existence derives entirely from two statements by Fray Agustín de Vetancurt in 1698. [27] Vetancurt described Ténabo and Tabirá as small pueblos that were visitas of Abó, and stated that Fray Francisco de Acevedo built churches at the two places. His phrasing implied that Ténabo was almost as far east as Tabirá.

Reference to a "Pénabo" (possibly the same village as the Ténabo mentioned by Vetancurt) associated with Abó appeared in a letter by Fray Alonso de Peinado dated October 4, 1622. [28] Peinado stated that Abó and Pénabo had recently been reduced to faith and obedience. The construction of the first church at Abó probably started in that year; it is possible that a similar start was made on a visita chapel at "Pénabo." It would be difficult to attribute such a chapel to Acevedo, who did not arrive at Abó until seven years later. Perhaps the first missionary visits to "Pénabo" began in 1622, but no visita chapel was built until Acevedo did so sometime after 1629. Pénabo is not mentioned again in contemporary records and Ténabo is never mentioned at all before 1698, unless Vetancurt miscopied Peinado's 1622 reference or saw other statements about Ténabo, presently unknown.

There are also two tantalizing mentions of a "second Abó" in the available records. These may be construed as references to "Ténabo." The first was a mention in 1598 of a "second Abó" one and a half leagues (between three and ten miles) from Las Humanas. [29] The second was 250 years later, when in 1846 Lieutenant James W. Abert mentioned his encounter with a tradition in the Manzano area that there was a second Abó much further off than the site now known as Abó, and that it was located in an area where there was "no water, no pasture, no sign of a road, [and] no people . . . ." [30] Such a description would fit a site located near Las Humanas better than one near Abó.

Where was the place called Ténabo? If the references to Ténabo, Pénabo, and "a second Abó" all refer to the same place, that place must have certain characteristics. It should be smaller than Abó, should be between three and ten miles from Las Humanas (perhaps in the general area of Tabirá), and should have been abandoned between 1629 and about 1641. There are two sites that fulfill these characteristics: LA 476, known as Pueblo Colorado, and LA 83, Pueblo Pardo. The artifact collections from these two pueblos contain very few sherds that date after 1600. It is generally accepted that Pardo was abandoned between 1600 and 1650 and Colorado perhaps before 1600. So far no chapel has been recognized at either Pueblo Colorado or Pueblo Pardo, but this may indicate only that the ruins still wait to be found. On the other hand, if Schroeder's arguments about the "second Abó" are correct, then the location would be near Abó, but all the other characteristics would be the same. The only certain identification of Ténabo would come by finding a visita chapel in the ruins of LA 83 or LA 200.

It is possible, therefore, that the pueblo of Ténabo has yet to be recognized, and that Pueblo Pardo is a strong candidates for that name. LA 200 is a more likely candidate, but archeologists and historians should remember that it is only thought to be Ténabo. Repetition of the name does not make it correct. [31]

The Establishment of the Colony of New Mexico

In 1598, Don Juan de Oñate established a permanent Spanish settlement in New Mexico. In September he located the capital of the new province at the pueblo of San Gabriel on the west side of the Rio Grande across from Pueblo San Juan, a few miles north of present Española. It remained there until late 1610. During the first year of the colonization, Oñate visited most of the pueblos of New Mexico to establish in their minds that they were a conquered people. As part of this political tour of conquest, he had each pueblo indicate their agreement to the "Act of Obedience and Vassalage," which in effect legalized the ownership of each pueblo by the king of Spain. It is, of course, unlikely that the Indians understood the import of their agreement. Oñate covered the Salinas area in late 1598. Ayquian and Aguim, the village leaders of the pueblo of Acolocu, probably later known as the pueblo of Cuarac or Quarai, signed the "Act of Obedience" on October 12, 1598. On October 17, the three "captains" of the villages of the Jumanos or Rayados, signed at Cueloce (probably Las Humanas). They were Yolha of Cueloce, Pocaetaqui of Genobey (perhaps Pueblo Pardo), and Haye of Pataoce (perhaps Tabirá). [32]

The status of the Salinas pueblos as "vassals" was not so easily assured, however. In late 1600, the Indians of Abó attacked a party of five Spanish soldiers, apparently deserters, who were on their way from provincial headquarters at San Gabriel to Mexico City. Two of the soldiers were killed in the attack. When word of the deaths reached San Gabriel, along with rumors of an Indian revolt against the authority of the Spaniards, the Franciscans and soldiers demanded that the rebellious Indians be punished to insure the security of the small colony. Oñate dispatched a troop of soldiers under the command of Captain Vicente de Záldivar from San Gabriel to punish Abó. The troop was attacked near Acolocu. In the course of the battle, the Indians retreated into the houses of the pueblo. During the siege that followed, Záldivar killed a number of Indians and burned a major section of Acolocu. The Indians soon rebelled again, but by the end of 1601 peace returned to the Salinas area. [33]

The Founding of the Mission System

The central missions of New Mexico were founded between 1598 and 1615. After a brief flurry of mission establishment from 1598 to 1600, the Franciscan effort slowed from 1601 to 1609. During these years only ten friars served in New Mexico. An increase in the number of missionaries and a reorganization of the provincial government around a new capitol town called Santa Fe allowed active development of the mission system outside the area of the upper Rio Grande in 1610. [34] A convento founded about 1600 at the pueblo of Santo Domingo, a few miles north of present Bernalillo, became ecclesiastical headquarters for the region in 1610, at the same time as the provincial capital was being established. [35]

The Salinas area was included in this developing mission system. In 1598, Fray Francisco de San Miguel was assigned to begin the conversion of Pecos and the Salinas pueblos, but apparently never visited the Salinas area during the first faltering years of the colonization effort. [36] Salinas was, however, an important part of the new effort that began in 1610. Fray Alonso de Peinado established the first mission in the Salinas area at Chililí in 1613 or 1614. Abó received a mission in 1622. It was probably administered by Fray Francisco Fonte, who arrived in New Mexico in late 1621, and was the missionary at Abó in January, 1626. [37] Fray Juan Gutiérrez de la Chica, who arrived in the province in December, 1625, was probably assigned to convert Quarai beginning in early 1626. Tajique received a mission in 1629, administered by Fray Francisco de la Concepción. At the same time Fray Francisco Letrado was assigned to Las Humanas. Within five years the Las Humanas mission was changed to a visita of Abó and Letrado was transferred to Hawikuh. [38]