Ancestral Sites Tour - A New Presence

The Franciscan priests who arrived with the Spaniards brought change to the Pueblo world. A priest assigned to Pecos had one goal: to teach the Pecos people to become Catholic subjects of the Spanish empire. To help accomplish this goal, the priest oversaw the building of, worked in, and centered his life around the “mission”—the remnants of which lie directly ahead. The Franciscans relied heavily upon Native labor to construct such an enormous church complex.