Ancestral Sites Tour - Epilogue

Due to circumstances beyond their control, the Pecos people had to leave this pueblo. Because of the threat of Comanche raids and encroachment of livestock on fields, they found farming to be increasingly difficult. By the 1800s, new Hispanic settlements in the valley had taken over what remained of the fertile agricultural fields that supported the pueblo. This, coupled with a drought, caused famine. Hundreds died from epidemics, and others simply moved away to live at other pueblos.  

In 1838 the last of the Pecos people left this home and walked to the Pueblo of Jemez, where their descendants live today. They took with them the religious knowledge and customs they had learned and practiced at Pecos. Before leaving, the last inhabitants entrusted a special painting to St. Anthony’s Parish in the Village of Pecos. A symbol of the pueblo’s adoption of Christianity as another form of religion, this portrait depicts the patron saint bestowed upon the Mission of Pecos in the 1620s. Every August, the Village of Pecos fulfills its promise to perpetually honor the saint by celebrating a feast day mass in the remains of her final church. After the mass, the Pueblo of Jemez often honors the place through traditional dances, prayers, and blessings. In this sense, Pecos has not been abandoned at all—the pueblo and its people have simply parted company.