Pecos Pueblo
(Cicuye or Paeaekila in Towa)
Early Dates
11,500 – 11,000 yrs. ago Clovis
11,000 - 9,000 yrs. ago Folsom
11,500 – 9,000 yrs. ago Archaic - Early Basketmaker
5 hunting sites; 8 in nearby mountains; 3 pit houses from latter part of the period
900 – 1150 Pueblo II
Originally built around 1100 (came mainly from the San Juan drainage area)
1150 – 1350 Pueblo III “The Great Pueblo Period”
early dwellings
1350 – 1600 Pueblo IV
1350 Cicuye built; Forked Lightening & Arrowhead Pueblos - 1200 AD to 1450 AD, Hobson- Dressler Pueblo, Loma-Lothrop Pueblo, Dick’s Pueblo, Rowe Pueblo (abandoned about 1375 AD)
1600 – present Pueblo V
All pueblo people (17-20) left in 1838 to Jemez Pueblo (Towa speakers)
Spanish Influence
1540 – Coronado received Bigotes from Pecos Pueblo at Hawikuh (Zuni). They exchanged gifts (buffalo robes, native shields, headdresses for artificial pearls, glass vessels and little bells)
Aug. 29, 1540 - Capt. Hernando de Alvarado and Frey Juan de Padilla (a Franciscan priest) left Zuni with Bigotes for Pecos; El Turco & Sopete led Spanish into the plains; Bigotes, El Turco, Sopete and Cacique were taken to Tiquex as captives of Coronado.
May, 1541 – Coronado w/army of 1,500, Bigotes & Cacique went to Pecos to begin looking for Quivera on the plains.
June 1, 1541 – Coronado w/30 mounted Spaniards + a dozen servants + Fray Padilla went north for Quivera w/ Sopete & El Turco (in chains).
July – Coronado decided he had been tricked and had El Turco choked to death
Aug/Sept. – Arellano + 40 men returned to Pecos from Tique to thwart an ambush for Coronado returning from the plains; they fought the first battle with the Pecos Indians for four days
Mid-Sept. – Coronado returned to Pecos then back to Tiquex; Fray Padilla and others went back to the plains to find Quivera and was killed by plains Indians
April,1542 - Coronado left New Mexico for good
Old Brother Luis de Ubeda was the first missionary at Pecos left by Coronado; he was never heard from again
1598 – Juan de Onate to village of Ohke (east bank of Rio Grande) named “San Juan de los Caballeros”; then to Yuqueyunque renaming it San Gabriel del Yungue
1599 Jan. – Dec. 4, 1599 - Juan de Zaldivar, Onate’s nephew sent to meet w/Acoma’s cacique Zutacapan. He demanded food & shelter, then invaded homes when denied. He and 16 men killed. Vicente de Zaldivar, Juan’s brother & 70 men later attacked. Killed 500 warriors, 300 women & children. 500 prisoners taken to San Juan Pueblo. Cut off right foot of males over 25 (24 men). Enslaved them for 20 yrs w/females over 12 yrs old. Two Hopis had one hand cut off and were released.
September 28, 1599 - the viceroy, Martine de Pedrosa authorized reinforcements to be sent to New Mexico to assist Juan de Onate in his settlement and explorations.
- The reinforcements of men, provisions and other things sent to him from New Spain arrived on the day before Christmas…1600” (Hammond and Rey 1953:619)
- Most of the reinforcements along with many of the earlier settlers deserted the colony in September of 1601. At that time, the church was dedicated to San Miguel and the convent to San Gabriel (Hammond and Rey, 1953: 672, 682)
- Juan Martinez de Montoya was among those who remained in New Mexico. (one had to stay at least 5 years to receive benefits)
- Juan de Onate resigned as governor on August 24, 1607
- Juan Martinez de Montoya appointed governor February 27, 1608
- Juan de Onate and his son Cristobal were authorized to leave New Mexico
- After lengthy discussion it was decided to continue with the colonization of New Mexico as a missionary effort.
1616 - the Autumn mission supply caravan was bound from New Mexico with a half dozen Christian brethren
August 2, 1617 or 1618 – Nuestra Senora de los Angeles de Porciuncula church was dedicated at Pecos
1619 - Fray Pedro Zambrano Ortiz was assigned to “the convent of Nuestra Senora de los Angeles de los Pecos” by Fray Esteban de Perea. [he established the first church (the Lost Church made of jacal at Pecos)]
1619 – Young Frey Pedro de Ortega took over from Fray Zambrano who later destroyed many of the Indians’ idols and other paraphernalia; he held services in a “modest several-room convent abuting the South Pueblo”
1621 - Frey Andes Juarez arrived. He acknowledged the culture, language & beliefs of the Pecos people. The large mission church was built under his direction.
1680 – Pueblo Revolt, Popay (1630-1688)
1692 – the Spanish returned under don Diego de Vargas
1717 – a new smaller church was dedicated on the site of the older large church facing in the opposite direction
1821 – Mexico’s independence from Spain
1838 - 17 to 20 Pecos Indians left Pecos for the Jemez Pueblo where their Towa language was spoken
Feb., 1838 – Father Caballero a Spanish Franciscan priest left New Mexico after signing a detailed inventory of everything he had found belonging to the Franciscans with the San Miguel chapel (in Santa Fe) including all of the items that had been borrowed from Pecos
June 2, 1828 - Father Castro performed the last recorded baptism of an Indian by a Franciscan at Pecos (an 8 year old named Jose Manuel, son of Rafael and Paula Aguilar)
Nov., 1828 – Father Alcina visited the mission and baptized the infant son of settlers from the Canon de Pecos. His burial entry at San Miguel on December 3 was the last entry by a friar.
Jan., 1829 – don Juan Felipe Ortiz, diocesan priest from Santa Fe took over.
American Influence
1821 – 1880’s The Santa Fe Trail came through the Pecos area.
1860’s – 1880’s – Martin Kozlowski had a 600 acre ranch and stage station which served the Santa Fe Trail
March 26-28, 1862 – Battle of Glorieta Pass fought between the Union and Confederate troops
Sept. 5, 1880 – Aldolph Bandelier, the Swiss-American ethnologist caught a glimpse of the Pecos ruins from a passing train then explored and recorded the ruins.
1915 – 1929 – Alfred Vincent Kidder conducted excavations at the Pecos pueblo. He devised the first comprehensive, systematic approach to North American archaeology known as the Pecos Classification System.
1915 - Jesse L. Nusbaum of the Museum of New Mexico directed the removal of tons of debris from the old church.
1920 – Gross, Kelly and Company sold its share of the Pecos pueblo grant to Harry W. and Ellis F. Kelly and deeded an 80-acre tract including the mission church and pueblo ruins to the Roman Catholic Archbishop, Albert T. Daeger. He then deeded the parcel to the Board of Regents of the Museum of New Mexico and the Board of Managers of the School of American Research in Santa Fe.
1925 – “Tex” Austin purchased 5,500 acres of land creating the Forked Lightning Ranch connecting the Kozlowski Stage Station to his ranch headquarters. He also hired John Gaw Meem to design and build a ranch house. He lost the ranch during the Great Depression and committed suicide in 1938.
1935 – Pecos became a State Monument
1941 – E.E. “Buddy” Fogelson bought a ranch adjacent to it and expanded it to 13,000 acres
1965 – the State Monument was enlarged by a donation of land from Mr. & Mrs. E.E. Fogelson (Buddy and Greer Garson) owners of the Forked Lightning Ranch. That year the State Monument was made a National Monument as well.
1990 – the monument became the Pecos National Historical Park
1991 – Greer Garson Fogelson sold the Forked Lightning Ranch to The Conservation Fund which donated it to the National Park Service.