On the way back home, we stopped at one final national park and got to learn some ancient history. The Pecos Pueblo, Cicuye, was first established around 1350 up in the high desert north of present day Santa Fe. It grew into one of the most powerful Pueblos with a population of approximately 2,000 people and structures four to five stories high. The Pueblo was located on a busy trade route between the Plains Indians to the east and the farming people to the west. Both groups met and traded often at the Pueblo. In 1541 Spain sought to colonize the land and soon after Franciscan friars arrived with the goal of converting the native people to Catholicism. Over the next one hundred years, four huge mission churches were built on the site of the Pueblo. Some converted while others continued to practice their religion in secret as the people experienced cruel treatment if they did not follow what the Spaniards wanted. Resentment grew and by 1680 Po'pay, a Pueblo religious leader, secretly organized surrounding Pueblos and the Pueblos revolted and drove the Spaniards out and the churches were destroyed. Comanche and Apache raids and lack of rain effected the health of the Pueblo and by the late 1700s the region's population decreased. Today the people of Jemez Pueblo consider the Pecos Pueblo people to be their ancestors. There is nothing I love better than walking through an ancient ruin and looking for pottery shards. I know that those pieces were once made by a strong people whose ancestors survive today. I am happy to be back in the Southwest and glad to learn the story of the Pecos Pueblo.
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