While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Piros. Formerly one of the principal Pueblo tribes of New Mexico, which in
the early part of the 17th century comprised two divisions, one inhabiting the
Rio Grande valley from the present town of San Marcial, Socorro County,
northward to within about 50 miles of Albuquerque, where the Tigua settlements began; the
other division, sometimes called Tompiros and Salineros, occupying an area east of
the Rio Grande in the vicinity of the salt lagoons, or salinas, where they
adjoined the eastern group of Tigua settlements on the south. The western or Rio
Grande branch of the tribe was visited by members of Coronado's expedition in
1540, by Chamuscado in 1580, by Espejo in 1583 (who found them in 10 villages
along the river and in others near by), by Oraté in 1598, and by Benavides in
1621-30, the latter stating that they were in 14 pueblos along the river.
Judging from the numerous villages of the province of Atripuy, mentioned
by Oraté, which appears to have been the name applied to the range of the Rio
Grande division of the Piros, Benavides' number does not seem to be
exaggerated. The establishment of missions among the Piros began in 1626. In
that year the most southerly church and monastery in New Mexico were built at Senecú by Arteaga and Zuñiga (to whole are attributed the planting of the first
vines and the manufacture of wine in this region), and during the same year
missions at Sevilleta, Socorro, and probably also at Alamillo were founded. It
is not improbable that the Piros of the Rio Grande, although said to number
6,000 in 1630, were already seriously harassed by the persistent hostility of
the Apache, for Sevilleta had been depopulated and destroyed by fire
"in
consequence of intertribal wars" prior to the establishment of the missions,
and was not resettled until about 1626. Moreover, the 14 villages along the Rio
Grande occupied by the Piros in 1630 were reduced to 4 half a century later.
"This was due not only to the efforts of the missionaries to gather their flock
into larger pueblos," says Bandelier, " but also to the danger to which these
Indians were exposed from the Apaches of the `Perrillo' and the 'Gila,' as the
southern bands of that restless tribe were called."
The area occupied by the Piros of the Salinas extended from the pueblo of Abe
south east to and including the pueblo of Tabira, commonly but improperly called "Gran
Quivira," a distance of about 25 miles. The habitat of the eastern Piros was even
more desert in character than that of the eastern Tigua, which bounded it on the
north, for the Arroyo de Abo, on which Abo pueblo was situated, was the only
perennial stream in the region, the inhabitants of Tabira and Tenabo depending
entirely on the storage of rain water for their supply. In addition to the 3
pueblos named, it is not improbable that the now ruined villages known by the
Spanish names Pueblo Blanco,
Pueblo Colorado, and
Pueblo de la Parida were among
the 11 inhabited settlements of the Salinas seen by Chamuscado in 1580, but at
least 3 of this number were occupied by the Tigua. Juan de Oñate, in 1598, also
visited the pueblos of the Salinas, and to Fray Francisco de San Miguel, a
chaplain of Oñate's army, was assigned the Piros country as part of his mission
district. The headquarters of this priest being at Pecos, it is not likely that
much active mission work was done among the Piros during his incumbency,
which covered only about
3 years. The first actual missions among the Piros pueblos of the Salinas were established in 1629 by
Francisco de Acevedo at Abo and Tabira, and probably also at Tenabo, but before
the massive-walled churches and monasteries were completed, the village
dwellers of both the Salinas and the Rio Grande suffered so seriously from the
depredations of the Apache, that Senecu on the Rio Grande, as well as every
pueblo of the Salinas, was deserted before the Pueblo insurrection of 1680.
Prior to the raid on Senecu by the Apache in 1675, 6 of the inhabitants of that
village were executed for the massacre of the alcalde-mayor and 4 other
Spaniards. Probably on account of the fear with which the Spaniards were known
to be regarded by the Piros after this occurrence, they were not invited by the
northern Pueblos to participate in the revolt against the Spaniards in 1680;
consequently when Otermin, the governor, retreated from Santa Fé to El Paso in
that year, he was joined by nearly all the inhabitants of Socorro, Sevilleta,
and Alamillo. These, with the former occupants of Senecu, who, since the
destruction of their village by the Apache had resided at Socorro, were
afterward established in the new villages of Socorro, Texas, and Senecu del Sur
in Chihuahua, on the Rio Grande below El Paso, where their remnants still
survive. In attempting to reconquer New Mexico in the following year, Otermin
caused Alamillo to be burned, because the few remaining inhabitants fled on his
approach. Only 3 families remained at Sevilleta when the Spaniards retreated,
but these had departed and the pueblo was almost in ruins on their return in
1681.
The entire Piros division of the Tanoan family probably numbered about 9,000
early in the 17th century. Of these, only about 60 individuals are known to survive.
Living with or near the Piros of the Salinas in the 16th and 17th centuries were
a band of Junlano, a semi-nomadic tribe of which little is known. The
proximity of these Indians to the Piros pueblos led to the error, on the part of
cartographers of that period, of confounding the Jumano and Piros, hence the
references on many early maps to the "Humanos de Tompiros," etc.
Following is a list of Piros pueblos, so far as known, all of them being now
extinct with the exception of Senecu del Sur, while Socorro has become
"Mexicanized":
Abo
Agua Nueva
Alamillo
Barrancas
Qualacu
San Felipe
San Pascual
Senecu
Senecu del Sur (also Tigua)
Sevilleta
Socorro or Pilabo
Socorro del Sur
Tabira
Tenabo
Teypana
Tenaquel
The following pueblos, now extinct, were probably also occupied by the Piros:
Pesquis
Peytre
Polooca
Preguey
Pueblo Blanco
Pueblo Colorado
Pueblo de la Parida
Pueblo del Alto
Queelquelu
Quialpo
Quiapo,
Quiomaqui
Quiubaco
Tecahanqualahamo
