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Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, Headquarters, Mountainair
Visitors' Center
Two American Indian trade communities, Tiwa and Tompiro-speaking Puebloans,
once lived near present-day Mountainair, New Mexico. In the early 1600's,
Spanish Franciscan missionaires named the area the Salinas
District and began converting the Indians and using them to build
Mission churches. But for several reasons--epidemics, raids and cultural
differences--by 1680, the entire District was abandoned by both Indians and
Spaniards.
Today (2002) the ruins of three stabilized Mission churches remain
at sites near Mountainair: Abo, Quarai and Gran Quivira.
