Gran Quivira: Spanish Mission at the Pueblo of Las Humanas
On the southern edge of the Estancia Basin, about 20 miles south of the present day town of Mountainair, New Mexico, lies the Gran Quivera unit of the Salina National Monument. Here, between the Manzano mountains on the west that separate the basin from the pueblos along the Rio Grande, and Great Plains to the east, ancestral pueblo people began settling the area after 1300. The largest of these pueblos was named Las Humanas by the band of Spanish pioneers led by Don Juan Onate in 1598. At its peak, Las Humanas was a 250 room pueblo complete with plazas and kivas.
First mission. San Isidro. The pueblo of Las Humanas in background. Excavated rooms on left end of Pueblo is likely area where missionaries took up residence.
Spanish missionaries of the Franciscan Order of the Holy Catholic Church quickly followed this initial entrada. By 1629 the first Spanish supply train arrived at Las Humanas. Building of the first church, San Isidro quickly began. Fray Francisco Letrado kept his residence and small chapel in the nearby Las Humanas pueblo during construction of San Isidro. This small mission church was soon abandoned as the population of Las Humanas declined due to drought, Apache raids, and disease.
San Buenaventura.
As the population rebounded a few years efforts began to build a larger mission at Las Humanas. Construction of a new convento (San Buenaventure) to replace San Isidro commenced in the 1650’s. This new convento was named San
Buenaventure, Renewed drought and Apache raids resulted in the near abandonment of Las Humanas and the mission in 1669. An Apache raid in 1670 destroyed the original San Isidro church ands its contents. San Buenaventure was not completed at the time of the 1670 raid, and was not touched.
San Buenaventure convento.
In 1671 the community and convento was completely abandoned. The surviving members moved 25 miles north to the to the mission at Abo where a steady water supply from a nearby stream provided temporary relief for the drought stricken and raid weary migrants from Las Humanas.