Pecos Pueblo

P’aékilâ

“The P’aékish lived in this village as a great and powerful nation…” Chris Toya, Jemez Pueblo

Pecos Pueblo was once a busy center of trade and culture. The remaining stone walls spark our imagination and hint at the depth of history. The stories and cultural traditions live on, even though the Pecos People no longer live here.

The Pecos descendants call this place P’aékilâ, meaning “place above the water.” The Pecos People, a group of Ancestral Pueblo people, built this settlement. They chose a ridge within the Pecos River Valley. Two good water sources, including the Pecos River and Glorieta Creek, framed the pueblo (or town) to the east and west. Nearby Glorieta Pass offered easy passage through the mountains. Thus, the pueblo sat in an intersection of trade and travel. To the west were the farming people of the Rio Grande Valley. To the east were the hunting tribes of the buffalo plains.

The Upper Pecos Valley has long been a good place for people. The earliest people to use the Upper Pecos Valley were hunter-gatherers. As early as 11,500 BCE (before common era), Paleoindians hunted large animals such as mastodon and giant ground sloths. Archaic hunter-gatherers began farming corn, beans, and squash beginning around 3500 BCE.

Between 800 and 900 CE (common era), people lived in underground structures called pithouses. They divided tasks like farming, hunting, gathering, tool making, and food processing among the community members. By the mid-1100s, people began to live above ground in scattered multi-family pueblos.

During the 1400s, the 50 to 100 or more smaller pueblos across the landscape began to come together. They formed one larger settlement at Pecos Pueblo. Over time, they built three large buildings of stone, each one four to five stories tall. They stabilized and sealed the structures with adobe mortar. Around two dozen underground kivas offered sacred space throughout the settlement. An open field east of the structures provided space to meet and trade.

Because of nearby Glorieta Pass, Pecos Pueblo hosted a lively trade between the Plains Tribes and Rio Grande Pueblos. By the mid-1500s, this prominent pueblo was known throughout the Pueblo world. Such fame eventually attracted the Spanish Conquistadors.

People lived at Pecos Pueblo until 1838, although many things changed as it came under Spanish rule. Use these links to learn about the Pecos People and the Spanish Colonists and Friars.
You can visit the remaining structures of Pecos Pueblo with a short walk on the Ancestral Sites Trail.