The Piro

pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

of Senecú was the southernmost occupied pueblo in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

prior to the

Pueblo Revolt The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, also known as Popé's Rebellion or Popay's Rebellion, was an uprising of most of the indigenous Pueblo people against the Spanish empire, Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, larger than prese ...

of 1680. It was located on the west bank of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

within sight of the Piro pueblo of San Pasqual. Colonial Spanish documents consistently place the pueblo opposite of Black Mesa, which is near

San Marcial San Marcial was a community in Socorro County, New Mexico, United States, founded in 1854 and survivor of two floods and a fire, but is now a ghost town, a deserted site with little left of the original town, destroyed in a great flood in 1929. Sa ...

. Due to changes in the floodplain and the establishment of San Marcial, however, no surface remains of the pueblo survive in the area. The original name of the pueblo has been transcribed as either ''Tze-no-que'', ''Tzen-o-cue'', or ''She-an-ghua''. This has been translated as either "eye socket" or "spring hole", but neither translation can be corroborated.

History

The pueblo was occupied by Piro Indians prior to Spanish exploration of the area. It appears to have been described by Spaniards as early as 1581 in the journals of the Chamuscado and Rodríguez Expedition. In 1598, the

Juan de Oñate Juan de Oñate y Salazar (; 1550–1626) was a Spanish conquistador from New Spain, explorer, and colonial governor of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in the viceroyalty of New Spain. He led early Spanish expeditions to the Great Pla ...

expedition described a "Tzenaquel de la Mesilla", which was the first settlement that they came across while traveling through New Mexico. The Spanish mission of San Antonio de Padua was built in Senecú in the 1620s. The mission survived for about half a century, but both the pueblo and the mission were destroyed by

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...

raiders on 23 January 1675. A

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

priest was killed during the raid, however many Piro and Spaniards survived. Luis López, the namesake of the village of Luis Lopez, was the

alcalde Alcalde (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian '' cabildo'' (the municipal council) a ...

of Senecú in 1667.Julyan, Robert, (1998) "Luis Lopez" ''The Place Names of New Mexico'' (revised edition) University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, p. 214, The pueblo was resettled in November or December 1677 by reportedly over 100 Christian Indian families. It was once again abandoned during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 when the Piro followed the Spaniards out of New Mexico. Rather than return to New Mexico, the people of this pueblo settled in the

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

district in a village called Senecú del Sur.Harrington, John P. (1909) "Notes on the Piro Language" ''American Anthropologist'' New Series, 11, (4): pp. 563-594, p.564 Rumors have it that some Piro stayed in New Mexico, however

Diego de Vargas Diego de Vargas Zapata y Luján Ponce de León y Contreras (1643–1704), commonly known as Don Diego de Vargas, was a Spanish Governor of the New Spain territory of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, to the US states of New Mexico and Arizona, titular ...

did not find anyone inhabiting the pueblo when he passed by it in 1691 and 1692. The pueblo was not resettled after the Spanish re-conquest. The pueblo's ruins were visible to travelers throughout the 18th century, but they have not been seen since then.

Notes

References

* Julyan, Robert (1998) "Senecu" ''The Place Names of New Mexico'' (revised edition) University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, p. 331, . * Marshall, Michael P. and Walt, Henry J., (1984) "Chapter 11: Pre-Revolt Place Names: Senecú" ''Rio Abajo: Prehistory and History of a Rio Grande Province'' New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, Santa Fe, pp. 252–254, Native American tribes in New Mexico Piro Pueblos of Socorro County, New Mexico Pueblos in New Mexico {{NewMexico-geo-stub