Tompiro Indians

The Tompiro Indians were Pueblo Indians living in New Mexico. They lived in several adobe villages east of the Rio Grande Valley in the Salinas region of New Mexico. Their settlements were abandoned and they were absorbed into other Indian tribes in the 1670s.

Very little is known about the origin of the Tompiros. They spoke a language closely related to that of the Piro Indians who lived to their west in the Rio Grande Valley. The Piro and Tompiro languages are believed by most authorities to belong to the Tanoan language family.

In the 16th century, the Tompiro lived in nine settlements in the Salinas clustered around the present day town of Mountainair. Those whose ruins are preserved today are Quarai, Abo, and Gran Quivira which today make up the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. The ruin known as Gran Quivira today but during Spanish times as Las Humanas – was the largest settlement and may have had a population of 2,000 people. Las Humanas and the other Tompiro settlements were probably established about 1300 and became culturally similar to the other Pueblo Indians in the Rio Grande Valley. The Tompiro name for Las Humanas was probably Cueloze, but Juan de Onate named the settlement the "Great Pueblo of the Humanas" when he visited in 1598, the name reflecting the inhabitant's custom of painting stripes or tattooing their faces. The Plains dwelling Jumano Indians were called by the same name, and authorities differ as to whether they were related to the Tompiros or simply given similar names by the Spaniards.

As village-dwelling and sedentary Pueblo Indians, the Tompiros lived in a marginal climate. Their region was more than 6,000 feet in elevation, near the upper climatic limit for corn cultivation. They had little surface water for irrigation, rainfall was sparse and sporadic, and winters were long and cold. What made the Tompiro settlements viable was their proximity to salt deposits in the Salinas and to the bison herds of the Great Plains. Thus, they were important traders and middlemen between the Plains Indians and the Pueblos of the Rio Grande Valley for salt and bison skins and meat. The Tompiros also hunted small and large game in the region, especially deer, pronghorn, and rabbits and gathered wild foods, including pinyon pine nuts.

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