We always travel the backroads as that is where you will find the most interesting sites. We came upon the Abo site and saw the tall ruins standing there in solitude. They had an aspect of sadness and gloom. As we have seen before at many other sites, the Pueblo people had been living their lives, forging a stable agricultural society whose members lived in apartment-like complexes and participated, through rule and ritual, in cycles of nature. They supplemented their lives by hunting and gathering. The Salinas valley became a major trade center and one of the most populous parts of the Pueblo world. They traded maize, pinion nuts, beans, squash, salt and cotton goods for dried bison meat, hides, flints and shells. Then come the Franciscan's. Of course they regarded the pueblo religion as idolatry and told the indians that their salvation depended on their willingness to undergo religious instruction. But suppressing the masked Kachina dances and kiva rituals proved difficult for the priests. They were trying to convert them so the new Christians could work for the settlers. Why, I ask you, must we always try to control and enslave other humans. The Spanish and Franciscan's seem to be the worse offenders in the name of Christianity.
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