ThePiro people/ˈpɪroʊ/ were aNative American tribe who lived in New Mexico during the 16th and 17th century. The Piros (not to be confused with thePiros of theUcayali basin inPeru) lived in a number ofpueblos in theRio Grande Valley around modernSocorro,New Mexico,USA. The now extinctPiro language may have been aTanoan language. Numbering several thousand at the time of first contact with theSpanish, by the time of thePueblo Revolt in 1680 the Piro had been decimated by European-introduced diseases andApache attacks and most of the survivors resettled nearEl Paso, Texas.
The Piro were closely related to theTompiro who lived to their northeast in theSalinas region of New Mexico. Linguists believe both groups likely spokeTanoan languages.[1] When the Spanish first encountered them in the 16th century, the Piro lived in theRio Grande River valley for a distance of about 60 miles (97 km) from north to south in present-daySocorro County. Beyond the narrow ribbon of green along the Rio Grande the surrounding hinterlands are desert.
The Piro people, along with several other Pueblo peoples, were probably descendants of theMogollon culture, theAncestral Pueblo people, and theCasas Grandes peoples. These cultures flourished until about 1450 CE in a large area of the Southwestern United States and NorthwesternMexico. The 15th-century Piro population was likely seven thousand people. The Piro's largest town, calledSan Pascual Pueblo by the Spanish, had 1,500 rooms and a population of about 2,000 people.[2]
Some Piros were hospitable to the firstSpanish colonists who arrived in 1598. As a result, the Spanish gave first one, then another, Piro pueblo the nameSocorro, which means "aid" or "help" (in case of problems or difficulties). By the late 17th century, however, the Piros like most other Pueblo groups suffered increasingly from the strains of colonial rule. Several local rebellions broke out in the 1660s and 1670s, but the Spaniards always retained the upper hand. By the time of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Piro communities had declined so much that the famous rebellion took place without them. Several hundred Piros (and Tiwas) accompanied the fleeing Spaniards south to El Paso del Norte (present-dayCiudad Juárez,Mexico); others scattered and joined other Pueblo groups. None of the Piro pueblos were ever resettled by the original inhabitants.
Today, the Piro people are part of thePiro/Manso/Tiwa Indian Tribe of the Pueblo of San Juan de Guadalupe inLas Cruces, New Mexico as well as inTortugas Pueblo.
Currently, there is a long-term archaeological project at the Piro pueblo of Tzelaqui/Sevilleta north of present-day Socorro.
Bletzer, Michael P., 'The First Province of that Kingdom': Notes on the Colonial History of the Piro Area.New Mexico Historical Review 88(4): 437-459 (2013) / Bletzer, Michael P., A House for Fray Alonso: The Search for Pilabo Pueblo and the First Piro Mission, Nuestra Senora del Socorro.El Palacio 120(3): 34-37 (2015) / Marshall, Michael P., and Henry J. Walt,Rio Abajo: Prehistory and History of a Rio Grande Province (Santa Fe: New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, 1984.)
