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Archaeology in Cañón de Carnué

The Cañón de Carnué Archaeological Project (CdCAP) developed out of a series of conversations that began in 2017 between Moises Gonzales, UNM professor and Cañón de Carnué Land Grant board member, and Kelly Jenks. Gonzales was interested in encouraging archaeological research relevant to the land grant. He was particularly interested in learning more about the site of the old Carnué village (Plaza de San Miguel de Loredo), which was settled by members of the first Cañón de Carnué Land Grant in 1763. The community suffered a serious attack in 1770, causing survivors to flee to Albuquerque, and when they refused to return they were ordered to destroy their homes in 1771. Families returned to the area when the land grant was expanded in 1819. 

The first CdCAP field project took place in 2021, when Jenks directed the NMSU archaeological field school in survey and mapping activities at the old village site (LA 12924). Students mapped and described evidence of multiple occupations by indigenous and immigrant groups, including the 18th-century plaza settlement of San Miguel. At the end of the season, they presented their findings at a community event hosted by the land grant. A technical report and updated site records were later provided to the land grant, city, and state, and Allyson Ueki wrote her MA thesis on the landscape of San Miguel de Carnué (Ueki 2022). 

In 2022, Jenks returned with the field school to conduct a six-week project in collaboration with the Cañón de Carnué Land Grant and the City of Albuquerque's Open Space Division. Field activities included test excavation and stabilization work within the 18th-century plaza site and archaeological survey within the wider area. Students also gained laboratory experience by working with artifacts recovered from this site in during a University of New Mexico (UNM) field school in 1946, currently curated by the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at UNM. A technical report and updated site records from this project were submitted to the land grant, city, and state. 

Since 2022 (and continuing through the present), the CdCAP has focused on analyzing cultural materials recovered from the 2022 test excavations and previous projects at this site. Jason Vandervort analyzed the ceramics collected in 2022 (Vandervort 2023). Tanner Guskey analyzed all metal artifacts from the 2022 and 1946 collections (Guskey 2024), and Jocelyn Valadez did the same for the faunal bone (Valadez 2024). Most recently, Mikayla Gonzales completed an analysis of the Rio Grande Glazeware ceramics from the 1946 collection (Gonzales 2025). Other ongoing work includes the analysis of plant remains recovered in 2022 and of non-glazeware ceramics recovered in 1946. 

CdCAP Resources/Products

Press

M.A. Theses/Reports

Public/Community Presentations

  • Excavating Querencia: Land Grant Archaeology in New Mexico. Hosted by the Office of Archeological Studies, Santa Fe, New Mexico. (2025)
  • Archaeology at the 18th-century site of San Miguel del Loredo. Hosted by the Friends of Tijeras Pueblo as part of their monthly lecture series, Sandia District Ranger Station, Tijeras, New Mexico. (2024)
  • Archaeology on the Rocks: Investigating an 18th Century Spanish Land Grant in Tijeras Canyon, NM. Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s Third Thursday Food for Thought Series. (2024) Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tkT4fxogwI. 
  • Cañón de Carnué Archaeological Project. Presentation of project findings to land grant heirs and community partners. Hosted by the Cañón de Carnué Land Grant. (2022)
  • San Miguel de Carnué: Landscape within the First Settlement of the Cañón de Carnué Land Grant, by Allyson Ueki. Hosted by the Cañón de Carnué Land Grant. (2022)
  • Cañón de Carnué Archaeological Project. Presentation of project findings to land grant heirs and community partners. Hosted by the Cañón de Carnué Land Grant. (2021)

Conference Papers/Posters

  • Interpreting Ritual Deposits at a Multiethnic Site in Spanish Colonial New Mexico, by Kelly Jenks and Jocelyn Valadez (2025)
  • Implications of Ceramic Analysis on Rio Grande Glaze Ware from San Miguel de Carnué (LA 12924): A Puebloan Settlement within the Early Spanish Colonial Period of New Mexico, by Mikayla Gonzales (2025)
  • The Use-Life of Spanish Colonial Metal Artifacts from Carnué, New Mexico, by Tanner Guskey. Paper presented at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana. (2024)
  • The Zooarchaeological Remains from San Miguel de Carnué (LA 12924), by Jocelyn Valadez. Poster presented at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana. (2024)
  • Papers presented in the symposium "Hill People: New Research on Tijeras Canyon and the East Mountains" at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon. (2023)
    • Cañon de Carnué: A Place of Connection, by Kelly Jenks. 
    • Landscape Systems of San Miguel de Carnué, by Allyson Ueki. 
    • A Ceramic Analysis of the San Miguel de Carnué Plaza Complex (LA 12924), by Jason Vandervort. 
    • The Zooarchaeological Remains from San Miguel de Carnué (LA 12924) from the 2022 Field Season, by Rani Alexander and Jocelyn Valadez. 
    • Living on the Edge: Uncovering Quotidian Life of the 18th-century Land Grant Community of San Miguel de Carnué, by Peter Kováčik. 
    • Querencia, Community Reciprocity in Management of the Cultural Landscape by East Sandia and Manzano Land Grant Communities, by Moises Gonzales. 
    • The Tijeras Cultural Corridor Plan: Connecting Community to the Natural and Cultural History of Tijeras Canyon, by James Sattler. 
  • Living on the Edge: The Cañon de Carnué Land Grant, by Kelly Jenks. Paper presented at the 11th Triple L Symposium, Las Cruces, New Mexico. (2022)
  • Paper and posters presented at the Pecos Conference, Rowe Mesa, New Mexico (2022)
    • San Miguel de Carnué: A Complicated History. Paper by Kelly Jenks, Nika Carrillo, and Dave Hall.
    • The Value of Analog Mapping in the Digital Age. Poster by Angelique Carrillo and Alma McKown.
    • Carnué's 1946 UNM Excavation. Poster by Kayleigh Lopez and Sabrina Gonzalez. 
  • Partnerships and Pandemic Preparation at the NMSU 2021 Field School, by Kelly Jenks, Fumi Arakawa, and Aimee Oliver-Bozeman. Paper presented at the Pecos Conference, Mancos, Colorado. (2021)

Technical Reports

  • Test Excavation at LA 12924 and Site Documentation at LA 72043, Bernalillo County, New Mexico, by Kelly L. Jenks with contributions by David Hall, Tanner Guskey, Jocelyn Valadez, and Jason Vandervort. NMCRIS No. 152468. Submitted to the City of Albuquerque Open Space Division. (2024)
  • Archaeological Survey and Documentation at LA 12924, Bernalillo County, New Mexico, by Kelly L. Jenks with contributions by Allen Copp, Phil Leckman, Aimee Oliver-Bozeman, Bethany Stevens, Jennie Sturm, Jeffrey Thomas, Jason Vandervort, and Allyson Ueki. NMCRIS No. 149660. Submitted to the City of Albuquerque Open Space Division and to the Cañón de Carnué Land Grant. (2021)

Additional Resources

External Websites

Recommended Reading

  • Archibald, Robert. 1976. Cañón de Carnué: Settlement of a Grant. New Mexico Historical Review 51(4):313–328.
  • Gonzales, Moises. 2020. La Querencia: The Genízaro Cultural Landscape Model of Community Land Grants in Northern New Mexico. In Querencia: Reflections on the New Mexico Homeland, edited by Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez, Levi Romero, and Spencer R. Herrera, pp. 243–268. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
  • Gonzales, Moises and Enrique Lamadrid, eds. 2019. Nación Genízara: Ethnogenesis, Place, and Identity in New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. 
  • Gonzales, Moises. 2014. The Genizaro Land Grant Settlements of New Mexico. Journal of the Southwest 56(4):583–602.
  • Jenks, Kelly L. 2013. Building Community: Exploring Civic Identity in Hispanic New Mexico. Journal of Social Archaeology 13(3):371–393.
  • Swadesh, Frances Leon. 1976. Archeology, Ethnohistory and the First Plaza of Carnuel. Ethnohistory 23(1): 31–44.