Archeological evidence indicates that by A.D. 1300, the area overlooking the southern Estancia Basin was inhabited by Tompiro-speaking peoples who built with the culturally distinct pueblo masonry architecture.

[1] In 1598, while exploring the territory he had claimed for Spain, Don Juan de Oñate arrived at Las Humanas and administered an oath of obedience and vassalage to the Humano Indians.

Years later missionary activities at Gran Quivira began in earnest and around 1626 the pueblo was designated as a visita of San Grégorio de Abó mission.

In 1659 Fray Diego de Santander was permanently assigned to Gran Quivira after which construction on a new larger church, San Buenaventura, began.

[1] The first detailed description in English is Major James Henry Carleton's twenty-page pamphlet Diary of an excursion to the ruins of Abó, Qarra, and Gran Quivira, in New Mexico published in 1855.