Lake Scott State Park
Lake Scott State Park is the site of a ruined Taos Pueblo. The Taos arrived in western Kansas in 1664. After having escaped the Spanish colonial rule in New Mexico. They formed an alliance with a group of Plains Apache. The Taos Indians built the protective pueblos and an irrigation system from a nearby spring to water their crops. The settlement, known as El Cuartelejo, was occupied for 20 years before the builders returned to their home territory. The pueblo was reoccupied in 1696 by a group of Picuri Indians. The Picuris were compelled to retreat to their homelands in colonial New Mexico ten years later.
Agriculture in the prehistoric Southwest
In their effort to attain food security, Southwestern Indians cultivated the floodplains of rivers and ephemeral streams. Crops were planted on floodplains and islands to take advantage of high water when the river or stream overflowed, saturated the land with water and enriched the soil with silt. This method was most effective when floods came at predictable times. Floodplain cultivation was used instead of canal irrigation by the La Junta Indians (often called Jumano) along the Rio Grande in western Texas and was also employed by other peoples.