Trying To Get A Better Sense Of Gran Quivira

This week, I've been thinking about Indian ruins in New Mexico. Among my thoughts has been - why Gran Quivira? I mean, why is it there? It was a salt trading center, true, but it's a little removed from the salt itself. There's very limited irrigation potential in the area - like, nearly zero - and it's cold too, at 6,500 ft. above sea level. Reminds me of other unlikely places for settlement, like Chaco Canyon, but that was a religious center of great overarching importance. Gran Quivira's religious function was important to the Spanish, but I don't think anyone has argued it had similar religious importance to the Jumanos and others who lived there.

The geography is odd. Was it astride a trade route to the south? Would turquoise traders have passed through? How about trade routes east and west? Not immediately evident. (Then again, the function of modern trading centers like Albuquerque aren't evident either. Albuquerque's importance resulted partly by historical accident).

Gran Quivira appears to have been a polyglot kind of place, mixing Pueblo and Plains Indians, among others. Was it tolerant too? Or just the opposite?

Gran Quivira just strikes me as detached from the world in some way. Like an Indian Pueblo designed by Star Wars fans.

Why was it there? Why was it as important as it was? What did it do? And most importantly to me, who lived AROUND it?