High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Puye Cliff Dwellings are the ruins of an abandoned pueblo, located in Santa Clara Canyon on Santa Clara Pueblo land near Espanola, New Mexico. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966.The site was home to some 1500 pueblo Indians from about the 12th century until 1577 when drought finally forced the villagers to leave for locations nearer to the Rio Grande. Oral tradition suggests that the present day inhabitants of Santa Clara Pueblo, some 10 miles (16 km) to the east, are the descendants of Puye.