Tijeras was part of the Carnuel land grant, created in 1763 to defend Albuquerque from the raids of Comanche, Kiowa, and Plains Apache American Indians. The village is located in Tijeras Canyon, a strategic and natural corridor between the nomadic Indians of the Great Plains and the Spanish settlements in the Rio Grande valley. Nineteen men some with families, comprised the first settlers at Carnuel. They were mostly from the lower castas of Spanish society, coyotes and genizaros (Indians who lived among the Spanish and had adopted some elements of Hispanic culture). For the coyotes and genizaros the attraction to settle in the Tijeras area was the opportunity to own land through the land grant from the New Mexican government.