In 1831, one year after the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church leader Oliver Cowdery preached to Native Americans in Missouri. Part of the Mormon Battalion, a group of Latter-day Saints preparing to fight in the Mexican-American War, crossed New Mexico in 1846.
Missionary work among Native Americans began as early as the 1860s. Two elders found success while laboring among the Zuni Indians on the Little Colorado River in New Mexico. They baptized more than 100 converts. Many Church settlements in New Mexico absorbed refugees from the Latter-day Saint colonies in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution in 1912.
The first temple in New Mexico was dedicated 5 March 2000 in Albuquerque.