Rio Arriba: A New Mexico County

RIO ARRIBA

A New Mexico County

compiled and edited by

Robert J. Tórrez & Robert Trapp

With Contributions By:

David V. López B. Michael Miller

Malcolm Ebright Victor Jaramillo

Robert & Emma Eckert Joseph P. Sánchez

Roberto H. Valdez y Herrera

Río Grande Books

Los Ranchos, NM

Copyright © 2010, 2014 Robert J. Tórrez & Robert Trapp

Published by Río Grande Books

925 Salamanca NW

Los Ranchos, NM 87107-5647

505-344-9382

www.nmsantos.com

Printed in the United States of America

Book Design: Paul Rhetts

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rio Arriba : a New Mexico county / compiled and edited by Robert J. Tórrez & Robert Trapp ; with contributions by David V. López ... [et al.].

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-890689-65-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-936744-85-5 (eBook formats)

1. Rio Arriba County (N.M.)--History. 2. Rio Arriba County (N.M.)--History, Local. I. Tórrez, Robert J. II. Trapp, Robert, 1926- III. López, David V.

F802.R4.R55 2010

978.9’52--dc22

2010035314

Cover: The rio arriba, an excerpt of the Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco map of 1778

Dedicated to

The Rio Arriba Pioneers

They Settled, Struggled and Survived

Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, illustration by Guy Rossi.

1864 map of New Mexico and Arizona shows the long, narrow strip that constituted early Rio Arriba County. Johnson and Ward, publishers (1864).

The Old Spanish Trail consisted of several trail routes that connected New Mexico and California. Map of Old Spanish National Historic Trail, courtesy of U. S. Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service, National Trails Intermountain Region.

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter One: Mucho Mas Antes

Chapter Two: The Newcomers

Chapter Three: Land Grants and Growth of the Rio Arriba in the Eighteenth Century

Chapter Four: Life in the Northern Frontier: Making a Living in rio arriba

Chapter Five: From Spanish Empire to United States Territory: Rio Arriba Under Mexico, 1821-1846

Chapter Six: Evolution of the Rio Arriba County Seat

Chapter Seven: The Southern Ute and Jicarilla Agencies at Abiquiú and Tierra Amarilla

Chapter Eight: Gold Fever, Transportation and Expansion

Chapter Nine: Crime and Punishment in Rio Arriba

Chapter Ten: Narrow Gauge Rails and Virgin Forests

Chapter Eleven: Education in Rio Arriba: From Colonial Spain to the Northern New Mexico College

Chapter Twelve: Origins of Old Spanish Trail, 1678-1840: The Route from Santa Fe to Los Angeles

Chapter Thirteen: Politics in Rio Arriba

Part Two: Community Histories

Santa Cruz de la Cañada:

Chimayó

Place Name Lore of the Rio Arriba

Recollections of Early Española

El Ayuntamiento del Pueblo de Santo Tomás Apostol de Abiquiú

Tierra Amarilla

Embudo/Dixon

Ojo Caliente

Youngsville—Coyote—Gallina—Lindrith

Chama: A True ‘wild west’ Town in Rio Arriba

About the Editor and Contributors

Foreword

Every community, or county, has a history, most of them interesting and even unique. But unfortunately many of these stories are untold and untouched in dusty archives or memories of the people who lived them only to be lost forever as the years pass.

When the Rio Grande Sun made plans to observe its 50th anniversary in 2006, among the projects included was an exhibit Fifty Years of Front Pages which enjoyed a brief stop at the Bond House Museum in Española. When some of these pages later hung in the lobby of the newspaper offices in Española, visitors paused to read them and often commented Boy, there’s a lot of history there.

True, we reflected, but just fifty years. There is a lot more to the Rio Arriba story than fifty years. Rio Arriba County was formally established January 9, 1852, one of seven original counties organized when New Mexico became a United States territory. In its 158-year history, borders have shifted and its geography changed, and today it is a vast land mass of 5,861 square miles. It’s nearly twice the size of the combined states of Delaware (2,045 square miles) and Rhode Island (1,212).

But its history predates 1852, arguably starting with Villagra’s written history of the founding of the first colony in New Mexico in 1598 by don Juan de Oñate at San Juan Pueblo, today Ohkay Owingeh. It is a story of good times and hard times; of land grants, violence and yes, corruption in a remote area where the family was all-important as was the feeding of that family. There was little knowledge of the outside world or even any interest in it. Rio Arribans accepted their remoteness and farming and ranching fueled the economy.

But World War I, and especially World War II, changed that as young men from remote mountain villages answered the call of their country. The wars, along with the appearance of a new county and city, Los Alamos, which sprung up just miles away, hastened this exposure to outside influences. Paved roads and automobiles caused Rio Arriba to shrink dramatically.

Some look at Rio Arriba today and see two counties. From Martínez Canyon north of Ghost Ranch to the Colorado border, the populace seems more laid back as a visitor once suggested. South from there, life is more regimented. There alarm clocks get you up in the morning, where in the north, the sun gets you up. Even the climate and weather are different, with drastic temperature differences between Chama and Española, and when it snows in Chama, it might just get overcast in Española.

Progress is not encouraged in the north, and even viewed with suspicion. Housing developments, ski runs and airports are frowned on while in Española, the Chamber of Commerce greets with great joy the addition of another fast food restaurant.

Western Rio Arriba, the land of homesteaders where oil and gas account for millions of dollars in county revenue, is almost another world. As oil and gas wells pump away, a few homesteaders still engage in the honorable livelihoods of ranching and farming.

All of this is part of the Rio Arriba story. Each of the scattered, isolated communities that make it the unique area that it is, has a history or story of its own and to put this history into a one-volume package, the Sun is pleased it was able to convince Robert Tórrez that he was the individual to do it. He is uniquely qualified as an author of books and articles on New México history. He is retired state historian, past president of the state historical society and most importantly a native of Los Ojos. His enthusiasm for the job and love of his native Rio Arriba are apparent in the finished product you hold in your hands.

We learned in our fifty-plus years in Rio Arriba County, that its citizens are deeply interested in the story of their county, their culture, their ancestors and their people. Our purpose in producing this book is to provide in a single volume a history of this fascinating and beautiful land of forests, deserts, mountains, farmlands, orchards and streams. We hope it kindles in today’s generation and future generations, pride in their history and appreciation of what their ancestors experienced in building today’s Rio Arriba under extremely difficult and challenging circumstances.

Might future generations read this and exclaim, Wow! That must have been a cool time to hang out.

Robert Trapp, Española, New Mexico

Introduction

As one travels through New Mexico, it is hard to believe that millions of years ago, most of the state was covered by a shallow sea. This was pointed out to me years ago on several occasions when I was driving along U.S. 84 between Española and Tierra Amarilla with don José Sánchez, an old and respected anciano (elder) that I had the great honor of knowing when I was a young adult. He used to say that a long time ago—he thought maybe during the time of Noah’s flood—this entire area had to have been under water. He pointed out the strata, or different colored layers of the cliffs along the road, and suggested they were created by the receding flood, each era of many years leaving behind its own mark. I do not know how don José reached his conclusions but he was right, and it is certain that nowhere in New Mexico is this early geologic history of the state better represented than in Rio Arriba County.

Science tells us that geologic time is based on the sequence of fossil-bearing sedimentary rocks within rock layers. By analyzing the fossils found in the individual layers, scientists have been able to establish a worldwide sequence of time dating back hundreds of millions of years. Paleontologists, those scientists who study fossils, tell us that during those millions of years, the region that now comprises New Mexico teemed with life. More than 1,000 different kinds of fossils have been found in New Mexico, some of which are unique to the region. These ranged from the simplest plants to the giant brontosaurus and other dinosaurs of the type that dominated earth for millions of years. In 1947, archaeologists discovered what Professor Barry S. Kues of the University of New Mexico described as one of world’s best deposits of early dinosaurs at Ghost Ranch, located just north of Abiquiú. These included several complete fossilized skeletons of coelophysis, a small, agile, bipedal dinosaur that has been named Rioarribasaurus in honor of the site where it was discovered. Although there is now some controversy regarding the naming of this ancient dinosaur, the New Mexico State Legislature designated coelophysis as the official state fossil (not dinosaur) in 1981.

So what does this name rio arriba mean? Primarily, it is a Spanish term that translates loosely into upper river, referring to the area of northern New Mexico traversed by the Rio del Norte, or as we know it today, the Rio Grande. It is normally used in the context of differentiating northern New Mexico from the rio abajo, or lower river area of central and southern New Mexico. In this book the term is generally written two ways—the lower case rio arriba when referring to the area in historical or geographic terms, with the upper case Rio Arriba used principally to designate the geopolitical entity we know as Rio Arriba County. In that sense the upper case Rio Arriba did not come into being until after 1846, when the United States occupied New Mexico and organized the territory into counties.

Even within that limited definition, a history of the rio arriba should ideally encompass all of north-central New Mexico, to include the present-day counties of Rio Arriba and Taos. In a larger sense, this definition might even include the counties of Mora, Colfax, Santa Fe, San Miguel and even Los Alamos and San Juan—in other words, all of Northern New Mexico. Within that context, it may be noted that three communities that played an important role in the history of the rio arriba covered by this book—Santa Cruz de la Cañada, Chimayo, and Ojo Caliente—are not actually located within Rio Arriba County. Santa Cruz and Chimayó are mostly in Santa Fe County and Ojo Caliente is in Taos County. This leads us to a point out one thing that became increasingly clear as this book was being organized—this one volume will barely suffice to provide the reader with a history of one county, much less several. The other counties of northern New Mexico will have to await their own books.

This volume is organized into two parts. The first is a series of chapters that provide a general overview of the history of rio arriba from its pre-historic beginnings through present-day Rio Arriba County. Unless specified otherwise in the chapter headings, I have written this overview. The second part consists of a selection of short community histories of several of the county’s principal communities. Most of these community histories have been written by an individual from the said community. The chapter on Abiquiú, for instance, was written on behalf of the Pueblo of Abiquiú Library and Cultural Center by an individual designated by representatives of that community organization. They have chosen to emphasize the municipal character of their community during its colonial period.

The major shortcoming of this history of rio arriba and the most difficult part of organizing the book has been in deciding what had to be left out. We could only get so much into one volume, forcing us to limit the number and length of the community histories that could be included. That said, it must be understood that this volume is, above all, not the history of Rio Arriba County, but a history. Every chapter in this volume provides an overview of topics that could be developed into their own books. Many more communities than those included here are deserving of having their history written. In fact, even the communities included here, as well as certain topics such as land grants, agriculture, livestock, tribal histories, the railroads and logging, would require many volumes to tell their complete stories. It is our hope that instead of pointing out or complaining about how this one volume failed to mention or did not include such and such a topic, place, or person, readers will instead see this as a challenge for what still needs to be done to tell the history of rio arriba and to further enhance our knowledge and appreciation of the region’s history.

These challenges include a great need to research and publish biographies of the men and women who influenced and shaped our history. Individuals such as the famous Padre de Taos, Antonio José Martínez (who was born and raised in Abiquiú), Diego Archuleta, Juan Andres Archuleta, Albert Pfeiffer, Thomas D. Burns (and his Sargent cousins), José María Chávez, José Pablo Gallegos, and Benigno C. Hernández. The frontier scout Tomás Chacón and Ute leaders Ignacio and Sobita, as well as many, many others, deserve more than a passing mention for their role in the history of the rio arriba.

This book has been a long time coming. Of the thousands of books published on New Mexico’s long and varied history, none have attempted to tell the history of Rio Arriba County. This history of rio arriba has come about now in large part to the support and efforts of Robert Trapp, long-time owner and editor of Española’s Rio Grande Sun. Over the past five decades, the Sun has published dozens, if not hundreds, of short articles about the area’s people and places. Many of us fondly remember ¡Salsa!, the monthly supplement to the Sun that always included an article about some local personality, a town, or other story about our history. Mr. Trapp and I began discussions of the need for a history book about the county a number of years ago, and in 2007, we finally decided the time was right. His financial backing and encouragement has made possible the book you see before you.

I need to thank many other individuals, especially the contributing authors for their participation in this project. I know each of them had much more to say about the communities they wrote about for this volume but could not because of the limits imposed by a short chapter. Special thanks go to Sandra, Melissa, Al, Samuel, Sibel, and all my old friends and colleagues at the State Records Center and Archives in Santa Fe for their boundless assistance. Thanks also to Tomás Jaehn and Daniel Kosharek at the Fray Angélico Chávez Library and Photo Archives; Dorothy Victor, Pat Lucero and my many friends at the Historic Preservation Division; Nona Browne and the volunteers at the Menaul Historical Library; Cheryl Muceus at Ghost Ranch and Virgil and Isabel Trujillo for all their cooperation and assistance. Thanks to my prima Victoria at Chama City Hall and the staff at the City of Española for allowing me access to their municipal records. A note of appreciation also goes to Dr. Spencer Lucas and Matt Celeskey at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science for the coelophysis photos, to Mary Beath for the use of her marvelous illustration of fifteenth century Poshuouinge, to Aaron Mahr and John Cannella at the National Park Service for the Old Spanish Trail map, and Janet Iff for her help with the photos.

I especially appreciate Mr. Eddie Vigil, Jr., Chama’s first mayor, for sharing his insights into Chama’s struggle for incorporation and for the use of his personal photographs. Thanks also to Felix (Cardo) and Donald Gallegos for their recollections on Chama’s early history, to don Tomás Atencio for his assistance with the Embudo/Dixon history, and to Mr. Delfín Quintana and Mr. Siby Lucero for providing information about the old county school system. Just happens Mr. Quintana was the principal during the time I attended Tierra Amarilla High School and Mr. Lucero was the last elected Rio Arriba County school superintendent. These gentlemen are a small part of the greatest generation that shaped the more recent history of Rio Arriba County. ¡Muchas gracias por todo!

Robert J. Tórrez

Chapter One: Mucho Mas Antes

The history of rio arriba began a long time ago, many centuries before we began to capitalize the geographical and political entity that the term identifies today. It began, as the viejitos used to say, mucho mas antes, at a time long before Europeans arrived and recorded the events we call history. For centuries before the Spanish arrived and settled this part of northern New Mexico, the fertile valleys along the Rio Chama and its tributaries were utilized and occupied by groups of hunters and seed gatherers. Early evidence of these peoples found in the vicinity of present-day Abiquiú reservoir, suggests their presence as early as 3000 B. C. There is no indication, however, that these hunter-gatherers stayed very long at any particular site or practiced agriculture. For more than three thousand years, hunting and gathering parties traveled along the Chama and its tributaries and left behind only the scattered projectile points they used to hunt small game and fire pits of small cobble stones where they cooked their game and processed the food they gathered. By the fourteenth century (1300s), however, dozens of village sites had sprung up along the lower Rio Chama and its tributaries, El Rito Creek (Rito Colorado), the Ojo Caliente, Abiquiú, Cañones and the Rio Oso. Although this region was not occupied continuously during these past 4,000 years, the numerous settlements, abandonment and reoccupations make it clear that the rio arriba has long possessed the resources people needed for their protection and sustenance.

While the name rio arriba was applied by the Spanish to identify this part of northern New Mexico, another name important to the history of this region is given to the Rio Grande’s principal tributary—the Rio Chama. The name Chama appears to have been derived from Tsama, the name of a pre-Spanish pueblo located on a mesa west of Abiquiú along the north side of the Rio Chama near its confluence with El Rito creek. Tree-ring dates from the Tsama site indicate some settlement there as early as the 1200s, but the pueblo seems to have peaked between 1300-1400 A. D. The inhabitants of this settlement are claimed as descendents of the present–day Tewas of San Juan Pueblo, or Ohkay Owingeh. Tewas from the nearby pueblos have reportedly left offerings at shrines erected at this ancient site even in recent times.

The name Tsama was interpreted by early archeologists to mean wrestling place in Tewa, suggesting that wrestling contests took place at this ancient village. However, more recent translations suggest Tsama is more properly interpreted as fighting around place, better reflecting, perhaps, the dangerous and tenuous nature of these early settlements. The Tsama ruin itself consists of at least three separate villages, one of which was described by archeologist Robert Greenlee as the earliest civilization in the Chama River valley. It is likely the name Chama, or as the Spanish sometime wrote it, Zama, referred first to the area of the ancient pueblo site, and eventually to the nearby river and the fertile valley through which it flows from the southern Rocky Mountains to its confluence with the Rio Grande.

The peoples who first settled the Chama valley appear to have descended from Indians who earlier occupied the region along the Rio San Juan and its tributaries in the Four Corners area referred to as the Anasazi cultural region. As Chaco, Mesa Verde, Aztec, and their associated settlements were abandoned in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, peoples from this region migrated west toward the Rio Grande by way of the San Juan drainages through Cañon Largo and the Gallinas, eventually settling along the Chama and Rio Grande. Archeological evidence seems to confirm Tewa origin stories that these modern-day pueblos descend from peoples who migrated from the Anasazi cultural region of the four corners.

The original Chama valley and Rio Grande settlements established around the twelfth century were usually relatively small villages of between twenty and one hundred rooms arranged around a central courtyard we call a plaza. Many of these early pueblos were located in what are described as defensive or semi-defensive sites on mesas that overlook the river valleys. Archeologist Harry P. Mera suggested these locations may have been chosen on aesthetic impulse because of the scenic vistas they command above an often green and lush river valley. However, it is more likely their location was chosen mainly to provide a measure of protection against potential enemies and to protect the villages themselves from floods.

One of the earliest identifiable civilizations in the rio arriba were the people who settled in what is now western Rio Arriba County between the Gobernador region and the Cañon Largo drainage during what archeologists call the Gallinas phase. Between 1100 and 1300 A. D., numerous pueblitos, or small settlements, were established in the region. These consisted of pit houses dug into the ground, with brush and clay roofs supported by posts. They also built small, single or double-room stone and masonry structures with walls that were often two or three feet thick.

The Gallinas Phase people practiced agriculture and developed terraced, rock-lined gardens that were irrigated from small dams arranged to catch run-off. Excavations at these sites have revealed manos and metates used to grind and process grains and seeds these peoples raised and collected, as well as jars, bowls and baskets they used to store and cook the food they grew and collected. These excavations have also found remains of bows and arrows used to hunt small game, sandals they wore, and grass mats on which they may have slept.

The most impressive feature of these Gallinas Phase settlements are the impressive stone towers they built along ridge tops and shallow cliff ledges. These circular structures have massive walls and can be twenty feet high. The exact nature of these structures is not known, but it is generally believed they were used for food storage and possibly, as places of worship or defense. The Nogales Cliff House, located west of Gallina near the Continental Divide, is one of the best examples of these Gallinas Phase towers.

No one knows for certain where these Gallinas Phase peoples came from. Some think they may have descended from peoples who migrated from the Basketmaker cultures of the Durango, Colorado region, while others suggest they migrated from the Great Plains. Regardless of their origins, the Gallinas Phase settlements were abandoned by 1300 A. D. No one knows where they went, but some anthropologists and archeologists speculate they may be the ancestors of the Pueblo of Jemez. What is certain is that the abandonment of these small communities coincides with the development of larger pueblos along the lower Rio Chama and its tributaries.

Archeological studies have determined there were sizeable increases in large pueblos along the Chama and northern Rio Grande between 1350 and 1400 A. D. Some of this growth may have come about as smaller pueblos were abandoned and their residents joined larger nearby settlements. Indications are many of the smaller pueblos were abandoned around the same time as the larger ones appear in the archeological record and there is little evidence that a migration from outside the area accounted for establishment of these larger pueblos at this time. There are at least sixteen of these large pueblos in Rio Arriba County. Two of the largest are Posi-Ouinge [Posi–Greenness Pueblo], established in the late 1300s on a mesa overlooking the hot springs from which Ojo Caliente derives its name, and Sapewe, located near El Rito. Sapewe consists of nearly 2,000 rooms arrayed around seven plazas. The occupants of these large pueblos were farmers. They raised squash, pumpkins, beans, corn, and supplemented their diet by hunting deer, rabbits, and other small game. Archeological investigations at pueblos near Ojo Caliente have found surprising evidence that these people grew cotton in small rock-lined mulch fields. It had been previously thought that the colder temperatures and short growing season of the north limited the cultivation of cotton to the milder climate and longer growing season enjoyed by the southern pueblos. Current research has shown that these stone-lined fields effectively slowed evaporation, protected plants from frost and helped prevent soil erosion.

Many pueblos along the lower Chama River and its tributaries were abandoned during the century prior to Spanish contact. Archeological evidence has suggested the population in the Chama valley declined abruptly by the early 1500s, possibly as result of conflict and competition for resources between adjacent settlements. Others have pointed out this may have come about as a result of increased raiding and pressure from the recently introduced Athabaskan peoples such as the Navajo.

One of the finest examples of a fifteenth century (1400s) pueblo that was established during this period and abandoned in the century prior to arrival of the Spanish to northern New Mexico is Poshuouinge. Also known as Poshu, ruins of the pueblo are located on a mesa overlooking the Rio Chama east of Abiquiú. Tree ring dating has determined that the site was established around 1420, although some tree ring samples suggest a part of the village may have been built at least a generation earlier. The pueblo consists of about 700 rooms arranged around two separate plazas. Archeological excavations have uncovered pottery, stone and bone tools, charred wood, fragments of baskets and plant and animal remains. These remains suggest that several hundred individuals lived and worked here, making pottery and baskets, grinding corn, processing game, cooking and worshiping while others tended to the agricultural fields and hunted. A few undoubtedly took their turn in keeping a close watch on the surrounding countryside from the lookout located at the crest of the hill behind the pueblo. For reasons that remain unknown, this thriving, vibrant community was abandoned by the late 1400s.

Athabaskan Peoples—The Navajo

Aggregation of peoples around larger settlements that developed into today’s pueblos appears about the time that other cultural groups began to arrive in northern New Mexico. The Athabaskans (also spelled Athapascans) constitute the tribes we now know as the various Apache groups including the Apachean peoples that became known as the Navajo. These groups migrated to the Great Plains from west-central Canada, where tribal peoples with similar linguistic characteristics still live. The Athabaskan peoples that eventually migrated to the southwest are divided into two basic linguistic groups—the Kiowa Apachean and Southern Apachean.

Athabaskan groups arrived in what is now New Mexico at some time during the century prior to arrival of the Spanish in 1540. Information from the Francisco Vásquez de Coronado chronicles tell us that people from the Great Plains known as the Teyas had attacked Pecos and other pueblos a generation earlier and that eventually the pueblos made peace and traded with these peoples. It is not know which cultural group of Athabaskans this was.

Presence of the Navajo in the Chama valley adds an important element to the history of Rio Arriba. Indications are the Apachean peoples we call the Navajo migrated from the Great Plains to the mountains of Colorado sometime before 1500 and settled north of the Four Corners before expanding south and eventually into the upper Chama valley. Scholars suggest that these Athabaskans were at least partially responsible for abandonment of the Anasazi cultural region around the Four Corners.

By the early 1500s groups of these Apachean peoples occupied a number of sites along the Piedra Lumbre region west of Abiquiú. Although this cultural group is but one of the several Apachean groups that came into New Mexico at this time, the Navajo were identified in early Spanish records as Apaches de Navaju, or the Apaches that lived in the region west of the pueblos. This name was used to describe these Indians as early as the 1620s, when the Friar Jerónimo de Zárate Salmerón mentioned that the Apache Indians of Nabaju could be reached by traveling west along the Rio de Zama.

The name Navajo seems to have derived from a Tewa phrase that meant something like place where they plant fields. The Spanish term Apaches de Navajo came to mean the specific group of Apaches who lived and planted their fields west of the Tewa pueblos and Abiquiú. Some have also suggested that the name Apache derives from apachu, or enemy, the Zuñi name for the Navajo. The Zuñi term apahje, or people has also been suggested as the origin of the term Apache because it is very close to the dineh or dine (man or people) the Navajo call themselves.

Eventually, however, the Apaches de was eliminated from their name and they enter the historical record simply as Navajo, the name they retain to this day. Their proximity to the pueblos and later Spanish settlements is illustrated by the report of Fray Alonso de Benavides. In 1629, Fray Alonso attempted to negotiate a peace and convert some Navajo who lived in rancherías, or small settlements, just one day’s travel west of Santa Clara Pueblo. He noted that of all the Indian nations, this one has caused most grief and worry to New Mexico, both because its inhabitants are so warlike and brave and because there were so many of them.

In 1706, Spanish Governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdez, the founder of the villa of Alburquerque, wrote the following description of the Navajo:

These Indians live from the said area [of the Piedra Lumbre] up to the banks and fields of the [Rio San Juan]. Maintaining themselves by their own labor, they cultivate the land with much care. They sow corn, beans and squash, and all sorts of seeds and grain [except barley and wheat], such as chile and other items that they have found in the settlements of Christian Indians of this kingdom; this [they have practiced] since when they became settled…They make their own blankets of wool and cotton; the one they sow and the other they secure from the flocks of sheep that they raise.

The Spanish colonial and Mexican periods of our history were an era of almost continual warfare and conflict with the Navajo. Although the century and a half following the reconquista were punctuated by short periods of peace, the combined efforts of the Spanish and Mexican governments and their Pueblo allies were never able to muster the men or resources they needed to effectively defeat the Navajo. Following the U. S. occupation of New Mexico in 1846, the United States government also failed to effectively negotiate and implement peace treaties with the Navajo. In 1863 General James S. Carleton implemented a scorched earth policy designed to once and for all force the Navajo into a reservation or destroy them in the process.

That summer of 1863, General Carleton issued a order to Colonel Christopher Kit Carson to inform the Navajo that they had to go peacefully to a reservation established for them at Bosque Redondo near Fort Sumner in southeastern New Mexico or we will pursue and destroy you…until you cease to exist.. By the end of 1864 the Navajo had been starved and hunted into submission and marched off to Bosque Redondo in a disastrous trek that has become known as the Long Walk. This tragic period in Navajo history ended in 1868 when the U. S. government entered into a treaty that established the Navajo reservation along the western New Mexico and eastern Arizona border and allowed the tribe to return to their homeland, where they remain to this day.

Athabaskan Peoples—The Jicarilla

The Jicarilla Apache are the second major group of Athabaskan peoples that influenced the history of Rio Arriba. The Jicarilla, named for the small, cup-like (jicaras) baskets they wove, are one of the six major Athabaskan groups that migrated to the southwest that also include the Navajo (discussed above), Chiricahua, Mescalero, Lipan and Kiowa. The group that can be readily identified as today’s Jicarilla emerged during the late 1600s, after the Spanish arrival in New Mexico. The Jicarilla settled the region that extended from southeastern Colorado to the plains of the Pecos River Valley east of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and in the region around present-day Cimarron. Here they constructed villages with walls of adobe and developed small irrigated fields where they practiced limited agriculture. However, these peoples were principally a bison-hunting culture that retained many Plains Indian characteristics and often lived in sewn skin tents we call tepees. The Jicarilla bands that occupied and lived in the diverse plains or mountain regions developed into the two distinct social orientations that they maintain to this day—the Llaneros (plains people) who lived in the plains of northeast New Mexico, and the Olleros (Mountain–valley peoples), who migrated annually to the Rio Grande Valley, along the Rio Chama and northwest into Tierra Amarilla. Indications are the Jicarilla and Southern Utes developed and maintained a close social and cultural relationship.

The Jicarilla began to migrate west of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and into the area between Taos and Picurís in the 1700s where they had frequent contact with the pueblos and Spanish settlements of northern New Mexico. Spanish-period maps such as the Joseph Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez map of 1768 labels their historical homeland as the Apaches Xicarilla northeast of Taos. The better known Bernardo Miera y Pacheco map of 1778 identifies this same location as the Cerro de la Xicarilla in what would be present-day southeast Colorado.

Citizen complaints about the Jicarilla around the Abiquiú settlements are plentiful in the early 1850s. In 1851, the United States government negotiated the first of several treaties with the Jicarilla that attempted to establish a reservation for them west of Abiquiú along the Rio Puerco. The government had hoped to settle them further west and north but the Utes protested intrusion into their traditional homelands. Agency reports of the period suggest the Jicarilla attempted to farm at least 150 acres under the supervision of the farmer-in-charge William B. Connally somewhere along the Rio Gallinas west of Abiquiú. The 1851 Jicarilla treaty, however, was never approved by Congress and the Jicarilla farming experiment was abandoned. In 1854 open warfare with the Jicarilla broke out after they began serious raiding on settlements and stealing livestock. Beginning in May 1854, militia campaigns conducted under the command of don José María Chávez, Felipe Madrid and Geronimo Jaramillo brought the raiding to a halt. When their agency was officially established at Cimarron in 1861, some bands of the Jicarilla insisted on going to Abiquiú for their annuity goods, and a number of them reportedly began living along the Rio del Oso and at La Cueva, where they attempted to farm.

During this period, the Jicarilla were under the charge of agents at Taos, Cimarron, and Abiquiú. In 1874, the tribe entered into a treaty with the United States government that established a reservation for them in northwest New Mexico along the San Juan River. In 1876 President Rutherford B. Hayes abrogated this agreement and ordered the Jicarilla to move into the Mescalero reservation near Fort Stanton in southern New Mexico. Most of the Jicarilla, however, ignored the order to move to the Mescalero reservation and remained in northern New Mexico in the vicinity of Abiquiú and Tierra Amarilla.

In 1880, President Hayes set aside an area for a permanent Jicarilla reservation at Amargo, as the Dulce area was then known. The reservation consisted of approximately the same area of the present reservation. The Jicarilla began moving from Tierra Amarilla to their new home on December 20, 1881, but once again, local political pressures prevented them from retaining their assigned reservation. In 1884, President Chester A. Arthur rescinded the orders for the reservation at Amargo and the Jicarilla were forced to return to Mescalero in what has become known as their Trail of Tears.

Finally, on February 11, 1887, President Grover Cleveland issued an Executive Order which set apart the current reservation in western Rio Arriba County as a permanent home for the Jicarilla Apache. Soon after, the Jicarilla began moving back to Amargo from the various places they had gone when the 1881 reservation was abolished in 1884. Those that had gone to the Mescalero reservation began their trek north on April 25, 1887 and arrived at their new homeland in early June 1887. Others who had gone to Cimarron undertook a 200 mile wagon and pack horse trip to their new reservation. In the summer of 1987 the tribe reenacted this trek as part of their centennial commemoration of the establishment of the Jicarilla Apache Reservation.

Today, the Jicarilla remain in their 850,000 acre reservation along the western border of Rio Arriba County. Organized and incorporated officially as the Jicarilla Apache Nation in 1937 under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the tribe operates within the framework of a constitution and by-laws that have allowed them to prosper. During the past decades the tribe has negotiated oil and gas leases, managed its timber and livestock resources, and developed an elk preserve widely known for its trophy hunting. They have also, as many tribal groups