Read Online Kachina and the Cross by Carroll L Riley - Free Book Online
Authors: Carroll L Riley
Tags: United States, General, Social Science, History, Native American Studies, State & Local, Native American, Ethnic Studies, Anthropology, test, Southwest (AZ; NM; OK; TX)
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Plains and reached the Llano Estacado, where the army camped for a time in Blanco Canyon just north and east of present-day Lubbock. With a small party, searching for the supposedly gold-rich region called Quivira, he journeyed north and eastward to the Arkansas River in modern central Kansas. The sea wing of the expedition, under Hernán de Alarçón, explored the lower Colorado River to the mouth of the Gila.
Though it led to new geographic knowledge, the Coronado expedition was basically a failure. The Spaniards created enemies at various of the Rio Grande pueblos, in the Sonoran area, at Hopi, and at Pecos. Tiguex, the large Tiwa-speaking confederation on the Rio Grande, was badly mauled in a war that raged for the first three months of 1541. Coronado's way station at Corazones in
Page 31
the Sonora Valley was wiped out with considerable loss of Spanish lives. And, with the exception of some deposits in the Sonora Valley, no gold was found. Following a fall from his horse, resulting in a severe head injury, Coronado decided to retreat from the Southwest. In the spring of 1542, he returned to Mexico. Left behind were a number of disaffected central and west Mexican Indians and a Franciscan lay brother, Luis de Ubeda, who dreamed of converting the native southwesterners. With Fray Luis was a herd of sheep, presumably to teach the Pueblo Indians animal husbandry. One of the priests on the expedition, Juan de Padilla, insisted on returning to Kansas, where he believed that Quivira was on the edge of that fabled kingdom of Antilia founded by the Portuguese a thousand years before. Padilla was killed in Kansas, but certain other members of his party escaped back to Mexico.
The Mexican Indians settled in the Southwest and may have introduced a number of Mesoamerican traits to the area. Ubeda, however, seems to have been killed, as likely were his sheep. No new animal domestication came out of the Coronado expedition, although certain new plants, cantaloupes and watermelons, may have entered the Southwest during this period.
Coronado had approached the Southwest from the west coast of Mexico. As late as the time of Francisco de Ibarra in the early 1560s there were attempts to explore in that direction. Ibarra, who became governor of the new province of Nueva Vizcaya, crossed the central Sierra Madre Occidental in the Topia region and then worked his way north along the coast, exploring the Sonoran statelets and fighting a fierce battle with the people of Sefiora in the middle Sonora Valley. He then recrossed the Sierra into what is now Chihuahua, being the first European to view the great ruins of Casas Grandes, which had been deserted for a century or more but whose crumbling adobe walls were still an impressive sight. Ibarra returned to the Sonoran valleys and eventually moved back down the coast.
By this time, however, the Spaniards were well on their way to an advance up the intermontane interior of Mexico. Lured there by great silver strikes in Zacatecas beginning in 1546, the newcomers quickly moved into the modern Durángo, where both silver and rich riverine grasslands for cattle ranches were to be found. Indé in northern Durángo was settled by a lieutenant of Ibarra's named Rodrigo del Río in 1567, and that same year saw the colonization of the rich silver mining region of Santa Bárbara on the Río Florido, a tributary of the Conchos. Two years later the population of Santa Bárbara was enlarged by Tlaxcalan tribesmen, and around 1570 the Franciscans moved into the area establishing a center at San Bartolomé, the modern Allende.
Silver mining was labor intensive, and Indians were needed to work the mines. Slave raiding into the still largely unknown north became common
Page 32
despite attempts by officials in Mexico City and Spain to control it. In the process of this slave raiding, the Spaniards rediscovered the Rio Grande, probably first at La Junta where the Conchos and Rio Grande join. During the 1570s it
Though it led to new geographic knowledge, the Coronado expedition was basically a failure. The Spaniards created enemies at various of the Rio Grande pueblos, in the Sonoran area, at Hopi, and at Pecos. Tiguex, the large Tiwa-speaking confederation on the Rio Grande, was badly mauled in a war that raged for the first three months of 1541. Coronado's way station at Corazones in
Page 31
the Sonora Valley was wiped out with considerable loss of Spanish lives. And, with the exception of some deposits in the Sonora Valley, no gold was found. Following a fall from his horse, resulting in a severe head injury, Coronado decided to retreat from the Southwest. In the spring of 1542, he returned to Mexico. Left behind were a number of disaffected central and west Mexican Indians and a Franciscan lay brother, Luis de Ubeda, who dreamed of converting the native southwesterners. With Fray Luis was a herd of sheep, presumably to teach the Pueblo Indians animal husbandry. One of the priests on the expedition, Juan de Padilla, insisted on returning to Kansas, where he believed that Quivira was on the edge of that fabled kingdom of Antilia founded by the Portuguese a thousand years before. Padilla was killed in Kansas, but certain other members of his party escaped back to Mexico.
The Mexican Indians settled in the Southwest and may have introduced a number of Mesoamerican traits to the area. Ubeda, however, seems to have been killed, as likely were his sheep. No new animal domestication came out of the Coronado expedition, although certain new plants, cantaloupes and watermelons, may have entered the Southwest during this period.
Coronado had approached the Southwest from the west coast of Mexico. As late as the time of Francisco de Ibarra in the early 1560s there were attempts to explore in that direction. Ibarra, who became governor of the new province of Nueva Vizcaya, crossed the central Sierra Madre Occidental in the Topia region and then worked his way north along the coast, exploring the Sonoran statelets and fighting a fierce battle with the people of Sefiora in the middle Sonora Valley. He then recrossed the Sierra into what is now Chihuahua, being the first European to view the great ruins of Casas Grandes, which had been deserted for a century or more but whose crumbling adobe walls were still an impressive sight. Ibarra returned to the Sonoran valleys and eventually moved back down the coast.
By this time, however, the Spaniards were well on their way to an advance up the intermontane interior of Mexico. Lured there by great silver strikes in Zacatecas beginning in 1546, the newcomers quickly moved into the modern Durángo, where both silver and rich riverine grasslands for cattle ranches were to be found. Indé in northern Durángo was settled by a lieutenant of Ibarra's named Rodrigo del Río in 1567, and that same year saw the colonization of the rich silver mining region of Santa Bárbara on the Río Florido, a tributary of the Conchos. Two years later the population of Santa Bárbara was enlarged by Tlaxcalan tribesmen, and around 1570 the Franciscans moved into the area establishing a center at San Bartolomé, the modern Allende.
Silver mining was labor intensive, and Indians were needed to work the mines. Slave raiding into the still largely unknown north became common
Page 32
despite attempts by officials in Mexico City and Spain to control it. In the process of this slave raiding, the Spaniards rediscovered the Rio Grande, probably first at La Junta where the Conchos and Rio Grande join. During the 1570s it
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