Read Online Kachina and the Cross by Carroll L Riley - Free Book Online Page A
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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became ever more clear to the Spaniards that they were on the edge of the great area explored by Coronado.
It was only a matter of time before exploring parties would penetrate the southwestern mystery once more. Even though Coronado had discovered no precious metals, rumor continued to have it that such riches existed in the Southwest. There was also the matter of the Coronado friar Luis de Ubeda, who had remained to missionize the Pueblo region. The Franciscans were eager to find out what had happened to Ubeda. Had he succeeded in producing a Christian Pueblo world? If so, there must be numbers of converted Indians badly in need of priests.
In 1542-43 Spain had made a serious attempt to control abuses to the native populations of the Americas with a series of sweeping ''New Laws.'' These had been only partly successful, and the Crown in 1573 promulgated a second series of colonization reforms. These forbade "conquests" and set down rules for the peaceful contact and missionization of the Indians. No new area would be settled without a specific license from the king, and the missionaries and their agendas were to be favored over those of the civilian colonizers. It was under the aegis of the 1573 laws that later exploration of the upper Southwest was carried out.
The first persons to receive permission for a southwestern expedition were Fray Agustin Rodriguez and Captain Francisco Sánchez Chamuscado, who headed a small party leaving Santa Bárbara in June 1581. There were two other friars, Francisco López and Juan de Santa Maria. With them were nine soldiers and nineteen servants plus some six hundred head of stock and ninety horses. In spite of the pious intentions of the Franciscans, it was also to be an explorative outing with an eye to finding new mines.
The party made its way down the Conchos to La Junta, where the Spaniards met the sedentary Patarabueyes and probably also the nomadic Jumanos, a group who wintered at La Junta and spent the more clement months hunting bison on the southwestern Plains. These Jumano, clearly, were the same people called Teya by the Coronado expedition.
There can be little doubt that the Jumano were in trading contact with the eastern Pueblos, especially the Salinas group, the Galisteo pueblos, and probably Pecos. That the Patarabueyes also had Pueblo contacts is indicated by a later statement of Juan de Oñate. According to the Oñate contract to colonize New Mexico, written in 1595, only fourteen years after Chamuscado left for the Southwest: "They must give me the Indians that are to be found in this City of
Page 33
Mexico of the nation [Patarabueyes], for they are the nearest to that province, and in particular an Indian woman who was brought from New Mexico, so that they may serve as interpreters on this expedition." The Patarabueye-Pueblo connection seems to have been a common assumption among the Spaniards. I shall discuss the Indian woman from New Mexico in chapter 4. Despite the proximity in the wording, she likely was not connected to the Patarabueyes.
The Chamuscado expedition worked its way northward along the north side of the Rio Grande from La Junta to what is now southern New Mexico. In fact, it was Chamuscado who gave the name San Felipe de Nuevo México to that section of the Rio Grande and, by extension, to the entire upper Southwest. The San Felipe portion of the name, possibly introduced in honor of Philip II of Spain as well as the saint, quickly dropped out, and the area became known simply as Nuevo (or Nueva) México. The first Piro town, also named San Felipe by the Spaniards, was on the west side of the Rio Grande south of Milligan's Gulch. It was in ruins, but as the party went on upstream, they found occupied settlements from which the Piro had fled at sight of the Spaniards. I have suggested that there may have been unrecorded Spanish slave raids into the area, perhaps in the early 1570s, which caused the Piro Indians to react with fear to this small Spanish
It was only a matter of time before exploring parties would penetrate the southwestern mystery once more. Even though Coronado had discovered no precious metals, rumor continued to have it that such riches existed in the Southwest. There was also the matter of the Coronado friar Luis de Ubeda, who had remained to missionize the Pueblo region. The Franciscans were eager to find out what had happened to Ubeda. Had he succeeded in producing a Christian Pueblo world? If so, there must be numbers of converted Indians badly in need of priests.
In 1542-43 Spain had made a serious attempt to control abuses to the native populations of the Americas with a series of sweeping ''New Laws.'' These had been only partly successful, and the Crown in 1573 promulgated a second series of colonization reforms. These forbade "conquests" and set down rules for the peaceful contact and missionization of the Indians. No new area would be settled without a specific license from the king, and the missionaries and their agendas were to be favored over those of the civilian colonizers. It was under the aegis of the 1573 laws that later exploration of the upper Southwest was carried out.
The first persons to receive permission for a southwestern expedition were Fray Agustin Rodriguez and Captain Francisco Sánchez Chamuscado, who headed a small party leaving Santa Bárbara in June 1581. There were two other friars, Francisco López and Juan de Santa Maria. With them were nine soldiers and nineteen servants plus some six hundred head of stock and ninety horses. In spite of the pious intentions of the Franciscans, it was also to be an explorative outing with an eye to finding new mines.
The party made its way down the Conchos to La Junta, where the Spaniards met the sedentary Patarabueyes and probably also the nomadic Jumanos, a group who wintered at La Junta and spent the more clement months hunting bison on the southwestern Plains. These Jumano, clearly, were the same people called Teya by the Coronado expedition.
There can be little doubt that the Jumano were in trading contact with the eastern Pueblos, especially the Salinas group, the Galisteo pueblos, and probably Pecos. That the Patarabueyes also had Pueblo contacts is indicated by a later statement of Juan de Oñate. According to the Oñate contract to colonize New Mexico, written in 1595, only fourteen years after Chamuscado left for the Southwest: "They must give me the Indians that are to be found in this City of
Page 33
Mexico of the nation [Patarabueyes], for they are the nearest to that province, and in particular an Indian woman who was brought from New Mexico, so that they may serve as interpreters on this expedition." The Patarabueye-Pueblo connection seems to have been a common assumption among the Spaniards. I shall discuss the Indian woman from New Mexico in chapter 4. Despite the proximity in the wording, she likely was not connected to the Patarabueyes.
The Chamuscado expedition worked its way northward along the north side of the Rio Grande from La Junta to what is now southern New Mexico. In fact, it was Chamuscado who gave the name San Felipe de Nuevo México to that section of the Rio Grande and, by extension, to the entire upper Southwest. The San Felipe portion of the name, possibly introduced in honor of Philip II of Spain as well as the saint, quickly dropped out, and the area became known simply as Nuevo (or Nueva) México. The first Piro town, also named San Felipe by the Spaniards, was on the west side of the Rio Grande south of Milligan's Gulch. It was in ruins, but as the party went on upstream, they found occupied settlements from which the Piro had fled at sight of the Spaniards. I have suggested that there may have been unrecorded Spanish slave raids into the area, perhaps in the early 1570s, which caused the Piro Indians to react with fear to this small Spanish
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