HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. Part I. decorative line The earliest knowledge of the existence of the sedentary Indians in New Mexico and Arizona reached Europe by way of Mexico proper; but it is very doubtful whether or not the aborigines of Mexico had any positive information to impart about countries lying north of the present State of QuerÉtaro. The tribes to the north were, in the language of the valley-confederates, "Chichimecas,"—a word yet undefined, but apparently synonymous, in the conceptions of the "Nahuatl"-speaking natives, with fierce savagery, and ultimately adopted by them as a warlike title. Indistinct notions, indeed, of an original residence, during some very remote period of time, at the distant north, have been found among nearly all the tribes of Mexico which speak the Nahuatl language. These notions even assume the form of tradition in the tale of the Seven Caves, The tale of the Seven Caves, as the original home of the Mexicans and their kindred, prevailed to such an extent that, as early as 1562, in a collection of picture-sheets executed in aboriginal style, the so-called "Codex Vaticanus," "Chicomoztoc," and the migrations thence, were graphically represented. All the important Indian writers of Mexico between 1560 and 1600, such as DurÁro, Camargo, Tezozomoc, and Ixtlilxochitl, refer to it as an ancient legend, and they locate the site of the story, furthermore, very distinctly in New Mex While it is impossible as yet to determine whether or not this legend exercised any direct influence on the extension of Spanish power into Northern Mexico, another myth, well known to eastern continents from a remote period, became directly instrumental in the discovery of New Mexico. This is the tale of the Amazons. About 1524 a.d., Cortes was informed by one of his officers (then on an expedition about Michhuacan) that towards the north there existed a region called Ciguatan ("Cihuatlan"—place of women), near to which was an island inhabited by warlike females exclusively. During this time, Pamfilo de Narvaez had undertaken the colonization of Florida. It is not possible to follow and to trace, geographically, the erratic course of Cabeza de Vaca with any degree of certainty. His own tale, however authentic, is so confused They reported that, when their shiftings had cast them far to the west of the sinister coast of what was then called "Florida," settlements of Indians were reached which presented a high degree of culture. During their stay among the nondescript tribes of South-western North America, Cabeza de Vaca and his companions had tried to scatter the seeds of Christianity,—at least, they claimed to have done so. The monks of the order of St. Francis then represented the "working church" in Mexico. One of their number, Fray Marcos de Nizza, who had joined Pedro de Alvarado upon his return from his adventurous tour to Quito in Ecuador, and who was well versed in Indian lore, Leaving San Miguel de Culiacan on the 7th of March, To this great pueblo, "more considerable than Mexico," Fray Marcos was induced to give the name of Cibola. With the report about Cibola came the news that the said pueblo was only one of seven, and the "Seven Cities of Cibola" became the next object of Spanish conquest. It is not our purpose here to describe the events of this conquest, or rather series of conquests, beginning with the expedition of Francisco Vasquez Coronado in 1540, and ending in the final occupation of New Mexico by Juan de OÑate in 1598. For the history of these enterprises, we refer the reader to the attractive and trustworthy work of Mr. W. W. H. Davis. There can be no doubt that Cibola is to be looked for in New Mexico. From the vague indications of Fray Marcos, we are at least authorized to place it within the limits of New Mexico or Arizona, and the subsequent expedition of Coronado furnishes more positive information. Coronado marched—"leaving north slightly to the left" Within the last forty years at least, this "Red house" has been repeatedly identified with the so-called "Casas Grandes," lying to the south of the Rio Gila in Arizona. There are numerous other indications in favor of this assumption. 1. Thus CastaÑeda says: "Twenty leagues to the north-west, there is another province which contains seven villages. The inhabitants have the same costumes, the same customs, and the same religion as those of Cibola." 2. Five days' journey from Cibola to the east, says CastaÑeda, there was a village called "Acuco," erected on a rock. "This village is very strong, because there was but one path leading to it. It rose upon a precipitous rock on all sides, etc." 3. According to Jaramillo: "All the water-courses which we met, whether they were streams or rivers, until that of Cibola, and I even believe one or two journeyings beyond, flow in the direction of the South Sea; further on they take the direction of the Sea of the North." 4. The village called "Acuco," or "Tutahaco," lay between Cibola and the streams running to the south-east, "entering the Sea of the North." It results from points 3 and 4, that the region of Cibola lay at all events west of the present grants to the pueblo of Acoma. There are watercourses in their north-western corner, and through the western half thereof, which become tributaries to the Rio Grande del Norte. The only settled region, or rather the region containing the remains of large settlements, lying west of the water-shed between the Colorado of the West and the Rio Grande, is much farther north. Our choice is therefore limited between ZuÑi and the Moqui towns themselves; for there can be no doubt as to the identity of the rock of Acuco or Tutahaco, east of Cibola, with the pueblo of Acoma, whose remarkable situation, on the top of a high, isolated rock, has made it the most conspicuous object in New Mexico for nearly three centuries. But there can be as little doubt, also, in regard to the identity of the Moqui district with the "Tusayan" of CastaÑeda and of Jaramillo. When the Moqui region first was made known under that name ("Mohoce," "Mohace") in 1583, by Antonio de Espejo, it lay westward from Cibola "four journeys of seven leagues each." One of its pueblos was called "Aguato" ("Aguatobi"). Finally, we must notice here that the text of Hackluyt's version of Espejo's report is in so far incorrect as it leads to the inference that Espejo only admitted Cibola to be a Spanish name for ZuÑi, therefore making it doubtful whether or not it was the original place ("y la llaman los EspaÑoles Cibola"). The original text of Espejo's report distinctly says, however, "a province of six pueblos, called ZuÑi, and by another name, Cibola," thus positively identifying the place. We cannot, therefore, refuse to adopt the views of General Simpson and of Mr. W. W. H. Davis, and to look to the pueblo of ZuÑi as occupying, if not the actual site, at least one of the sites within the tribal area of the "Seven cities of Cibola." Nor can we refuse to identify Tusayan with the Moqui district, and Acuco with Acoma. This investigation has so far enabled us to locate, at the time of their first discovery, three of the principal pueblos or groups of pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona. The pueblo of Acoma appears to have occupied at that time the identical striking position in which it is found to-day. The pueblo of ZuÑi, while it undoubtedly occupies the ground once claimed by the cluster to which the name of Cibola was given, is but the remaining one of six or seven villages then forming that group, or a recent construction sheltering the remnants of their former occupants. The Moqui towns appear to be the same which the Spaniards found three hundred and forty years ago, though additions from other tribes have, as we But the information to be derived from Coronado's march, on the ethnography of New Mexico, is not confined to the above. While at Cibola, Indians from a tribe or region called "CicuyÉ," which was said to be found far to the east, came to see him. They brought with them buffalo-hides, prepared and manufactured into shields and "helmets." Although the Spaniards had heard of the buffalo before reaching ZuÑi, the animal itself had not been met with, and accordingly Coronado sent Hernando de Alvarado to CicuyÉ, and in quest of the "buffalo country." CicuyÉ is the "Cicuique" of Juan Jaramillo, and the "Acuique" of an anonymous relation of the year 1541: it lay to the east of Acoma, through which the Spaniards passed. If it took five days of march from ZuÑi to Acoma, three days more, in a north-easterly direction, would have brought the Spaniards to the Rio Grande, and certainly much beyond the Rio Puerco; and then Pecos could easily be reached in five days. But we are unable to guess, even, at the length of each journey. From ZuÑi to Acoma the country was uninhabited; therefore the length of each journey may have been great, because there was nothing to attract the attention of the Spaniards,—nothing to prevent them from hastening their progress in order to reach their point of destination. From Acoma on, the ethnographical character changed. The actual distance to the Rio Grande may be shorter; but pueblos sprung up at small intervals of space, which necessitated greater caution, and therefore greater delay, in the movements of the advancing party. Still, we have a guide of great efficiency in another branch of information. The pueblo of "Tiguex," mentioned as lying three days from Acoma, indicates, seemingly, a settlement of Tehua-speaking Indians. Now, the "Tehua" idiom is spoken in those pueblos which lie directly north of Santa FÉ. San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Clara, Pohuaque, NambÉ, and Tesuque. But it is quite ap The Tehua, like all the tribes along the Rio Grande, suffered vicissitudes and consequent displacements; and it might be advanced that one or the other of the Tehua villages, formerly known as Tiguex, might now be destroyed. Fortunately, we need not resort to such hypotheses. It appears, from documentary evidence of the year 1598, that there was, distinct from the Tehua or Tegua, a tribe of "Chiguas," or "Tiguas;" Having thus, as we believe, satisfactorily located Tiguex, it is easy to locate CicuyÉ. It can be nothing else than Pecos, whose aboriginal Indian name, in the Jemez language, is "Âgin," whereas Pecos is the "Paego" of the Qq'uÊres idiom. There is no other Indian pueblo answering to its description and geographical location as given by the chroniclers of Coronado. The fact that "when the army quitted CicuyÉ to I repeat, it is not to our purpose to describe the "faits et gestes" of Coronado and of his men, but only to discuss the results of his march for the Ethnography of New Mexico. I even exclude Ethnology in as far as it does not include language. The distribution of tribes and stocks of tribes designated by idioms, as Coronado revealed it in 1540 to 1543, is to be the final result of the discussion. Therefore, I leave the acts of the Spaniards aside everywhere, when they are not essential to the object, and do not even follow a strict chronological sequence. After Alvarado had left Cibola for Tiguex, Coronado himself followed him; and, "taking the road to Tiguex," he crossed a range of mountains where snow impeded his march,—and during which march he and his men were once two and a half days without water,—until finally he reached a pueblo called "Tutahaco." When Coronado reached "Tiguex" at last, it thereafter became the centre of his operations. CastaÑeda very justly remarks: "Tiguex is the central point;" From Tiguex an expedition was sent along the Rio Grande Through our identifications of "Tiguex" with Bernalillo, of "CicuyÉ" with Pecos, and "Tutahaco" with near Isleta, it becomes now extremely easy to locate all these pueblos in the most satisfactory manner. "Quirix" is the Queres district Santo-Domingo, CochitÍ, etc. In sending the officers mentioned along the Rio Grande, as far south as Mesilla probably, Coronado explored the territory beyond the range of the pueblos, and he thus secured information also concerning the roaming tribes. It is essential that I should touch these here also, because the subsequent history of the village Indians cannot be understood without connection with their savage surroundings. I might as well state here, that west of the Rio Grande and south of ZuÑi, the entire south-west corner of New Mexico, appears to have been uninhabited in 1540. Stray hunting parties may have visited it, though there was hardly any inducement, since the buffalo was found east of the Rio Grande only, as far as New Mexico is concerned. The country visited along the Rio Grande, as far as Mesilla, appears not to have given any occasion for its explorers, to mention any wild tribes as its occupants. Still we know that, east of Socorro and south-east, not forty years after Coronado, the "Jumanas" Indians claimed the Eastern portions of Valencia and Socorro counties; the regions of Abo, Quarac, and Gran Quivira. Very distinct ethnographic information, however, is given by Coronado himself, as well as by CastaÑeda and by Jaramillo, in regard to north-eastern New Mexico. This information was secured in the year 1542, during his adventurous expedition in search of Quivira. In regard to the route followed by him, I can but, in a general way, heartily accept the conclusions of General Simpson. The Quivira of Coronado and of OÑate has therefore not the slightest connection,—and never had, with the Gran Quivira of this day, situated east of Alamillo, near the boundaries of Socorro and Lincoln Counties, New Mexico, and the ruins there; The reports of Coronado, and others, reveal to us the east and north-east of New Mexico as the "Buffalo Country," and consequently as inhabited or roamed over by hunting savages. Of these, two tribes were the immediate neighbors of the Pueblos,—the "Teyas" to the north-east, and the "Querechos" more to the east, south of the former probably. The Ranges intermingled, and both tribes were at On the ethnographical map accompanying this sketch, I have indicated the Apaches as occupying North-western New Mexico. In this locality they were found by Juan de OÑate in 1598-99. Coronado's homeward march offering no new points of interest, I shall, in conclusion, briefly survey the Ethnography of New Mexico, as it is sketched on the map, and as established by the preceding investigation of the years 1540-43. We find the sedentary Indians of New Mexico agglomerated in the following clusters:— 1. Between the frontier of Arizona and the Rio Grande, from west to east: ZuÑi, Acoma, with possibly Laguna. 2. Along the Rio Grande, from north to south, between "Sangre de Cristo" and Mesilla: Taos, Picuries, Tehua, Queres, Tiguas (branch of the Tanos), Piros. 3. West of the Rio Grande valley: Jemez, including San Diego and Cia. 4. East of the Rio Grande: Tanos, Pecos. Around these "pueblos," then, ranged the following wild tribes. 1. In the north-west: Apaches. 2. In the north-east: Teyas. 3. North-east and east: Querechos. 4. South-east and south: Jumanas, Tobosas. The south-west of the territory appears to have been completely uninhabited, and also devoid of the buffalo. The innumerable herds of this quadruped roamed over the plains occupying the eastern third of New Mexico and extending into Texas. The Moqui of Arizona, clearly identified with Coronado's "Tusayan" are not noticed on the map, of course. If now we compare these localities in 1540 with the present sites of the pueblos of New Mexico, it is self-evident that the ZuÑi, Acoma, Tiguas, Queres, Jemez, Tehua, and Taos still occupy (Acoma excepted), if not the identical houses, at least the same tribal grounds. The Piros have removed to the frontier of Mexico, the Pecos are extinct as a tribe; of the Tanos and Picuries, a few remain on their ancient soil. Their fate is not a matter of conjecture, but of historical record. While this discussion has proved, we believe, the truthfulness and reliability of the chroniclers of Coronado's expedition, and their great importance for the history of American aborigines, it establishes at the same time the superior advantages of New Mexico as a field for archÆological and ethnological study. It is the only region on the whole continent where the highest type of culture attained by its aborigines—the village community in stone or adobe buildings—has been preserved on the respective territories of the tribes. These tribes have shrunk, the purity of their stock has been affected, their customs and beliefs encroached upon by civilization. Still enough is left to make of New Mexico the objective point of serious, practical archÆologists; for, besides the Ad. F. Bandelier. Santa FÉ, N. M., Sept. 19, 1880. NOTE. THE GRAND QUIVIRA. See p. 26. The following extract is from the "General Description" in the field-notes of the survey in 1872 of the base line of the public surveys in New Mexico by United States Deputy Surveyor Willison, taken from the original notes on file at the United States Surveyor General's office at Santa FÉ:— "The Gran Quivira, about which so much has been written and so many attempts made to reconcile with the city of that name spoken of by the early Spanish explorers, and which was said by them to be the seat of immense wealth, is passed through by the line in Sec. 34, range 8 East. The most prominent building is the church, which, as well as all the other buildings, is of limestone laid in mortar. The ground plan presents the form of a cross. The dimensions of the buildings are as follows:— "Width of short arm of cross, 33 feet; width of long arm of cross, 42 feet. Their axes are respectively 48 feet long and 140.5 feet long, and their intersection 35 feet from the head of the cross. The walls have a thickness of 6 feet, and a height of about 30 feet. The main entrance has a height of 11 feet, an outside width of 11 feet, and an inside width of 16.5 feet. The church is situated due east and west, having its front to the east. "Extending south from the church a distance of 160 feet, and connected with it by a door in the short arm of the cross, is a building containing a number of apartments. On the window-frames of this building the mark of the carpenter's scribe is still plainly visible, though doubtless exposed to the action of the atmosphere for nearly two centuries. The carved timbers in the church are still in a good state of "The site of the ruins is elevated about one hundred feet above the surrounding country, and embraces an area of about eighteen acres. The town has been well and compactly built, and probably contained a population approaching five thousand souls. Numerous excavations have been made by the Mexicans in search of the treasures said to have been left by the Jesuits when they were expelled by the Indians. In one of these excavations I found a large quantity of human bones, including a skull. From the formation of the latter, and its thickness, it was undoubtedly that of an Indian. "The questions that arise in contemplating these ruins are, how was it possible for such a number of people not only to exist, but to build a town of such superior construction at a point which is now entirely destitute of water, and to which water cannot be brought from any present source, the nearest water being fifteen miles distant? what was their occupation? and what has become of them? "That this town was the abode of Jesuit [Franciscan?] priests, and a tribe of Indians under their control, the architecture of the buildings conclusively shows. "That they were there for agricultural and pastoral purposes I consider certain, from the fact that there are no evidences of mines, or any mineral indications of any kind in the surrounding country, and that the country, with the single exception of the absence of water, is well adapted to the mode of cultivation pursued and crops raised by the Indians. "That water was brought there from some distant point—and distant it would have been—cannot be the case, as the face of the country would have required the construction of numerous aqueducts for its conveyance, remains of which would be found at the present time; and why would a people bring water a long distance for the purpose of working lands no more valuable than such as could have been had at the water? "Where, then, did the inhabitants get the water necessary for their subsistence? There are two arroyos between the ruins and the Mesa Jumanes, within a mile of the town, having well-defined watercourses, "The phenomenon of the failures of water is no uncommon one in this region, as is evidenced by the numerous vents where the surrounding rocks show the action of running water. "A case directly supporting the assumption of the failure of the water is furnished at a place about thirty-five miles northerly from the Gran Quivira, known as 'La Cienega.' At this point a stream of water, furnished by two springs, and running to a distance of about a mile at all seasons of the year, which has never been known to be dry within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, has, within the last year, entirely disappeared; and even digging to a considerable depth in the bed of the late springs fails to find the stream, or the channel by which it has so mysteriously disappeared. "To those at all familiar with the cretaceous formation of the south-eastern portion of New Mexico, and who have seen the numerous rivers that flow hundreds of inches of water within a few yards of where they make their first appearance, and the total disappearance of these streams within a few miles, who have seen the water flowing in caves and subterraneous streams, and the fact that the whole country is cavernous, can easily imagine the possibility of a stream acting upon its cretaceous bed, and eventually wearing a channel, to connect with some immense cavern, and disappearing at once from the surface beyond all reach of human power. "To the south of the Gran Quivira, at a distance of about twenty miles, commences a mal pais, an immense bed of lava, sixty miles in length from north to south, and covering an area of five hundred square miles. To the south-west of this commences a salt marsh, which has an area of fifty square miles, and which is fed entirely by subterranean streams from the Sacramento and White Mountains, receiving without doubt by the same means the drainage of this plain for a hundred miles to the north. The above facts are, I think, sufficient to account for the absence of water at the present time near Gran Quivira. "As to what became of the inhabitants of this place, as well as those of Abo and QuarrÁ to the north-west,—towns that are coeval with the Gran Quivira,—we can only conjecture. The most reasonable conclusion that can be arrived at is that they were exterminated by the Spaniards upon their reoccupation of the country. Though history is silent as to the complete operations of the Spaniards upon their return to New Mexico, yet it is a fact established by documentary evidence that a relentless war was waged against the Indians, and a number of tribes are spoken of as being engaged in certain battles, of which tribes we know nothing at the present day; and in some instances it is stated that some tribes sued for peace, and promised obedience to the rule of the conquerors, for which they received grants of lands that they at present occupy. The inhabitants of Gran Quivira, Abo, and Quarro would be among the first that the Spaniards would meet on their reoccupation of the country, and there is every reason to believe that they were exterminated by the incensed invaders." The natives of Mexico appear to have had no knowledge, nay, not even the most dim recollection, of the fauna of South-western North America. While their so-called calendar, in the graphic tokens used to designate each one of the twenty days of their conventional "month," contains the forms of all the larger quadrupeds roaming over Mexico and Central America, the tapir excepted, we look in vain for the coyote, the bear, the mountain-sheep, and the buffalo. The "Casas Grandes" in Chihuahua are on the river of the same name, north-west of the city of Chihuahua, and nearly south of JÁnos. I have been unable as yet to ascertain when they first came to notice. According to Antonio de Oca Sarmiento, Letter to the General Francisco de Gorraez Beaumont, dated 22 Sept., 1667, in Mandamiento del SeÑor Virey, Marques de Mancora, sobre las Doctrinas de Casas Grandes, que estaban en las Yumas, Jurisdiccion de San Felipe del Parral, in Documentos, 4 sÉrie, vol. iii. p. 231, etc., the Padre Pedro de Aparicio died there, and the General Francisco de Gorraez Beaumont, 1 Letter, 25 Oct., 1667, p. 234, adds: "Que en este puesto de las Casas Grandes era parimo de minÉria y segun tradicion antigua y ruinas que se veian que decian ser del tiempo de Moctezuma." A very good description of the ruins has been given by JosÉ Agustin Escudero, Noticias EstadÍsticas del Estado de Chihuahua, Mexico, 1834, cap. viii. pp. 234, 235, who visited them in 1819. Finally, Mr. J. R. Bartlett, Personal Narrative, etc., vol. ii. cap. xxxv., has furnished excellent descriptions and plates. It is hardly possible to determine if these ruins would better correspond to "Chichilticalli" than those on the Gila. The fact that the former presented, in 1819, the appearance of one solitary building, whereas the latter, in 1697, composed a group of eleven, is noteworthy, but far from being a critical point.
|