THE INDIANS OF
CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK
The Indian story of the Park is quite complicated for several reasons. First, we cannot confine our story to the man-made boundaries of today, but to the natural geographic features which are mainly the Guadalupe Mountains. Second, we must deal with more than one group of people and outside cultural influences of each group. These groups, however, will be confined mostly to New Mexico and north and west Texas. Then, too, long periods of time must be taken into consideration.
So, let us start our story with man’s first entry into the new world some 15 to 25,000 years ago. Most archaeologists agree that man came from Asia via the Bering Straits, perhaps by a land bridge or over the ice. Undoubtedly many migrations over a long period of time were made by various small groups of peoples. These first people were nomadic followers of game and perhaps gatherers of seeds. Steadily moving southward, they eventually reached what is now southeastern New Mexico and north and west Texas. How long they lived here, where they went and who their ancestors were are unknown. Theory plus material evidence suggest that they may have evolved into what archaeologists call the Cochise complex to Basketmaker to Pueblo, with deviations in all groups. Yet, at the present time there is not enough evidence this last happened that simply, so we shall attempt to present the evidence as interpreted for each group or groups coming into contact with Carlsbad Caverns National Park and adjacent areas.
There appears to be a long time-lag between Early Man and our next group, the Basketmakers. Positive proof indicates that the Basketmakers were here before 900 A.D., and possibly as early as 4000 years ago. Our Basketmakers, which are not to be confused in any manner with the San Juan Basketmakers, were a rather isolated group and tended to remain that way through numerous outside influences. While Pueblo groups to the west and north were progressing in agriculture, architecture, and esthetic arts, our group, because of their environment, remained more or less stable in their mode of life—hunter, and gatherers of seeds—in an area totally unsuitable for agriculture.
Next to enter our area were the Apaches from the north after 1300 A.D.(?) Whether they exerted pressure on the Basketmakers we do not know. After the Apaches acquired horses from the Spanish, thus making them mobile, different groups moved to other parts of New Mexico and Arizona. Branching to the south and southeast were the Mescalero and Lipan bands. The Mescalero band settled in an area which included the Guadalupe Mountains and surrounding districts whence they raided the Pueblo Indians and the Spanish until about 1725, when another Plains group, the Comanches, came into the country from the northeast. By pushing the Apaches north and west, the Comanches controlled a tremendous portion of the Southern Plains.
Quite probably all of the mentioned Indian groups knew of the entrance to the Carlsbad Caverns. However, physical evidence that they did was left by only one group—the Basketmakers. On the south wall of the natural entrance may be seen pictographs or paintings of some weather worn figures in red (ocher) and black (probably carbon). On the surface just above the cave mouth is a distinct “midden circle” or cooking pit. Many of these midden circles are found throughout the entire area and will be explained more fully in the chapter on the Carlsbad Basketmakers.
There is little physical evidence that any of the Indians went into the cave beyond the entrance which they obviously used as a means of shelter. It is very unlikely that they ventured beyond the now Bat Cave section of the cave for several logical reasons. Light is the paramount factor in cave exploration, and the Indians’ only means of light would have been from rather crude torches of bark, grass, or wood, none of which gives off much light, nor burns for any appreciable length of time. Probably the young and agile only would attempt the precarious descent, if only to break the humdrum of everyday existence.
Upon first viewing the Caverns entrance, one readily notices the steep slope downward and the sheer drop to the floor of the Bat Cave section, and how, at the bottom of this drop, there is built up a sizeable pile of rubble. From this rubble and the bat guano deposits that led away from it in all directions have come numerous skeletal remains, burnt and worked stone, and fragments of woven articles, such as bags, sandals, and baskets. Burials were also found in the small solution pockets or holes seen in the vicinity of the paintings in the entrance proper.[1]
The Indians living any length of time in this area were concerned primarily with obtaining food, and this was a constant struggle. So, from this practical point of view, they wouldn’t have any business going into what we now call the scenic sections of the cave. On the other hand we cannot say they did not go down, because we know man’s curiosity can get the better of him sometimes. It is very logical to assume that, over the long period of time man has been in and around the area, someone climbed down and looked.
Some people are of the assumption that the superstitious nature of the Indians kept them out of the cave. True, man has always been somewhat afraid of the dark and will probably always be so. That the Indians were superstitious of the bats, which fly out the entrance each summer evening in search of night-flying insects, is very questionable. First of all, if the people were afraid of the bats they would not have lived under the entrance overhang. This writer could find only one instance where bats were regarded other than “little brothers,” and this was a myth among the Guiana Indians of South America that concerned “big bats that suck humans dry of blood,” and also a “large bat that would carry people off.” The bats and night owls raided together, but the people overcame their fear and killed them.
Animals did not, as a rule, inhabit the cavern, so the Indians would not be down there hunting. Animals did from time to time stumble in; and, in 1946, there was found the skeletal remains of an extinct ground sloth. Beneath the entrance have been found skeletons of many small animals that died either from the fall or starvation.
Thus, we cannot say that the Indians went into the cave any distance, nor can we say that they did not, simply because we do not know.
To fully understand and appreciate the story of any group or groups of people, one must be acquainted somewhat with the country in which they lived. The country inhabited by the Indians of Carlsbad Caverns National Park has a wide temperature and altitude range, and four life zones (Upper and Lower Sonoran, Canadian, and Transition). The Guadalupe Mountains developed from a limestone reef laid down in a shallow sea during the Permian period of the earth’s history, over 200 million years ago. They are cut with many deep canyons containing numerous caves, but have little permanent water. Plant and animal life are abundant and varied. Due mainly to the lack of water, agriculture was not practiced in this particular area. The economy was one known as “hunting and gathering.”
Perhaps a brief description of each group that lived, hunted, and visited in this area will best picture how and why they did.
