USA > Colorado > Sketches of Colorado: being an analytical summary and biographical history of the State of Colorado as portrayed in the lives of the pioneers, the founders, the builders, the statesmen, and the prominent and progressive citizens Vol. 1 > Part 2
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The Cliff Dwellers wore clothing, con- sisting of cotton goods, feather-cloth, fur, hair, yucca, and the skins of animals. Their footwear included sandals of buckskin, yucca, cornhusks, and cedar bark, or a combination of two or more kinds of such material. It was in pottery, that this ancient people reached a high culture. Mugs, food bowls, ollas, globular vessels, vases, and water jars, varying in shape and size, have been recover- ed. Mortuary vessels have been taken from burial places, showing similar customs,
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followed by Indians later, of placing food with the dead. One of the most interesting deco- rations on their pottery is the swastika, a form of cross that is prehistoric in all lands, with some variation, and is said to mean "good fortune." Among the wooden imple- ments are fire drills, spinning dises, agri- cultural or planting sticks, bows and arrows, some of the latter having flint points attached with the sinew of the deer. Some of the wood- en relics were probably used in games, as were also, some kinds of baskets. In basketry or wicker-ware making, they also excelled, many fine specimens having been obtained. They were expert in this line of work. Osier matting was a common article, and often used to wrap about the dead.
The bone implements consisted of awls, needles, scrapers, and ornaments, made from turkeys and other birds, small mammals, and the deer, antelope, and bear. Stone im- plements were found in abundance. They are polished, and unpolished. From the crudely formed ax to the highly polished celt, these objects are common, everywhere. Some axes still have the handles attached. They were helved by bending a green withe or willow around the groove of the axe, two or more times, then pulling the ends together, and tying them with a yucca or buckskin string. Some axes have a double edge. Grinding stones, such as are now called me- tates and utilized by Indians and Mexicans, were used for grinding and preparing the corn; pounding stones, without handles, but with pits in them for the finger ends, and knuckles; stones for varied use, and some probably for games and ceremonials, but add to the wonder-collections from pre- historic man in this locality. The charred remains of human bodies, have led to the be- lief that this condition was not accidental, but that cremation was also practiced to some extent by the Cliff Dwellers.
The fate of this people is still an unsolved mystery of prehistoric times. The age of these ruins is estimated from 500 to 1,000 years, or more. But their ancestors may have been cave dwellers, or lived in these cliffs, in more rudely constructed habitations, be- fore they learned to hew stone and build with mortar. Their earlier culture was prob- ably such as is possessed by nomadic tribes. Among their ruins, is found the estufa cham- ber, in which the men held their secret, sacred, and ceremonial meetings and rites. In southwestern Colorado, these chambers are circular in form, and it has been supposed that this is a traditional link, with their prior history, when they lived in tents, roaming the plains, valleys and mountains, leading a nomadic life. Similar rooms, still in use by
tribes further south, were seen by the Spanish explorers, and called by them "estufa," but the word "kiva" has been substituted as the name of these wholly or in part, subterranean ceremonial chambers, from which women were excluded, except as they may have been permitted to enter or approach, to bring food and water for the men. "Ki" is a primi- tive word of tribes in the southwest, meaning "house," and associated with a part of the human body, the "kiva" symbolically rep- resents the under-world or womb of the earth, where was born the human race. More mod- ern investigation leads to the opinion that women may have had secret societies, which would now be known as sororities, which also met in kivas, and possibly in those used by the men, but when not occupied by the latter, for ceremonial purposes.
In the romantic story and belief of some, this Cliff Dwelling people, small of stature, living a pastoral life, combined with hunting, had a final desperate struggle with enemies, who attacked them in their habitations along the cliffs and, after an heroic re- sistance, they were all slain, or a few survivors carried into captivity, and all trace of the prehistoric race in Colorado, obliterated. Although they may have had war with foes, now unknown, it is more reasonable to sup- pose that there was a gradual emigration of these people from the cliffs. Climatic or geological conditions may have been the primal cause. Protracted drouths, volcanic eruptions accompanied by violent earth- quakes, or some superstition evolved from the ceremonials of the kiva, may have been contributing influences, rather than the theory that they were wiped out of existence by war or some other misfortune. Probably the first historic reference to the Cliff Dwellers, was recorded in the account of Padre Esca- lante, who made a journey with others from Santa Fe, to the Great Salt Lake region about 1775 or 1776. They traversed what is now southwestern Colorado, and in his description of this section, he refers to the ruined habi- tations that were observed.
The most primitive people or tribes now in the southwest are the Zuni of New Mexico and the Moqui or Hopi of Arizona. It is highly probable that they were related to the Cliff Dwellers, as descendants or ances- tors, or by some tribal links. The similarity of their buildings, when conditions are com- pared, together with many of the supposed traits and characteristics of the former race in Colorado, strongly leads to such a conclusion. These ancient tribes of New Mexico and Arizona, now remnants of a once more populous race, show an intrusion in the construction of the estufa or kiva, which here may be
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circular as with the Cliff Dwellers, or changed into a more rectangular, or a combination of the two. The historical links of any people are often more easily followed in trac- ing their ceremonials or religious rites. If the Cliff Dweller culture be the older, the kiva or estufa as seen by the Spaniards and even up to the recent explorations by American anthropologists, has been modernized from that of prehistoric Colorado. £ The types of pottery from the region of the San Juan river, to which the Mancos and the Mesa Verde of Colorado with their ruins are tributary, aresaid to be the oldest in the southwest. As the Indian of today, builds his tent thus enclosing his circular home, as he has done from time immemorial, it may also be urged that the circular kiva or ceremonial hous : of the Colo- rado Cliff Dwellers, is the oldest type, and that it represents an older culture than the Zuni and Hopi, where a more rectangular has been introduced. These are interesting speculations, but after all, the mystery of the Cliff Dwellers' history has not been satis- factorily solved.
The published reports of the discoveries made in 1874 by Mr. Holmes and W. H. Jackson, the latter formerly a resident of Denver, contained in the Geological Survey of 1875-6, first brought the Cliff Dweller region of Colorado into prominent historical and scientific notice. Thus the dust of a century, since the time when described by Escalante during the period of the American Revolu- tion, had been added to that of other cen- turies of silence, which enveloped prehis- toric man in Colorado. Additional interest was given this region by the discovery of the Cliff Palace in the Mesa Verde by Richard Wetherill and Charley Mason, in December, 1888, although it is claimed that others of the Mancos region had visited this ruin six or seven years prior to that date. This is the most wonderful ruin, left to tell the story of prehistorie man not only in Colorado, but, all of the southwestern part of the United States. It had more than 100 rooms in ad- dition to numerous kivas or ceremonial cham- bers. Soon after, F. H. Chapin published a volume relating to the Cliff Palace and other more prominent ruins of the Mesa Verde. Baron Nordenskiold issued a comprehensive volume on this region, after which, in maga- zines and general publication, a world-wide interest was taken in the Colorado prehis- toric period. The more noted of these ruins are the Cliff Palace, Balcony House, Spruce Tree House, Long House, Mug House, Spring House, Jackson House, Peabody House, the lat- ter named for Mrs. W. S. Peabody of Denver. A longer list could be made, for this section abounds with evidences of this civilization.
These discoveries induced both scientific work and investigation, but it was unfor- tunate, that for several years there followed a vandalism which at once, threatened to wreck and destroy these ancient abodes, and rifle them of all valuable contents. After long agitation, an act of congress in 1906, es- tablished the Mesa Verde National Park, and these ruins are now protected by the government. Since then, the Smithsonian Institution, at the request of the Secretary of the Interior, has been excavating and re- pairing the Cliff Dwellings. The work has been in charge of Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes, an eminent ethnologist. He has repaired the Spruce-Tree House and the Cliff Palace, rendered efficient service, and materially added to the knowledge of the culture of this ancient people in Colorado.
The aborigines found in this region by the first explorers, were the Indians, or the Red Men, commonly called. Their origin, or whence they came, is no more known than that of the Cliff Dwellers, but since the com- ing of the white race, their history has been indissolubly linked. For centuries they may have roamed the plains and mountains, and in their unknown prehistoric ages, there may have been many shiftings and changes of the tribes in the west. They were nomads and wanderers, and yet remained within appa- rently certain approximate boundaries, or hunting grounds, when first known to the pale faces. On the Colorado plains east of the mountains and north of the Arkansas river, ranged the Arapahoes and Cheyennes; and, in the same region, south of this stream, the Comanches and Kiowas. In the moun- tains, and sometimes foraging into the edge of the plains, and also ranging west into Utah, were the Utes and Pah-Utes, of which there were seven principal divisions or tribes. The Navajoes roamed along the tributaries of the San Juan in the southwestern part of the state, while the more war like and blood thirsty Apaches held a wide range from the Rio Grande to the Gila river. The Crows, Blackfeet, Pawnees, several tribes of the savage Sioux, Kickapoos, Cherokees, Kansas, Omahas, Cherokees, and other tribes, at various times frequented the plains of Colorado. War and pursuit of game, and especially the bison or buffalo, brought many of the aborigines to this section, often re- sulting in hostilities and many a hard fought battle. The tribes represented in the main, the Shoshonean and Athapascan stock of the Indian race. Only one tribe now remains in Colorado, the Southern Utes, in the extreme southwestern part of the state, their reser- vation being in the region of the Cliff Dwell- ers. It seems the irony of fate, that the last
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of the Indians in this State, should be amid the ruins and waste of the prehistoric people of this section, that have disappeared. They have left their history in the place-names of the west, from Utah (Utahs or Utes) to those of cities, towns, rivers, counties, and moun- tain peaks. More of their history also ap- pears in connection with the settlements made by the white man, and the fierce wars between the latter, and his red foe. The Bison has perished from the range. Of the
millions that once fed upon the plains and valleys, none remain, except those in parks and reservations set apart for their preserva- tion. The deer, elk, mountain sheep, wild goat, and antelope are protected by law, but their fate seems as inevitable as that of the remnant Utes in Colorado, who now read their fate in the shadows of the Cliff Dweller ruins, which tell the pitiful story of prehis- toric man in this region.
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CHAPTER III. Spanish and French Explorers.
PANIARDS were the first ex- plorers of what is now Colo- rado, but the records are not clear as to who led the first expedition. Francisco Vas- quez de Coronado, born in Salmanaca; married a daughter of Alonso de Es- trada, royal treasurer of New Spain; ex- plored New Mexico and the great plains to the northeast in his expedition of 1540-2; is supposed to have passed through southeast- ern Colorado in 1541. It may be considered a matter of serious doubt, whether Coronado or any of his cavaliers ever trod upon Colo- rado soil. Castaneda, the historian of the expedition does not clearly disclose any such fact, but as the geography of this region had not been established, and the records of the journey, at times, are very indefinite, it can- not be stated positively that neither Coro- nado nor any of his subordinates, may not have traversed a part of this state, along the southern boundary or extreme southeastern section. The first Europeans to explore over- land, the trans-Mississippi, was Cabeza de Vaca with three companions, Alonso del Cas- tillo Maldonado, Andres Dorantes, and Este- vanico, the latter an Arabian Negro slave, these four being survivors of the ill fated Panfilo de Narvaez expedition. Narvaez had sailed from Spain in June, 1527, with five ships and 600 men, for the Gulf coast. His fleet, after losing by desertions at Espanola and Cuba, was driven by storm to Tampa bay on the west coast of Florida, where he landed with 400 men and eighty horses in April, 1528. Narvaez divided his army in May, he leading an inland expedition of 300 men and forty horses, instructing his vessels to follow the coast with his remaining forces, left on board, but they were never re-united. After suffering many hardships, and not being joined by the fleet, and meeting losses from hostilities and sickness, Narvaez built boats of frail structure, in which he embarked the remainder of his expedition. Through pesti- lence, shipwrecks, warring with savages, there finally remained but nine survivors of this land force. Five of these were never afterwards heard from, and the other four
comprised the party led by Vaca, who should be known as the "Robinson Crusoe" of American history. Although Vaca and his companions have been credited by some with a more northern route, they really wandered west through Texas and probably through a corner of New Mexico, in their travels, ar- riving at San Miguel, New Galicia, April 1, 1536. The story of Vaca and his companions revived the idea of conquest, and search for gold. Preliminary to a more pretentious expedition, Coronado dispatched Fray Marcos de Nizza with a small party to investigate. They visited New Mexico, and on their re- turn, related marvelous tales of the new country, and the great wealth of the wonder- ful Seven Cities of Cibola. The result was the well known historical expedition of Coronado, with its many disappointments. The Seven Cities of Cibola, instead of being populous and abounding in treasures of gold and silver, proved only to be the seven poor pueblos of the Zuni of New Mexico. However, Coronado did not remain inactive, but began investigating for himself. He dispatched Pedro de Tobar to subdue Tusayan, supposed to be the Moqui villages, and now known as the Hopi. Thus those primitive tribes, the Zuni and the Hopi, probably kinsman of the prehistoric Cliff Dwellers of Colorado, early came in contact with European explorers. Although this humble people were not the possessors of expected wealth, there was ever the repeated story, common to Spanish ex- ploration, of something still beyond. The Moqui told of a great river, where lived tall men. This information caused Coronado to send Garcia de Cardenas to explore the river and learn of this new people. He discovered this river, and reported that the banks were so high that they seemed to be elevated three or four leagues in the air. This was, without doubt, the first view that Europeans had, of the Grand Canon of the Colorado, and was associated by them with the Rio Del Tizon, so named near its mouth. After sending out and making other expeditions, Coronado was now told by one, known as El Turco (The Turk) of the wonderful city of Quivira, abounding in wealth, far to the northeast. In the spring of 1541, he started in search of this mythical
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city, traveling east and northeast, Accord- ing to the chronicler of the expedition, the Quivera of boasted wealth, proved to be nothing more than a few straw huts. In re- ply to the exasperated Spaniards, who de- manded an explanation, the Turk admitted his deception, and said that he had guided them into this region, with the hope that they would perish. He was then strangled for his perfidy. In the general account that is given, it is impossible to draw accurate data. Large streams were seen, and crossed. Some have thought they may have included the Arkansas, Platte, and Missouri. It is pos- sible that Coronado entered Colorado, and if so, probably he traversed on his return trip, the southern plains of the state.
Colorado may have been visited next, by Spaniards who came not from Mexico, but from the Mississippi river. After the death of De Soto in May, 1542, and his burial in the Mississippi river, the command devolved upon Luis de Moscoso de Alvarado, who in July that year made an expedition to the plains, traveling west and northwest. Gen- eral and indefinite descriptions and state- ments again, as with Coronado, throw doubt upon the exact route taken by Moscoso. The plains of western Kansas are supposed, by some, to have been reached, and possibly Colorado, along the Arkansas river, and even that he continued to the Rocky Mountains. Be that as it may, one of his scouting parties reported to Moscoso, "that they saw great chains of mountains, and forests, to the west, which they understood were uninhabited." Moscoso or some of his men may have trod Colorado soil, but it is doubtful, and may be considered more as a possibility than a proba- bility. Thus the expeditions of Coronado and De Soto have been connected with the early explorations of Colorado. They were the best equipped and most pretentious that Spain had sent into the interior of this region in search of gold and for the extension of her domain by conquest.
Fray Juan de Padilla, a Franciscan, who had accompanied Coronado in his expedition to Quivira, a few years later started again for the latter place, to engage in missionary work, and may have passed through the plains of this state. Nothing definite was ever ascertained as to his fate, but he is said to have received a martyr's reward. Friars, rather than armed men, for some time, con- tinued to make journeys to the northward, probably not farther than the pueblos of New Mexico, where some of them met death. In 1582, Don Antonio de Espejo was dispatched to investigate the fate of the friars. He pro- ceeded far up the Rio Grande, but it cannot be definitely stated whether or not, he ad-
vanced beyond the northern boundary of New Mexico. In 1595, but there is a condict of dates, some placing 1591 as the year, Don Juan de Onate, led an expedition that effected the conquest of New Mexico, followed by exploration in Colorado. He was a wealthy resident of Zacatecas, son of Don Cristobal; married Dona Isabel, granddaughter of Cor- tez and great granddaughter of Montezuma. His conquests and exploring journeys occu- pied several years. He followed up the Rio Grande, exploring the San Luis Valley, Colo- rado, and reported finding gold, near what is now Fort Garland, where he worked gold and silver mines. He was a colonizer and progressive man. The older Chama, on the Chama river near its confluence with the Rio Grande, was founded by him, and re- mains to the present time. He is also re- ported to have traversed the plains, about 1601 between the Arkansas and South Platte rivers, possibly projecting his journey as far east as the Missouri.
A somewhat mythical story has been pub- lished, that in 1595, an expedition led by Borilla, who was later killed by a subordi- nate officer, Humano, the latter taking com- mand, probably crossed the Colorado plains in a journey to the northeast.
In 1662, Diego Penalosa, Governor of New Mexico, is reported to have conducted an expedition from Santa Fe across the plains of Kansas, to the Missouri river. It may not be necessary to solve the question as to whether he may have traversed southeastern Colorado, as the expedition and the account thereof, has by some been considered a hoax and a fabrication-in modern parlance, an historical "pipe dream."
The revolt by the natives under Pope, a San Juan Indian, which caused a retreat of the Spaniards about 1680, interfered with further explorations until after they had been again subdued in 1693 by Diego de Vargas, and peace made on the condition that the Indians should no longer be compelled to work as slaves in the mines. About this time the Spaniards became apprehensive of the ad- vances that had been made into the interior by the French, whose trappers and hunters had been trailing up the rivers and streams to the west and northwest. In 1719, An- tonio Valverde y Cosio led a force northward to punish the Utes and Comanches for the depredations which they had been committing against the Spaniards and friendly Indians. His force consisted of 105 men and thirty Indians, which was largely increased by a reinforcement of Apaches. On this expe- dition, Valverde explored the plains of Colo- rado and western Kansas, and is credited with. following the course of the South Platte in
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this state. Jealous and uneasy as to the movements of the French on the frontier, an expedition was sent out from Santa Fe, pro- ceeding northwest, which means that they may have skirted the plains of southeastern Colorado, to Missouri. " Through Indian treachery this force was annihilated. From a colony established at Taos, where Pondo, a Spaniard had located in 1745, some Spanish settlements sprang up along the Arkansas river in Colorado, and adjacent territory. It is claimed that one of these was Las Animas on the Arkansas river, at or near the mouth of the Purgatoire, and another, more of a military stockade or picket-post on the Huerfano river, to guard the Sangre de Cristo pass on the east. Tomas Valez Cachupin, who became governor at Santa Fe in 1749, encouraged expeditions into Colorado, and especially the San Juan region of the south- west, in search of gold and silver, but ore not being found in paying quantities, per- manent settlements were not made.
Juan Maria Rivera, accompanied by Don Joaquin Lain, Pedro Mora, Gregorio Sandoval, and others, conducted an expedition into the southwestern and western part of Colorado, in 1761, proceeding as far as the Gunnison river, leaving many traces seen by their suc- cessors, where they had engaged in mining. At the earnest solicitation of Padre Junipero Serra, in charge of the California Catholic missions, an effort was made to open an over- land route from Santa Fe to the Pacific coast. Padres Francisco Silvestre Valez Escalante, and Atanacio Dominguez organized a party, as the result of this agitation, in 1776, with Don Joaquin Lain of the former Rivera ex- pedition, as guide. On July 29, they left Santa Fe, and after reaching Colorado, and passing through Archuleta county, touched the San Juan river, August 5. They left more place-names in this state than any who came before them. They crossed several streams whose names, then given, are still retained, as Piedra, Parada, Pinos, and Florida. They named the La Plata river, San Joaquin, and the eastern La Plata moun- tains, Sierra de la Grulla. Reference is made to the ruins of what are now known as the Cliff Dwellings. Leaving the Dolores, they traversed the Gypsum valley, or Cajon del Yeso, as it is still known. The San Miguel river was called Rio San Pedro. Reaching the Uncompahgre river, spelled "Ancapagari" by Escalante, it was named by him, San Francisco. Arriving at the Gunnison river, called Tomichi by the natives, he changed it to San Javier. What was designated as the Rio Santa Monica, probably corresponds with the north branch of the north fork of the Gunnison. The Rio San Antonia Matir,
was the present Divide Creek. The North and South Mam Buttes were given the names of San Silvestre (for Escalante himself), and Nebuncari, and Mam creek, that of Santa Rosalia. Crossing the San Rafael or Grand river, and probably passing over the Book Cliffs, their course led them northwest to the White river, which was called San Clemente, arriving there September 9, at or near the Utah line. The diary of this journey, as kept by Escalante as one of the most valuable documents relating to the early explorations of this region, and Colorado especially.
The same unsatisfactory data as to the routes taken, and extent of the same, charac- terize the work of the early French, as with the Spanish. They came later than the Spaniards, but long before the Americans ex- plored the plains and mountains of the west. In 1712, a party of French adventurers ad- vanced far west into the plains, but it is not known whether they reached the Rocky Mountains or not-probably not. The con- cessions that the king of France had given Crozat in 1712, for a term of fifteen years, in Louisiana, added a stimulating influence. Trappers, hunters, and explorers were en- couraged to penetrate further into the in- terior, and they began ascending the rivers to more distant points, and to extend themselves more over the plains towards the mountains. Colorado was on the confines of disputed territory. The new spirit that permeated the fur trade with the advent of the Crozat regime, influenced an alert policy with the western leaders of both nations. Crozat sent out expeditions to establish friendly rela- tions, in commerce, with the Spanish, up the Arkansas, none of which seem to have reached Colorado. In 1717, Bourgmont, a French ex- plorer on the Missouri, heard the stories from the Panis (Pawnees) of a great river or lakes to the west. The French became imbued with the idea, that with explorations they would be able to establish a trade with the Japanese and Chinese. Although Bourg- mont was prominent in the plains region, he is not known positively to have reached Colo- rado, at least at this time. In 1719, Du Tis- senet is supposed to have visited the Pawnees and western Kansas, not coming tothis state, but only far enough to alarm the Spanish. A Spanish expedition in 1720 to the Mis- souri river, was wiped out by Indians, friendly to the French, and thus this region became a scene of activity and watchfulness. In 1722, Bourgmont, a knight of the Order of St. Louis, again coming west, establishing military posts in Missouri and Kansas, and proceeding still westward, making treaties with the Indians, may have reached the Colorado line, or came near to it. He made another expe-
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