USA > New Mexico > Historical sketches of New Mexico : from the earliest records to the American occupation > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24
22
THE PUEBLO ABORIGINES.
Clavigero. After them came the Chichimecas, likewise from the north, where their country was called Ama- quemecan (Mr. Short says " Amaquetepic," probably meaning the "Mountain of the Moquis"), marching under Xolotl, the brother of their king, who had heard of the rich country to the south and was determined to found an independent empire. They were a less civil- ized and more violent people than the Toltecs, and Torquemada says that before the migration they lived in caves in the mountains, which may have some con- nection with our cave and cliff dwellings. They were soon succeeded by the three princes of the Acolhuan nation, with a great host of followers, coming from Tenoacolhuacan, which we are told was near Ama- quemecan, and who by marriage with the daughters of King Xolotl became dominant in the valley of Mexico. And last came the Aztecs, who left their home in Aztlan, which Clavigero says was "a country situated to the north of the Gulf of California, according to what appears from the route they pursued in their migra- tion." They crossed the Colorado River and proceeded as far as the Gila, where they remained for some time ; the Casa Grande, of Arizona, now so well known through the descriptions of Emory, Bartlett, and others, and the sketches of Ross Browne, and at which both Marcos de Niza and Coronado stopped, being part of the remains of their city. From thence they journeyed to the place called the Casas Grandes, in Chihuahua, " where," says Clavigero, "the immense edifice still existing is constructed on the plan of those of New Mexico; that is, consisting of three floors with a terrace above them, and without any entrance to the under floor. The door for entrance to the building is on the second floor, so that a scaling-ladder is necessary ; and the inhabitants of New Mexico build in this manner, in order to be less exposed to the attacks of their enemies-putting out the scaling-ladder only for those to whom they give
23
THE PUEBLO ABORIGINES.
admission to their house." The famous picture which was afterwards shown by Don Carlos de Siguenza to Dr. Gemeli Careri, in 1698, and copied in the history of the travels of the latter, and more recently reproduced in the interesting work on Mexican antiquities by the learned Ysidro R. Gondra, in Mexico, gives a graphic representation of the wanderings of the Aztecs from the time of their leaving Aztlan until their final settlement in Mexico. The date of the commencement of this migration is given by Clavigero at 1170, and Boturnini, Veitia, etc., make it 1168; but there seems to be an error respecting this, for Gama puts it at 1064, and Humboldt, who had the benefit of all the earlier researches, at 1038 ; the principal discrepancy arising from the omission by the former writers of two Mexican centuries amounting to 104 years.
The historical picture referred to was found on a sheet of maguey paper, thirty-three inches long by twenty-one in width, and hieroglyphically represents each of the places at which the Aztecs remained for any length of time during their journey. After a repre- sentation of an ancient flood, in which only one man and one woman were saved, and in the history of which a dove plays an important part, the picture presents the march of the Aztecs from " a place of magpies," (called by Gondra " flamingoes "), through " a place of grottoes," "a place of the death's head," " the woody place of the eagle," "chalco, the place of the precious stone," " the place of passes," "a whirlpool where the river is swal- lowed," etc., to the final arrival at Chapultepec, " the hill of grasshoppers," to which they came in 1245.
The legend of their seeing the eagle perched on the cactus, and in obedience to that omen determining to found their capital on that spot, gave rise to the emblem on the Mexican coat-of-arms, and is well known; but can be no more than thus briefly alluded to in this place.
Whether the aborigines of New Mexico are of Toltec
24
THE PUEBLO ABORIGINES.
or Aztec origin, there can be little doubt that they are a portion of one or the other of these nations that for some reason was left behind in the great migrations. It will be observed that all of the successive waves of pop- ulation that succeeded each other in Mexico came from the north-west. They all appear to have taken about the same route through Arizona. Their journeys were not continuous, nor with any predetermined plan as to the locality of ultimate settlement. On the contrary, they sometimes occupied centuries, and the moving na- tion stopped for many years at places which suited its convenience or its fancy. There is nothing unnatural in the supposition that an offshoot from the Toltecs or the Aztecs settled along the rivers of New Mexico, while the main body of their people was in that vicinity, and when the general migration continued still farther to the southward, remained contentedly in the homes they had established. In no other way can we account for the existence of an intelligent people, living in great houses of excellent workmanship and most admirably adapted for defense against all the weapons of that day; with successful agriculture, skillful manufacturers, and an excellent system of government ;- existing in the midst of the savage and wandering tribes without home or property, who surrounded them. And their own tra- ditions, though vague and unsatisfactory, all point to the same origin. The name of Montezuma runs through all of these (not generally referring to the king whom we are accustomed to identify with that name, but to the great chief of the golden or heroic age-the demi- god of their earliest traditions, watching over them from heaven and waiting to come again to bring to them victory and a period of millenial glory and hap- piness). They call themselves the People of Montezuma, or the Children of the Sun; for the sun was the real ob- ject of their adoration. The use of the estufa for re- ligious and other important purposes is universal, and
25
THE PUEBLO ABORIGINES.
its origin is attributed to Montezuma. The little idol representing God seen at one of the pueblos, and de- scribed by W. W. H. Davis, was called Montezuma. Their ancient dramatic dances generally represent Montezuma and Malinche.
One tradition is that they came from Shipop in the far north-west, beyond the sources of the most distant branches of the Rio Grande. They were wanderers and lived in caves and sheltered cañons. For awhile they sojourned at Acoma, the birthplace of Montezuma, who became their ruler and guide. He taught them to build pueblos with lofty houses, and to construct es- tufas wherein was to be kept the sacred fire, ever guarded by chosen priests. Pecos was founded by him, and here for a long time he dwelt. He planted a tall tree, saying that when he disappeared a foreign race would tyrannize over his people, and there would also be lack of rain; but they were constantly to watch the sacred fire until that tree should fall, when white men would appear from the East to overthrow their oppress- ors ; then he would himself return to reign, and peace, with plenty and great riches, would prevail. And this they say was in part fulfilled by the coming of the Americans; and that the sacred tree fell as Gen. Kear- ney entered Santa Fé.
The fire in the estufa at Pecos was carefully guarded for hundreds of years, by vigils which grew in rigor as the number of participants decreased, until less than half a century ago the Indians at that pueblo became so reduced in numbers that they determined to abandon their home, and preserving the sacred fire with jealous and untiring care, they carried it still burning to the pueblo of Jemez, where their own language was spoken and where they and their descendants still live.
Lieut. Simpson relates that Hosta, his guide, and a very intelligent Pueblo Indian, said of the great pueblos in the Chaco valley, that " they were built by
26
THE PUEBLO ABORIGINES.
Montezuma and his people when on their way from the north to the region of the Rio Grande and to Old Mexico," and, " that after being there for a while they dispersed, some of them going east and settling on the Rio Grande, and others south into Old Mexico." Mr. Short, in his "North Americans of Antiquity," says : " The many-sided culture-hero of the Pueblos, Monte- zuma, is the centre of a group of the most poetic myths found in ancient American mythology. The Pueblos believed in a supreme being-a good spirit, so exalted and worthy of reverence that his name was considered too sacred to mention, as with the ancient Hebrews Jehovah's was the 'unmentionable name.' Nevertheless, Montezuma was the equal of this great spirit, and was often considered identical with the Sun. The variety of aspects in which Montezuma is presented to us is due to the fact that each tribe of the Pueblos had its partic- ular legends concerning his birth and achievements. Many places in New Mexico claim the honor of his nativity at a period long before those village-builders were acquainted with the arts of architecture which have since given them their distinguishing name; in fact, this culture-god was none other than the genius who introduced the knowledge of building among them. Some traditions, however, make him the ancestor and even the creator of the race ; others its prophet, leader, and lawgiver." Mr. Bancroft says, on the same subject : " Under restrictions, we may fairly regard him as the Melchizedek, the Moses, and the Messiah of these Pueblo desert-wanderers from an Egypt that history is ignorant of, and whose name even tradition whispers not. He taught his people how to build cities with tall houses, to construct estufas, or semi-sacred sweat-houses, and to kindle and guard the sacred fire." It has been aptly remarked by Mr. Tyler, that Montezuma was the great "somebody" of the tribe to whom the qualities and achievements of every other were attributed. The
27
THE PUEBLO ABORIGINES.
legends of Montezuma are almost innumerable, and as various and contradictory as could well be imagined. In some of them an abrupt connection takes place be- tween Montezuma, the demi-god of the golden age, and Montezuma who was conquered by Cortez ; but no doubt the latter idea was engrafted after the Spanish occupa- tion.
At some of the pueblos are old documents which are apparently legends of the conquest of Mexico. These are held in great veneration, and are guarded most care- fully against the prying eye of the stranger. Meline, in his " Two Thousand Miles on Horseback," quotes one of these which was with great difficulty obtained for a few minutes by the Indian Agent, Major Greiner, in 1862, at the San Juan Pueblo, and of which he made a hasty copy. The following are a few passages to show the style, although the legend is probably not of very ancient origin, and seems to include matter suggested by the early priests in order to lessen the opposition to the introduction of Christianity. It opens with Cortez as speaker : "They will respect and obey me in what- ever I will command. I will teach them the law of Jesus Christ, God of Heaven, him unto whom all should ren- der infinite thanks for the benefaction about to be received by the Children of the Sun ; that they should always cheerfully receive the waters of baptism." " From this issued much pleasure among all the people, dances taking place in which there was shown no ran- cor against the Children of the Sun; and seeing this, .the King Montezuma said to the great Cortez that as his children had so much joy in being transferred to the control of Cortez, he charged him that he would treat them with great kindness." "Cortez said to the King, 'I wish you to tell me concerning how many prov- inces has New Mexico, and its mines of gold and silver.' The monarch said, 'I will respond to you forever as you have to me. I command this province, which is the
28
THE PUEBLO ABORIGINES.
first of New Mexico, the Pueblo of Teguayo, which gov- erns 102 pueblos. There is a great mine near by, in which they cut with stone hatchets the gold of my crown. The great province of Zuñi, where was born the great Malinche. This pueblo is very large, full of Indians of light complexion who are governed well. In this province is a silver mine, and its capital con- trols eighteen pueblos. The province of Moqui. The province of the Navajoes. The great province of the Gran Quivira, that governs the pueblos of the Queres and the Taños. These provinces have different tongues, which only La Malinche understands. The province of Acoma, in which is a silver mine in a blackish colored hill.' Seeing this, the great monarch sent Malinche to these provinces to new conquests."
As will appear further on, when the Europeans first entered the country the natives were found living in well-built cities of stone and adobe, composed of houses from three to five stories high, usually built around a plaza, the stories decreasing in size at each floor, so that the whole pueblo was of a terrace shape. Their number was then very large. If Espejo's figures are correct, the population must have been nearly or quite 300,000, as he counts 234,000 in the nine provinces of which he states the population ; and this does not include Zuñi, nor the first two that he passed through on the river. Probably this is considerably exaggerated, but yet no one can be acquainted with the vast ruins which exist all over the country from the canons of the Colorado, the San Juan, the Chelly, and the Chaco, at Abiquiu, Ojo Caliente, and all through the valley of the Rio Grande, to the now desert country of the south-east around Gran Quivira-without recognizing that a nu- merous, intelligent, and industrious people lived there before the Christians ever heard of the Seven Cities of Cibola ; and it is not extravagant to put the population at 150,000 at least.
29
THE PUEBLO ABORIGINES.
The architecture of the Pueblos was analogous to that of the Aztecs of Mexico; and indeed as nearly sim- ilar as the varied circumstances relative to material and the requirements for defense would permit. They were constructed of adobe, of cobble-stones and adobe mortar, of hewn stone and mortar, or of matched stone, carefully put together without mortar, as the case might be. At Quarra the walls yet standing show the buildings to have been of red sandstone, the pieces used being not more than two inches thick, the walls two feet wide, and the outer face dressed off to a plain surface. The walls of Abó, according to Lieut. Abert's description, were " beautifully finished, so that no architect could improve the exact smoothness of their exterior surface." The ruins west of the Rio Grande, near San YIdefonso, are of buildings made of blocks of lava or malpais, roughly squared and put together with adobe mortar ; the blocks are comparatively small. Some of the great pueblos on the Chaco (first described by Lieut. Simpson in 1849) were built of tabular pieces of sandstone, laid with adobe mortar ; the stones being from three to six inches in thickness, and from six to eighteen inches in length. The Pueblo Bonito showed great beauty and precision in its masonry. The material was a firm, hard, gray sandstone, in blocks of a uniform thickness of three inches, and laid without mortar; the joints are always carefully broken, and the crevices between the ends filled with thin pieces of stone, not over one-fourth of an inch thick. In the Pueblo of Peñasco Blanco the manner of building was "a regular alternation of large and small stones, the effect of which is both unique and beautiful. The largest stones, which are about one foot in length and one-half foot in thickness, form but a single bed, and then alternating with these, are three or four beds of very small stones, each about an inch in thickness." These ruins in the Cañons of Chaco and Chelly are of special interest because there is no possi-
30
THE PUEBLO ABORIGINES.
bility of Spanish influence on the architecture, as there may have been at Quarra and Abó.
The general design of all the great pueblos was the same. They were communal buildings, or as some late archæologists word it, "joint-tenement houses." They contained from 50 to 500 apartments, and would ac_ commodate from 200 to 1,000 inhabitants. A whole town was contained in one building; or rather, perhaps, we should say, all the houses of a town were built to- gether, forming one continuous structure. In this they resembled the edifices further to the south. "From Zuñi to Cuzco," says Mr. L. H Morgan, "at the time of the Spanish conquest, the mode of domestic life in all these joint-tenant houses must have been substantially the same." Speaking of the Pueblo of Hungo Pavie (which Simpson's Report describes as 300 feet long, with wings each 144 feet in length, three stories high, in terrace form, and built of stone, the first story con- taining seventy-two apartments, the second forty- eight, and the third twenty-four) Mr. Morgan says : " We may recognize in this edifice a substantial re- production of the miscalled 'palace' of Montezuma in the Pueblo of Mexico, which, like this, was con- structed upon the three sides of a court, in the . terraced form, and two stories high. In the light which these New Mexican houses throw upon those of the Mexicans, the house occupied by Montezuma is seen to have been a joint-tenement house of the American model. It is therefore unnecessary to call any of these structures palaces in order to account for their size, or to assume a condition of society in which the palace of the ruler was built by the forced labor of his subjects."
Some of the pueblo edifices were of great size. Among those in the Chaco Cañon that of Wege-gi was 700 feet in circumference, and contained 99 rooms; Chethro- Kettle, 1,300 feet, and 124 rooms; Peñasco Blanco, 1,700 feet, and 112 rooms on ground-
31
THIE PUEBLO ABORIGINES.
floor ; and the Pueblo Bonito was 544 feet long, 314 in width, and contained 641 rooms. The ruined Pueblo of Chipillo, west of San Yldefonso, measures 320 feet by 300, surrounding a plaza containing two estufas; and the Cuesta Blanca Pueblo, not far distant, is 450 feet in length. The ruins of most of these buildings, and not- ably those in the Chaco Cañon and Cañon de Chelly, agree exactly with Castañeda's description of the large pueblos which Coronado visited in the Rio Grande val- ley ; as they were built around courts, with a high, straight wall on the outside, without cpenings for either doors or windows, and terraced in stories on the inside like an amphitheatre. All were furnished with estufas, some as large as sixty feet in diameter, and frequently considerable in number. Speaking of the analogy be- tween these buildings and those of Mexico and Central America, Mr. Morgan says : "These secm to have been the finest structures north of Yucatan, and the largest ever erected by the Indians of North America. There is no reason for supposing that the Pueblo of Mexico contained any structures superior to them in character."
What gives special interest to the pueblo dwellings of New Mexico is that nowhere else on the continent are buildings still inhabited precisely as they were when Columbus discovered America. In several in- stances, as at Taos and in the western pueblos, the people are now living in identically the same houses which were then occupied. "These pueblos," says the author last above quoted, "were contemporary with the Pueblo of Mexico, captured by Cortez in 1520." . The buildings at Taos are about 250 feet long, 130 feet deep, and five stories high. While they are irregular in form, and rudely built in comparison with some of those de- scribed by Castañeda and the stone structures of the Chaco, yet they preserve the general idea and the an- cient manner of living in all essential respects. An- other point of similarity between the pueblos of New
32
TIIE PUEBLO ABORIGINES.
Mexico and those situated farther south, is the custom of building on the tops of hills, or mesas. This was the usual course with the older pueblos in New Mexico, the great majority of the ruined villages being so situated. Acoma is the best illustration among existing pueblos ; but Zuñi, the town on the " Moro," and many ruins in the valley of the Rio Grande and its tributaries, show how usual it was in the days when safety had to be con- sidered more than convenience -- a number being so situated as to be practicably impregnable. It is well known that similar situations were selected for many Mexican pueblos.
When the Spaniards first settled in the country, the pueblos were divided into four groups, by reason mainly of difference of language. These were the Piros, Teguas, Queres, and Taños. Such a distinction still exists- five entirely distinct languages (not dialects of one language) being in use. So far as existing pueblos are concerned this division is as follows :-
1. Santa Ana, San Felipe, Cochiti, Santo Domingo, Acoma, Zia, and Laguna.
2. San Juan, Santa Clara, San Yldefonso, Nambe Pojuaque, and Tesuque.
3. Taos, Picuris, Sandia, and Isleta.
4. Jemez.
5. Zuñi.
The first represent the Queres group, the second the Teguas, and the third the Piros. In the early records the Zuñis and Moquis are counted as belonging to the Queres, and they were probably originally of the same stock.
Several curious features are presented by this subject, the first being the fact itself of this very difference in language among a people in other respects almost entirely identical, possessing the same appearance, customs, mode of living, manufactures and agriculture. The language of the Tegua towns is almost entirely
33
THE PUEBLO ABORIGINES.
monosyllabic; the words in the Queres group are usually of two syllables, and the language of the Piros rejoices in words of extraordinary length, as does also that of Zuñi. Take as an example the word "earth," one of the first employed in any language. In Queres it is hah-ats ; in Tegua, nah; in Piros, pah-han-nah ; in Jemez, dock-ah ; in Zuñi, ou-lock-nan-nay. What is very singular is that the distribution of these languages is not geographical ; that the groups are not compact divisions, but lap over each other in the situation of their towns. For example, at Taos in the north and Isleta in the south, the same language is spoken ; but between them are all the Tegua towns and many of the Queres, covering the most of the central valley of the Rio Grande. Again, the language spoken at Pecos was identical with that used at Jemez, but none of the inter- vening pueblos were acquainted with it ; so that when the former Pueblo of Pecos was abandoned by its in- habitants, they had to pass by the Queres pueblos of Santo Domingo, Santa Ana, Zia, etc., before finding a resting-place where their speech was intelligible. The languages are so entirely different that the people of different pueblos, not of the same nation, usually talk to each other in Spanish, with which all are more or less acquainted.
The Taños pueblos are all extinct, not one remaining to represent this once powerful nation. These were situated along the Galisteo, and south of it, including probably Abó, Quarra, and Gran Quivira, and at one time were numerous, thickly populated, and influential. Espejo estimated the number of Taños Indians at 40,000 ; though this was probably an exaggeration. Several of these pueblos existed during the earlier Spanish occupation, but they appear to have been destroyed or abandoned in the wars between the Pueblos that were so fatal to the native races and towns during the years of the Indian supremacy, from 1681 to 1693. The one
34
THE PUEBLO ABORIGINES.
whose locality is best known to modern travellers is the Pueblo of San Marcos, though San Lazaro and San Cristobal are frequently mentioned in the earlier histories.
In the time of Coronado's expedition, there were seventy pueblos, according to Castañeda's list, as fol- lows: Cibola, 7; Tucaya, 7; Acuco, 1; Tiguex, 12; Tutahaco, 8; Quivix, 7; Snowy Mountains, 7; Ximena, 3; Cicuyé, 1; Jemez, 7; Aguas Calientes, 3; Yuque- yunque, 6; Braba, 1; Chia, 1, Forty years afterward, Espejo described the provinces, and so far as can be as- certained the number of pueblos had slightly increased. He enumerated them as follows: On the Rio Grande, near Isleta, 10; Teguas, 14; province on the west ad- joining Cibola, 11; Queres, 5; Cunames (Zia, etc.), 5; Amies, 7; Acoma, 1-being fifty-three in all ; to which are to be added those of the provinces that he describes, but neglects to state the number of villages in, as Cibola, or Zuñi, which we can call seven, Zaguate and the other Moqui towns, which were five, and the provinces of the Tubians and the Taños, whose population he placed at 25,000 and 40,000, respectively, which, at the usual ratio, would represent twenty-five or thirty pueblos, but which was no doubt largely exaggerated as he gave the figures from hearsay, and probably did not represent more than fifteen. Calling the number in these two nations fifteen would give us eighty pueblos in all, existing in 1582. At the present they are reduced in numbers to twenty-five, being nineteen in the valley of the Rio Grande and its tributaries ; one at Zuñi and the five Moqui towns ; which latter have been the least disturbed in the course of centuries. How or when did the number become so greatly reduced ? Partly, we believe, by the consolidation of small neighboring pueblos into one, during the Spanish occupation, and more largely by the destruction and abandonment of villages in the wars between themselves, which occurred
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.