Historical Introduction to Studies Among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico Part 1

Historical Introduction to Studies Among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico.

by Adolphus Bandelier.

I.

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

Part I.

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 Queretaro. 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 t.i.tle.

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 a.s.sume the form of tradition in the tale of the _Seven Caves_,[1] whence the Mexicans and the Tezcucans, as well as the Tlaxcaltecans, are said to have emigrated to Mexico.[2] Perhaps the earliest mention of this tradition may be found in the writings of Fray Toribio de Paredes, surnamed Motolinia. It dates back to 1540 A.D.[3]

But it is not to be overlooked that ten years previously, in 1530, the story of the _Seven Cities_, which was the form in which the first report concerning New Mexico and its sedentary Indians came to the Spaniards, had already been told to Nuno Beltran de Guzman in Sinaloa.[4] The parallelism between the two stories is striking, although we are not authorized to infer that the so-called seven _cities_ gave rise to what appeared as an aboriginal myth of as many _caves_.[5]

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 Vatica.n.u.s," "Chicomoztoc,"

and the migrations thence, were graphically represented.

All the important Indian writers of Mexico between 1560 and 1600, such as Duraro, Camargo, Tezozomoc, and Ixtlilxochitl, refer to it as an ancient legend, and they locate the site of the story, furthermore, very distinctly in New Mexico.

Even the "Popol-Vuh," in its earliest account of the Quiche tribe of Guatemala, mentions "Tulan-Zuiva, the seven caves or seven ravines."[6]

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.[7] The usual exaggerations about metallic wealth were added to this report; and when, in 1529, Nuno de Guzman governed Mexico he set out northwards, first to conquer the sedentary Indians of Michhuacan, and then to search for the gold and jewels of the Amazons.[8]

It was while on this foray that he heard of the Seven Cities in connection with Ciguatan. This latter place was reached; and, while the fancies concerning it were speedily dispelled by reality, those concerning the Seven Cities flitted further north.[9] Guzman overran, laid waste, and finally colonized Sinaloa. He sent parties into Sonora; but, after his recall, slow colonization superseded military forays on a large scale, at least for a few years.

During this time, Pamfilo de Narvaez had undertaken the colonization of Florida.[10] His scheme failed, and cost him his life. Of the few survivors of his expedition, four only remained in the American continent, wandering to and fro among the tribes of the south-west. After nine years of untold hards.h.i.+ps, these four men finally reached Sonora, having traversed the continent, from the Gulf of Mexico to the coast of the Pacific. The name of the leader and subsequent chronicler of their adventures was Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca.[11]

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[12] that it becomes utterly impossible to establish any details of location.

We only know that, in the year A.D. 1536, he and his a.s.sociates finally met with their own countrymen about Culiacan.[13]

They reported that, when their s.h.i.+ftings 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.[14] These settlements they described as having a character of permanence, but we look in vain for any accurate description of the buildings, or of the material of which they were composed.[15] For such a report of important settlements in the north, the mind of the Spanish conquerors in Mexico was, as we have already intimated, well prepared.

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,[16]

at once entered upon a voyage of discovery, determining to go much farther north than any previous expedition from the colonies in Sinaloa. He took as his companion the negro Estevanico, who had been with Cabeza de Vaca on his marvellous journey.

Leaving San Miguel de Culiacan on the 7th of March, 1539,[17] and traversing Petatlan, Father Marcos reached Vacapa.[18]

If we compare his statements about this place with those contained in the diary of Mateo Mange,[19] who went there with Father Kino in 1701, we are tempted to locate it in Southern Arizona, somewhat west from Tucson, in the "Pimeria alta,"[20] at a place now inhabited by the Pima Indians, whose language is also called "Cora" and "Nevome."[21] Vacapa was then "a reasonable settlement" of Indians. Thence he travelled in a northerly direction, probably parallel to the coast at some distance from it. It is impossible to trace his route with any degree of certainty: we cannot even determine whether he crossed the Gila at all; since he does not mention any considerable river in his report, and fails to give even the direction in which he travelled, beyond stating at the outset that he went northward. Still we may suppose, from other testimony on the subject, that he went beyond the Rio Gila,[22] and finally he came in sight of a great Indian pueblo, "more considerable than Mexico,"--the houses of stone and several stories high. The negro Estevanico had been killed at this pueblo previous to the arrival of Fray Marcos, so the latter only gazed at it from a safe distance, and then hastily retired to Culiacan. While the date of his departure is known, we are in the dark concerning the date of his return, except that it occurred some time previous to the 2d of September, 1539.[23]

To this great pueblo, "more considerable than Mexico,"

Fray Marcos was induced to give the name of Cibola.[24] The comparison with Mexico shows a lively imagination; still, we must reflect that in 1539 Mexico was not a large town,[25] and the startling appearance of the many-storied pueblo-houses should also be taken into account.[26]

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 Onate in 1598. For the history of these enterprises, we refer the reader to the attractive and trustworthy work of Mr.

W. W. H. Davis.[27] But the numerous reports and other doc.u.ments concerning the conquest enable us to form an idea of the ethnography and linguistical distribution of the Indians of New Mexico in the sixteenth century. Upon this knowledge alone can a study of the present ethnography and ethnology of New Mexico rest on a solid historical foundation.

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"[28]--from Culiacan on. In other words, he marched east of north. Hence it is to be inferred that Cibola lay nearly north of Culiacan in Sinaloa. Juan Jaramillo has left the best itinerary of this expedition. We can easily identify the following localities: Rio Cinaloa, upper course, Rio Yaquimi, and upper course of the Rio Sonora.[29] Thence a mountain chain was crossed called "Chichiltic-Calli,"[30] or "Red-house" (a Mexican name), and a large ruined structure of the Indians was found there.

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.[31] It should not be forgotten that from the upper course of the Rio Sonora _two_ groups of Indian pueblos in ruins were within reach of the Spaniards. One of these were the ruins on the Gila, the other lay to the right, across the Sierra Madre, in the present district of Bravos, State of Chihuahua, Mexico. Jaramillo states that Coronado crossed the mountains to the _right_.[32] Now, whether the "Nexpa," whose stream the expedition descended for two days, is the Rio Santa Cruz or the Rio San Pedro, their course after they once crossed the Sierra could certainly not have led them to the "great houses" on the Rio Gila, but much farther east. The query is therefore permitted, whether Coronado did not perhaps descend into Chihuahua, and thence move up due north into South-western New Mexico. In any case,--whether he crossed the Gila and then turned north-eastward, as Jaramillo intimates,[33] or whether he perhaps struck the small "Rio de las Casas Grandes" in Chihuahua, and then travelled due north to Cibola, according to Pedro de Castaneda,[34]--the lines of march necessarily met the first sedentary Indians living in houses of stone or adobe about the region in which the pueblo of Zuni exists. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if all the writers on New Mexico, from Antonio de Espejo (1584) down to General J. H. Simpson (1871), with very few exceptions, have identified Zuni with Cibola.

There are numerous other indications in favor of this a.s.sumption.

1. Thus Castaneda 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."[35] This district is the one called "Tusayan" by the same author, who places it at twenty-five leagues also; and "Tucayan" by Jaramillo, "to the left of Cibola, distant about five days' march."[36] These seven villages of "Tusayan" were visited by Pedro de Tobar.

West of them is a broad river, which the Spaniards called "Rio del Tizon."[37]

2. Five days' journey from Cibola to the east, says Castaneda, 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."[38]

Jaramillo mentions, at one or two days' march from Cibola to the east, "a village in a very strong situation on a precipitous rock; it is called Tutahaco."[39]

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."[40]

4. The village called "Acuco," or "Tutahaco," lay between Cibola and the streams running to the south-east, "entering the Sea of the North."[41]

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.

It is the so-called San Juan district, where extensive ruins are still found, for the description of which we are indebted to General Simpson, to Messrs. Jackson and Holmes, and to Mr.

Lewis H. Morgan. To reach this region, Coronado had to pa.s.s either between Acoma and Zuni, or between the Zuni and the Moqui towns. In either case he could not have failed to notice one or the other of these pueblos; whereas Nizza, as well as the reports of Coronado's march, particularly insist upon the fact that Cibola lay on the borders of a great uninhabited waste.

Our choice is therefore limited between Zuni and the Moqui towns themselves; for there can be no doubt as to the ident.i.ty 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.[42]

But there can be as little doubt, also, in regard to the ident.i.ty of the Moqui district with the "Tusayan" of Castaneda 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").[43] Fifteen years later (1598), Juan de Onate found the first pueblo of "Mohoce," twenty leagues of the first one of "Juni" ("Zuni") to the westward.[44]

Besides, the "Rio del Tizon" was, at an early day, distinctly identified with the Colorado River of the West.[45]

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 Zuni, therefore making it doubtful whether or not it was the original place ("y la llaman los Espanoles Cibola"). The original text of Espejo's report distinctly says, however, "a province of six pueblos, called Zuni, and by another name, Cibola," thus positively identifying the place.[46]

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 Zuni 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 princ.i.p.al 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 Zuni, while it undoubtedly occupies the ground once claimed by the cl.u.s.ter 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 shall subsequently establish, modified the character of their dwellers.

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 "Cicuye," which was said to be found far to the east, came to see him. They brought with them buffalo-hides, prepared and manufactured into s.h.i.+elds and "helmets." Although the Spaniards had heard of the buffalo before reaching Zuni, the animal itself had not been met with, and accordingly Coronado sent Hernando de Alvarado to Cicuye, and in quest of the "buffalo country."[47]

Cicuye 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 pa.s.sed.[48]

Between it and Acoma was the pueblo of "Tiguex," at a distance of three days' march, while Cicuye was five days from Tiguex.[49] General Simpson identifies the latter with a point on the Rio Grande del Norte, "at the foot of the Socorro Mountains," and then places Cicuye at "Pecos."[50] Between Acoma and the Rio Grande there lies the Rio Puerco; and on its banks other authorities, conspicuous among whom is Mr. W. W. H. Davis, have located Tiguex, while Cicuye, according to them, was on the Rio Grande, somewhere near the valley of Guadalupe.[51] Both conclusions have their strong points; but both of them have also their weak sides.

If it took five days of march from Zuni 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.[52]

But we are unable to guess, even, at the length of each journey. From Zuni 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 s.p.a.ce, 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 Fe. San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Clara, Pohuaque, Nambe, and Tesuque. But it is quite apparent that, considering the great distance of Santa Fe from Acoma, the journeys, as indicated in Castaneda, would fall very short of any of the pueblos mentioned.[53]