This large area in what is today the southwest United States saw the rise of a variety of Native groups and served as the northern frontier of the Spanish colony of New Spain.
The name “New Mexico” was given to the area around 1580 by Spanish explorers who thought that the pueblos, or apartmentlike residential complexes, of the local Natives were reminiscent of the great Aztec cities such as TenoCHTlTLAN, Tacuba, and Texcoco in the central valley of Mexico. (See PueBLO.) With few natural boundaries, New Mexico was a poorly defined province. Many
Spaniards used the term to refer to the entire northern zone of New Spain, although in late colonial times the separate territories of California and Texas were removed from its jurisdiction. In reality, the province of New Mexico was centered on the Rio Grande, starting at El Paso and running north into Colorado. Most European settlements, like the Native communities before them, were within a short distance of this river or its tributaries, leaving the other areas to nomadic groups such as the Apache and Navajo. Along with Spanish Florida, New Mexico was one of the earliest areas in what is now the United States to have been settled by Europeans, and its capital of Santa Fe is the second-oldest European city in the modern-day United States.
Ancient New Mexico
New Mexico boasts some of the oldest human remains in North America. According to the geological and archaeological record, New Mexico was considerably wetter in ancient times than it is now. The area was covered with grasslands and forests that supported a variety of animals. Early humans were nomadic hunters following the trail of big game that inhabited the region. Two important groups of hunters were named for the sites in New Mexico where their remains were first found: Clovis Man and Folsom Man. Archaeologists have dated these groups to around 9200 B. c. During this time they hunted large animals such as bison, which provided both meat and material for clothing. As the Ice Age ended, the climate became drier and hotter, forcing the people of New Mexico to adapt to new conditions. This developing “desert culture” gravitated toward the rivers of the region and turned slowly to agriculture as they supplemented their diet with smaller game such as deer, antelope, and fish. In time these settlements developed into sophisticated societies.
One of the first great cultures to develop in the region was the Mogollon Culture centered in the southwestern portion of New Mexico. Through ancient links to Mexico, Mogollon farmers learned to grow corn between 3000 and 750 B. c., adding squash and red kidney beans to their diet by 400 B. c. Around 300 B. c. they began constructing pithouses, which were large oval or round pits overlaid with timber and earth roofs. Residents dug smaller pits within the houses for storing food, pottery, and votive offerings. A subgroup of the Mogollon culture created spectacular ceramic pots with distinctive geometrical and natural designs called Mimbres ware, which remains some of the Southwest’s most sophisticated pottery. These pots were often included in household offerings interred with deceased members of a community but were systematically broken, suggesting that the beautiful, finely crafted ceramics were ritually “killed” before being buried, perhaps to release the pot’s spirit. The Mogollon culture, protected by
Photograph of Anasazi ruins, called the "White House," in present-day Arizona (United States Geologic Survey Photographic Library)
Numerous mountain ranges, reached its apogee around A. D. 500. It had a great influence on the area around it, evident especially in the appearance of pit houses as ceremonial areas among later cultures.
The other great culture that developed in the region was the Anasazi, whose name means both “Ancient Ones” or “Ancestral Enemies” in the Navajo language. This culture developed more slowly than did the Mogollon but ultimately spread to an area covering modern-day New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. Over time the culture changed greatly. From around A. D. 1 to 500 the Navajo were primarily a basket-making people who did not use ceramics. They used their sophisticated baskets for everything—storage, cooking food, and carrying water. Between 500 and 700 the Anasazi built larger settlements and developed agriculture as well. After 700 they began dwelling in pueblos, which were villages consisting of residential apartment complexes and ceremonial pit houses called kivas. Traditionally the houses and above-ground spaces were associated with women, but the underground kivas were strictly used by men. Scholars have been able to trace the development of Anasazi sites by examining the well-preserved timber used to construct the pueblos. By examining the patterns of tree ring growth, archaeologists have been able to establish a basic chronology for the Anasazi area.
The Anasazi pueblos reached their peak after 1050. The greatest of Anasazi sites was Chaco Canyon, located in northwestern New Mexico, begun around 850 and completed by 1130. It consisted of a series of well-built pueblos linked with roads. Recent investigators have concluded that the roads were not just used to facilitate travel and communication, but also had ritual and cultural significance. The Anasazi built large-scale agricultural projects, including dams and irrigation ditches, which enabled them to increase food production. The largest pueblo at Chaco Canyon was Pueblo Bonito, which housed 1,200 people in a four-story, D-shaped complex. It was the largest apartment complex in the United States until the late 19th century. The Anasazi had numerous links with neighboring cultures in the Southwest, and there is evidence to suggest that this area of New Mexico had close trading contacts with central Mexico (particularly with the Toltec culture), along the so-called Turquoise Road.
Despite their success, by 1200 the Anasazi had started their long decline. Scholars have suggested that a series of droughts caused widespread famine. Other settlements, such as Mesa Verde in Colorado, reveal that the Anasazi were abandoning their great open pueblos and creating more defensible ones under cliffs, suggesting that Anasazi towns were under attack. Slowly the great pueblos were abandoned, and refugees began gravitating toward more fertile areas. Further droughts in 1450 sparked off another wave of migrations, with most of the remaining population clustering around the Rio Grande and its tributaries. By 1500 the Anasazi culture had disintegrated, leaving a legacy of puebloan culture focused on the ZuNl-Acoma area of New Mexico, the central Rio Grande valley, and scattered settlements in Arizona. These cultures, ancestors to today’s Hopi and Zuni people, continued to live in adobe apartments and build underground kivas for ceremonies. Like others in the region, they were skilled at ceramics and basketweaving. Likewise, they practiced agriculture, but on a smaller scale than their ancestors.
The last main group of people located in ancient New Mexico were the nomadic hunters and raiders. There were two cultures in this category, the Apache and the Navajo. With linguistic roots in Canada, these two groups migrated into the region around 1200, leading some to speculate that their raids helped bring down the great Anasazi centers (which would account for the Navajo term). Both groups relied heavily on hunting, although over time the Navajo became more sedentary, developing agriculture as well. Both groups were nomadic, creating small temporary communities. Both groups apparently traded animal hides and dried meat with the puebloans, gaining cotton, corn, and utensils in return. Along with these more peaceful contacts, violence often flared between the puebloans and the nomads, and these internecine tensions intensified when Europeans began moving into the area.
Early Exploration
A few years after Hernan CoRTES conquered the AzTECS, expeditions began leaving central Mexico to explore the continent. However, paradoxically, the first European explorers to enter New Mexico did not do so from the south, but rather from the east. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was part of an ill-fated expedition that became stranded in the Tampa Bay area of Florida in 1528. The 300 survivors attempted to make their way west through country never before explored by Europeans in an attempt to reach Mexico. After several disasters and a period of enslavement, Cabeza de Vaca gained fame as a mystic healer whose Catholic prayers cured the sick. With four survivors, Cabeza de Vaca continued his westward search for the Spanish settlements in Mexico, reaching present-day New Mexico in 1534. Crossing over from what is now west Texas, the party briefly followed the Pecos River northward, although once they felt they were moving too far in that direction, they struck out west. They reached the Rio Grande and followed it south, passing near the site of modern-day El Paso and continuing south and west toward Mexico City. While Cabeza de Vaca’s main concern was survival, he did take notes on the surrounding area, proclaiming that the people were skilled artisans with productive agricultural lands and in so doing providing an invaluable account of New Mexico on the eve of the Spanish conquest. He also reported that they had supplies of precious metals, which sparked more determined efforts to explore the land.
After the 1530s New Mexico became associated with a series of legends that lured Spaniards to explore the region. Enthusiasts suggested that various refugees fleeing from Europe and the Middle East (including Christians, survivors of Atlantis, and the Lost Tribes of Israel) had crossed the Atlantic and set up kingdoms in exile in the New World. Cabeza de Vaca’s suggestion that there were sophisticated societies to the north caused great interest among royal officials. Particularly seductive were the stories about the Seven Cities of Cibola. In 1539 the viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, organized an expedition to explore the territories to the north. He selected Friar Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan priest who had accompanied Francisco Pizarro on his conquest of Peru, to lead the party. Esteban the Moor (Estevanico), who was one of the survivors who accompanied Cabeza de Vaca, served as the expedition’s guide, partially retracing his steps into New Mexico. Friar Marcos’s explorations were largely failures, and the Natives who were friendly to Cabeza de Vaca killed Esteban in southern New Mexico. Still, Friar
Marcos called it an unqualified success, claiming to have seen cities of gold in the distance. He urged others to follow, and the viceroy accordingly drew up new plans.
The leader of the next expedition was Francisco Coronado, who paid for most of its expenses himself. Coronado organized a huge enterprise that consisted of 336 men, 559 horses, and at least 100 Native porters. Additionally, he provided for naval support from the Gulf of California. Several clergymen volunteered to ensure the peaceful conversion of the indigenous people. Friar Marcos, who had provided such glorious accounts of the area, served as the guide. Traveling northward through what is today Arizona, Coronado cut eastward and arrived in the Zuni area, where Friar Marcos claimed Cibola lay. Instead of golden cities and hordes of precious stones, the conquiSTA-DoRes found adobe pueblos. Coronado pushed forward and, hearing good reports of the fertility of the Rio Grande valley, moved to set up a base camp there for the winter of 1540-41. Friar Marcos sensed the bitter disappointment of the campaign and chose to return to Mexico. Eventually, Coronado pushed east toward a legendary land called Quivira. After traveling to central Kansas in search of this equally mythical realm, Coronado returned to his base in New Mexico. Injured before he could mount any further expeditions in the area, he had no choice but to return home. The lack of any wealthy kingdoms to the north led the Spaniards to all but abandon New Mexico for the next 40 years.
Colonization
In the 1580s many Spaniards showed new interest in exploring New Mexico, with the particular intent to establish a permanent presence in the region. A Native rebellion called the Mixton War convinced many that New Spain’s frontier needed to be secure, and the new mining operations around Zacatecas remained vulnerable to raids. With Coronado’s campaign a distant memory, a new group of Spaniards entered the region. In 1580 the Franciscan lay brother Agustin Rodriguez proposed a new venture that would set up a line of fortified missions in New Mexico designed simultaneously to protect the frontier and convert the local population. In 1581 three Franciscans accompanied by 19 soldiers under the command of Francisco Chamuscado moved into New Mexico, following the Rio Grande as far as modern-day Taos. They explored the Rio Grande Valley intensively, also scouting the Pecos River. Again, the expedition was far from successful, with one Franciscan and several soldiers dying before they abandoned the region in 1582. The two other friars remained in New Mexico, although they quickly met martyrs’ deaths. Still, the careful records and surveys of the local populations they left behind were instrumental for future colonization efforts.
News of the voyages of Sir Francis Drake led the Spanish to renew their interest in New Mexico.
Geographers assumed that the area lay close to the sea and was thus vulnerable to attack. If Spain’s enemies gained a foothold on the northern frontier of New Spain, they might be able to attack the colony as a whole. Thus, the royal government directed JUAN DE Onate in 1597 to subdue and colonize New Mexico. Like Coronado, Onate financed much of the expedition himself. In addition to establishing a military presence in the area, the Crown directed Onate to set up missions to Christianize the locals, who would serve as a buffer against external assault. In 1598 the expedition moved forward, containing 400 men (130 of whom had wives and children), 7,000 head of cattle, and 10 Franciscans. Onate set up a base camp at the site of the Ohke pueblo, which he renamed San Juan de los Caballeros. Space was limited at the site, and many Spaniards felt ill at ease near the Natives. Onate established other settlements nearby, including San Gabriel. Population pressure remained a problem, and in 1609-10 the Spaniards built up the new city of Santa Fe as their permanent capital.
Power within the colony was divided between civil and ecclesiastical authorities. The nominal head of the secular government was a governor appointed by either the king or the viceroy in Mexico City. The remote location made it possible for ambitious governors to become enormously powerful. He ruled with the support of the cabildo, or town council, located in Santa Fe, as well as a small number of judges who traveled through the colony. The royal governor also oversaw local governors who administered pueblos under Spanish jurisdiction. Besides this secular government, there was a parallel religious government based in Santa Fe as well. This role was taken up by the Franciscans, who continued to be the dominant religious order in New Mexico. They organized missions based in or near the pueblos and instructed the Natives in Christian doctrine. The clerics also attempted to reshape indigenous communities. They imposed a strict schedule on the Natives designed to create a European work ethic and demanded that local indigenous people perform a number of duties for the benefit of the colony, such as tending herds, growing food, and building churches. Missionaries also attempted to suppress local traditions and impose European morality, particularly in areas of marriage and sexuality. If the Natives failed to comply with the Franciscans’ demands, they received heavy punishment. Although the two main branches of government were closely interrelated, ecclesiastical and civic figures often fought over who held the ultimate power in the colony, and both claimed the authority to organize, administer, and punish the local Natives.
Life in the early colonial days was difficult for the Spanish. Because New Mexico was, in the opinion of imperial bureaucrats, to be a military stronghold, most of the settlements and missions had a distinct military character. Still believing the region had rich metal deposits, many of the colonists spent an inordinate amount of time scouring the hills and mountains for GOLD. Agriculture was more successful than prospecting, but most of the Spaniards were unwilling to till the soil themselves. They conscripted local Natives to work the land for them, but this did not endear the Spaniards to the indigenous people. Several villages, including Acoma, resisted Spanish law and raided the Spanish settlements. Because Onate could not afford to appear weak, he sent an army that attacked and destroyed Acoma, killing 800 Natives in the process. Franciscan friars did establish a successful network of missions among the puebloan people, but resentment against the cultural intrusion simmered for more than a century. Further, Apache and Navajo raiders periodically attacked both the pueblos and the Spanish settlements. The distance between the colony and the seat of the royal government in Mexico meant that the Spaniards in New Mexico were isolated both militarily and culturally, leading to the development of a siege mentality. Tensions between Spaniards and Natives smoldered for most of the 1600s, finally erupting during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, in which Native rebels drove the Spaniards from New Mexico, holding the territory for 13 years before the Spaniards returned in force.
While often inhospitable, New Mexico became a home for various Native peoples as well as Spanish colonists. As a strategic stronghold guarding the frontier of New Spain, the colony served an important military role. As a frontier province away from the centers of Spanish culture, New Mexico was a place where Native and European elements mingled. The Spaniards tried to convert the indigenous peoples to European ways, but in the process the newcomers also adopted Native architecture, building materials, and art forms. Even today, the area maintains important elements from Native and European cultures. This mingling of cultures has provided New Mexico with a unique, rich heritage.
Further reading: General works: Calvin A. Roberts and Susan A. Roberts, New Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988); David J. Weber, The Spanish Frontier in North America (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992). On the native past: Kendrick Frazier, People of Chaco: A Canyon and Its Culture (New York: Norton, 1999); Joe S. Sando, Pueblo Nations: Eight Centuries of Pueblo Indian History (Santa Fe: Clear Light Publishers, 1991). On society and the church: Ramon Gutierrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1991).
—Scott Chamberlain
World History
