Aardbargain Guide to New Mexico
An Intelligent Guide to the Land of Enchantment
History of the Rio Pecos Area
My survey of the grounds occupied by the aboriginal ruins in the
valley of the Pecos indicates, as I have already stated, three
epochs, successive probably in time, in which they have been
occupied by man; that is, I have noticed these, and beyond these I
have not been able to go as yet. Subsequent explorers may be more
fortunate. This distinction, or rather classification, is very
imperfect in the two earlier stages, and even arbitrary; but between
the second and the last there is a marked break,—not in time, but in
ethnological development. I shall term the three epochs as follows:—
1. Pre-traditional. (Indicated by the presence of the corrugated and
indented pottery as its most conspicuous "land-mark.")
2. Traditional and documentary. (Documents in the sense of written
records.)
3. Documentary period.
THE PRE-TRADITIONAL PERIOD.
I have not been able to detect as yet among the confused traditions
current about the pueblo of Pecos any tale concerning occupation of
their grounds by human beings prior to the settlement of which the
ruins now bear testimony. It is true that the proper traditions of
the tribe of Pecos are now preserved only at the pueblo of Jemez,
about eighty miles N.W. of Pecos and fifty miles W. of Santa Fe, and
that I have not as yet visited that place.
But it must be remembered that I now report "up to date," and that
subsequent information will, or at least should, come in time.
My reason for admitting a pre-traditional period is, then, simply
that I have found human remains at Pecos older than those of the
present ruins and different in kind. These remains, as it may
already have been inferred from the "personal narrative," are those
found on the west side of the arroyo, in the basin (or rather the
bank encircling it) opposite the rock carvings.
One fact is certain, the human bones, the walls protruding from the
banks, and the grave found by Mr. E. K. Walters, are all above the
layer of white ashes, charcoal, corncobs, and corrugated pottery
found as a continuous seam along an extent of over 100 m.—327
ft.—from N. to S. Consequently, the walls and graves must have been
built over these remains of a people which appears to have made
indented and corrugated pottery alone, and consequently also the
latter must be older in time than the former. It does not appear
that the sedentary Indians of New Mexico ever made, within
traditional and documentary times, any other than the painted
pottery in greater or less degree of perfection. Even Gaspar Castaño
de la Sosa, when he made his inroad into New Mexico in 1590,
mentions at the first pueblo which he conquered: "They have much
pottery,—red, figured, and black,—platters, caskets, salters,
bowls.... Some of the pottery was glazed."
The corrugated and indented pottery, as I am assured by Sr. Vigil,
is rarely met with over New Mexico, except at old ruined pueblos,
and only when digging (en cavando). I
feel, therefore, justified in assuming it to have been the
manufactured ware of a people distinct from the Pecos tribe or the
pueblo Indians of New Mexico in general, and their predecessors in
point of time. This pottery, however, is frequently met with among
the cliff dwellings of the Rio Mancos and in Utah.
Its relation, then, to the painted pottery has, as far as I know,
not yet been investigated.
But what could have been the purpose in covering originally a space
of over 100 m.—327 ft.—in length with the products of combustion and
fragments of one and the same industry in such a manner as to form
an uninterrupted layer of 0.45 m.—18 in.—at least in thickness?
Those who subsequently buried their dead over the seam certainly did
not collect these ashes and spread them there as a floor on which
they rested their structures afterwards. The combustion of a large
wooden building would not have given the same uniformity on such a
large scale. Sr. Vigil has suggested to me the following very
plausible explanation: In order to burn or bake their pottery, the
present pueblo Indians of New Mexico build large but low hearths on
the ground of small wood, sticks, and other inflammable rubbish and
refuse, on which they place the newly formed articles, and then set
the floor on fire, until the whole is thoroughly burnt. Fragments of
broken objects, etc., are not removed. The combustible material is
thus reduced to ashes, and the broken pieces remain within them;
their convex surfaces, of course, falling outwards, and thus resting
on the floor. In this manner a thick layer of ashes and charcoal,
with pottery, is easily formed. These "hogueras" are still from 20
to 40 feet in diameter; but, as they accommodate themselves to the
size of the pueblo, it is certain that they were formerly much
larger. The analogy between such a "potters'-field" and the layer in
question is very striking, and the inference appears likely that the
people who made this corrugated and indented pottery made it in the
same manner as the pueblo Indians now make their painted ware, and
as they made it at the time of the conquest.
These very old manufacturers of indented ceramics were also a
horticultural people, for they raised Indian corn. The cob found in
the ashes, or rather cut out with the knife at some distance inside
the bluff, is charred and small. To what variety of Zia it belongs
the specialist must decide.
I hold it to be utterly useless, and even improper, on my part to
speculate any further on these "pre-traditional" people. Perhaps I
have already said too much. Excavations alone can throw further
light on the subject.
THE TRADITIONAL AND DOCUMENTARY PERIOD.
The term "traditional" is applied to this period, because the people
occupying the site of Old Pecos have left some traditions behind
them, and not because we know when it commenced. In fact, I am much
inclined to divide it, for the sake of convenience, into two periods
again, one of which includes the occupation of the area within the
circumvallation and its necessary annexes (field, etc.), whereas the
other includes the area without. Of the former, we have definite
knowledge in regard to its inhabitants; of the latter, we have none
whatever. It is therefore also pre-traditional as yet. Nevertheless,
I have included it in the second epoch, as its ruins indicate that
its people possessed arts identical with those of the present pueblo
Indians. Their pottery, wherever exposed, was painted, figured, and
vitrified in places; its ornamentation is exactly similar to that of
the pottery of the interior area, and different from that of Zuni.
They used flint, but no trace of obsidian is found. This may be
purely accidental; still, why should it occur at three places so
totally different in regard to erosion and abrasion as the slope
south of the church, the west bank of the creek directly opposite,
and, if thorough examination should confirm the results of my
cursory observations, the apron of the high mesa?
The inference is therefore not unreasonable, that the inhabitants of
the three areas named, as outside of the great circumvallation, were
of the kind now called "pueblo Indians," who preceded the tribe of
Pecos proper in point of time. It is not improbable that one or the
other of these ruins may have been erected by the Pecos themselves
before they settled on the mesilla. Still, there is neither proof
nor disproval of this surmise extant.
There appears to be also a slight difference between the different
ruins of this period themselves. The ruins south of the church and
those along the mesa are similar, in that they are more ruined, and
not covered with debris, and in that their surfaces are also
devoid of pottery. The space west of the creek has pottery and also
heaps of rubbish, and I therefore conclude that it was the most
recent of the three locations,—or at least the one last abandoned.
To it must be added the small mound or promontory found further
south on the east bank of the arroyo. One fact is certain: all these
places were deserted, and perhaps as badly ruined as now, at the
time when Coronado first visited Pecos.
(The partial removal of the surface material may have been effected
by the Pecos Indians themselves in order to build their own houses.)
Referring now to the inhabitants of the two houses, whose ruins are
situated on the mesilla, north of the church, it is a thoroughly
well-authenticated fact that they spoke the same language as the
Indians of the pueblo of Jemez. Jemez lies 80 miles N.W. of Pecos,
beyond the Rio Grande. It is possible that the Pecos Indians came to
the valley from that direction. But it is singular that, while there
are no other settlements speaking this same idiom but Jemez and
Pecos, these two pueblos should be separated, as early as at
Coronado's time (1540), by three distinct linguistical stocks,
different from theirs and lying across, intervening between them.
Directly W. of Pecos the Queres, S.W. the Tanos, N.W. the Tehuas—all
at war with the Jemez and the Pecos, and often with each other—lay
like a barrier between the latter two. The point is an interesting
one, as the pueblo of Pecos defines (together with Taos at the
north) the utmost easterly limit to which the pueblo Indians seem to
have penetrated.
Who were first in the valley of the Rio Grande? Did the Queres,
Tanos, Tehuas, etc., drive out the Pecos, then already settled to
the S.W., into the Sierra, or did the Pecos, migrating from Jemez,
force their passage through the other tribes? I conjecture that the
Jemez, etc., were the first; that they migrated down the Rio Grande,
and on the same area, between Sandía to the S. and Santa Fe, were
gradually displaced by the others successively coming in,—one
branch, the Jemez, recoiling into the mountains towards San Diego;
the other, the Pecos, driven up the cañon of San Cristóbal,
and finally, when the Tanos moved up into that valley, crossing over
to the valley of Pecos.
This is to a great extent conjecture; still there are other singular
indications. I give them with due reserve, however, formally
protesting against any imputation that they are intended for
anything else than to suggest problems for future study.
According to my friend Mr. A. S. Gatchet, of Washington, D. C., an
excellent linguist, the Tanos and the inhabitants of Isleta, the
most southerly pueblo on the Rio Grande still occupied, speak the
same language. The same is asserted here,
as a known fact, to be the case with the Taos and the Picuries in
the north, and the Isletas at the south. If this be true, then the
supposition that the Queres and Tehuas are the latest intrusive
stock would become a certainty. More than that: the Tanos prior to
1680, had their chief pueblo at San Cristóbal, N. E. of Galisteo, on
the slope of the mesa of Pecos. They also had become dispossessed of
the Rio Grande valley, and divided into (originally) two
branches,—the Picuries and Taos north, and the Tanos, of Galisteo,
east. Isleta itself is a later agglomeration.
There being no pueblo E. and S. E. of Pecos, then it appears that
the Jemez, or rather Emmes, were the first migration, the Tanos the
second, and the Queres and Tehuas the last.
The earliest traditions of the Pecos are preserved to us by Pedro de
Castañeda, one of the eye-witnesses and chroniclers of Coronado's
"march" in 1540. They told him that, five or six years (?) before
the arrival of the Spaniards, a roaming tribe called the "Teyas" (Yutas)
had ravaged the surroundings of their pueblo, and even, though
fruitlessly, attempted to capture it.
This tribe was afterwards met by Coronado in the plains to the N.E.
and E.
Another tradition, very well known,—so well, indeed, that it has
given to the name of the unlucky "capitan de la guerra" of the
ancient Mexicans the honorific title of an aboriginal "cultus-hero,"—is
that of Montezuma.
I hope, at some future time, to be able to give some further
information on this Spanish-Mexican importation. Suffice it to say
for the present, that not a single one of the numerous chronicles
and reports about New Mexico, up to the year 1680, mentions the
Montezuma story! The word itself, Mon-te-zuma, is a corruption of
the Mexican word "Mo-tecu-zoma,"—literally, "my wrathy chief,"—which
corruption that eminently "reliable gentleman," Bernal Diez de
Castillo, is to be thanked for. He wrote in 1568.
What the Indians themselves say of this tale I have not as yet
ascertained; but the people of the valley all assert that the people
of the pueblo believe in it,—that they even affirmed that Montezuma
was born at Pecos; that he wore golden shoes, and left for Mexico,
where, for the sake of these valuable brogans, he was ruthlessly
slaughtered. They further say that, when he left Pecos, he commanded
that the holy fire should be kept burning till his return, in
testimony whereof the sacred embers were kept aglow till 1840, and
then transferred to Jemez.
There is one serious point in the whole story, and that is the
illustration how an evident mixture of a name with the Christian
faith in a personal redeemer, and dim recollections of Coronado's
presence and promise to return, could
finally take the form of a mythological personage. In this respect,
for the study of mythology in general, it is of great importance.
That the sacred fire had, originally, nothing at all to do with the
Montezuma legend is amply proven by the earliest reports.
It will also become interesting to ascertain in the future how many
pueblos, and which, concede to Pecos the honor of being the
birthplace of that famed individual, and how many, as is the case
with other great folks in more civilized communities, claim the same
honor for themselves.
I cannot, therefore, attach to the Montezuma tale any historical
importance whatever,—not even a traditional value.
Of course, Castañeda reports the story which every Indian tribe
tells of themselves; namely, that the Pecos Indians were the bravest
and the most warlike of the pueblos, and that in every encounter
they were always victorious.
Historical data, founded upon positive written records, begin for
Pecos towards the fall of the year 1540, when Francisco Vasquez de
Coronado, then at Zuni or Cibola, sent the Captain Hernando de
Alvarado with twenty men to visit a village called "Cicuyé."
Indians from that village, "situated seventy leagues towards the
east" from Zuni, had visited the latter
town, and offered to the Spanish leader "tanned hides, shields, and
helmets." The hides were buffalo-robes, for the woolly hair was
still on them. Alvarado reached Cicuyé,
passing, as I have elsewhere stated, through Acoma and Bernalillo. I
have already identified Cicuyé with Pecos. Besides the proofs
already given, a few descriptive abstracts from the report of
Castañeda will add to the strength of the evidence:—
(p. 71.) "Five days' journeys further, Alvarado reached Cicuyé, a
well-fortified village, whose houses are four stories high."
(p. 176.) "It is built on the summit of a rock. It forms a great
square, in the centre of which are the estufas." (Compare
general description and diagrams.)
(p. 177) "The village is surrounded besides by a stone wall of
rather low height. There is a spring which might be cut off."
In regard to the wall, I refer to the plans and descriptions; as for
the spring, it trickles out beneath a massive ledge of rocks on the
west side of the arroyo, nearly opposite to the field. Its water,
slightly alkaline, is still limpid and cool, and a great source of
comfort. The sketch upon the next page will give an idea of its
appearance.
There is no trace of work about it. At sunset of the 3d of
September, Mr. Bennet and I saw a herd of many hundred sheep and
goats driven to this spring by Mexicans for water, although the
creek still had a fillet of clear water running, and the pond in the
old field was filled nearly to its brim; they still preferred the
old source.
Finally, it must be borne in mind, that the name of Pecos, in the
language of its former inhabitants and of those of Jemez, is "Âqiu,"
and that, in an anonymous report of the expedition of Coronado from
the year 1541, Cicuyé is spelt Acuique.
Castañeda gives some few details concerning the mode of life and the
customs of the inhabitants. Aside from those which I have already
mentioned, he notices the ladders (p. 176); that at night the
inhabitants kept watch on the walls, the guard calling each other by
means of "trumpets" (p. 179); that the unmarried females went naked
until their marriage (p. 177); that the pueblo could muster 500
warriors (p. 176); and finally, that it was situated in a narrow
valley in the midst of mountains covered with pines, and traversed
by a small river where excellent trout is caught; very large otters,
bears, and good hawks are found there (p. 179). The inhabitants
received Alvarado with the sound of "drums and flutes, similar to
fifes, which they use often." They presented to him a great quantity
of cloth and turquoises, which are common in this province (p. 72).
I must here add that the turquoise mines of "Serrillos" are, in a
direct line, only about twenty miles nearly west of Pecos, in a
country between the former pueblos of the Tanos and those of the
Tehuas.
When, in 1543, Coronado left Nuevo México with his whole army to
return to Mexico, two ecclesiastics remained there,—Fray Juan de
Padilla, who was subsequently killed by the Indians near Gran
Quivira, and a lay brother called Luis,
who took up his abode at Pecos. Before Coronado left Bernalillo
("Tiguex"), he sent to brother Luis the remainder of the sheep. He
was then of good cheer, but still expected to be killed some day by
the old men of the tribe, who hated him, although the people were
friendly to him in general. Nothing was
afterward heard of him. Thus Pecos was the first "mission" in New
Mexico; perhaps, also, the first place where domestic quadrupeds
became introduced.
Forty years elapse before we again hear of Pecos. The unfortunate
father, Augustin Ruiz, who, in 1581, attempted to convert the
pueblos, did not reach further north than Puaray, where the Tiguas
killed him, with his two companions. But
Antonio de Espejo, who, with fourteen soldiers, explored New Mexico
in 1582 and 1583, visited Pecos. There can be no doubt but that the
pueblos of the "Hubates"—two journeyings of six leagues to the east
of the "Quires"—are the Pecos and the "Tamos," the Tanos.
Espejo is very liberal in his estimates: he gives to the "Hubates"
five towns with 25,000 inhabitants, and to the "Tamos" even 40,000
souls. He says they had cotton cloth; he also says there was much
good pine and cedar in their country, and that their houses were
four and five stories high. His visit to the pueblo was of very
short duration.
In 1590, Gaspar Castaño de la Sosa, "being then Lieutenant-Governor
and Captain-General of the kingdom of New Leon," made a raid into
New Mexico. It is possible that the pueblo which he came to on the
11th January, 1591, may have been Pecos.
The "Spanish conquest of New Mexico" proper took place in the years
1597 and 1598, under Don Juan de Oñate. He met with little
opposition, and his conquest amounted to little else than a military
occupation, followed by the foundation of Santa Fe. On the 25th of
July, 1598, he went to "the great pueblo of Pecos,"
and on the 9th of September, 1598, in the "principal estufa"
of the pueblo of San Juan, the Pecos pledged fidelity to the crown
of Spain. On the same occasion, Fray Francisco de San Miguel became
the first regular priest of the pueblo.
Here terminates the second period of the second epoch; and the last
one begins where the history of the Pecos tribe, whatever is left of
it, becomes almost exclusively documentary.
Before, however, leaving this period, I must recall here two facts
elicited by the reports of the forays and travels above mentioned.
One is, that the Pecos Indians, however warlike they may have been
towards outsiders, still were of an orderly, gentle disposition in
every-day intercourse. This is a natural consequence of their
organization and degree of development. The other and more important
one is, that Pecos was the most easterly pueblo in existence in
1540, and that even at that time it was quite alone.
Castañeda says (p. 188): "In order to understand how the country is
inhabited in the centre of the mountains, we must remember that from
Chichilticah, where they begin, there are eighty leagues; thence to
Cicuyé, which is the last village, they reckon seventy leagues, and
thirty from Cicuyé to the beginning of the plains."
Juan Jaramillo, another eye-witness of "Coronado's march," intimates
a similar fact.
In regard to Pecos being "quite alone," Castañeda is positive; so is
Juan de Oñate, who received and registered its submission. It is
true, however, that Castañeda mentions a small pueblo as subject to
Cicuyé, which pueblo, however, he says was half destroyed at his
time. He locates it "between the road and the Sierra Nevada."
This may have been the small ruin noticed near Kingman.
These facts are very interesting in their bearings upon the older
ruins of Pecos. It goes far towards furnishing additional proof that
they were indeed abandoned and decayed already in 1540.
THE DOCUMENTARY PERIOD,
commencing in 1598, and running up to the present time. Here we
should be entitled to find, of course, ample and detailed
documentary evidence. Two unfortunate occurrences, however, have
contributed to destroy the records of the territory of New Mexico.
In the month of August, 1680, when the pueblo Indians rose in
successful revolt against the Spanish rule, and captured the "villa"
of Santa Fe, they brought the archives, ecclesiastical and civil,
into the plaza, and made a bonfire of the entire pile. This was an
act of barbarous warfare. But few papers escaped the general
destruction; these were saved by Governor Don Antonio de Otermin,
and sent to El Paso del Norte, where they are still supposed to
remain. We are, therefore, as far as the period of 1598-1680 is
concerned, almost exclusively reduced to general works like the "Teatro
Mexicano" of Fray Augustin de Vetancurt, and to the collections of
documents published at Mexico and at Madrid. That, nevertheless,
some documents were saved, and subsequently carried back to Santa
Fe, is proved by the fact that Mr. Louis Felsenthal, of this city,
has recovered one, a copy of which it is hoped will appear in the
Journal of the Institute in time.
Subsequent to the return of the Spaniards, the archives of Santa Fe
were kept in good order by its administrators, the last revision
thereof being made by Governor Donaciano Vigil. In 1870, however,
the man who then acted as Governor of the Territory, although
otherwise of irreproachable character, permitted an act of vandalism
almost without its parallel. The archives had accumulated in the
palace to a vast extent: the original good order in which they were
kept had been totally neglected during and since the war of
secession; there was not even a custodian for them. So the head of
the executive of this territory suffered its archives to be sold as
waste paper, even sometimes used as kindling in the offices. Of the
entire carefully nursed documentary treasures, the accumulation of
190 years, the Hon. Samuel Ellison, of this city (notwithstanding
his feeble health), has been able to register about fifty bundles (legajos),
whereas wagon-loads were scattered or sold for wrapping.
Many of the intelligent inhabitants attempted to save what they
could, and there are some who succeeded to a limited extent; but of
what yet remained in the palace, reduced to a sufficiently small
bulk as not to be "in the way" any longer, even the valuable
journals of Otermin and Vargas were considerably reduced through
further decay.
This has been, in times of profound peace and in the nineteenth
century, the fate of the archives of New Mexico.
Ever since, the legislature of the territory has been, in fact,
utterly neglectful of its public documents. Each and every reminder
in the shape of a petition has been disregarded, and only Governor
L. Wallace has at last succeeded in having them overhauled. Hon. W.
G. Ritch effected their removal to a suitable place, and it is to
the acts of these gentlemen, and to the labor of love of Mr.
Ellison, that we owe the preservation of what now remains.
What little documentary evidence has, therefore, been left at my
disposal, contains, as might be supposed, meager information
concerning the pueblo of Pecos. The older church annals I have not
been able to find, for those at the Plaza de Pecos date back only to
1862. Whither they have gone I am unable to tell, except that they
are not at Santa Fe.
About the year 1628, through the action of Fray Francisco de Apodaca,
then Commissary-General of the Franciscan order in Mexico, religious
life in this territory obtained a new impulse. Until then the work
performed had been almost exclusively missionary work; the priests
had (and still have) enormous districts to visit. Thus: that of the
first priest of Pecos embraced from N. to S. a country of over 60
miles long, and 30 to 50 wide from E. to W. However, after Fray
Gerónimo de Zarate Salmeron had addressed to his superior at Mexico
his remarkable report in the year 1626, a
new life began. It is therefore after 1629 that the large church at
Pecos was erected, but I am as yet unable to give the exact dates.
This church and the "convent" were both built by Indians, whom the
fathers had taught to square timbers, to ornament them with simple
friezes and scroll-work, and to make adobe in the manner now
practiced, namely, mixing straw with the clay and molding it in
boxes. They were also taught to grow wheat and oats, and their
flocks increased. In addition to being a horticultural people they
became herders, and the pueblo was prosperous. Its church was
renowned as the finest in New Mexico.
Whereas Santa Fe, in 1667, had but 250 inhabitants,
Pecos, as late as 1680, sheltered 2,000 Indians.
Still, during this very time of comparative prosperity, a storm was
brewing in New Mexico, from whose effects its sedentary Indians
never recovered. This was the great rebellion of 1680. The Indians
of Pecos claim to have remained neutral during that bloody massacre,
and I am inclined to believe their statements. Nevertheless, it is a
positive fact that, on the 10th of August of the aforesaid year,
their priest, Fray Fernando de Velasco, was murdered and their
church sacked. By whom, then, was it
done? The reply is intimated by the place where the great bell was
found, and by the events intervening between 1680 and 1692, when
Diego de Vargas recaptured Santa Fe.
It will be remembered that the bell was left on the slope of the
high mesa towards the S.W., in the rocky and desolate gorge
descending towards the pueblo San Cristóbal, the old home of the
Tanos tribe. Father José Amanda Niel
writes, about twenty-five or thirty years after the rebellion, that
the Tanos secured the greatest part of the booty, among which were
bells (campanas). That this bell
was not carried to the high mesa by the Pecos I believe I
have proved; its proximity to the Tanos village, and its actual
position in the cañada leading towards the latter, shows that
it was either to be carried down to it or carried up from it. If it
is (as current report has it) the bell of Pecos, then it was a
trophy which the Tanos secured when they, on the 10th of August,
1680, committed the atrocities at the pueblo of Pecos; and this
would make it extremely probable, also, that the slaughter of Father
Velasco was accompanied by that partial destruction of the buildings
which I have described, and which appears to have been partly
repaired by means of material taken from the church, and of adobe
containing wheat-straw. This is rendered more likely by the events
subsequent to the driving out of the Spaniards, and it does not
appear that the Pecos Indians took any part even in their expulsion.
After the victorious aborigines had returned from their pursuit of
Otermin, dissensions arose among them, and intertribal warfare, in
conformity with their pristine condition, set in. The Pecos, aided
by the Queres, made a violent onslaught on the Tanos, compelling
them to abandon San Cristóbal and San Lázaro.
This looks very much like an act of retaliation. During that time
the Spaniards were not idle. In 1682, Governor Otermin penetrated as
far as Cochiti, but appears to have taken
no notice of Pecos. In 1689, however, Don Domingo Gironza Petroz de
Cruzate made a successful raid into New Mexico, in which raid the
warriors of Pecos assisted him against the other tribes. In reward
of their services he, on the 25th of September, 1689, after his
return to El Paso del Norte, executed there the document a copy of
which is hereto appended, and for which I am indebted to the
kindness of my friend David J. Miller, Esq., chief clerk of the
Surveyor General's Office at Santa Fe. It is a grant to the tribe of
Pecos of all the lands one league north, south, east, and west from
their pueblo ("una legua en cuadro"), therefore four square leagues,
or 18,763-33/100 acres, to be therefore their joint and common
property. When, therefore, in the afternoon of the 17th of October,
1692, Diego de Vargas Zapata, having recaptured Santa Fe from the
Tanos who then held its ruins, moved upon
Pecos, he was received by the whole tribe with demonstrations of
joy, and the "capitan de la guerra" of
the pueblo afterwards assisted him in subduing a second outbreak in
1694.
The result for the pueblos of the great revolt in New Mexico was a
gradual diminution in the numbers of their inhabitants. It was the
beginning of decline. The Tanos had been in some places nearly
exterminated, and all the others more or less weakened.
The distant Moqui, far off in Arizona, were the sole gainers by the
occurrence, receiving accessions from fugitives of New Mexico.
But it would be incorrect to attribute this weakening of the pueblos
during that time to the warfare with the Spaniards, or to the
latter's retaliatory measures after final triumph. Vargas was
energetic in action, but not cruel. A few of those who had committed
peculiar atrocities were executed, but the remnants of the pueblos
were reestablished in their franchises and privileges as autonomous
communities. It is the intertribal warfare, which commenced again as
soon as the aborigines were left to themselves, and drought
accompanying the bitter and bloody feuds, which destroyed the
pueblos of the Rio Grande Valley. The
Pecos, isolated and therefore less exposed, suffered proportionately
less; still, their time was come also, though in a different way.
I have already stated that, in the beginning of the eighteenth
century, the Utes introduced near the pueblo of Taos another branch
of the great Shoshone stock,—the Comanches. This tribe soon
expelled the Apaches, who had not been
exceedingly troublesome to the pueblos, and, a vigorous northern
stock, became that fearful scourge of all the surrounding
settlements, which they have continued to be for 150 years. Their
efforts were mainly directed against the pueblo of Pecos, as the
most south-easterly village exposed to their attacks. On one
occasion the Comanches slaughtered all the "young men" of Pecos but
one,—a blow from which the tribe never recovered. Thus, when the
Indians of the Rio Grande rose in arms against the Mexicans in 1837,
as has been so ably described by Mr. D. J. Miller,
the Pecos did not take any part.
Then, in the following year, 1838, an event took place which, simple
and natural as it is, still illustrates forcibly the powerful link
which the bond of language creates between distant Indian
communities. The pueblos of Pecos and Jemez had been almost without
intercourse for centuries; but in the year 1838, says Mariano Ruiz,
the principal men of Jemez appeared in person on the site of Pecos
and held a talk with its occupants. They had heard of the weakness
of their brethren, of their forlorn condition, and now came to offer
them a new home within the walls of their own pueblo. The Pecos took
the proposal under consideration, but were loath to leave the home
where they had lived for so many centuries. In the following year
"mountain fever" broke out among them, and only five adults remained
alive. These, by joint indentures, sold the majority of the lands
granted to them in 1689 by Cruzate.
Another portion was left to Ruiz as "son of the tribe." In 1840
these five men, named respectively Antonio (gobernador, and
still living at Jemez), Gregorio, Goya, Juan Domingo, and Francisco,
appeared before Don Manuel Armijo, then Mexican governor of the
territory, and declared to him their intention to abandon their home
and to seek refuge among their kindred at Jemez. Soon after, the
gobernador, the capitan de la guerra and the cacique
of Jemez, with several other Indians of that tribe, appeared at
Pecos. The sacred embers disappeared, tradition being, according to
the Hon. W. G. Ritch, Secretary of the Territory, that they were
returned to Montezuma. The remnants of
the tribe moved on with their chattels, and guided by their friends,
to Jemez, where, in a few months, I hope to visit "the last of the
Pecos."
MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS.
About the mythology of the Pecos Indians, aside from the Montezuma
story and the sacred embers, the tale of the Great Snake
("la vívora grande") appears to be widely circulated. It is
positively asserted that the Pecos
adored, and the Jemez and Taos still adore, an enormous rattlesnake,
which they keep alive in some inaccessible and hidden mountain
recess. It is even dimly hinted at that human sacrifices might be
associated with this already sufficiently hideous cult. I give these
facts as they were given to me, and shall not believe them until I
am compelled. It has always been the natural tendency in everything
which (like the idolatrous practices still existing among the
pueblos, of which there is no doubt) we do not positively know, to
make bad look worse and good better than it actually is. The
prospect of securing a knowledge of it is, however, not very good.
The Indians themselves appear to deny it, and are generally very
reticent about their aboriginal beliefs.
I have previously mentioned that Ruiz had been called upon by the
Indians of Pecos to do his duty by attending to the sacred fire for
one year, and that he refused. The reason for his refusal appears to
have been that there was a belief to the effect that anyone who had
ever attended to the embers would, if he left the tribe, die without
fail, and he did not wish to expose himself to such a fate.
About the social organization of the Pecos Indians, it has not been
possible, of course, to ascertain anything as yet. That they lived
on the communal plan is plainly shown by the construction of their
houses. That they were originally, at least, organized into clans or
gentes, can be inferred; but here I must remark that it may
be difficult to trace those clusters among the Rio Grande pueblos,
on account of their weakness in numbers, and of the intermixture of
the Tehua, Tanos, and Queres stocks resulting from the convulsion of
1680. It may be possible, however, to find them at Jemez. They exist
at Laguna and among the Moquis, according to Mr. Morgan, and I do
not doubt but that Mr. Cushing, who is so thoroughly studying the
Zuni Indians, has by this time settled the question for that tribe.
One fact, however, I consider to be ascertained; namely, that there
were neither castes nor classes among the pueblos, therefore not at
Pecos. At the head of their communal government were the usual three
officers,—the gobernador, the capitan de la guerra,
and the cacique. I am not quite clear yet as to the proper
functions of each, except that the first two are both warriors
("ambos son guerreros," Ruiz); that the capitan has also the
supervision of the lands of the tribe; and that the cacique
is more or less a religious functionary. Mr. D. J. Miller states
that the latter very seldom leaves the pueblo. It was therefore an
unusual act when the cacique of Jemez came to Pecos in 1840,
and I presume it was brought about through his connection with the
holy fire. I asked Sr. Ruiz very distinctly as to whether these
three officers were elective or not, and he promptly affirmed that
they were ("son elegidos por el pueblo"). I then inquired if the
sons succeeded to the fathers in office, and his reply was that
there was no objection to their being elected thereto if they were
qualified ("si son buenos"). This disposes of the question of
heredity in office, rank, and title, and it is almost identical with
the customs found by Alonzo de Zuevita among the Indians of Mexico
in the middle of the sixteenth century. How the presumable "gentes"
of the Pecos might have localized for dwelling in the great communal
houses I am, of course, unable to conjecture.
In regard to their marriage customs, their mode of naming children,
etc., I have not been able to gather much information as yet. The
old marriage customs are supplanted by those of the church. Still,
they may be traced up eventually. Every Pecos Indian had, besides
his Spanish name, an Indian name; and there is, according to Mr.
Ritch, still a Pecos Indian at Jemez whose aboriginal appellation is
"Huaja-toya" (Spanish pronunciation).
Of their agriculture, or rather horticulture, I have also spoken;
the modes of cultivation have not been explained to me as yet.
Irrigation is therefore the only part of their tillage system upon
which I have been able to gather any information. In addition to
what the preceding pages may contain, Sr. Vigil has assured me that
they also irrigated their huerta from the arroyo. This
thin fillet of clear water, now scarcely 0.50 m.—20 in.—in width,
fills at times its entire gravelly bed, 100 m. to 150 m.—327 ft. to
490 ft.—from bank to bank. This does not occur annually, but at
irregular intervals. Sr. Ruiz said that while the Pecos Indians were
living at their pueblo the streams were filled with water ("en ese
tiempo, corrieron los arroyos con agua, muy abundante"). It is
further said that the tribe worked other "gardens" besides, on the
banks of the river Pecos, two miles to the east.
For their arts and industry I must refer to the collections, however
meager and unsatisfactory they are; a condition for which I have
already apologized. Nowhere did I find a trace of iron nor of
copper, although they used the latter for ornaments (bracelets,
etc.), and there can be no doubt that they had the former metal
also,—after the Spanish conquest, of course. The squaring of
timbers, the scroll-work and friezes in the church, could only be
done with instruments of iron. But all traces of these implements
have disappeared from the ruins, as far as the surface is concerned.
I cannot refrain, however, from dwelling at greater length upon two
products of industry, so common among the ruins as hardly to attract
the attention of curiosity-hunters any more. These are the flakes of
obsidian and lava and the painted pottery.
I have called these flakes a product of industry; while the material
itself is of course a mineral, the fragments scattered about are
undoubted products of skill. They are chips and splinters. There is
neither lava nor obsidian cropping out in or about the valley,
but highly volcanic formations are abundantly found to the north,
within fifty miles from Pecos, in the high Sierra de Mora; perhaps,
also, nearer yet. At all events, the mineral has been brought to the
pueblo and chipped there. The same is the case with the flint
flakes, agates, jaspers, and moss-agates, with the difference,
however, that, in the case of these, water has done a great part of
the carrying, if not all; whereas the drift of the arroyo
contains no obsidian nor lava, except such as has clearly been
washed into it from the ruins. Among the flakes there will be
noticed several which may have been used for knives, whereas still
others approximate to the arrow-head. A small perfect arrow-head was
found and transmitted by me to the Institute,—the only one I met
with on the premises.
The fact that several localities at Pecos are completely devoid of
obsidian has already been mentioned. These are the oldest ruins. In
the case of the ruins along the mesa and those south of the church,
I can only speak of the surface; but where the corrugated pottery
was found the whole section of the bluff was exposed for more than
100 m.—327 ft.,—and still not a trace of the mineral appeared, while
flint, agate, and jasper were rather conspicuous.
This may be accidental, but it is certainly suspicious and
suggestive.
The painted pottery is scattered in wagon-loads of fragments over
the ruins. There are two places, however, where, as already stated,
the surface is utterly devoid of them. Whether or not this
deficiency extends to the soil, I cannot tell. I doubt it, however.
These localities are, again, the apron along the mesa and the
ruins south of the church. For the rest, it is very equally
distributed everywhere. Still there are two distinct kinds at least.
One is exactly similar to the kind now made and sold: it is coarse,
soft; the ground is painted gray or yellow; the ornaments show, in
few instances, traces of animal shapes (they are either black or
brown); and the vessels must have been thick, and with a thicker
coarse rim. There are pieces of a tinaja (bowl) with a
vertical rim, yellow outside, white inside, with black geometrical
ornamentation, not vitrified. This kind of pottery is still made by
the Indians of Nambé, of Tezuque, and of Cochiti. (The former two
are Tehuas, the latter is Queres.) But there I also found fragments
of a plain black pottery, of dark red, and of dark red with black
ornaments, which are thinner and much superior in "ring," and
therefore in quality, to any now made. This pottery is older in
date, and appears to be almost a lost art. There was, however, no
distinction in distribution. Both kinds have one point in common,
namely, the varnishing of the ornamental surfaces. I say varnishing,
and not "glazing;" for, although I believe the glassy appearance of
the painted lines to be due to some admixture of the coloring
material, and not to a separate glossy exterior coating, I do not as
yet find a reason for admitting that the Indians knew the process of
vitrification.
Of the military manufactures of the Pecos, a small arrow-head of
obsidian found near the church is the only trace. It is even too
small for a war-arrow. They had stone hatchets, and may have had the
dart, and, later on, the spear. Pebbles convenient for hurling are
promiscuously observed on the mesilla, but they are not
numerous; and nowhere along the circumvallation did I notice any
trace of heaps. The military
constructions, however, become very interesting through their
connection with the system of drainage and a comparison with the
ancient Mexicans. Around the ancient pueblo of Mexico
("Tenochtitlan") the water formed the protective circumvallation; at
Pecos, the defensive wall collected the water and conducted it where
it was needed for subsistence for the irrigation of crops.
That this great circumvallation, 983 m.—3,225 ft.—in circuit, was a
wall for protection also there is no doubt, although the main
strength of the pueblo lay in the construction of its houses, where
the inhabitants could simply shut themselves in and await quietly
until the enemy was tired of prowling around it. By Indians it could
only be carried by surprise or treachery.
Hence it was customary for the young men to leave the pueblo at
times in a body, abandoning it to the old men and women, etc.,
without concern. As long as these kept
good watch they were safe, even if the Comanches should appear.
Roaming Indians cannot break open a pueblo house if well guarded.
In conclusion of this lengthy report, I may be permitted to add a
few lines concerning the great houses themselves. Their mode and
manner of construction and occupation I have already discussed; it
is their abandonment and decay to which I wish to refer. This decay
is the same in both houses; the path of ruin from S.S.E. to N.N.W.
indicates its progress. It shows clearly that, as section after
section had been originally added as the tribe increased in number,
so cell after cell (or section after section) was successively
vacated and left to ruin as their numbers waned, till at last the
northern end of the building alone sheltered the poor survivors.
They receded from south to north; for the church, despoiled and
partly destroyed in 1680, was no protection to them. Its own ruin
kept pace with that of the tribe. The
northern extremity of the pueblo was their best stronghold, and
thither they retired step by step in the face of inevitable doom.
A. F. Bandelier.
Santa Fe,
Sept. 17, 1880.
