THESIS FROM BORDERED LAND, TO BORDERLAND, AND BACK AGAIN: HOW THE SANGRE DE CRISTO LAND GRANT BECAME PART OF THE UNITED STATES, 1844-1878 Submitted by Jacob Swisher Department of History In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Summer 2020 Master’s Committee: Advisor: Jared Orsi Ann Little Andrea Duffy Sarah Payne Copyright by Jacob Swisher 2020 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT FROM BORDERED LAND, TO BORDERLAND, AND BACK AGAIN: HOW THE SANGRE DE CRISTO LAND GRANT BECAME PART OF THE UNITED STATES, 1844-1878 From 1844 to 1878, the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant, a one-million-acre parcel in Colorado and New Mexico’s San Luis Valley, experienced a transition from a Ute landscape, to a Ute, Nuevomexicano, and American borderland, and, finally, to an American region. This rapid, thirty-year transformation centered on conflicts between Utes, Nuevomexicanos, and American and European migrants and land speculators over the grant’s borders, including legal, racial, political, economic, and scientific ones. By 1878, the outcome of these border contests was a relatively stable, bordered landscape on the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant. Examining this transition as a shift from a Ute bordered land, to a Ute, Nuevomexicano, and American borderland, and, finally, into a bordered, American region not only demonstrates that border contests were central to the expansion of the United States and its settler populations across the American West but also shows how contests over borders have offered important avenues of resistance for local communities in the San Luis Valley in both the past and present. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For a project like this one, there are certainly too many people to thank—many more than can adequately be listed here. I am grateful to the department of history at Colorado State University, the Rosser Family, and the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies for their financial support of this project. I have also been fortunate enough to embark on a journey into the historical profession at two institutions where I have met faculty and peers who helped me along the way as I became increasingly interested in historical scholarship. To Mary Murphy, Michael Reidy, Mark Fiege, and Janet Ore, thank you for encouraging me to attend graduate school. To Janet Ore, I owe a special thanks for sending me to Colorado State University; my time here has been beyond fruitful. I am particularly grateful for the time and energy that the faculty here at CSU have invested in my education. To Ann Little, Sarah Payne, and Andrea Duffy, thank you not only for being excellent members on a master’s committee but for reading paper drafts and always challenging me to be a stronger thinker. To Michael Childers and Leisl Carr Childers, thank you for offering me valuable scholarly and professional advice and for always keeping your office doors open. I owe a special thank you to Jared Orsi, who has read countless drafts of my work in the past two years and has made me a better thinker and writer. Jared is both a model historian and a model of a good human being; words here cannot fully express my gratitude for the role he has played as my advisor for the past two years. And last, although certainly not least, my biggest thank you is to Tori, who, throughout this project, has remained my most valuable sounding board and source of support as she has also been working to complete her own master’s degree. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 “On Borderlands”.................................................................................................................4 Mapping Beyond the Archive: Environmental and Spatial History on the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant ..............................................................................................................13 Scope of Study ...................................................................................................................17 A Note on Terminology .....................................................................................................21 Chapter 1 – From Bordered Land to Borderland: The Unmaking of Ute Space in the San Luis Valley, 1200 to 1868 ......................................................................................................................23 The Indigenous Southwest .................................................................................................27 Nuevomexicano Borders in the Ute Bordered Land ..........................................................36 The Demise of the Ute Bordered Land ..............................................................................48 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................63 Chapter 2 – Bordering the Ute-Nuevomexicano Borderland, 1864-1878 .....................................65 Scientific Borders...............................................................................................................69 Racial Borders ....................................................................................................................77 Legal Borders .....................................................................................................................85 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................92 Chapter 3 – Migration, Labor, and Environment on the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant .................95 Ecology and Human Geography ........................................................................................98 The Geography of Production ..........................................................................................113 Race and American Economic Borders on the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant .................122 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................131 Conclusion – From Bordered Land, to Borderland, and Back Again ..........................................133 From Bordered Land to Borderland .................................................................................138 The Internal Borderlands of U.S. History ........................................................................141 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................145 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Precipitation (inches) in the San Luis Valley, 1848 to 1855 ...........................................50 Table 2. High-frequency terms in Blackmore’s Colorado ............................................................74 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Map of Colorado Embracing the Central Gold Region, 1869 ........................................22 Figure 2. Network of Property Transfers in Costilla County, 1862-1864 .....................................44 Figure 3. Reconstructed Drought Severity, North America, 1851 ................................................51 Figure 4. Fort Massachusetts Viewshed Analysis .........................................................................55 Figure 5. Fort Garland Viewshed Analysis....................................................................................55 Figure 6. “Map of the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant Situate in the San Luis Valle, Colorado Territory,” No Date ........................................................................................................................76 Figure 7. “Map of the Trenchara and Costilla Estates Forming the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant Situate in the San Luis Valley, Colorado Territory,” No Date ............................................87 Figure 8. Map Showing the Blue Grama Grass Habitat Range on the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant ............................................................................................................................................101 Figure 9. Map Showing the Hydrology of the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant ..............................103 Figure 10. Map Showing Travel Time from Costilla ..................................................................105 Figure 11. Map Showing Travel Time from Fort Garland ..........................................................107 Figure 12. Map Showing Grazing Area for Sheep on the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant .............109 Figure 13. Map Showing Grazing Area for Cattle on the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant .............112 Figure 14. Map Showing Water Claims on the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant.............................117 Figure 15. Map Showing Nuevomexicano Population Density on the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant ............................................................................................................................................128