New Mexico Geological Society Downloaded from: http://nmgs.nmt.edu/publications/guidebooks/16 New Mexico's southwest Paige W. Christiansen, 1965, pp. 230-233 in: Southwestern New Mexico II, Fitzsimmons, J. P.; Balk, C. L.; [eds.], New Mexico Geological Society 16th Annual Fall Field Conference Guidebook, 244 p. This is one of many related papers that were included in the 1965 NMGS Fall Field Conference Guidebook. Annual NMGS Fall Field Conference Guidebooks Every fall since 1950, the New Mexico Geological Society (NMGS) has held an annual Fall Field Conference that explores some region of New Mexico (or surrounding states). Always well attended, these conferences provide a guidebook to participants. Besides detailed road logs, the guidebooks contain many well written, edited, and peer-reviewed geoscience papers. These books have set the national standard for geologic guidebooks and are an essential geologic reference for anyone working in or around New Mexico. 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One printed copy of any materials from the NMGS website or our print and electronic publications may be made for individual use without our permission. Teachers and students may make unlimited copies for educational use. Any other use of these materials requires explicit permission. This page is intentionally left blank to maintain order of facing pages. 23 0 NEW MEXICOS SOUTHWEST PAIGE W. CHRISTIANSEN Seldom does one find in the history of an arca the dian group in southwestern New Mexico, entered the intricate patterns made up of vastly diverse cultures scene. and varied elements which have blended to produce These Athabascan speaking people whom we know the history of the southwestern portion of New Mexi- historically as Apache, began to spread out across the co. Geologically, it is complex to a point of perplexity. Southwest. Between 1100 and 1540 they completely Geographically, it encompasses great expanses of harsh displaced the older, peaceful Indians cultures. When Sonoran deserts, lush river valleys (the Rio Grande, the Spaniard arrived in the Southwest, the Mogollon Gila and Mimbres Valleys), and high mountains people were gone and only the ruins of their villages where alpine flora abounds and cool streams tempt gave mute evidence that they had ever existed. South- the fisherman. Into this scene one must inject first western New Mexico became the central stronghold the Indian, then the Spaniard, the Mexican in his of the Apache Indians. In fact it became the last great turn, and finally the American. One must also add stronghold of the American Indian in his defense specifics of human activity to the story—frontier forts, against the white man. It was in the mountains of this bulwarks against marauding Indians and outposts of region that Geronimo found sanctuary. In the end, conquest; overland trails, for man's weary wandering, however, even the Apache were forced to relinquish for caravans and wagons, for stagecoaches, and finally these lands, and today, in a land that was Indian for for ribbons of steel and asphalt; mines and mining perhaps as long as 10 millennia, there are no Indians camps on a thousand hills, some to sputter and die, lands, there is no Indian population. others to live on to feed the hungry industrial plant of twentieth century America; and, there were cattle, THE SPANIARD the only way yet found to harvest the nutritious grasses of desert and mountain. Blend the land, the The Spanish impact on southwestern New Mexico people, and the activities dictated by the land, and one is not as heavy as one might think. Instead of being an area for colonization and exploitation, it was a cross- finds in southwestern New Mexico all of the elements which contribute to romance and excitement in his- roads. It lacked the sedentary Indian population to tory. But only the highlights of the story can be un- attract great missionary effort such as was the case in the upper Rio Grande valley. The mineral wealth, folded here, the rest remains for the reader's own re- search, imagination, or dreams. which became so important to the region in the nine- teenth and twentieth centuries, was discovered by the Spanish only in the last fleeting moments of empire. THE INDIANS The very nature of the country did not entice the The Indians of southwestern New Mexico fall into Spanish to undertake agricultural pursuits. Finally, two distinct groups. First were the builders, known as this was Apache land, and the Spanish were never the Mogollon Culture, which emerged from primitive able, during 250 years of contact, to dislodge them foodgatherers (the Cochise Foragers) and a higher cul- from this region. The Spanish, then, stayed on the ture group entering the southwest from Mexico. As fringes of the area and never made concerted effort to this mixed group evolved the arts of civilization, they occupy southwestern New Mexico. constructed homes in caves and along the watercourses What influence there was came in two local areas, of the Gila and Mimbres rivers. They reached their and for very different reasons. The eastern bank of the peak of development between 800 and 1100 A.D. For Rio Grande from El Paso del Norte (modern Ciudad half a millennium they lived peacefully along the Juarez) was the main route of entry to the pueblos in rivers, raising crops of corn, squash, and beans, devel- the upper valley. New Mexico's link to the world was oping pottery techniques, practicing their beautiful over the trail that threaded its way along the river, over and simple natural religion, always content to remain the Jornado del Muerto, thence to Santa Fe. For cen- a part of nature. But nature is a fickle thing. During turies the Spanish passed through southwestern New the century spanning 1100 to 1200 A.D., the climate Mexico, but he rarely stopped, except to camp or rest changed and the country dried out, making agriculture on the trail. He named those camps, he named the increasingly difficult. As the struggle for survival in- landmarks, and it is in the place names along the Rio creased, the leisure for non-food-acquiring pursuits de- Grande that the Spanish influence remains. Here there creased, and cultural vitality declined. At this same is nothing comparable to the Palace of the Governors moment another of nature's children, the second In- in Santa Fe; there are no Spanish mission churches NEW MEXICO GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY-SIXTEENTH FIELD CONFERENCE 231 such as one finds in the communities of the north; ments in agriculture and stock-raising are manifesta- there are only names at lonely rest stops along the river tions of this American westward push. The historical or on the sentinel mountains that border the stream. ingredients of American occupation include the build- The second area of Spanish influence was in the Sil- ing of forts to contain the Apache, the development ver City area, particularly at the copper mines of Santa of transportation, mining, and stock raising. As one Rita. It is discussed as a part of the mining history of roams the hills and valleys of this region, the signs of the region, for this influence was in a limited area and one or another of these will always be close at hand. only for a brief moment. In some places the influence will be clear and distinct, for that which was old still lives in the present, little THE MEXICAN changed. In other places the imagination will have to be given full rein, for the old has all but disappeared, The period of Mexican domination over southwest- and one must search for elements of the past among ern New Mexico lasted only some twenty-five years newfangled patterns of twentieth century America. and produced little lasting influence on the region. But before any progress could be made by the Mexico, engaged in a struggle for political stability American newly arrived in New Mexico's Southwest, following its independence from Spain, had little time an age old problem had to be solved, one that had or inclination to develop what seemed a harsh, plagued Spaniard and Mexican alike. The Apache In- unfriendly, and poor area, far from its centers of dian had made the desert and mountains of the region population. his home. Holding fast to these lands, he had consis- Trade continued to flourish along the Camino Real, tently refused to adapt to the ways of the Europeans. now spiced with goods moving from the Missouri And he was a predator, taking what he required for communities over the Santa Fe Trail and thence into survival from other Indians, Spaniards, Mexicans, and Mexico. But again things moved through, not to, finally Americans. southwestern New Mexico. At Santa Rita, mining The Americans solved the Indian problem whereas continued, but under increasingly difficult conditions, the Spanish and Mexicans had not.