--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Anderson, Joseph F. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 17 number: 6 published: 1914-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Joseph F. Anderson, "Discoveries on the Colorado," *Improvement Era* 17, no. 6 (April 1914): 581–589.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera176unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera176unse start_page: 581 end_page: 589 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera176unse publication_year: 1914 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Discoveries on the Colorado Discoveries on the Colorado BY JOSEPH F. ANDERSON, OF THE UTAH ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPE- DITION, 1913 VI. — Spanish and American Conquests of the Southivest The three hundred years of Spanish rule in the southwestern part of the United States had both good and bad effects on the land of the Pueblos. The Spaniards introduced new domestic animals, and seeds for new crops, which contributed greatly to the economic welfare of the natives. The sheep, the horse, the cow, the goat and the burro, were brought from Spain, and were found to be adapted most admirably to the arid Southwest and to the V*" f >-i^* HAULING FREIGHT nY OX TEAM John Wetherill, a pioneer of northern Arizona, maintained a trading post in southern Utah, at Oljato, for a number of years, and recently established a trading post at Kayenta, Arizona, where he now carries on a flourishing trade with the Navajo Indians Associated with him is Mr. Colville. These people treat the natives humanely and fairly, and have greatly aided the government in maintaining peaceful relations with the Navajos. Our picture shows Mr. Wetherill hauling freight. uses of the Indians. Fruit trees, vegetables and grains were introduced, together with slightly improved methods of agriculture. But these advantages seem to have been outweighed by the evils attending Spanish occupancy. The Pueblos were enslaved by a Spanish feudal system, intended as a humane measure, but which in practice amounted to slavery. Discouragement, disease and 582 IMPROVEMENT ERA poverty, attending such contact with Spanish civilization, undermined the virility and strong community life of the unfortunate natives. Their population decreased one-fourth during their first fifty years under foreign rule. Spanish greed, cruelty and faithlessness caused both the Pueblo Indians and the wild tribes to adopt these same tactics in self-defense, and they became adepts at trickery, thieving and treaty-breaking. In recent years, however, under the benevolent influence of the United States government, the natives of the Southwest have shown a ready inclination to cherish the higher virtues. In justice to Spain, it must be said that the acts of oppression and cruelty were perpetrated largely by individual Spaniards far enough away from a central seat of government to be safe from reprimand. The aim of the Spanish government was to treat the Indians kindly. Her policy was to enducate and fit them to share in the national life. This humane work was religiously carried on by the old church fathers who carried the Cross to the remotest corners of the country. Had the conquistadors been less eager for immediate wealth and conquest, the three centuries of Spanish rule would have been far less bloody. Of the first century and a half of Spanish rule, following the conquests of Coronado, in 1540, much is shrouded in mystery. Records enough were kept, but when the natives arose in revolt, in 1680, and exterminated the whole Spanish population, the documents in the archives at Santa Fe were destroyed by the oppressed natives in their savage revenge. Churches, public buildings, and homes were alike stripped of their contents. Now and then bits of history throwing light on the period are brought to light. Some of these tend to indicate that Santa Fe, rather than St. Augustine, is the oldest settled town in the United States. It has been reported recently that a flood at Albuquerque, not long ago, overturned an old building, revealing evidences that Albuquerque is older still than Santa Fe. The seat of government was Photo by Frasier, Utah Arch. Exped. A PAH-UTE WOMAN WITH HER FIVE CHILDREN The eldest of which was said to be six summers. They are watching the camp of the Utah Expedition, ready to accept ashare of the meal which is lieing prepared, for some of them, it was their first view ot white men. DISCOVERIES ON THE COLORADO 583 at Santa Fe, and its history is largely the history of the whole surrounding country. If we may believe some of the old Spanish chroniclers of the time, the Pueblo Indians and wild tribes were found, in 1540, living very much as we find them living today — building the same kind of houses, farming with many similar old wooden implements, dressing in the same way, worshiping the same gods, telling the same myths and mystic legends, and adhering to the same old tribal customs. Of course, there are slight modifications, but, in general, their four centuries of contact with the white man's civilization has wrought in them only few changes. The Catholic faith, taught them so assiduously by the Spanish padres, could not displace their ancestral religions. The Pater-Noster and the Ave Marie were as "sounding brass and tinkling cymbals" to their primitive ears. Coronado and some of his men have left accounts of the Indians as they found them. Some of these seem rather fanciful, and would do credit to Munchausen. They reported finding a race of giant Indians on the banks of the Colorado River, and that the tallest soldier in Coronado's army reached only to the chest of one of the captured giants. They record that one of the giants carried, on his head, a large log which six Spaniards could not lift. Modern search reveals no trace of such a race of giants. Castaneda, who was with Coronado, wrote of tribes living entirely naked, who, in winter kept themselves warm by carrying firebrands about with them. He speaks of finding Indians as "white as a Castilian lady." These may have been albinos, some of which may today be seen in the Pueblo tribes of Arizona and New Mexico. He describes some of the houses of the Pueblos as being seven stories high. He speaks of other Indians who are eaters of human flesh, and who cremate their dead. Photo by Brooks, Utah Arch. Exped. A NAVAJO HERD OF SHEEP AND GOATS These are of the breeds introduced by the Spaniards nearly four hundred years ago. The wool is used in Navajo blankets, the manufacture of which is the leading Navajo industry. 584 IMPROVEMENT ERA The animals common to the Southwest are quaintly described in the old chronicles. Mountain sheep are described as being as large as a horse. Turkeys are mentioned as "cocks with great hanging chins." Buffaloes are called bay-colored cows with long manes. These were said to be so numerous on the plains that "for days nothing but cows and sky could be seen." Castaneda describes the costumes of the Hopi and Zuni Indians much as we find them today. It is interesting to note that the Hopi belle has not changed her style of hair dress in nearly four hundred years, but remains the same now as described by Castaneda, in 1540 — "They wear their hair gathered about the ears like little wheels." This is a sample of Hopi conservatism. Everywhere, the early Spanish explorers were at first re- A CLIFF DWELLING IN SAGI CANYON, ARIZONA This contains about one hundred and fifty well-built rooms, and is one of the largest cliff houses thus far discovered. garded as divine beings, and were treated by the natives with superstitious veneration, until the fact that the invaders were mortal was discovered. Acts of cruelty and treachery on the part of the Spaniards killed faith in the strange newcomers, and bred a hate and a thirst for revenge on the part of the Indians which never died out. The first great Spanish breach of faith was at Tiguex, near the present site of Albuquerque. The winter of 1541 was coming on, and Coronado, in order to provide winter quarters for his army, turned the hospitable Tiguas out of their pueblos, ordering that they leave all their food supplies and clothing for the use of the soldiers. The natives patiently bore all this, but when freez- DISCOVERIES ON THE COLORADO 585 ing weather came, and Coronado began, in a high-handed and heartless way, to ravage and plunder the pueblos on both sides of the Rio Grande, the unhappy Tiguas arose in revolt. They had overcome their original superstitious dread of Spanish armor, guns and horses. They seized some of the horses and prepared for a general uprising. To avert this, Coronado called his entire force into the field at once to crush the movement. In the bloody war that followed, the Tiguas fought with the valor and desperation of men defending their homes and families. The carnage was great, but the contest was unequal. The guns and armor of the Spaniards gave them the advantage. Two of the pueblos, however, withstood a long siege, and finally consented to surrender on promise of safety and pardon from the Span" ish officer. No sooner was the peace agreed upon than the natives were ruthlessly taken prisoners. Coronado was at the time absent on another expedition. Don Garcia Lopez, who was next in command, ordered two .hundred stakes to be driven by which he burned the Indian prisoners alive. This was the same Lopez who had discovered the Grand Canyon of the Colorado the year before. A few of the prisoners, who managed to escape the flames, carried the news of this act of Spanish faithlessness to the tribes throughout the Southwest. This was unfortunate for Spanish colonization, for never again did the Indians feel that they could rely on the promise of a Spaniard. The affair became a part of Indian traditional history, remembered and passed on from generation to generation more vividly than if it had been written. After the explosion of the myth of the Seven Cities of Cibola and the disgraceful conquest of tiguex, Coronado found himself chasing the phantom of the fabulously wealthy cities of Quivira, Photo by Stockman, Utah Arch. Exped. A DIFFICULT CLIMB. Members of the Utah Expedition making their way up to a cliff dwelling. Reading from the top, the men are: Thomas Harper, Jr., Attorney J. H. Stockman, and W. W. Stratton. 586 IMPROVEMENT ERA which quest ended so disastrously, as related in the previous article. For forty years after Coronado's bootless journeys, there seems to have been nothing done, in the way of exploration, in the countries visited by him. Between 1580 and 1598 several minor missionary expeditions were undertaken by Franciscan friars, most of whom met martyrdom at the hands of the Indians, whose souls they so heroically sought to save. In 1598, colonization of New Mexico (the name applied to the whole Southwest) began in earnest. Don Juan Onate was commissioned by Philip II of Spain to extend the dominion of New Spain northward. Onate was a wealthy mine owner of Zacatecas, and it is said that he expended a round million in fitting out his expedition. He took with him two hundred soldiers and as many colonists with their families. Besides sufficient provisions for the first year's support of the colony, he took with him an abundance of merchandise, cattle, horses, sheep, etc. Enough priests went along to attend to the business of converting the natives. Santa Fe was one of Onate's first settlements and became the capital of this newly-settled province of Spain. Notwithstanding the animosity the Indians still had for the intruders, Onate met with no immediate resistance. All the Pueblo settlements were required to take the oath of allegiance to the Spanish crown. Christianity was pressed upon the natives and conversion proceeded apace. By the end of the first eighteen years, (1617) they boasted eleven churches and fourteen thousand Indians baptized ; in 1630, ninety churches and nearly a hundred thousand baptisms. The natives learned but little of Christianity beyond the external ceremonies. These they were taught sedulously to perform. They supposed that the new religion would bring them exemption from disease, more rain and better har- J. MONROE REDD Mr. Redd, of Monticello, Utah, was a boy of fifteen when he went to San Juan county with the first party of colonizers sent by Brigham Young, and settled at Bluff, in the early eighties. Mr. Redd is thoroughly familiar with the Painted desert region, and rendered valuable aid to the Utah Expedition as guide. He is a pioneer and frontiersman of the best type. DISCOVERIES ON THE COLORADO 587 vests. Sometimes disappointed in these hopes, their faith began to wane. The conciliatory policy of the earlier missionaries began to be abandoned, and intolerance substituted. Persecution took the place of kindly persuasion. Unbelieving Indians were flogged and enslaved for refusing baptism. The methods of the old Spanish "inquisition" were applied to the simple-minded natives, and they were even put to death for practicing sorcery. Catholicism, to these children of the desert, was only a veneer under which the religion of their ancestors persisted, for when an opportune time came, they threw off completely both Catholicism and Spanish civil rule. The insurrection of the natives began in 1680, at the pueblo of Taos, and rapidly spread to the other towns. Their seeming acquiescence to a rule of bondage, encroachments, unjust tributes and compulsory religion, together with individual wrongs without number, suddenly broke when least expected by the Spaniards. For eighty years they had endured a distasteful domination which was growing intolerably worse. Now they had de" termined upon a war of complete extermination PREPARING TO FORD THE SAN JUAN RIVER This picture shows the Utah Expedition preparing to cross the river during a flood, after swimming the pack burros across. Because of its quicksands, this is one of the jnost Of treacherous of rivers. Seven of the animals of the Utah Expedition floundered in the quicksands of this river. their white conquerors. With savage fury they slaughtered the whites in every settlement, destroying the churches and every vestige of alien worship Refugees from outlying settlements crowded into Santa Fe which was already besieged by the Indians. A week of desperate conflict forced the Spaniards to abandon this stronghold, and the few who escaped fled to the border towns of old Mexico. The next year the Spaniards returned with supplies and reenforcements, bent upon a re-conquest of New Mexico. It took fifteen years of stubborn fighting to recover their lost homes and subdue the Pueblos. Only the Moqui and Zum pueblo towns maintained their independence against the Spaniards. The submission of the other pueblos was only feigned for they con tinned to murder the missionaries and attack the smaller Spanish towns, carrying off cattle and other booty. For the next hundred years harassed by the Pueblos, Apaches, Navajos and Utes, the Spanish 588 IMPROVEMENT ERA population remained almost stationary. An unprofitable caravan trade was carried on with Chihuahua, there being as yet no communication with California or Louisiana. The caravan would carry to Chihuahua furs, salt, copper, tobacco and Navajo blankets, driving herds of sheep and goats. Returning, the caravan would bring cloth, ammuniflSjjBJS! tion, liquors and goods for In" dian trade. American occupancy of the Southwest began about 1806, when Zebulon M. Pike made his famous expedition overland from the Missouri River to Santa Fe. This was just six years before New Spain began a movement toward independence from Spain, which end was brought about in 1822. The breaking of the bonds with Spain opened the way in New Mexico for a fertile American trade over the old Santa Fe trail from Independence and St. Louis on the Missouri River. The American commercial invasion was soon followed by an invasion of settlers. In They still grind their meal by this method, ICJC „r i-U ± j. j.u which was the method used by the cliff i-OOD, OI me twenty-tUree dwellers and also by the Indians of the thousand population in the southwest, at the time of the Spanish con- . r r r quest, in 1540. province of Texas, twenty thousand were Americans. The influx of Americans to the Southwest continued until the country became a part of the United States, at the close of the war with Mexico, in 1848. To the work of the "Mormon Battalion" is due some meed of credit in holding the Southwest for the United States, in the conflict. In its long march across the enemy's country, this brave and loyal band practically covered the vast territory acquired, and but for whose march the Southwest might have remained much longer Mexican territory. Much of the Southwest is still a vast, undeveloped, arid area. It seems improbable, however, that it shall always be so. The development of the science of dry-farming holds undreamed-of possibilities for seemingly worthless tracts. For centuries the Indian tribes of the country have raised corn without irrigation, and by merely scratching the ground with frail wooden hand Sketch by the Author GRINDING CORN A native woman is grinding corn on a matate with a mono stone in her hands. DISCOVERIES ON THE COLORADO 589 implements. Coronado said, in 1540, that by this method the Indians raised "enough corn in one year to last them seven." They are farming in the same way today. If they can raise such crops by such unscientific methods, much more may reasonably be expected from scientific dry-farming. This is being demon" strated by the farmers in San Juan county, Utah. (The next article of this series will deal with some of the chief episodes of American exploration of the Southwest.) 9i ELDERS OF THE SCOTTISH CONFERENCE, NOVEMBER, 1913 Elders, from left to right, top row: D. P. Frost, Grouse Creek, Utah; S. M. Beckstead, Whitney, Idaho; H. E. Bair. Richmond; C. J. Wilson, Midway; J. W. Savage, Hyrum; W. H. Keysor, Salt Lake City, Utah; middle row: A. J. Barker, Knight, Wyo.; Fred R. Woolley, Salt Lake City; President Hyrum M. Smith; President W. E. Moss, Lake Point; G. G. Campbell, Salt Lake City; G C. Howarth, Nephi. Bottom row: Virgil B. Anderson, Salt Lake City; J. C. Edwards, Salt Lake City; E. G. Evans, Union; A. M. Hunter, Taylor; Joseph A. Gagon, Eureka; A. H. Archibald, Wellsville, Utah.