Clash of Cultures

In 1824 the Mexican Congress joined Texas with the neighboring state of Coahuila to ensure a Spanish speaking majority in Texas, and authorized the region to dispose of its lands to new settlers.  The new state of Coahuila-Texas established the so-called empresario system a year later. An empresario was a person who had been granted the right to settle on land in exchange for recruiting and taking responsibility for new settlers.

Fifteen promotors, Mexican and American, took advantage of its general terms.  In exchange for vast holdings, each pledged to settle 100 or more families within six years.  Each family would receive "one labor" which was 177 acres, of farmland, and "one sitio" for grazing land totally 4500 acres. 

These new American settlers were exempted from taxes, tariffs and conscription.  All settlers were required to be of the Catholic faith, although only a small percentage actually were, but officials looked the other way as long as Protestants did not worship together in public.

The immigration policy was a huge success. In 1827 there were 10,000 US born Texans - three years later there were 2x that many.  Their relations with Mexico were cordial.  Potential troublemakers and Protestant ministers were screened out.  All dealings with the central government went through proper channels which albeit slow and tedious. 

Rival empresarios began to settle of their own land grants, intent on running things their own way.  Squatters who were mostly hunters and farmers, but many were thieves, murderers, and fugitives from the American justice system, began drifting in along the Red River region.  Few had legal claim to the land and were not interested in what the Mexican government said.

Tensions rose quickly.  Some were political, but most were cultural.  Mexicans and Americans never truly understood nor trusted each other.  Newcomers were over-bearing, ill-mannered and if seemed, bent on taking over.  The Americans, at that time in frontier history, believed they were destined by Providence to subdue the western wilderness regardless of who stood in they way...

Next time...The Fredonia Revolt
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Today in Pioneer History: "On August 29, 1876, Charles Franklin Kettering, the American engineer and longtime director of research for General Motors Corp. (GM), is born, in Loudonville, Ohio. Of the 140 patents Kettering obtained over the course of his lifetime, perhaps the most notable was his electric self-starter for the automobile, patented in 1915.

Trading Caravan Style

The Spring of 1824 found all the Missouri traders bound for Santa Fe agreeing to travel in one well-defended caravan as protection against hostile Indian raiders.   The results were impressive - Indian raiders kept away, and goods worth $35,000 brought a return of $190,000 in gold, silver, and furs.  This caravan style of trade became the norm from then on except for a temporary halt during the Mexican war.  Even larger caravans made the annual trek, eventually expanding to include Taos and market in the state of Chihuahua.

By 1831 the caravan contained 100 wagons and 200 men.  Congress authorized payments to the Osage and Kansa Indians to ensure safe passages.  Occasionally military escorts were dispatched to help fend off the Comanche who would attack the wagons and run off with precious livestock.

Nature was an even greater danger.  Rockslides often made the mountain route a nightmare.  The shorter Cimarron Cutoff had it own horrors -intense heat, mirages, and clouds of choking alkali dust.  Overnight spring rains turned  streams into mile wide torrents and transformed dusty flatland in hip deep oceans of mud.

The New Mexican welcome wore thin as well.  The governor of Santa Fe and his poorly paid subordinates were empowered to charge traders whatever custom duties the traffic would bear.  Traders never knew until they left Santa Fe how much profit they would be allowed to take with them.  Bribing and smuggling were very common.  The Americans, for the most part, were determined to give up as little as possible for what one bitter skinner called "the sole use and benefit of his obesity, the Governor".

Next time - Things get rowdy in Santa Fe
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Today in Pioneer History: On June 28, 1868, the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing to African Americans citizenship and all its privileges, is officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution.

The Adobe Home

The settlers of the 1700s in the Southwest had little resources to build so they made homes of adobe brick.  Pulverizing the soil, adding water to form a thick paste, the settlers then molded the mixture into  four inch thick bricks which weighed 40-50 pounds each.  On a foundation of uneven stones, the dried bricks were laid in rows and mortared with thick mud. When it dried, a coat of mud plaster was applied over the bricks to make a smooth surface.  On the roof, pine log beams supported crisscrossed poles which were covered with bricks and a thick coat of mud plaster and earth was applied.

The settlers clustered their dwellings in multi-family compounds where each one story building was attached and all windows faced the inside courtyard.  Pueblo Indians taught them how to raise both cattle and sheep inside the courtyard.  They also grew gardens and orchards.

The lower quarter of the walls inside were sometimes painted with ocher mixture of dirt and water applied with sheepskins.  (this photo is not a authentic original!) The clay floor was soaked in animal blood to harden the surface.  The family slept on the floor and also sat on the floor to eat at a low table.  The fireplace served for cooking and heating the home.  Corn and chili peppers were baked outdoors in a beehive shaped earthen oven.  Cooking utensils were mostly of copper.

In each home in a carved in niche was a statue of a revered saint which served as their worship center.  The inside of Spanish homes differed little from the inside of pioneer settlers in the west 100 years later - only the materials changed.

Next time...California Missions
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On this Day in Pioneer History:  On June  13, 1805, Meriwether Lewis and four men arrive at the Great Falls of the Missouri River, confirming that the explorers are headed in the right direction.

Pike Goes Southwest

Upon Pike's return to St. Louis, Wilkinson was ready to dispatch Pike again into the Southwest.  His
"official" instructions were to avoid Spanish territory.  After three months rest, Pike and 23 men moved up the Osage River on barges and followed the Arkansas River after trading barges for horses. 

Pike's view of the Plains as a treeless wasteland would help establish the myth of the Great American Desert which inhibited settlement for decades. 

By November they were close to Spanish territory at the southern reaches of the Rockies. Pike and three companions made an unsuccessful attempt to climb one of the highest peaks, a mountain that now bears his name.  (If you thought it was named for him because he reached the summit, wrong!)

Winter was coming and the men were deep in Spanish territory and built crude shelters.  Local authorities were out to locate and arrest Pike.  He was captured by the Spanish and taken to Santa Fe.  From there he was dispatched under guard to Chihuahua, Mexico and escorted back to the US territory via Texas. 

With all of his maps and papers gone, Pike relied on his memory for knowledge of the Southwest in a report published in 1807.  Pike was killed in the War of 1812 as a Brigadier General.

Next time...Drifting Back to War
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On This Day in Pioneer History:  On January 18, 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays emanating from Crookes tubes and the many uses for X-rays were immediately apparent. One of the first X-ray photographs was made of the hand of Röntgen's wife.

The Myth of Billy the Kid

The legend says that Billy the Kid killed a man for every year of his life (21 years)...true or false?

This claim began within a month of Billy's actual death when a writer, whose name was Fable (no joke) wrote a piece subtitled The History of an Outlaw Who Killed a Man for Every Year of His Life. His story seemed to have stuck in folklore of the Wild West.

The actual story began in 1859 in New York City where Billy was born Henry McCarty, son of Irish immigrants during the potato famine who settled in the Irish slums of Manhattan.  After his father died, his mother took her sons west to Indianapolis at the end of the Civil War. Billy's mother was a good mother and a good business woman, providing a good life for her boys.  Billy was not raised in poverty as many accounts claim.  She was diagnosed with tuberculosis when Billy was twelve.

After his mother's death, Billy sought adventure and drifted from one place to another, never really settling down or "growing up".  Although not the bloody killer that legends have claimed, Billy was no saint either.  While gambling and learning the "cowboy life" in the Southwest, Billy killed his first man in Arizona - a bully who was harassing Billy in a saloon. Instead of staying and straightening out the mess (it was unlikely he would have been convicted of shooting the man as it was self-defense), Billy ran, changed his name to William (Billy) Bounty and ended up in Lincoln County, New Mexico.

Billy went to work on the Tunstall Ranch, in the middle of the Lincoln County Wars, and in 1878 found himself on the losing side of the war.  LG Murphy and James Dolan controlled the local economy, with partners in the US Attorneys office, the local sheriff and others on their payroll who were not afraid of bloodshed.  Billy the Kid worked for the other side of the Lincoln County War - James Turnstall, cattle baron John Chisum, and attorney Alexander McSween.

When Billy the Kid was just 19 years old, his boss was murdered in cold blood by the Murphy/Dolan gang.  Billy vowed to find justice for Turnstall.  Arrests were issued for those responsible for the death, but the sheriff wouldn't honor them. Billy was hired to serve the warrants, which resulted in him being put in jail by the sheriff instead.  In the end the sheriff and deputy were killed in a shootout of which probably one was at Billy's hand.  He had killed his second man and now a bounty was on his head.  Again Billy was arrested and jailed and again Billy shot the two jailers to gain his freedom.  The count is now at four men.

When he died in July 1880 at the hands of  Pat Garrett, the folklore took on a life of its own about Billy. The truth  is less sensational - he killed at most four men, not 21, he didn't wear flashy clothes,  always well-groomed, weighed about 140 pounds, was quite intelligent, quick witted, and clever.  He was cheerful, and had a bit of the Irish temper.  He excelled at firearns and loved to read. And that was the true legend of Billy the Kid.

Next time...Who is Kid Curry?
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This Day in History:  On February 19, 1847, the first rescuers from Sutter's Fort reach the surviving remnants of the Donner emigrant party at their snowbound camp in the high Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Walker vs. Mangas

Mangas Coloradas, the only Apache chief with enough influence and reputation to work with other
tribes, met with the calvary military at Apache Pass in Southeast Arizona.  Along with his son-in-law, Cochise, and 200 Apache, Mangas fought well.  After 6 hours of battle, he was wounded and forced to retreat.  By the time Captain Joseph Walker and his men came along, the Apache wanted revenge.

It was a human chess game between the two old veterans.  Walker wanted to get out of Apache territory and to the Continental Divide in southern Arizona.  Mangas wanted to harass and stop Walker altogether.  Both wanted as little bloodshed as possible.

Since Walker and his men were outnumbered 3:1, they were relatively safe in the open with their sharpshooters inflicting ocassional wounds, while Mangas tried to lure Walker into an ambush and raided his livestock. 

Walker's party went up and down New Mexico, staying to the east of the mountains and looking for a way through.  Constantly dogged by the Apache, they eventually ran out of water and had to travel through Apache territory to a spring.

In the end, they outwitted the Apache, made it to water and out again to present day Sioux City and Fort McLane in January 1863. 

Next time...Walker's New Plan

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Today in History: On January 19, 1847,  Mexicans, angered by the abusive behavior of American soldiers occupying Taos,  strike back by murdering the American-born New Mexican governor Charles Bent.  (refer back to earlier posts in Pioneer Pieces for Captain Joseph Walker in Taos)

Bullies of the Southwest

The Apache occupied most of south central New Mexico and Arizona and were the most dangerous in the SW as far as whites were concerned.  Their economy depended on robbery and they preyed on agricultural tribes like the Hopi, Pima, and Pagago.  They took supplies, women and children for slave markets, weapons, ammunition and particularly horses.  Unlike the plains Indians, they didn't keep large horse herds, nor did they value them as Indians in the north or east did - to the Apache a horse was disposable.  Even the Spanish and Mexicans couldn't deal with the Apache. 

In the first half of the 19th century (1850s), the American ranchers and settlers began arriving and the Apache turned on the settlers for profit - with the goal of ridding the area of all white men which they came very close to doing.  I
n 1861-1862, travel through the area was actually stopped and settlers fled to Tucson and Mesilla. 

Next Time...After the Gold Rush

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On This Day in History:  On January 8, 1877,  Crazy Horse and his warriors--outnumbered, low on ammunition and forced to use outdated weapons to defend themselves--fight their final losing battle against the U.S. Cavalry in Montana.