No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
When the Mountain Men began their invasion of the Rockies n the 1820's, the tiny village of Taos, in New Mexico, took its place alongside Fort Vancouver and St. Louis as one of their three favorite “jumping-off points” in the search for beaver pelts. Spanish exploration of the area that now comprises the Southwestern United States had antedated that of the Anglo-American by over 250 years, but it was not until the arrival of the latter group that large-scale fur trapping took place. In the mountains and high plateaus of Colorado and New Mexico and in the beaver-rich valleys and tributaries of the Arkansas, Rio Grande, Green, Colorado, Gila, Sacramento and San Joaquin, the Anglo extracted great wealth where the Spaniard had seen only an unpromising wilderness. Although the Spaniard carried on a lively trade in deerskins and buffalo hides in the Southwest, there is little evidence of a significant trade in fine furs during the period of 1540 to 1821.
1 Billington, Ray Allen, The Far Western Frontier 1830–1860 (New York, 1962), pp. 41–43.Google Scholar
2 Kinnaird, Lawrence (ed. and tr.), The Frontiers of New Spain, Nicolas de Lafera’s Description 1766–1768 (Berkeley, 1958), p. 95.Google Scholar
3 Smurr wrote: “The fur resources of the far Southwest and its neighbors were thus very considerable, but for three centuries all of them were in the grasp of a country which lacked the wisdom to make the most of its opportunities.” In Phillips, Paul Chrisler, The Fur Trade (2 vols.; Norman, 1961), II, 471.Google Scholar
4 Carroll, Bailey and Haggard, J. Villasana (eds. and trs.), Three New Mexico Chronicles (Albuquerque, 1942), p. 10.Google Scholar
5 See, for example, de Palencia, Isabel, The Regional Costumes of Spain (London, 1926)Google Scholar and Gibson, Charles, The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule, A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico 1519–1810 (Stanford, 1964), p. 343.Google Scholar An anonymous visitor to New Mexico in 1818 remarked that “because they have only a very small market for the furs which they receive in exchange, it follows that this commerce is unimportant.” In Thomas, Alfred B., “An Anonymous Description of New Mexico in 1818,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 33, I (July, 1929), 59.Google Scholar
6 Phillips, , The Fur Trade, 1, 17–22.Google Scholar
7 Favour, Alpheus H. discusses this in Old Bill Williams, Mountain Man (rev. ed.; Norman, 1962), pp. 83–84.Google Scholar
8 Report of August 28, 1803, doc. 1670a, in the Spanish Archives of New Mexico, State Records Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Hereinafter cited as SANM.
9 Carroll, and Haggard, (eds. and trs.), Three New Mexico Chronicles, p. 37. See also, p. 134.Google Scholar
10 Smurr, J. W. in Phillips, , The Fur Trade, 2, 573.Google Scholar
11 Thomas, Alfred Barnaby, “Spanish Expeditions into Colorado,” Colorado Magazine, 1, 7 (November, 1924), 289.Google Scholar
12 Bolton, Herbert E., Coronado, Knight of Pueblos and Plains (Albuquerque, 1964), pp. 126, 137, 184, 186, 192.Google Scholar
13 Ibid., p. 131.
14 Ibid., pp. 130, 184, 265, 204-205, 225.
15 Ibid., pp. 257, 245, 247.
16 Hammond, George P. and Rey, Agapito (eds. and trs.), Narratives of the Coronado Expedition 1540–42 (Albuquerque, 1940), pp. 292–293.Google Scholar
17 Hammond, George P. and Rey, Agapito (eds. and trs.), The Gallegos Relation of the Rodriguez Expedition to New Mexico (Santa Fe, 1927), pp. 21, 34, 57.Google Scholar
18 Hammond, George P. and Rey, Agapito (eds. and trs.), Expedition into New Mexico made by Antonio de Espejo 1582–1583, as Revealed in the Journal of Diego Pérez de Luxán (Los Angeles, 1929), p. 126 Google Scholar; Forbes, Jack D., Apache, N avaho, and Spaniard (Norman, 1960), p. 65.Google Scholar
19 Hammond, George P. and Rey, Agapito (eds. and trs.), Don Juan de Oñate, Colonizer of New Mexico 1595–1628 (2 vols.; Santa Fe, 1953), I, 483, 486.Google Scholar
20 Hammond, George P., Don Juan de Oñate and the Founding of New Mexico (Santa Fe, 1927), pp. 185, 176–177Google Scholar; Reeve, Frank D., History of New Mexico (2 vols.; New York, 1962), I, 133.Google Scholar
21 Hodge, Frederick Webb, Hammond, George P., and Rey, Agapito (eds. and trs.) Fray Alonso de Benavides’ Revised Memorial of 1634 (Albuquerque, 1945), p. 39.Google Scholar
22 Declaration of Fray Juan Ramírez and others to the Inquisition, Santo Domingo, September 8, 1659, in Hackett, Charles Wilson (ed.), Historical Documents Relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Approaches Thereto, to 1773 (3 vols.; Washington, 1937), III, 192.Google Scholar
23 Moorhead, Max. L., New Mexico’s Royal Road (Norman, 1958), p. 32 Google Scholar; Phillips, , The Fur Trade, 1, 27.Google Scholar
24 Bloom, Lansing L., “A Trade-Invoice of 1638,” New Mexico Historical Review, 5, 3 (July, 1935), 244–245.Google Scholar The buffalo robes were clearly painted (pintados). This was a common practice among Missouri River Indians, such as the Mandans, and may have been done by Plains Indians as well. See Coues, Elliott (ed.), New Light on the Early History of the Far West, The Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry and David Thompson (3 vols.; New York, 1897), I, 360.Google Scholar This information, courtesy of Janet Lecompte of Colorado Springs.
25 Scholes, France V., Troublous Times in New Mexico 1659–1610 (Albuquerque, 1942), p. 45.Google Scholar
26 Declaration of Hernando Martín Serrano, Santa Fe, May 21, 1664, in the case against Diego Peñalosa in Hackett, (ed.), Historical Documents, 3, 248–249.Google Scholar
27 Bloom, , “A Trade Invoice of 1638,” pp. 244–245 Google Scholar; Scholes, , Troublous Times in New Mexico 1659–1670, p. 45.Google Scholar
28 de Humboldt, Alexander, Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain (4 vols.;, London, 1811), 4, 14.Google Scholar
29 Palacio, Vicente Riva, México a través de los siglos (5 vols.; México, 1887–1889), I 514, 675, 677, 678Google Scholar; Humboldt, , Political Essay, 4, 29–30, 37–38Google Scholar; Bancroft, Hubert H., History of Mexico (6 vols.; San Francisco, 1883), III, 642 Google Scholar; Haring, Clarence H., Trade and Navigation Between Spain and the Indies in the Time of the Hapsburgs (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1918), p. 124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30 Hearings in the case of Diego de Peñalosa, July 3, 1665, in Hackett, (ed.), Historical Documents, 3, 260.Google Scholar
31 Letter of Fray Estevan de Perea, Cuaras, October 30, 1665, to the Inquisition, in Hackett, (ed.), Historical Documents, 3, 130.Google Scholar See also Scholes, France V., Church and State in Nevi Mexico (Albuquerque, 1937), p. 105.Google Scholar
32 Scholes, , Church and State in New Mexico, pp. 118–119.Google Scholar
33 Scholes, , Troublous Times in New Mexico, pp. 34, 44.Google Scholar
34 Espinosa, J. Manuel, Crusaders of the Rio Grande (Chicago, 1942), pp. 177, 183, 197, 336, n. 74.Google Scholar
35 Thomas, Alfred Barnaby (ed. and tr.), Forgotten Frontiers: A Study of the Spanish Indian Policy of Don Juan Bautista de Anza, Governor of New Mexico 1777–1787 (Norman, 1932), p. 26Google Scholar.
36 Report of Fray Pedro Serrano, 1761, in Hackett, (ed.), Historical Documents, 3, 486–487 Google Scholar; Adams, Eleanor B. (ed.), “Bishop Tamarón’s Visitation of New Mexico, 1760,” Historical Society of New Mexico Publications in History, 15 (February, 1954), 58 Google Scholar; Thomas, Alfred Barnaby, The Plains Indians and New Mexico, 1751–1778: A Collection of Documents Illustrative of the History of the Eastern Frontier of New Mexico (Albuquerque, 1940), pp. 68, 111–112.Google Scholar
37 Folmer, Henri, “Contraband Trade Between Louisiana and New Mexico in the 18th Century,” New Mexico Historical Review, 16, 3 (July, 1941), 266.Google Scholar
38 Carroll, and Haggard, (eds. and trs.), Three New Mexico Chronicles, p. 130.Google Scholar
39 “An Account of the Events Concerning the Comanche Peace 1785–86,” Pedro Garrido y Durán, Chihuahua, December 21, 1776, in Thomas, (ed.), Forgotten Frontiers, p. 306.Google Scholar
40 Instructions of Tomás Vélez Cachupín, Governor and Captain General of New Mexico to his successor, August 12, 1754, in Thomas, , Plains Indians and New Mexico, p. 130.Google Scholar
41 Thomas, , “Spanish Expeditions into Colorado,” pp. 291–297.Google Scholar
42 Hill, Joseph J., “Spanish and Mexican Exploration and Trade Northwest from New Mexico into the Great Basin, 1765–1853,” Utah Historical Quarterly, 2, 1 (January, 1930), 4–6 Google Scholar; “Diary and Itinerary” of Fray Silvestre Vélez de Escalante in Bolton, Herbert E., Pageant in the Wilderness: The Story of the Escalante Expedition to the Interior Basin, 1776, published as vol. 18 of Utah Historical Quarterly, 1950, p. 152.Google Scholar Rivera apparently thought the Gunnison was the Colorado.
43 Hill, , “Spanish and Mexican Exploration and Trade,” p. 5, n. 5.Google Scholar
44 Escalante “Diary” in Bolton, Pageant in the Wilderness, pp. 215–216, 159.
45 See Anza’s Diary in Thomas, (ed. and tr.), Forgotten Frontiers, p. 126 Google Scholar; LeRoy, and Hafen, Ann W., Old Spanish Trail, Santa Fe to Los Angeles (Glendale, 1954), p. 84.Google Scholar
46 In New Mexico, “a non-Pueblo Indian living in more or less Spanish fashion.” See Atanasio Domínguez, Fray Francisco, The Missions of New Mexico, 1776, tr. and ed. by Adams, Eleanor B. and Chávez, Fray Angelico (Albuquerque, 1956), p. 42, n. 71.Google Scholar
47 Bando of Governor Francisco Trebol Navarro, September 13, 1778, Santa Fe, SANM, doc. 740. Escalante also mentions that trade “to the lands of the heathen” had been illegal for some time prior to 1776 unless one procured a license from the governor. Trebol Navarro does not mention this possibility.
48 Incomplete document, February 3, 1783, SANM, doc. 855. Testimony was taken from nine persons, Encarnación Espinosa, Clemente Bene vides, Jose A. (?)laziano Mondragon, Manuel Vigil, Pablo Gonzales, Melchor Lopez, Carlos Vigil, Manuel Vigil.
49 Case beginning on March 31, 1785, SANM, doc. 920.
50 Case of August 2 to September 2, 1797, SANM, doc. 1393.
51 James, Thomas, Three Years Among the Mexicans and the Indians (St. Louis, 1916), p. 146.Google Scholar
52 Hill, , “Spanish and Mexican Exploration and Trade,” pp. 16–17.Google Scholar SANM, doc. 1881(7); Tyler, S. Lyman, “The Spaniard and the Ute,” Utah Historical Quarterly, 22, 4 (October, 1954), 356–357.Google Scholar
53 Pino, Juan Bautista in Carroll, and Haggard, (eds. and trs.), Three New Mexico Chronicles, p. 134.Google Scholar The Spanish text says that the articles which Sarracino saw were of European manufacture (p. 252). Ute trade is usually thought of as being directed solely toward the Spaniards of New Mexico, but the above account would seem to indicate that they were also aware of foreigners on the northwest coast and able to obtain trade goods, probably indirectly, from them.
54 Hill, , “Spanish and Mexican Exploration and Trade,” summarizes this case (SANM, doc. 2511) on pp. 16–19.Google Scholar Felipe Gomez, Josef Santiago Vigil, Gabriel Quintana, Josef Velásquez, and a retired soldier, Miguel Tenorio, were also along. By this time, trade either had been legalized or this party had a license, for the testimony was designed to answer certain questions from the Governor. I see no evidence in the document that the traders were on trial, as is stated by Tyler, S. Lyman, “The Spaniard and the Ute,” p. 359.Google Scholar See also Greer, Leland H., “Spanish-American Slave Trade in the Great Basin, 1800–1853,” New Mexico Historical Review, 24, 3 (July, 1949), 173–176.Google Scholar
55 Carroll, H. B., “Some New Mexico-West Texas Relationships, 1541–1841,” West Texas Historical Association Year Book, 24 (October, 1938), 97 Google Scholar; Richardson, Rupert Norval, The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement (Glendale, 1933), p. 19.Google Scholar
56 Simmons, Marc (ed. and tr.), Border Comanches (Santa Fe, Stagecoach Press, in press),Google Scholar introduction.
57 Alencaster to Nemesio Salcedo, Santa Fe, November 20, 1805, SANM, doc. 1925(30). For examples of trading parties visiting the Comanches see SANM, docs. 2345, 2455, 2492, 2542, 2850.
58 Pablo Lucero to Governor Alberto Maynez, Santa Fe, August 16, 1815, SANM, doc. 2619. For other examples of trade with the Kiowa see SANM, docs. 2345, 2518. Spanish buffalo hunters are mentioned in SANM, docs. 2089, 2345, 2566.
59 Jackson, Donald (ed.), The Journals of Zebulon Montgomery Pike with Letters and Related Documents (2 vols.; Norman, 1966), II, 37 Google Scholar; Thwaites, Reuben Gold (ed.), James’s Account of S. H. Long’s Expedition, 1819–1820 (4 vols.; Glendale, 1905), 2, 220–221 Google Scholar; Bolton, Herbert E., “New Light on Manuel Lisa and the Spanish Fur Trade,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 17, 1 (July, 1913), 62.Google Scholar
60 Thomas, A. B. (ed.), “Documents Bearing Upon the Northern Frontiers of New Mexico, 1818–1819,” New Mexico Historical Review, 4, 2 (April, 1929), 148–149, 161.Google Scholar
61 Marshall, Thomas Maitland (ed.), “The Journals of Jules de Mun,” reprinted from the Missouri Historical Society Collections, 5, 3 (1928), 9.Google Scholar
62 Simmons, Marc, “Spanish Government in New Mexico at the End of the Colonial Period,” unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of New Mexico, 1965, pp. 309–310.Google Scholar
63 Salcedo to Alencaster, Chihuahua, January 16, 1806, SANM, doc. 1953.
64 Thomas, A. B., “The Yellowstone River, James Long, and Spanish Reaction to American Intrusion into Spanish Dominions 1818–1819,” New Mexico Historical Review, 4, 2 (April, 1929), 166, 172.Google Scholar
65 Letter from the cabildo of Santa Fe to the Viceroy of New Spain, Santa Fe, January 20 and May 26, 1702, in Espinosa, , Crusaders of the Rio Grande, p. 337, n. 76.Google Scholar Petition of Fray Francisco de Ayeta, Mexico, May 10, 1679, in Hackett, (ed.), Historical Documents, 3, 302.Google Scholar
66 Jackson, (ed.), Journals of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, 1, 392 Google Scholar; II, 50.
67 Kinnaird, (ed. and tr.), The Frontiers of New Spain, p. 94.Google Scholar
68 Thomas, Alfred B., “The First Santa Fe Expedition, 1792–1793,” in Chronicles of Oklahoma, 9, 2 (June, 1931), 195.Google Scholar