El Vado Lake State Park - New Mexico Office of the State Historian

The El Vado Lake State Park:
History of Title and History of
the Tierra Amarilla Land Grant
Malcolm Ebright
President, Center for Land Grant Studies
Submitted to the Commission for Public Records
Pursuant to Contract #09-36099-008720
1/31/2009
Table of Contents
1. Introduction – Scope of the Project ............................................................................3
2. Early Settlement........................................................................................................4
3. Early History of the Rio Arriba North of Abiquiú ........................................................8
4. Relations with the Jicarilla Apache..........................................................................10
5. Relations with the Utes and Navajo .........................................................................13
6. The Old Spanish Trail..............................................................................................14
7. The Tierra Amarilla Grant........................................................................................17
8. The Biggs Family and Edgar Milton Biggs................................................................21
9. The Community of El Vado and El Vado Lake..........................................................24
10. Tierra Amarilla Land Grant Activism .....................................................................31
11. El Vado Lake State Park Abstract ..........................................................................36
12. Operation of El Vado Lake State Park ....................................................................39
13. Conclusion ............................................................................................................41
Appendix A - Chain of Title of El Vado Lake State Park...............................................42
Appendix B – Hijuelas by Community..........................................................................43
Appendix C – Catron Exclusions..................................................................................50
Appendix D – 1900 Rio Nutrias Census .......................................................................51
Appendix E – Chronology ............................................................................................56
Appendix F – Bibliography...........................................................................................60
Appendix G – Map of El Vado Lake State Park, El Vado Reservoir area, and land
included in abstract. ...................................................................................................61
2
1. Introduction – Scope of the Project
This report on the El Vado Lake State Park is rendered pursuant to a contract
between the Center for Land Grant Studies and the Commission of Public Records (the
Agency) dated September 9, 2008. Paragraph 1 of the contract provides for a review by
the Center for Land Grant Studies of each of seven abstracts to be provided by the
Agency. After making a detailed review of the abstract the contractor shall provide, “a
synopsis of the chain of title, identification of any discrepancies or breaks in the chain
of title, and a brief history of the land grant in which the State Park is located.” This
report covers the findings concerning the El Vado Lake State Park (deliverable 1A3)
within the Tierra Amarilla Land Grant and was written by Malcolm Ebright.
As I mentioned in my first report on Coyote Creek State Park, it is difficult to
provide a complete record of findings when abstracts lack information. As discussed
more fully in Section 11, El Vado Lake State Park Abstract, the “abstract” that is the
basis of this report consists of only one deed. The deed covers land located about three
and one-half miles east of El Vado Lake State Park. It is possible that, other than this
tract, the State of New Mexico does not own any land in connection with El Vado Lake
State Park. That is the position of Christy Tafoya, State Parks Division of the Energy,
Minerals, and Natural Resources Department.
In light of the confusion regarding ownership of land at El Vado lake State park,
I have included a substantial amount of background information regarding the early
history of the area that became the Tierra Amarilla grant, the relations with the Utes
and Jicarilla Apaches, who occupied the grant, the Old Spanish Trial, the making of the
Tierra Amarilla grant, early settlement on the grant, conflict on the Tierra Amarilla
grant over hunting and grazing, the establishment of the town of El Vado in 1903
through 1923, the building of El Vado Dam in 1933-35 and the current operation of El
Vado Lake State Park.
I was assisted by research assistant Carisa Williams Joseph, and Corinna LazloHenry, a law student at UNM School of Law, surveyor and map-maker Steve Hardin,
former State Archivist Richard Salazar, and Christy Tafoya of the New Mexico State
Parks Division of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.
3
2. Early Settlement
The settlement of Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico was the culmination of a 150-year
pattern of settlement of what is now Rio Arriba County, starting in Abiquiú in about
1750. The Jicarilla Apaches, various bands of Utes, Navajos, and to some extent the
Comanches, considered the Rio Arriba their homeland before the Spanish arrived, and
the story of Hispanic occupation of the Rio Arriba is the story of the relations between
Hispanos, Anglos, and the Native Americans, especially the Utes and the Jicarilla
Apaches. Until the Jicarilla Apaches were resettled onto a reservation at Amargo near
present-day Dulce in 1881, and the Ute Agency was moved from Tierra Amarilla to Los
Pinos, Colorado, in 1878, all Hispanic settlements were subject to raids by these tribes
(see chronology).
Raiding was accompanied by trading, and the most successful
Hispanic settlements often included Genízaros with some Indian blood, who could
negotiate with the Utes and Jicarillas.1
The communities of Los Ojos, Los Brazos, Tierra Amarilla (formerly Nutritas),
Ensenada, and La Puente were all settled and their irrigation ditches dug by 1861
(Barranco, Cañones, and Upper Town were also settled at that time as well, but are now
abandoned), and the outlying communities of Rio Nutrias, Canjilon, and Cebolla were
settled in 1867, 1871, and 1875, respectively. Since the Utes and the Jicarilla Apaches
had not been settled on their reservations until 1878 and 1881, respectively, and were
still raiding Hispanic settlements up until that time, all of the Tierra Amarilla
settlements were settled by a substantial number of interrelated Hispanic extended
families who moved to the communities about the same time. Smaller settlements were
not sustainable in the face of Indian attacks.2
Because of the lack of due process in the proceedings before the Surveyor
General, the Tierra Amarilla grant was confirmed as a private grant to Manuel Martínez
rather than the community grant it was intended to be.
As the petitioner for
confirmation of the grant and one of Manuel Martinez's sons, Francisco Martínez
1.
Hispanic settlement of the Rio Arriba, a “spontaneous folk migration” is succinctly described in
Robert J. Rosenbaum and Robert W. Larson, “Mexicano Resistance to the Expropriation of Grant
Lands in New Mexico,” in Charles L. Briggs and John R. Van Ness, Land, Water, and Culture: New
Perspectives on Hispanic Land Grants (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987) p.
275. See also James Brooks, Captives and Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the
Southwest Borderlands (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002), 304-06.
2. Malcolm Ebright, The Tierra Amarilla Grant: A History of Chicanery (Santa Fe: Center for Land
Grant Studies, 1980), passim.
4
claimed ownership of almost the entire grant. Due process of law requires a hearing
and notice of the hearing to those whose property rights may be affected.3
In 1861, Francisco Martínez, as spokesman for the family, began giving deeds or
hijuelas4 confirming individual holdings to settlers in the seven communities in the
Tierra Amarilla area. A list of these hijuelas is attached as Appendix B. By their terms,
they gave to each family-head parcels of land for house and garden plots, the right to
use the unallotted land on the grant for pastures, waters, firewood, and timber with free
access to all roads.5
Not only were these deeds notarized, but 113 of them were
recorded shortly after they were signed in the Rio Arriba County deed books.
Catron started buying the interests of the Martínez family to the Tierra Amarilla
grant in 1874 and is said to have paid about $200,000 for approximately forty-two
deeds purportedly conveying all the grant interests to him.
In 1883 Catron had
consolidated his title sufficiently to file a quiet title suit, which resulted in his
acquisition of title to the entire Tierra Amarilla grant.
In order to do this, Catron
proceeded on the theory that the Tierra Amarilla grant was made to Manuel Martinez,
individually, and his family, ignoring the fact that hundreds of Hispanic families were
living on the grant in the communities of Los Brazos, Barranco, Cañones, Ensenada,
Nutritas, Los Ojos, and La Puente. Manuel Martinez’s son, Francisco, had given deeds
called hijuelas to over 100 individuals living in those communities and those deeds were
recorded; nevertheless, in his quiet title suit, Catron named only the heirs of Manuel
Martinez and other members of the Martinez family. Catron claimed to own the entire
grant, which had been surveyed in 1876 and found to contain almost 600,000 acres,
except for about 50 acres in Chama.
Catron alluded to the hijuelas as “conditional
donations of small strips of cultivable land,” which he estimated at less than 6,000
acres and agreed to recognize such conveyances “on presentation of the deed and proof
of compliance with its condition.”6
When Charles Catron finally sold the Tierra Amarilla grant on June 12, 1909, he
excluded from the deed some surveyed tracts of land that became known as the Catron
3.
Ebright, The Tierra Amarilla Grant, p. 20.
4.
An hijuela, as the term is used in Spain, is a document given to one who is entitled to a share
of the estate of a deceased person, which gives an account of the share. Payne Livestock, 654. It
is used here in the sense of a deed for a share in a land grant, including a tract of land which was
private and conveyance of rights to use the unalloted land which was owned communally.
5. See Ebright, The Tierra Amarilla Grant, 42-3 for the Spanish text and a translation of one of the
hijuelas. For background on the hijuelas and a different conclusion as to their effect, see David J.
Alderete and Gilbert Baca, “El Uso de la Hijuela en Tierra Amarilla,” a paper presented at the
20th annual meeting of the Western Social Science Association, Denver, Colorado (April, 1970).
6.
Michael Rock, “Catron’s Quiet Title Suit,” unpublished manuscript in the author’s possession.
5
exclusions, totaling 14,515 acres.7 Thus the area of the Catron exclusions increased
over time from 6,050 in 1883 to 14,515 in 1909.
Not all the occupied and irrigated land on the Tierra Amarilla grant was included
within the boundaries of these “exclusions,” because Catron was not motivated to make
the Catron exclusions any larger than necessary.
The greater the area of the
exclusions, the less Catron would receive by way of the purchase price for the grant. He
placed the burden on the owners of cultivated land represented by hijuelas to prove
their ownership by presenting those documents to him together with proof of
compliance with any conditions in those deeds. This is just the reverse of what the law
required.8 At the time he filed his quiet title suit, Catron was not required to name and
serve all those individuals occupying land within the grant. That requirement was not
imposed until two cases in 1911 and 1912, the cases of Priest v. Town of Las Vegas and
Rodriguez v. La Cueva Ranch Co.,9 dealing with quiet title and partition suits, were
decided, partly as a reaction to the abuses and unfairness of proceedings like Catron’s
quiet title suit. As the court in Rodríguez v. La Cueva Ranch Co. stated, no longer may
the plaintiff in a quiet title suit: “sit in his office, refrain from all inquiry as to the
persons claiming any part of the estate sought to be partitioned . . . proceed against
them as unknown owners, and thereby deprive them effectually of all their rights and
property.”10
This is exactly what Catron did when he quieted title to the entire Tierra
Amarilla grant. He named only the unknown heirs of Manuel Martinez as defendants
and served all the defendants by publication. Thomas B. Catron sat in his office and
prepared the Bill of Complaint on August 17, 1883, and 42 days later on September 28,
1883, Judge Samuel B. Axtell signed the Final Decree declaring him to be the owner of
the entire Tierra Amarilla grant. The only other individuals named were two of Manuel
Martínez’s six sons, both deceased, Eusebio Martinez and Sixto Martinez. Notice of the
lawsuit was published in a newspaper somewhere in the territory of New Mexico, but
since the court file is missing, we do not know which one. Catron was doing his best to
Deed from Charles C. Catron to Chama Valley Land Company, June 12, 1909, recorded June
22, 1909, Rio Arriba County Mortgage Record, Book 4, pp. 119-150.
7
8.
Rock, “Catron’s Quiet Title Suit,” unpublished manuscript in the author’s possession.
9.
Priest v. Town of Las Vegas, 16 N.M. 692 (1911); Rodriguez v. La Cueva Ranch Co., 17 N.M. 246
(1912).
10.
Rodriguez v. La Cueva Ranch Co., 17 N.M. 246, 254 (1912).
6
be sure that none of those people who had a claim to the Tierra Amarilla grant would
receive notice of his quiet title suit. In fact, the suit was uncontested.11
Catron was required to name the holders of recorded deeds (a list of these deeds
is included as Appendix A) and all those who had purchased interests in the Tierra
Amarilla grant from the other heirs of Manuel Martinez. It was not until 46 claimants
of interest in the grant sued Catron in 1889 to partition the grant that Catron entered
into stipulations with many of these claimants that the Final Decree in the quiet title
suit would not affect their holdings in the grant. In a sense, it was only when Catron
was forced to recognize individual occupants of or claimants to the Tierra Amarilla grant
that he carved out exceptions to his ownership that became known as the Catron
exclusions. These exclusions were not a good faith attempt to have the occupied lands
of the grant surveyed and excluded; rather, they represented Catron’s attempt to keep
the occupied land that he did not own at a minimum. Based on similar situations in
other land grants such as the Las Trampas grant, if all the occupied land had been
surveyed, the Catron exclusions would be ten times larger. In fact when Charles Catron
sold the entire Tierra Amarilla grant in 1909, the Catron Exclusions comprised about
14, 515 acres (see Appendix C). As early as 1881, he began receiving royalties from the
grant. In that year he sold a right-of-way to the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Co.
across the northern part of the grant, plus house lots for employees and land for a
depot in Chama. His income from the grant reached as high as $50,000 a year. After
numerous attempts to sell the grant, beginning around 1883, he finally sold it in 1909
for an estimated price of $850,000, of which $495,000 was in cash.12
There is evidence that Catron was aware of the fact that there were others who
claimed to own the grant besides those from whom he obtained deeds. New Mexico's
representative in Congress, Antonio Joseph, filed a memorial before that body on behalf
of a large number of persons, “who report themselves to be descendants of those who
originally went on said grant with Martínez and complain that they are being deprived
of the right of free pasturage and wood and water by the present owners.”13 And in
1889 a lawsuit was filed against Catron by forty-six plaintiffs, who claimed that he was
making profits by leasing portions of the grant for grazing and timber-cutting, and that
11. Besides Eusebio and Sixto, Manuel Martínez had four other sons, Julian, Vicente, Antonio,
and Francisco, none of whom were named in the quiet title suit. Francisco is the one who had
the grant confirmed in his name by the Surveyor General of New Mexico after Manuel Martínez
died and is the one granting hijuelas to the settlers living on the grant. Ebright, The Tierra
Amarilla Grant, 8-22.
12.
Westphall, Thomas Benton Catron and his Era (Tucson, 1973), 46-60.
13.
Frankie McCarty, Land Grant Problems in New Mexico, 13. Reprint of a series of articles
appearing in The Albuquerque Journal, September 28 through October 10, 1969.
7
they had a right to share in those profits since they had an interest in the commons by
virtue of conveyances from Francisco Martínez.
Presumably these plaintiffs had not
conveyed to Catron. Apparently, the suit was dismissed.14
In 1883, Catron filed a quiet title suit that named only the unknown heirs of
Manuel Martínez as defendants, despite the fact that at least 113 hijuelas had been
recorded from Francisco Martínez to settlers living on the grant, most of whom were not
Martínez heirs.
These settlers were not named because they were not listed on the
abstract of title to the grant which was filed in the case.
This document, which
purported to be a complete listing of all recorded deeds to the Tierra Amarilla grant,
prepared by the County Recorder of Rio Arriba County, Francisco Salazar, does not list
the hijuelas. It does mention them but they are dismissed from serious consideration,
being referred to as “some informal conveyances of some very small piece of land.”
3. Early History of the Rio Arriba North of Abiquiú
The individuals who attempted to settle Tierra Amarilla and other communities
north of Abiquiú were forced back to more secure settlements where there was plentiful
irrigation water and a substantial body of pobladores. This pattern of moving from one
settlement to another throughout the Rio Arriba area was repeated over and over as
population increases in one settlement exacerbated shortages in land and irrigation
water during times of drought. Periods of drought also brought about an increase in
raiding activities by the Navajos, Utes, and Comanches who had difficulty in foraging for
and growing food during these drought periods. Thus, the times when establishment of
new communities was most needed by settlers from overcrowded communities because
of scarce water were often the times when such expansion was most difficult because of
Indian raids. In the 1870s, Indian raids began to subside as Utes and Jicarilla Apaches
were finally settled on their reservations, but claims settlers in the Tierra Amarilla area
made for livestock killed by Indians in the 1870s demonstrate the continuation of these
raids. Thus when a new settlement was made at a place like Tierra Amarilla, it was
necessary for a substantial group of families to move to the new settlement at one time
for defense against Indian raids.15
The population of the Abiquiú area increased dramatically in the latter part of
the eighteenth century, from fewer than four hundred when Father Domínguez made
14.
Seth v. Catron, SC-UNM, Catron Collection, PC 29:202; Box 1, folder 5.
15. For a table listing historic New Mexico droughts from 1542 to 1989 and another table
correlating periods of severe Indian raids with drought years, see Dan Scurlock, From the Rio to
the Sierra: An Environmental History of the Middle Rio Grande Basin (Fort Collins, Colorado: U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 1998), 40-41.
8
his census in 1776,16 to more than a thousand in 1790 when a census ordered by
Governor Chacón counted the individuals in eight Hispanic plazas and the Genízaro
By 1793 the population of the Abiquiú
Pueblo of Santo Tomás de Abqiuiú.17
settlements had increased to 1,558, which included the surrounding settlements of
Barranca, La Puente, and Tierra Azul.
This rise in population was limited, to
individuals designated as Spaniards, indicating that any population increase among
Genízaros from the Pueblo of Santo Tomás was offset by their assimilation into other
plazas and their acquisition of vecino status. The plaza to which most Genízaros moved
was the Plaza de San Antonio del Vallecito in the mountains south of Abiquiú, which
was reached by an old Tewa trail. Of the nineteen families listed in the 1790 census,
one was characterized as Genízaro, one Indian, and four coyote, and one of the coyote
families was further classified as vecinos del Moqui (Hopis from the Plaza del Moqui with
vecino status).18
In 1790 the Pueblo of Santo Tomás included both Genízaros and Hopis in
separate plazas, but by the 1800s the separate Hopi settlement had become
assimilated, and the Hopi designation had mostly disappeared from sacramental
records. Occasionally the term "Moqui" appeared in the baptismal records, but these
likely referred to recent captives brought back to Abiquiú after militia expeditions into
Hopiland.19 Another outlying settlement listed in the 1790 census was the Plaza de
Guadalupe near the mouth of the Cañón del Cobre near the farmlands now called Los
Silvestres.20
The settlers in these plazas were a hardy group that included many of the
families who subsequently settled El Rito, Canjilón, Rio Nutrias, Cebolla, and the
settlements around Tierra Amarilla.
Hispanos often took on the customs and
characteristics of the Genízaro and other nomadic Indians. Many Abiquiú vecinos were
fluent in Ute and other Indian languages and often engaged in a pattern of illegal trade
16. The 1776 census listed 46 families of 136 persons at the genízaro pueblo and 49 families of
254 persons at the surrounding Spanish settlements. Adams and Chávez, Missions of New
Mexico, 126.
17. Pinart Collection, PE 55:3, Bancroft Library, Berkeley; Van Ness, Hispanos in Northern New
Mexico, 150-54; Virginia Langham Olmsted, compiler, Spanish and Mexican Censuses of New
Mexico, 1750-1830 (Albuquerque: New Mexico Genealogical Society, 1981), 111-24.
18. Pinart Collection, PE 55:3; Swadesh, Primeros Pobladores, 43-4; Poling-Kempes, Story of
Abiquiú, 57-8.
19. The Pueblo of Santo Tomás included fifty-five families in the 1790 census, including one
headed by an individual named simply "Jose, el Apache." Pinart Collection, PE 55:3; PolingKempes, Story of Abiquiú, 58.
20. The Plaza of Guadalupe contained twenty-four households in the 1790 census, six of which
were headed by women. Pinart Collection, PE 55:3.
9
with the Utes and other tribes. They also raided surrounding Indian groups such as
the Navajos, Hopis, Utes, Apaches, and Comanches for war booty, particularly
captives.21
Several families in the 1870 El Rito census and the 1870 Tierra Amarilla
census included Indian servants.
As the population increased in the plazas around Abiquiú, new land grants were
made and old ones were revalidated (because of abandonment and failure) to secure
land on which new settlements could be established. The pressure to settle new areas
and find new water sources for irrigated farming increased during the early nineteenthcentury drought years from 1801 to 1803 and 1805 to 1813.
The settlers in and
around the Abiquiú area were encouraged to attempt new settlements during the first
decade and a half of the 1800s because of a decrease in nomadic Indian raiding.
Except for the years 1801 to 1804, the period was relatively free from Indian raids on
Spanish settlements..22
By 1806, as Plains Indians and other nomadic tribes fought each other over
territory, requests for farmland north and west of Abiquiú began coming in to Santa Fe,
although clearing the land, breaking the soil, and irrigation appear to have started a few
years earlier. In 1806 the Piedra Lumbre Grant was revalidated23 and the San Joaquin
del Río Chama Grant was made to Francisco Salazar, his two brothers, and twentyeight companions.24 Then in 1807 the Juan Bautista Valdez Grant was made south of
the Piedra Lumbre Grant in the Cañón de los Pedernales, where the community of
Cañones was established.25
4. Relations with the Jicarilla Apache
The Jicarilla Apache were a semi-nomadic tribe living in New Mexico at the time
of Juan de Oñate's arrival in 1598. A band of Jicarilla lived between Taos and Picuris
Pueblos at that time, and others were living to the north of Taos Pueblo and east of
Picuris Pueblo. In 1733 a Franciscan mission was established at or near Taos, but was
21.
Van Ness, Hispanos in Northern New Mexico, 151-54; Poling Kempes, Story of Abiquiú, 44.
22.
Scurlock, From the Rio, 40-41; Schroeder, Brief History of the Southern Utes, 62; SANM II:
2304.
23.
Piedra Lumbre Grant, PLC 30, Roll 35, fr. 1303 et seq.
24.
San Joaquín (Cañón de Chama Grant), SG 71, Roll 20, fr. 575 et seq.
25. Juan Bautista Valdez Grant, PLC 179, Roll 50, fr. 369 et seq.; John R. Van Ness, "The Juan
Bautista Valdez Grant: Was it a Community Grant?" in Van Ness and Van Ness, Spanish and
Mexican Land Grants in New Mexico and Colorado (Manhattan, Kansas: Sunflower University
Press, 1980), 107-16.
10
short lived.26 A band of Jicarillas were still settled near Picuris Pueblo in the late 1790s
and early 1800s when they tried to obtain land from the Spanish government at the
Cieneguilla grant not to be confused with the Cieneguilla south of Santa Fe.
The
Cieneguilla grantees objected telling Governor Melgares they would rather abandon
their grant than live with the Jicarillas. By the 1850s a group of the Jicarilla Apache
were still in the Taos/Picuris area.27
In March of 1854 a group of Jicarillas met with Kit Carson at Ft. Burgwin and
denied responsibility for recent raids in the area.28
Contrary to their assertions of
peaceful intentions, nine days later a combined force of up to 500 Utes and Jicarilla
Apaches attacked a company of sixty U.S. military dragoons killing as many as forty of
them.
As a result of this, the heavy U.S. defeat at what was called the Battle of
Cieneguilla, Brigadier General John Garland called the Jicarilla Apache the "most
warlike of all the Indians in New Mexico."29
The Jicarillas began receiving allotments of subsistence rations under the
program established by the U.S. government at Cimarron until 1871 when those
allotments were discontinued. The band of Jicarilla led by the chief known as Chacón
also received allotments "at a farm in the vicinity of Abiquiú, during the spring and
summer of 1853, but the farm yielded but little produce [and] . . . when the produce of
the farm was consumed . . . these Indians resorted to theft and robbery for
sustenance."30
In September of 1854 Governor Meriwether met with Chacón who
"professed a strong desire for peace [and] said that he and his people were poor and
destitute." Meriwether had Indian Agent Lafayette Head purchase forty fanegas of corn
and deliver it to the Jicarillas who were camped near Abiquiú. Head reported that there
26. Declaration of fray Miguel de Menchero, Santa Bárbara, 10 May 1744. Hackett, Historical
Documents, 3: 403.
27.
Town of Cieneguilla Grant, SG 62, Roll 19, fr. 668-72.
28. Carson recommended that a Special Agent be appointed to live with the Jicarillas to help
them get provisions as they were starving. If no agent were appointed, since there was no game
in the region, they would be forced to commit thefts and robberies according to Carson.
Christopher "Kit" Carson to Acting Governor Messeveny, 21 March 1854, National Archives
Records, Roll 547, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-1881, New Mexico
Superintendency, 1854-1855, NMSRCA.
29. Brig. General Garland to Lt. Col. Thomas, 1 April 1854, National Archives Records, Roll 497,
Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General, 1822-1860, G-341, 1854, NMSRCA.
30. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1854, p. 378, cited in Albert H. Schroeder, "A
Study of the Apache Indians, Part II, The Jicarilla Apaches," a report submitted to the Indian
Claims Commission, Docket no. 22A.
11
were 100 lodges at Chacón's camp and that after delivering the corn "the Indians
treated him in a very insolent manner and threatened to kill him."31
Many of the Jicarilla settled around Tierra Amarilla and received annuity goods
at the Ute Agency there. They intermingled and intermarried with the Capote Utes who
were officially receiving their subsistence allotments at Tierra Amarilla. In late 1873 the
Jicarilla chief Ignacio negotiated a treaty with the U.S. government that would provide
the Jicarillas with a reservation east of the Navajo reservation.
On 25 March 1874
President Ulysses S. Grant signed an executive order establishing a 900 square mile
reservation for the Jicarilla Apaches.
But the Jicarillas, then camped near Tierra
Amarilla, did not want to move there.32
Since the Jicarillas lacked the desire to move to their reservation, the
boundaries of which were not clearly delineated but which included the Cañon
Largo/San Juan area, Indian Agent W. F. M. Arny recommended that the San Juan
region be opened to settlement by non-Indians to support the miners, opening the
resources of the San Juan mining region.
Arny argued that the Jicarilla should be
separated from the Utes and other tribes and moved to the Mescalero Apache
reservation and the area of their reservation "be open for settlement by citizens . . . as
homesteads."33 Another document also recommended the opening of the area because
"if the land were opened for settlement it would become immensely valuable for
purposes of agriculture."34
While Arny was encouraging settlement of the Cañon
Largo/San Juan area, two descendants, Syrus Arny and W. E. Arny, acquired land for
themselves in the Tierra Amarilla area. 35 The Jicarilla Apache were finally moved from
the Tierra Amarilla area to their reservation at Amargo (near present-day Dulce) in
1881.
“The new Jicarilla reservation, however, was short-lived.
By 1883, private
economic interests in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado had forced their
removal back to the Mescalero Reservation.
They remained there until 1887, when
31. Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs Meriwether to Commissioner of Indian Affairs
Manypenny, 29 September 1854. National Archives Records, Roll 547, Letters Received by the
Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-1881, New Mexico Superintendency, 1854-1874, NMSRC;
Schroeder, "The Jicarilla Apaches," 114-16.
32. Interior Department, Executive Order signed by Ulysses S. Grant, 26 March 1874. National
Archives Records, Roll 562, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-1881, New
Mexico Superintendency, 1854-1855, NMSRCA.
33. S. A. Russell to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Tierra Amarilla, 25 January 1876. National
Archives Records, Roll 567, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-1881, New
Mexico Superintendency, 1854-1876, NMSRCA.
34. W. F. Arny to A. D. Higgens. National Archives Records, Roll 566, Letters Received by the
Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-1881, New Mexico Superintendency, 1854-1876, NMSRCA.
35.
See 1900 Rio Nutrias Census, Appendix E.
12
President Grover Cleveland issued an Executive Order which established Amargo as
their permanent home.”36
5. Relations with the Utes and Navajo
The period from 1806 to 1818 was one of relative peace from Indian raids owing
in large part to the success of an 1805 expedition into Navajo country led by Lieutenant
Colonel Antonio Narbona, who later became governor of New Mexico (1825-27).
Narbona led his troops, together with Opata and Pueblo Indian allies, into the heart of
Navajo country at the Canyon de Chelly. After a two-day battle the Navajos, who had
fortified themselves on a high point of rocks, were defeated. Narbona reported that
ninety warriors and twenty-five women and children were killed, and three warriors and
thirty women and children were taken captive.
Among the captives was the leader,
Segundo, with his wife and two children. Eleven of the prisoners were distributed as
servants to the Spaniards.37 The campaign induced the Navajos to seek peace. On 12
May 1805, Governor Alencaster signed a peace treaty at Jemez Pueblo with the Navajos,
under which the Navajo agreed to relinquish their claims to lands at Cebolleta and the
Spaniards agreed to release seventeen Navajo captives, including Segundo.
Such a
captive release was "perhaps unparalleled in Navajo-Spanish relations," according to
Frank McNitt, and helped establish peace with the Navajos for more than a decade.38
During the period, from 1806 to 1818, of relative peace with the Navajos and the
Utes, Spanish settlers traveled north far into Ute country as they continued to trade
with the Utes, regain property stolen by the Utes, and bring back Genízaros to be sold
as household servants. For example, in 1805 seventy-year-old Manuel Mestas pursued
a group of Utes who had stolen his horses and tracked them as far as Utah Lake.39 Six
years later Rafael Sarracino traveled across the same region in search of a rumored
36 Robert Torrez, “The Southern Ute Agency at Abiquiú and Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico,” Center
for Land Grant Studies Research Paper, citing Fred Nicklason, “The American Indians’ ‘White
Problem’: The Case of the Jicarilla Apache” Prologue (Spring 1980), p. 42.
37. Frank McNitt, Navajo Wars: Military Campaigns, Slave Raids, and Reprisals (Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press, 1972), 41. Narbona's report of the 17-18 January 1805
engagement at Canyon de Chelly is reproduced in Appendix A, 431-33. Narbona praised the
bravery of militia captains Lorenzo Gutiérrez and Bartolomé Baca. The latter became governor
(1823-25).
38. McNitt, Navajo Wars, 45-6. In addition to the captives Narbona brought back "eighty-four pairs
of ears of as many [Navajo] warriors." Narbona had promised the governor ninety sets of ears so
was lacking six "because the subject I encharged with them lost them." Report of Narbona's
engagement with the Navajos at Canyon de Chelly, 1805, McNitt, Navajo Wars, 433.
39. SANM II: 1881, and Schroeder, "History of the Southern Ute." Mestas, a genízaro, received pay
from the Spanish government for his services as a Ute interpreter.
13
Spanish settlement.40 In 1813 Mauricio Arce and Lago García led a group of traders
from Abiquiú into and beyond the Utah Lake area on a trading expedition.41 Men like
Manuel Mestas became intermediaries between the Spaniards and the Utes, serving not
only as interpreters but also as go-betweens who brought peace proposals back and
forth between the two groups. In 1808, for example, Mestas reported to the alcalde of
Santa Cruz de la Canãda that he had met with the Utes about certain peace proposals.
He reported that the Utes were divided, some wanting to avenge a recent atrocity,
others, including four captains, wanting peace.42 Later, men such as José María Chávez
and Pedro León Luján, who alternatively fought with or traded with the Utes, filled this
same role..43
During the period, from 1806 to 1818, of decreased raids by the Utes and the
Navajos, several petitions were filed for large community grants.
Francisco Salazar
requested the San Joaquín grant for himself, his brothers, and twenty-eight associates
in 1806, and the first petition for the Tierra Amarilla grant was filed in 1814. The Tierra
Amarilla grant was not made until 1832, but Governor Alencaster made the San
Joaquín grant in 1806, just one month after the petition was filed.
Both grants
included substantial areas of common land, but these ejidos were lost to the settlers on
the Tierra Amarilla grant when it was privatized.
The common lands on the San
Joaquín grant were rejected by the courts and became U.S. public domain.
Many
settlers were able to obtain title to small tracts of this land as homesteaders or small
holding claimants.44
6. The Old Spanish Trail
The first official attempt at opening a trial from New Mexico to California was the
Domínguez-Escalante expedition in 1776, which failed to reach its destination of
Monterey, California. Some members of that expedition, such as Andrés Muñiz of Ojo
Caliente and his brother, Antonio Lucrecio Muñiz, were familiar with the country
northwest of Abiquiú into Ute country because of their trading expeditions with the
40. H. Bailey Carroll and J. Villasana Haggard, Three New Mexico Chronicles (Albuquerque: The
Quivira Society, 1942), 134. Sarracino did not find the rumored settlement but was able to trade
for beautifully tanned pelts on very good terms.
41.
SANM II: 1881.
42.
Manuel Mestas to the Alcalde of La Cañada, Abiquiu, 4 September 1808, SANM II: 1886.
43.
For more on Pedro León Luján, see Sondra Jones, The Trial of Don Pedro León Luján: The
Attack Against Indian Slavery and Mexican Traders in Utah (Salt Lake City: The University of Utah
Press, 2000), passim.
44. For a discussion of the privatization of the Tierra Amarilla Grant see, Ebright, Tierra Amarilla
Grant, passim. For the San Joaquín Grant see Chapter Five, "The San Joaquín Grant: Who
Owned the Common Lands," in Ebright, Land Grants and Lawsuits, 105-42.
14
Utes.45 They were helpful in guiding the Dominguez/Escalante expedition, particularly
when it reached the Colorado River.
Settlers in the communities around Abiquiú
continued their trading expeditions to Ute country learning more about the trails that
would become the several branches of the Old Spanish Trail.
They often traded for
Indian captives who were sought after by Spanish settlers.46 In 1829 many of these
individuals familiar with the country northwest of Santa Fe joined Antonio Armijo's
expedition that blazed the first complete route between Abiquiú and the San Gabriel
mission near Los Angeles.
The journey took eighty-six days and opened one of the
routes that became the favored way to California for the next twenty years. Numerous
expeditions followed this route to California, where settlers looking for farmland and
grazing pastures found better locations than were available in New Mexico. Those who
could afford the trip, such as members of the Chávez family, settled permanently in
California or stayed there temporarily until Indian-raiding on the northern New Mexican
settlements subsided.47
Julián and Mariano Chávez, two of José María Chávez's
brothers, traveled the Old Spanish Trail to Los Angeles in the early years of the trail.
José María Chávez soon joined his brothers in Los Angeles under rather unusual
circumstances.
Unlike many New Mexicans, José María Chávez was a supporter of the
controversial governor, Albino Pérez, whose centralist policies sparked the 1837 Revolt
that cost him his life. Chávez served under Pérez as alcalde constitucional of Abiquiú in
the 1830s. When Pérez was killed, and his body mangled and beheaded in the early
days of the revolt, other Pérez supporters were also marked for execution.
Chávez,
along with Jesús María Alarid, Santiago Abreu, Ramón Abreu, and Miguel Sena, were
all on the rebel's death list as former supporters of Governor Pérez. Chávez's uncle,
Pablo Montoya, was one of the leaders of the rebellion. He knew José María was a
marked man and told him so. Chávez hurriedly packed his baggage and set out on the
Old Spanish Trail for California. He probably followed the route Armijo opened in 1829
arriving in Los Angles in November 1837. Chávez brought serapes with him to trade
and presented himself to authorities in Los Angeles as a trader from New Mexico. He
met his brothers, Julián and Mariano, and probably settled near them. In March 1838
José María and others who had fled New Mexico with him were involved in another
45. Joseph J. Hill, "Spanish and Mexican Exploration and Trade Northwest from New Mexico into
the Great Basin, 1765-1853," Utah Historical Quarter;y, 3 (January 1930): 5-8.
46.
Jones, Trial of Don Pedro León Luján, 26-31.
47.
Joseph P. Sánchez, Explorers, Traders, and Slavers: Forging the Old Spanish Trail, 1678-1850
(Salt Lake City: University of Utah, 1997), see Appendix for a map of the route of the Old Spanish
Trail.
15
rebellion in California. They fought a gun battle on the side of the California rebels
against Mexican forces under the command of General José Castro. When an armistice
was declared José María quickly returned to New Mexico. He may have traveled back
and forth several times between Abiquiú and Los Angles on the Old Spanish Trial, but
by 1840 he had returned permanently to New Mexico to continue his career as an
Indian fighter and trader.48
José María Chávez led numerous campaigns against the Utes and Navajos
before and after his trips to Los Angeles in the 1830s. By the time he was twenty-two,
he had served in the positions of Lieutenant of Militia, Captain of Battalion, and
Adjutant of the Army.
Chávez established himself at Abiquiú on his return from
California and in 1841 and 1843 led campaigns against the Utes in Northern New
Mexico and Colorado and against the Navajos in northwestern New Mexico.
The
Navajos and the Capote Utes had been enemies for some time, but in the late 1820s
Navajo-Ute relations improved so instead of attacking each other, they increased their
raids on Hispanic settlements. The Navajos hit the Abiquiú region in 1827 and 1829,
San Miguel in 1835, and Barranca and Ojo Caliente in 1844. An unfortunate incident
set back Spanish-Ute relations in 1844 when Governor Martínez de Lejanza killed a Ute
with a chair in the Governor's Palace. The Utes had come to parley with the governor,
but Martínez had set a trap with soldiers hidden behind curtains. At the first defiant
word from the Ute chiefs the governor and his men attacked the unsuspecting Indians.
Feeling betrayed the Capote Utes attacked Abiquiú and Ojo Caliente, and Utes raids
increased throughout New Mexican settlements.
Chávez, now a brigadier general in
charge, ordered a massive retaliatory raid.49
The three districts into which New Mexico was divided were ordered to provide a
thousand men, and one hundred regular soldiers were added to the campaign. The
lists of plazas around Abiquiú that were supplying fighters provide a fairly complete
listing of the Abiquiú area settlements that provided militiamen. General Chávez led
this large army against the Utes in Colorado driving them to the Arkansas River, which
was the boundary between Northern Mexico and the United States. He was not allowed
to pursue the Utes beyond the Arkansas; this would constitute an invasion of the U.S.
His army was turned loose on the remaining Ute encampments south of the Arkansas,
and all property left behind was either divided among the troops as spoils or destroyed.
48.
Sánchez, Forging the Old Spanish Trail, 108-14.
49.
Ibid., 114-15; Schroeder, "Brief History of Southern Utes," 64; "New Mexican [is] 101 Years
Old," clipping from the Santa Fe New Mexican, L. Bradford Prince papers, Personal Papers, José
Maria Chávez, Folder 24, Box 14019, NM State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe.
16
The campaign was considered successful, although it did not stop Ute and Navajo
raiding. For his leadership of the campaign the Mexican government rewarded General
Chávez with a handsome sword, which he proudly displayed over his fireplace in his
Abiquiú home.50
Despite the disruptions and uncertainties that Indian raids caused in the 1830s,
1840s, and 1850s, the Old Spanish Trail remained open.
The Mexican policy of
providing gifts to the Utes, Jicarillas, and Navhttp://www.newmexicohistory.org/ajos to
maintain their friendship did not guarantee peace but helped insure safe passage over
the trail.51 "Mule trains leaving Abiquiú moved up the Chama River and down the San
Juan through Capote Ute territory unmolested before looping through Utah to the
coast."52
This safe passage lured numerous settlers, to establish settlements in
Southern Colorado and the Los Angeles area well before the Tierra Amarilla area was
considered safe for settlement.
7. The Tierra Amarilla Grant
In the early fall of 1824, Pablo Romero and Manuel Martínez, joined by seventysix other mostly poor, landless individuals, asked Governor Bartolomé Baca for a tract
of land thirteen or fourteen leagues (about 35 miles, an underestimation), from Abiquiú
that later became known as the Tierra Amarilla grant.
Romero and Martínez had
requested the same land on behalf of sixty proposed settlers in 1820, and six years
earlier in 1814 Marcial Montoya and Pedro Romero had sought the same land for
themselves and seventy others.53
People from Abiquiú were familiar with Tierra
Amarilla since before the Domínguez-Escalante expedition passed through the area.
The 1776 entry dated “3 Augosto” in the Domínguez-Escalante journal describes a
region along the Río Chama near El Bado that could support a farming community: “the
river's meadow is about a league long from north to south, good land for farming with
the help of irrigation; it produces a great deal of good flax and abundant pasturage.
There are also the other prospects which a settlement requires for its founding and
maintenance.”54 The 1824 petition used similar language to describe the land available
50.
51
"New Mexican [is] 101 Years Old," Sánchez, Forging the Old Spanish Trail, 114.
Schroeder, "Brief History of the Southern Utes," 63.
52. Le Roy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, The Old Spanish Trail: Santa Fe to Los Angeles (Glendale:
The Arthus H. Clark Company, 1954).
53. Petition of Marcial Montoya and Pablo Antonio Romero for land on the Brazos del Río de
Chama, Abiquiú 1814, SANM I: 613; Petition of Manuel Martín and Pablo Romero for lands at
Tierra Amarilla, 1820, SANM I: 615.
54. “La vega del río tiene de norte a sur como una legua, buen terreno para siembras con proporción
de riego; produce mucho lino y bueno y abundante pasto. Hay también las demás proporciones que
17
for the establishment of a large settlement: “fertile land, having pastures, wood, and
water for a useful advantageous farming settlement on which to support our large
families.”55
The 1824 petition was approved by local officials at Abiquiú and passed on to
Governor Bartolomé Baca (1823-1825) for action. Baca failed to rule on the request,
however, perhaps because he was aware of an investigation of the 1820 petition, which
revealed that not all the petitioners were as poor as they had represented.
Alcalde
García de la Mora had reported that Manuel Martínez “has enough farmland.”56 The
requirement that petitioners for both private and community land grants not own other
land was frequently overlooked, but officials such as Governor Baca, who encouraged
the privatization of common lands rather than the making of new community grants,
tended to overlook such requirements.57 The boundaries of the tract requested in the
1824 petition were substantially the same boundaries awarded to the successful
petitioner for the Tierra Amarilla grant in 1832, Manuel Martínez.
The boundaries
requested by Martínez were: north, the Navajo River; south, the Nutrias River; east, the
ridge of the mountain range; and west, the line from the mountain pass to Horse Lake.58
Martínez asked for the land for himself, his eight sons, and “some others who
voluntarily desire to accompany me.”59 Since no list was attached to the petition and
there was no act of possession listing the names of proposed settlers, the petition alone
was somewhat ambiguous as to whether Martínez was asking for a private or a
community grant. But the subsequent reports and the granting decree make it clear
that the Tierra Amarilla grant was intended to be a community grant.
60
una población necesita para su establecimiento y subsistencia.” Fray Angelico Chávez, trans., and
Ted J. Warner, ed., The Domínguez-Escalante Journal: Their Expedition Through Colorado, Utah,
Arizona, and New Mexico in 1776 (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1976), journal
entry for 3 August 1776, 6-7 (English), 136 (Spanish).
55. Petition of Pablo Romero and Manuel Martínez for themselves and seventy-six others for land
at Tierra Amarilla, Abiquiú, 21 September 1824, SANM I: 805.
56. For a brief discussion of the early petitions for the Tierra Amarilla Grant, see Malcolm Ebright,
Tierra Amarilla Grant, 9-10.
57.
Bartolomé Baca's policy of privatizing communal lands is discussed in Malcolm Ebright and
Rick Hendricks, “The Pueblo League and Pueblo Indian Land in New Mexico, 1692-1846,” in
Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Archives, El Paso: Book Publishers of El Paso, 2001), 4: 144-48.
58. “Norte, el Rio de Navajó; sur, el Rio de las Nutrias; oriente, la cordillera de la sierra; poniente, la
línea del Puerto a la Laguna de los Caballos.” Petition of Manuel Martínez, Abiquiú, 23 April
1832, transcription and translation in Ebright, The Tierra Amarilla Grant, 32.
59. “Algunos otros voluntariamente me quieren acompañar.” Petition of Manuel Martínez, Abiquiú,
23 April 1832, transcription and translation in Ebright, The Tierra Amarilla Grant, 32-3.
60. At the time Manuel Martínez submitted his petition, he had six sons (José Julián, José
Vicente, José Eusebio, José Sixto, José Antonio and José Francisco) and two sons-in-law (the
husbands of his daughters, María Dolores Martínez de Chávez and María de Jesús Martínez de
Chávez). 1843 will of Manuel Martínez, New Mexico Documents, 1770-1876, SC-UNM. Of these,
18
The size of the grant was not mentioned, but from the boundaries requested it
was clear to Martínez'es contemporaries that the Tierra Amarilla grant, as it would be
called, was huge (almost 500,000 acres). This was more land than was usually granted
to one individual, but Martínez made it sound as if he was asking for the land himself,
when he said that one of the motives was to leave his family “a means of providing for
their subsistence” when he died. Manuel Martínez admitted he had other lands but
said they were “so old, worn out, and exhausted” they were not sufficient to provide for
his family's needs.61
When Governor Santiago Abreu received the petition as head of the territorial
deputation (New Mexico's legislative body), he referred it to the Abiquiú ayuntamiento
for its report. The Ayuntamiento of Abiquiú was the town council that performed all the
functions of local government, one of which was to report on petitions for grants of land.
Although the senior regidor, José María Chávez, was married to one of Manuel's
daughters, there does not appear to have been any favoritism exercised on his behalf.62
On the contrary, the main concern of the ayuntamiento was to retain the use of the
common lands of the new grant for the residents of Abiquiú, which could most easily be
done if the new grant was a community grant with common lands. The statement in
the ayuntamiento's report that the land “was capable of supporting five hundred
families without property . . . leaving the pastures and watering places free to all
inhabitants of this jurisdiction of Abiquiú,” certainly shows that a community grant was
intended at this point in the proceedings.63
Manuel Martínez did not want it to be a community grant, however.
It was
unusual for the petitioner to intervene at this point since the ayuntamiento's report was
directed to the governor, but Martínez was apparently aware of its content and sent a
protest to Governor Abreu. At first glance, the protest, which could be viewed as a new
petition, seems to object only to sharing the common lands of the new grant with the
the only ones for whom there is evidence of settlement on the grant are Francisco and José
Antonio. Francisco is said to have built a large fuerte, with four corner turrets enclosed by a wall,
in Los Ojos. Robert J. Torrez, “A History of the Tierra Amarilla to 1880,” unpublished
manuscript, December 1, 1975. José Antonio received an hijuela from Francisco for land in
Barranco in 1863.
61. “Un recurso para subvenir a su subsistencia,” “tan demeritados, vejecidos, y cansados.”
Petition of Manuel Martínez, Abiquiú, 23 April 1832, transcription and translation in Ebright, The
Tierra Amarilla Grant, 32-3.
62. Frances Leon Swadesh, Los Primeros Pobladores: Hispanic Americans of the Ute Frontier (Notre
Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1974), 57.
63. “Capaz de mantener quienientas familias sin propiedad . . . que dando libres los pastos y
abrevaderos comunes para todos los habitantes de esta jurisdición de Abiquiú.” Report of the
Ayuntamiento of Abiquiú, 15 May 1832, transcription and translation in Ebright, The Tierra
Amarilla Grant, 34.
19
Abiquiú settlers. On closer scrutiny, however, Martínez appears to be objecting to any
provision for common lands asserting that, “what is reduced to private property cannot
be common,” and “what is common to everyone is owned by no one.” By the end of his
protest it was clear that Manuel Martínez wanted the entire Tierra Amarilla grant to be
his property as a private grant.64
The next document in the administrative sequence does not appear in the
Surveyor General's file and was apparently not submitted with the petition for
confirmation. It is the report, found in the Spanish Archives of New Mexico, of a special
three-man
commission
in
Santa
Fe,
appointed
by
the
governor
to
make
recommendations regarding the petition and the protest. The use of such commissions
testifies to a thoroughness of administrative procedure during the period of the Mexican
administration.
The commission was even more explicit than was the ayuntamiento
that this was to be a community grant when it stated, “ . . . [it] has deemed it just and
proper that it [the land] be granted to the related petitioners and the rest which may join
together” [emphasis added].65
The provisions recommended by the commission were adopted almost word for
word in the grant itself, made by the territorial deputation. Article three in particular
points directly to a community grant, clearly overruling Martínez's protest but leaving
the question of sharing the commons open, stating “that the pastures, watering places,
and roads shall be free according to custom prevailing in all settlements.”66
The process of settlement of the Tierra Amarilla area, as in the other river valleys
of Northern New Mexico, has been termed a budding process, whereby the buds of new
villages would form out of the stock of older villages, such as Abiquiú.67
The new
community was often named after the older one from which the bulk of the settlers were
recruited.
The villages of Barranco, Cañones, and La Puente were all named after
communities near Abiquiú.68
64.
“Respecto de que no puede ser comun lo que se distina a propiedad particular” and “lo que es
de todos en comun no es de nadie en propiedad.” Martínez to Governor Abreu, Abiquiú, 16 July
1832, transcription and translation in Ebright, The Tierra Amarilla Grant, 36-7.
65.
SANM I: 1103. It is not clear why Francisco Martínez did not file this document with his
petition for confirmation of the grant.
66. Grant by the Territorial Deputation, Santa Fe, 20 July 1832, transcription and translation in
Ebright, The Tierra Amarilla Grant, 40-41.
67. Paul Kutsche, John R. Van Ness and Andrew T. Smith, “A Unified Approach to the
Anthropology of Hispanic Northern New Mexico: Historical Archaeology, Ethnohistory and
Ethnography,” Historical Archaelogy, 10 (1976): 1.
68. It was not always the case that the majority of settlers in the new community came from the
named-after community. La Puente was settled by people from Abiquiú and El Barranco de
Abiquiú. Interview with Samuel and Bernardo Sánchez, Los Brazos, New Mexico, September 21,
1971, cited in Torrez, “A Brief History of the Tierra Amarilla to 1880.”
20
The pattern of a large group settling in an area after repeated small scale
settlements were driven off by the Utes, Navajos, and other Indians occurred on the
Tierra Amarilla grant during the 1860s and 1870s. In the Tierra Amarilla region the
Jicarilla Apaches (along with the Capote Utes) claimed much of the land encompassed
by the Tierra Amarilla land grant. In April 1855 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
asked New Mexico governor David Meriwether to negotiate a treaty to provide the
Jicarillas with a reservation. It was thought that such a reservation might cover part of
the Tierra Amarilla grant. Thus when Francisco Martínez tried to take possession of the
grant with a group of settlers in 1856, he was asked by the Indian agent at Abiquiú to
postpone settlement.
In the meantime, Francisco Martínez pursued his petition for confirmation of the
Tierra Amarilla Grant with Surveyor General of New Mexico, William Pelham. Pelham
championed Martínez's cause over the efforts of Governor Meriwether to provide land for
the Jicarillas. In June 1860 Congress confirmed the Tierra Amarilla grant based on
Pelham's recommendation, and Martínez began to recruit settlers to populate the grant.
The Capote Utes and other tribes continued to resist Hispanic attempts to form
settlements on the Tierra Amarilla grant, but between 1860 and 1864 eight
communities had been formed in the Tierra Amarilla area consisting of more than one
hundred thirty heads of families.69
8. The Biggs Family and Edgar Milton Biggs
In order to understand the genesis of the community of El Vado and its
connection with the railroad and lumber business, it is necessary to understand the
Biggs family. The patriarch of the Biggs family, John Douglas Biggs, had started in the
sawmill business in Illinois in the early 1870s with his brother Samuel M. Biggs. After
an attempt at farming in Kansas, the Biggs brothers moved to Cañon City, Colorado,
with their families where they re-entered the lumber business. Biggs Brothers Lumber
was listed in the Colorado business directories for 1885 and 1886. Dissatisfied with
their progress in Cañon City, the Biggs family moved to Chama in 1886 “to begin what
was to become one of the largest timber harvesting operations in Colorado and New
Mexico.”70
69. The settlements on the Tierra Amarilla established during this period and the approximate
number of settlers are: Brazos (12), Barranco (15), Cañones (15), Ensenada (22), Nutritas (18),
Los Ojos (33), La Puente (14), and Upper Town (3), Ebright, Tierra Amarilla Grant, xv-xvii, 45-48;
Robert Torrez, “The Tierra Amarilla Grant: A Case Study in the Editing of Land Grant
Documents,” Southwest Heritage 13 (Fall 1983-Winter 1984): 2.
70.
Chappell, Logging Along the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, 14.
21
By the late 1880s, J. D. Biggs and his two sons, Clinton Arthur Biggs and Edgar
Milton Biggs, had established three sawmills in the Chama area, often in conjunction
with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. The Biggs family made agreements with the
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad to extend the railroad to new logging operations and
sawmills in return for providing ties to the railroad. In some cases the Biggs company
would enter into joint ventures with the railroad whereby the Denver & Rio Grande
would survey a new line and lay the rail after the Biggs company had graded the land
and laid the railroad ties. Eventually the Biggs family, doing business as Biggs Lumber
Company, got into the railroad business themselves, running the little known Tierra
Amarilla Southern Railroad from Chama to Los Ojos with locomotives and rolling stock
leased from the Denver & Rio Grande. One advantage of running their own railroad
was a federal law allowing the railroad to cut timber on lands adjacent to the right-ofway for its use. This provision applied only to federal lands, but the law “was loosely
worded and the railroad interpreted it as broadly as possible. With early lumbermen as
its accomplices, the railroad stripped vast stands of government timber while escaping
nearly all attempts of federal prosecutors to bring the railroad and the lumbermen to
book for timber piracy.”71
In fact, the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad was prosecuted by the federal
government in 1897 for breaking this law. The railroad had entered into an agreement
with the New Mexico Lumber Company to cut and mill timber under this law, allowing
timber cutting adjacent to the railroad. Biggs’ company had cut 7,500,000 board feet of
lumber of which they claimed 2,130,000 board feet had been delivered to the railroad
for its use. The government contended that this lumber was not used by the Denver &
Rio Grande and charged them with conversion (theft) of logs, lumber, and timber in the
amount of $96,000. Although this was a criminal case, the government presumed that
the use to which the railroad put the lumber was not in accordance with the statute.
But because the United States had no specific evidence as to the use to which the
lumber was put, the judgment of the trial court was reversed because the government
had the burden to prove the commission of a crime with proof beyond a reasonable
doubt.72
This case illustrates the method of operation of the Biggs family. With an able
cadre of lawyers to protect them, they used their connection with the Denver & Rio
Grande Railroad to cut timber and to build sawmills without having to pay for either the
timber or the land on which they built their sawmills.
The Denver & Rio Grande
71.
Chappell, Logging Along the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, 13.
72.
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad v. U.S., 9 New Mexico Reports 382 (1898).
22
Railroad paid Catron for the right-of-way across the Tierra Amarilla grant and paid
periodic rentals to Catron - the primary revenue that Catron received from the grant.
Biggs paid the railroad to transport its lumber to market in Colorado communities like
Creede and made a profit because they often did not have to pay for the timber they cut
or the land on which they built their sawmills. In some instances the Biggs Company
paid sharply reduced amounts for timber, as in 1896 when Wilmot Broad sold 400,000
board feet of timber he did not own to the Biggs family’s New Mexico Lumber
Company.73
The saw mills run by Biggs and other timber operators were steam-powered, so
they were often located along streams to take advantage of that water source. As the
maps designated as figures 1 and 4 show, two Biggs family mills southwest of Chama
were located where the railroad crossed a small stream: the E. M. Biggs mill at Monero
was located at the Biggs spur where the railroad intersected the Rio Amargo, and the J.
D. Biggs sawmill was located at another Biggs spur where the railroad intersected
Willow Creek.74
During the mining boom of the late 1880s and early 1890s, the mills in the
Chama area were “supplying nearly all the lumber used in Denver, Pueblo and Leadville
and other smaller towns.” The Santa Fe New Mexican reported on September 6, 1888,
that the E. M. Biggs mill had a contract to supply Denver with a million board feet of
lumber a month.
75
By 1888, the E. M. Biggs mill near Monero was in operation and
going at full steam. In 1889 and 1890, the Biggs siding and the logging operation and
extensive mill and company town were established at Willow Creek. When the Biggs
Lumber Company incorporated in 1892, there were the two mills referred to in a
newspaper article stating that the company had “two mills with a capacity of 75,000
[board] feet each day and [they] own and operate twenty-two miles of railroad with
engines and rolling stock sufficient to do their business.”76
73.
Arnold v. Broad, 62 Pacific Reports 577 (1900).
74.
Chappell, Logging Along the Denver & Rio Grande, 15.
75.
Santa Fe New Mexican, September 6, 1888, cited in Chappell, Logging Along the Denver & Rio
Grande, 14.
76.
Chappell, Logging Along the Denver & Rio Grande, 20.
23
Figure 2. Willow Creek Sawmill. Chappell, Logging Along the Denver & Rio Grande, p. 12.
The Edgar M. Biggs mill and the J. D. Biggs sawmill were built along the route of
the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad as the mining boom in southern Colorado towns
such as Creede was reaching its peak through the late 1880s and early 1890s.
By
1892, at the height of the boom “all mills [in the Chama area] were running full blast to
supply the demand from Creede.”
The Santa Fe New Mexican “estimated that the
mining boom would distribute two million dollars among the sawmills of the Chama
region. In March [of 1892] about thirty [railroad] cars of lumber per day were rolling
over Cumbres en route to Creede.” The Biggs family, doing business as New Mexico
Lumber Company, was doing well, but it would soon run out of timber and would have
to move its operations closer to a dependable supply which would bring Edgar Biggs to
El Vado in 1903.77
9. The Community of El Vado and El Vado Lake
The first deed in the chain of title for all property within the Tierra Amarilla
grant, the June 12, 1909 deed from Charles Catron to Chama Valley Land Company,
contains a so-called Catron exclusion for El Vado of 754.55 acres.
Aside from the
exclusions at Chama, this is the only Catron Exclusion that does not represent a
carving out of a Hispanic community that existed before Catron started buying deeds,
77.
Chappell, Logging Along the Denver & Rio Grande, 16-20.
24
from his title to the Tierra Amarilla grant. It is a basic principle of property law, then as
now, that acquisition of property does not include ownership of occupied land within
the boundaries of that property, when the residents – in this case Hispanic farmers who
had been there since 1861 – have deeds to their property. The Catron Exclusion for El
Vado was clearly shown on Kenneth Heron’s 1920 Map of Central Rio Arriba County,
next to El Vado Lake.78
Portion of Kenneth A. Heron’s map of Central Rio Arriba County.
Like the Town of Chama before it El Vado was established as a “company town”
to operate a sawmill, box factory, and related enterprises. Access to the timber used in
the mill was supplied by the Rio Grande and Southern Railroad owned by Edgar Milton
Biggs and John J. McGinnity under an agreement with the Denver and Rio Grande
Railroad whereby Denver & Rio Grande Railroad would provide the rails, rent the
locomotives and freight cars and Rio Grande and Southwestern Railroad would supply
the railroad ties from the timber they were cutting. Eventually Denver & Rio Grande
Railroad would own the line, after paying Rio Grande and Southwestern the cost of
construction through credits against the charges for freight costs. Denver & Rio Grande
Railroad would acquire the line with little investment, and Rio Grande and
Southwestern Railroad would be able to transport logs to the mill and finished lumber
78. Deed from Charles C. Catron to Chama Valley Land Company, June 12, 1909, Book 4
Mortgage Records, pp. 119-150, Rio Arriba County Courthouse; 1920 Map of Central Rio Arriba
County by Kenneth A. Heron.
25
to the mining boom towns in Southern Colorado at little cost to them.
This was a
scheme that had worked for the Biggs family when they were operating railroads and
lumber operations around Chama in the 1890s, as described in the previous section.
Having cut most or all of the timber in the Chama area, Edgar M. Biggs teamed up with
T. D. Burns and established the Burns-Biggs Lumber Company at El Vado, after the
railroad line had reached that point around August of 1903. It was the arrival of the
railroad that marked the beginning of the community of El Vado.79
Map showing railroad lines at El Vado and vicinity, from Chappell, Logging Along the
Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, p. 82.
The place name El Vado had existed for as long as the 1776 DominguezEscalante expedition, but this was the first occupation of the site.80
Ironically the
fortunes of the town of El Vado would follow the fortunes and whims of its founder
Edgar M. Biggs. In early 1904, he “started the construction of a company town and
sawmill with a capacity of 80,000 board feet a day, a dry kiln, a drying yard, a box
factory and a planning mil.
Many of the components may have come from the mill
plant at Brazos. In March, 1904, the Santa Fe Daily New Mexican reported that the
79.
Chappell, Logging along the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, 86-7.
80.
The ford referred to in the Dominguez-Escalante Journal may have been closer to La Puente.
Fray Angelico Chavez and Ted J. Warner, The Domínguez-Escalante Journal . . . (Provo, Utah:
Brigham Young University Press, 1976), 7. “We forded [the Rio Chama] and stopped to rest on
the opposite side. The Ford is good but on the margins nearby there are big hidden sink holes
covered over with thin rubble.”
26
Burns-Biggs Lumber Company would commence operations at their El Vado plant on
April 1, and that several railroad spurs were being built into the timber in that vicinity.
Even though the lumber operations were on a very large scale,” there seemed sufficient
timber in the vicinity so that the supply would not be exhausted in ten years.” The
company town at El Vado consisted of small shacks built of rough lumber for the mill
workers and their families. When the town was moved the shacks would be loaded on
railroad cars and hauled to the new destination.
Wooden shacks provided for workers and their families at El Vado, from Chappell, Logging
Along the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, p. 85.
Although somewhat prosperous, the El Vado mill and related facilities were closed in
1907. “In 1907, E. M. Biggs . . . sold out all but a quarter interest in his lumber
enterprises to his partners, McPhee and McGinnity, and the mill at El Vado passed from
the Burns-Biggs Lumber Company to the New Mexico Lumber Company. [Around] this
time . . . the company closed the El Vado plant.”81
Edgar Biggs had a history of making investments with the money he made in the
sawmill business, mostly with disastrous results. “During this period Edgar Biggs took
the money he had received from the sale of his lumber interests and went to Sonora,
Mexico, where he invested $10,000 in an option on a silver mine at the request of a
friend from Cripple Creek who had failed to obtain financing from Denver bankers. But
the mining venture was unsuccessful, and Biggs moved to Seattle, Washington.” Again
81
Chappell, Logging Along the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, 86-7.
27
unsuccessful in land speculation there, Edgar Biggs returned to the Chama area
around 1910 and “during 1912, McPhee & McGinnity hired Biggs to resume
management of the New Mexico Lumber Company. Two years later Biggs reopened the
El Vado Mill, which had lain dormant for seven years . . . On July 4, 1914, the Rio
Grande & Southwestern Railroad resumed operations, although on paper it was
operated by the New Mexico Lumber Company. No longer a full partner in New Mexico
Lumber, Biggs was nevertheless the most competent general manager that McPhee and
McGinnity ever had, despite his lack of success in mining and real estate speculation.
But the exact arrangement under which Biggs reopened the El Vado mill is unclear.”82
In fact, the entire question of the ownership of the land under the Town of El
Vado is unclear. Was it – as was the case with the Town of Chama – owned by the
Denver & Rio Grande railroad? Was it owned by the settlers who lived there or was it
owned by Biggs? “By this time El Vado was clearly an operation of the New Mexico
Lumber Company. The Edith mill meanwhile was dismantled in 1916 and stored in
Lumberton, and by the end of the year the rails of the Rio Grande and Pagosa Springs
Railroad and had been pulled up for scrap. The residents of Edith had moved to El
Vado, and a majority of the people living in the lumber town on the Rio Chama had
come there from Colorado.”
“Edgar M. Biggs meanwhile remained willing to invest outside the lumber
industry despite his repeated failures.
In 1916 he bought the Pound Ranch and
shipped six hundred head of cattle in over the RG&SW to stock it. Unfortunately the
train which carried the cattle derailed, putting the engine and most of the cars on the
ground, many of the latter turning over. The wrecking crew had to release the frantic
cattle before beginning the job of re-railing the train. Biggs was apparently no more
successful as a cattle rancher than he had been as a real estate dealer, and he quit New
Mexico Lumber again in 1917 to go to Wyoming.” This was the end of the involvement of
Edgar M. Biggs in the community of El Vado. 83
“Thomas Orr succeeded Biggs as general manager of the El Vado plant, which
was operating at peak capacity to support the war effort. Residents of the lumber town
prided themselves on their patriotism during the World War and some [residents of El
Vado] like the company physician, Dr. Richard Speck, departed to join the army.” Even
though these were prosperous and profitable times for the company town at El Vado,
and for the Rio Grande & Southwestern Railroad, eventually there were no more large
pine trees to cut. “In the end, El Vado and the Rio Grande & Southwestern met the fate
82.
Chappell, Logging Along the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, 87-8.
83.
Chappell, Logging Along the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, 88.
28
of all sawmill towns and logging railroads; in 1923 the New Mexico Lumber Company
ran out of marketable timber in the Rio Chama country, having completed the stripping
of the Tierra Amarilla grant begun by Edgar Biggs many years earlier.
In February
1924 the firm commenced moving its El Vado plant and logging operation to a new site
{the town of McPhee] near Dolores, Colorado. Today even the site of El Vado is gone,
drowned beneath the water behind a dam on the Rio Chama. But along the edges of
the reservoir, washed upon the shore, one may still see the ties of a long-forgotten
logging railroad rotting in the sands of time.”84
Photo of train with company town shacks on railroad cars, Chappell p. 91.
A verbal picture of what El Vado must have looked like in 1917 is provided by
the wife of the New Mexico Lumber Company employee Herman Grassa: “We traveled
along a dreary road it seems, when, lo behold, just ahead of us vast columns of smoke
ascending in spirals, the smoke from the mills at El Vado. We round the curve and
there before us snuggled in a peaceful valley is the sawmill camp, the little town of El
Vado. The name is Spanish, and means a ford, or crossing place. The town is as large
or larger than most of the surrounding towns (such as Parkview and Tierra Amarilla).
Chappell, Logging Along the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, 89. Twenty houses were moved
from El Vado to McPhee and heavy equipment from the mill at El Vado was transported to
McPhee by eight wheel log wagons drawn by eight horses. Lisa Mausolf, “McPhee, Colorado, A
20th Century Lumber Company Town,” in The River of Sorrows: The History of the lower dolores
River Valley, edited by Gregory D. Kendrick, (Rocky Mountain Regional Office: U.S. Department of
the Interior National Park Service, 1981).
84
29
There is, besides the big mill a fine box factory, dry kilns, round house, machine shops,
blacksmith shops and a fine mercantile store.”
“Mrs. Grassa [also] noted that New
Mexico Lumber employed about 200 men in El Vado in 1917.”85 In addition, “old-timers
say there were the usual saloons and bordellos, a school, one or more churches, an
opera house, a boxing arena. At least part of the time there was a U.S. post office,
about the only sign of any kind of government other than the company. El Vado post
office was established May 21, 1904, with Ella Shafranka as postmistress, and was
discontinued August 31, 1908. It was reestablished May 26, 1916 and discontinued
Nov. 11, 1919, after which mail was sent to Lumberton.”
The legacy of the community of El Vado is best summed up by John V. Young:
“it is hard to believe that less than a century ago a great pine forest covered the valley
now filled by the lake, or that it once was the site of northern Rio Arriba County’s
largest town. Today the only visible evidence of the long-buried community is out on a
low peninsula at the north end of the lake where, on an unimproved road that is
sometimes impassable, may be found the remains of a large cemetery.
All of the
headstones are gone, but some of the wooden crosses and picket fences around the
unmarked graves are in place, or lie rotting in the weeds.”86
Family members decorate old graves at El Vado cemetery, Young, p. 47.
85
Chappell, Logging Along the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, 88-9.
“Two new graves in the cemetery, placed there in 1982, contain the skulls of two men
murdered in 1922. The skulls were taken as evidence for a trial in Tierra Amarilla, thenwere lost
for sixty years until they turned up in a reconstruction job at the county courthouse. Their
graves could not be found, but the men were known to have been buried in the old cemetery.”
John V. Young, The State Parks of New Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,
1984) p. 45.
86
30
The lake referred to by Young was created between 1933 and 1935 with the
construction of El Vado dam. “The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District completed
the construction of El Vado dam in 1935 to store irrigation water [initially] in order to
honor Native American water rights of the six Middle Rio Grande Pueblos. The dam was
updated in 1953-1954 and the outlets were modified in 1965-1966 to accommodate
increased flows associated with San Juan-Chama Project.
The San Juan-Chama
Project, managed by the Bureau of Reclamation, takes water from tributaries of the San
Juan River, which lies to the west of the Continental Divide, to augment the natural
flow of the Rio Grande, which is east of the Continental Divide.
The water flows
through the Azotea Tunnel under the Continental Divide to Willow Creek, then to Heron
Reservoir, just upstream of El Vado Lake, and to the Rio Chama, a tributary of the Rio
Grande. Water users include the City of Albuquerque, the City of Santa Fe, the Middle
Rio Grande Conservancy District, and the U.S. Department of Energy. The earth fill
dam is 154 feet tall and 1,362 feet long.
The storage capacity of El Vado Lake is
195,440 acre-feet at a crest elevation of 6,902 feet.”87 “Little is known about the steel
face [of the dam]; steel was probably used as an experiment and because it was
relatively cheap during the Depression. Because the water is so cold and pure, there is
little corrosion below the water line, and the face above low water is constantly
repainted. Operation of the dam was turned over to the federal Bureau of Reclamation
in 1955.”88
10. Tierra Amarilla Land Grant Activism
This section will deal with the land grant activism in the early 1960s and the
response of the State of New Mexico to that activism. The famous Courthouse Raid on
June 5, 1967 was one result of this activism, but this report will deal primarily with
events occurring before and after the Courthouse Raid since that event has been
discussed fully in numerous books and articles.89 This is relevant to the El Vado Lake
Shari A. Kelley, New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources,
http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/tour/state/el_vado/home.html accessed 1/26/09.
87
88.
Young, State Parks, 50-51.
89.
The following books deal with the courthouse raid and Reies Lopez Tijerina, the best known
land grant activist: Patricia Bell Blawis, Tijerina and the Land Grants (New York: International
Publishers, 1971); Richard Gardner, Grito: Reies Tijerina and the New Mexico Land Grant War of
1967 (Indianapolis and New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1970); Peter Nabokov,
Tijerina and the Courthouse Raid (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1969); and
"Reflections on the Alianza," New Mexico Quarterly, 37, (Winter 1968), pp. 343-356; Clark S.
Knowlton, "Land-Grant Problems Among the State's Spanish-Americans," New Mexico Business,
June 1967; "Reies Lopez Tijerina and the Alianza: Some Considerations," unpublished
manuscript, and "Reies L. Tijerina and the Alianza Federal de Mercedes: Seekers after Justice,"
unpublished manuscript.
31
State Park because correspondence from the New Mexico Game and Fish Department
during this time period specifically mentions, “the El Vado property.”90
Sometime in September 1964 officials of the Tierra Amarilla grant and its
representative the Corporation of Abiquiú, advised the public and in particular the
residents of the grant that were not heirs, that the grant heirs owned the entire grant
and intended to evict all non-heirs by October 20, 1964. The notice came in the form of
a sign on the grant giving notice that anyone “caught destroying any part or product of
this grant will be punished under the law,” and a formal notice of eviction signed by five
members of the Corporation of Abiquiú.91
Notice posted in September, 1964.
The eviction order was signed by Amarante Serrano, Ubaldo Martinez, Samuel
Benavidez, Cruz Aguilar, and Juan Y. Valdez, and – claiming the authority of the Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the U.S. Constitution and international law – ordered the
evacuation of all non-heirs from the grant by October 20, 1964.92
90. Memo from William A. Humphries, September 29, 1964, re T.A. Grant. NM State Game and
Fish Miscellaneous #115 (folder) T.A. Grant Dispute, 1964, New Mexico State Records Center and
Archives, Santa Fe.
91. Photo of sign on the Tierra Amarilla Grant, NM State Game and Fish Miscellaneous #115
(folder) T.A. Grant Dispute, 1964, New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe.
92. First page of eviction order NM State Game and Fish Miscellaneous #115 (folder) T.A. Grant
Dispute, 1964, New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe.
32
The first paragraph of the eviction notice issued by the Tierra Amarilla Land Grant and the
Corporation of Abiquiú.
In response, state officials, the courts, and federal officials took action.
Newspaper articles, both published and in draft form described the situation in
alarming terms.93
Newspaper article from the Famington Daily Times, October, 1964.
93. “Tierra Amarilla Land Grant Dispute Nears Boiling Point,” The Farmington Daily Times,
Sunday, October 11, 1964, p. A7.
33
As the newspaper described the challenge by the activists “The Corporation of
Abiquiú says no one may hunt or fish upon the huge grant without possessing a special
license purchased from the grant. A number of hunters intend to go into the area with
regular New Mexico big game licenses.
The corporation has set up a headquarters on the highway leading into the
small town of Chama. It has posted signs all over the area. Persistent reports from
local papers say the corporation will have approximately 70 armed men ready to enforce
its eviction notices as of the 20th.”94 The threat of privately issued hunting licenses soon
caught the attention of state authorities. As one of the newspaper articles noted: “The
area is well-known for its recreational facilities - - the Chama and Brazos Rivers
providing excellent trout fishing and the mountains of the area abounding in deer, elk,
bear and turkey. It is a favorite area for both New Mexico and non-resident sportsmen.
This, say Game and Fish Department officers, also complicates matters since the Game
Department owns and operates a huge state trout fish hatchery at Parkview and, in
addition owns and maintains an additional 12,000-plus acres of recreational land in the
grant.
Game Department officers say they will take no action as law enforcement
officers but will simply act as conservation officers in case of trouble - - reporting
violations to the State Attorney General’s office.”95
The New Mexico Game and Fish
Department considered deputizing their conservation officers with deputy sheriff
commissions with authority to arrest land grant activists, but decided against it. The
department issued a memorandum regarding “procedures to follow on T.A. Land Grant
During the Big Game Season.” It provided for hunting licenses to be issued as usual,
and for poachers without a license to be “cited to court in the usual manner.” In cases
of potential conflict the Department advised among other things:
1. If gates or right-of-ways to Game Department property are obstructed or
interfered with to prohibit hunters entering without purchasing the Grant
permit by the so-called armed guards of the Grant, you should contact
Director Ladd Gordon or Jim Peckumn who in turn will contact the Attorney
General’s Office and the District Attorney who will advise the next step to be
taken.
2. We should not attempt to interfere in cases where the special fee is
requested on such private lands.
94. Draft of newspaper article NM State Game and Fish Miscellaneous #115 (folder) T.A. Grant
Dispute, 1964, New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe.
95 Draft of newspaper article NM State Game and Fish Miscellaneous #115 (folder) T.A. Grant
Dispute, 1964, New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe.
34
3. We will not cut fences or saw off locks on any land for the purpose of
permitting hunters to enter.
4. All State Game Department property will be open to the public without
additional restriction to anyone.
5. Where questions are asked in regard to any restrictions on other lands, you
should inform the sportsmen that these private lands are no different than
other private lands outside the Grant.
6. We should refrain from encouraging or agitating any conflict, either between
the Grant people and the sportsmen, or between the Grant people and the
Game Department.
7. Do not encourage sportsmen to forcibly enter any land and advise hunters to
contact the individual landowner for entry permission.
The non-confrontational stance of the Department of Game and Fish together
with a restraining order issued in Rio Arriba County District Court helped avoid any
confrontations for the time being. The restraining order, signed by district court judge
Paul Tackett ordered the named defendants – which included the five signers of the
Corporation of Abiquiú eviction order to refrain:
1. From issuing or causing to be issued any future or further eviction orders or
notices;
2. From in any way carrying out or attempting or threatening to carry out any
eviction of any person whatsoever without legal process of the Courts of the
United States or the State of New Mexico;
3. From issuing or collecting any fees in any form for hunting or fishing
licenses;
4. From in any way interfering, molesting, stopping or threatening any hunter
or fisherman with a valid New Mexico hunting or fishing license;
5. From unlawfully carrying any loaded firearms or other deadly weapons
except as provided by law, and this portion of the Injunction is to apply to all
citizens of Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, and the Sheriff, State Police
Officers, and all peace officers are forthwith ordered and directed to arrest
and file criminal charges against any person violating the order herein.
35
6. From patrolling or trespassing on any private land or interfering with the
possessor of said land in the peaceful enjoyment of said land in any way
whatsoever.
The court further ordered “the individuals who installed and posted signs on the
Tierra Amarilla Land Grant [to] remove said signs within five days from October 16,
1964, the date of the hearing herein.”
This episode in the long-standing land grant
struggle demonstrates the concern by local residents or regarding usage and indeed
ownership of lands that had been the common lands of the Tierra Amarilla Land Grant.
It also shows the reaction of state and federal government to the perceived threat. As
one press release noted “The federal government, however, does not appear to be taking
the matter too lightly. Armed guards have been placed around all federal construction
sites on the grant - - such as the multi-million-dollar San Juan-Chama Diversion
project, designed to divert water into the Rio Grande Valley.” This would presumably
include El Vado Dam and El Vado Lake.
11. El Vado Lake State Park Abstract
A discussion of the chain of title in this abstract is difficult if not impossible
because the abstract contains only one document, a quitclaim deed from the United
States to the State of New Mexico for two tracts of land totaling 98.61 acres and a
pipeline and electrical pole easement. The location of this small tract of land in relation
to the rest of El Vado Lake State Park is shown on the map attached to this report, as
Appendix H.
The company that prepared the abstract, Land America Espanola Abstract
Company, seems to indicate from the description of the abstract as a supplemental
abstract and from the description of the above tract as Tract 4, that this is a
continuation of the abstract for the Humphries Wildlife Management Area, for a
separate report has been prepared. That abstract covers a tract of land approximately
20 miles north of the El Vado Lake State Park and only the part of the abstract dealing
generally with the Tierra Amarilla Grant applies to El Vado Lake State Park. Without
an adequate abstract only a general discussion of the land that became El Vado Lake
State Park is included with suggestions for further investigation.
The first part of the Humphries abstract that applies generally to the El Vado
Lake State Park is the Hernandez abstract which contains a history of the Tierra
Amarilla grant and of Thomas B. Catron’s acquisition of title to that grant.
This
historical material is covered in sections 6, the Tierra Amarilla grant and 7, Settlement
on the Tierra Amarilla grant, of this report.
36
Portion of Heron map with El Vado and lands now the Humphries Wildlife Refuge.
The first deeds in any abstract of the Tierra Amarilla grant should be the 1909
deed from Charles Catron to the Chama Valley Land Company96 and the subsequent
deed from the Chama Valley Land Company to the Arlington Land Company.97 Neither
of these deeds is included either in the El Vado Lake State Park abstract or the
Humphries Wildlife Management Area abstract.
Partial copies of those deeds are
included with this report. The 1909 deed from Charles Catron represents the sale of
the entire Tierra Amarilla Grant containing 595,515 acres less the exclusions totaling
14,515 acres.
After decades of attempts to sell the Tierra Amarilla grant himself, Thomas B.
Catron apparently turned over the final sale of the grant to his son Charles, due to the
illness of his wife, Julia Walz Catron, who died on November 8, 1909.98 The so-called
Catron exclusions (Appendix C) included a 754.55 acre exclusion for El Vado. Since
96. Deed from Charles C. Catron to Chama Valley Land Company, June 12, 1909, recorded June
22, 1909, Rio Arriba County Mortgage Record, Book 4, pp. 119-150.
97.
Warranty Deed dated August 4, 1909 recorded Book 18A, pages 156 et seq.
98.
Victor Westphall, Thomas B. Catron and his Era, Tucson: The Universithy of Arizona Press,
1973), 45, 56-59.
37
this 1909 exclusion occurred about six years after the establishment of the mill and
company town at El Vado by Edgar Biggs there may have been some arrangement
between Biggs and Catron that led to the exclusion. During the period that the town of
El Vado was a thriving mill town; 1903 to 1907 and 1914 to 1923 it is unclear who
owned the land upon which it was located. Gordon S. Chappell, the leading historian
on the community of El Vado stated his belief that neither Edgar Biggs nor the lumber
companies and railroad lines he worked for owned the land upon which the community
of El Vado was located.
The mystery is compounded when El Vado dam was constructed in 1935. It is
not known who owned the land then or in 1962 when the New Mexico State Legislature
passed a bill creating the El Vado Lake State Park. The state of New Mexico did receive
title to 98.61 acres by the 1961 deed from the U.S. but the park contained 4949 acres
when John Young wrote The State Parks of New Mexico. Several remaining questions
include:
1. Who owned the land in the 1909 Catron Exclusion?
2. Who owned the land where the town El Vado was located between 19031923?
3. Who owned the land when the Bureau of Reclamation constructed El Vado
Dam?
4. Who owned the land when the State of New Mexico sold lots for private
dwellings and commercial facilities around 1935, and
5. Who owned the land when the State of New Mexico established El Vado State
Park in 1962?
The answers to these questions are not in “the abstract” therefore background
material is included to help provide a basis for further research.
The confusion over the ownership of El Vado Lake State Park is mirrored in the
June 30, 2006 report by Robert J. Torrez on State Owned Lands Within New Mexico’s
Community Land Grants. The information provided by State Parks Division suggested
that the State of New Mexico did not own any land in connection with El Vado Lake
State Park:
“El Vado Lake State Park is located along the southwest corner of the Tierra
Amarilla land grant. The 2004 report erred in identifying 96.64 acres associated
with the state park as belong[ing] to the state of New Mexico.
The acreage
appears more properly to be part of a lease agreement dated July 12, 1961 (31438
06-500-586) between the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation
and the N. M. State Park Commission establishing responsibility for the
administration, development, operation, and maintenance of the recreational
aspects relating to the reservoir area.” On August 21, 1986 both parties agreed
to an extension of this agreement to July 12, 2011. The State parks Division of
the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department operates the nearby
Heron Lake State park under a similar agreement with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation.”99
Christy Tafoya of the State Parks Division of the Energy, Minerals, and Natural
Resource Department affirmed that as of the date of this report the above summary is
still the case.100
It is possible that additional research will shed more light on the
ownership of the land where El Vado Lake State Park is located and the chain of title
connected with that ownership.
12. Operation of El Vado Lake State Park
El Vado State Park is one of thirty-four state parks managed by the New Mexico
State Parks Division of the Energy Minerals and Natural Resources Department. The
first state parks were established in 1933 as a result of the Civilian Conservation Corps
efforts during the Great Depression. The state park system encompasses nineteen (19)
lakes and 182,978 acres of land.
The forming of El Vado Lake when the El Vado Dam was constructed in 1935
became the basis for El Vado Lake State Park created as a state park by the New Mexico
State Legislature in 1962. Because of the paucity of documents in the abstract for the
park (discussed in Sections 1, 11, and 13) it is difficult to tell how the State of New
Mexico acquired the land on which the park sits. In 1984 when John Young wrote The
State Parks of New Mexico, El Vado Lake covered 3,220 acres and the park embraced
another 1729 acres of land along the northwestern shore of the lake. This is a total of
4949 acres.
99. Robert J. Torrez, “A Report: State Owned Lands Within New Mexico’s Community Land
Grants,” submitted in fulfillment of Professional Services contract 06-369-0222-0006, June 30,
2006.
100. Personal communication with Christy Tafoya, State Parks Division of the Energy, Minerals,
and Natural Resources Department, January 29, 2009.
39
Map showing the relationship of El Vado Lake State Park to the dam and
reservoir.
“The park gives free access to all of the water area, which is open all year for
trout and Kokanee salmon fishing, including ice fishing in winter.
launching pad is available.
A concrete boat-
There are sixteen widely scattered picnic or camping
shelters which provide the only shade. The park has no visitor center, but it does have
one modern comfort station (no showers) and a dozen pit toilets, plus a few water
faucets, some playground equipment, and an unpaved, mile-long airstrip.”
The
operation of El Vado Lake State Park is assisted by a community organization called the
Friends of Heron Lake and El Vado Lake State Parks.
Their mission is to “provide
volunteer support for the Parks, and to promote interpretative programs, cultural,
40
educational and recreational activities, construction projects and nature trails, . . .
support of native plant restoration and preservation of a true wilderness experience.”101
13. Conclusion
Because of the lack of documents in the “abstract” for El Vado Lake State Park,
this report consists primarily of background material.
The Tierra Amarilla grant
embraced the land that became the El Vado Lake State Park, so a considerable part of
this report covers the history of the Tierra Amarilla grant. When Charles Catron deeded
the entire Tierra Amarilla grant to the Chama Valley Land Company in 1909, that deed
contained an exception or Catron Exclusion for El Vado containing 754.55 acres, as
shown on the Kenneth Heron map at p. 24. Other Catron exclusions contained in the
1909 deed covered the Hispanic communities of Cañones, Brazos, Park View,
Ensenada, Nutritas (Tierra Amarilla), and in addition the railroad town of Chama. Land
within the Hispanic communities was owned by the individuals who received hijuelas
(Appendix B), and Thomas B. Catron had sold house lots to individuals in Chama and
land for a railroad deport to the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. But in the case of the
El Vado exclusion there is no record of land sales to the railroad. The Town of El Vado
was an ephemeral company town operated by Edgar Biggs.
The employees of the
sawmill operated by Biggs at El Vado lived in wooden shacks and when the mill ceased
operations in 1923 and the operation moved to McPhee, Colorado, the employees who
wanted to moved to McPhee and the shacks they had been living in were loaded on the
flatbed cars of the railroad that Biggs owned and moved to McPhee.
Neither the
railroad nor Edgar Biggs owned the land where the town of El Vado was located, so it is
almost as if this was a no-mans-land.
The final chapter in the El Vado story is the construction of the El Vado dam as
part of the San Juan Chama Project. The project was started by the Middle Rio Grande
Conservancy District and is managed by the Bureau of Reclamation. El Vado Dam is
what created the El Vado Reservoir, a lake used for recreation that contains water
stored for the use of Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy
District. The importance of this project was graphically illustrated at the time of the
Tierra Amarilla Land Grant conflict in 1964 when armed guards were placed around all
the components of “multi-million-dollar San Juan-Chama Diversion Project designed to
divert water into the Rio Grande Valley.”
101. Shari A. Kelley, “El Vado Lake State Park,” New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral
Resources, New Mexico Tech, http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/PRD/elvado.htm
41
Appendix A Chain of Title of El Vado Lake State Park
Date/ Page
of Abstract
Document
Grantor
Grantee/
Official
Book/
Page
Legal Description
1909
6.12/
not in
abstract
Deed
Charles C.
Catron
Chama
Valley
Land and
Cattle
Company
Book 4
Mortgage
Records/
119-150
Survey Description of
exterior boundaries of
Tierra Amarilla Grant less
exclusions listed in
Appendix C of this report
1909
8.4/
not in
abstract
Deed
Chama Valley
Land and
Cattle
Company
Arlington
Land
Company
Book
18A/
156 et
seq.
Same description as deed
from Catron to Chama
Valley
1961
3.5/1-2
Quitclaim
Deed
United States
through the
General
Services
Administratio
n
State of
New
Mexico
Book 75/
289
Survey descriptions of two
tracts of land and an
easement. The first tract
(Tract 3) contains 96.54
acres, the second tract
(Tract 4) contains 207
acres and the easement
(Tract 4-E) for installation,
operation, and
maintenance of a pipeline
and electrical pole line.
42
Appendix B – Hijuelas by Community
Location of
Hijuela
Date of
Document
Name
Date
Recorded
Book: Page
Recorded
Bounded
Bounded
Barranco
1863
24 Aug.
Martín,
Bernardo Rumaldo
1864
27 May
2:
69-71
Salazar,
Carpio/N
Martin,
Antonio/S
Barranco
1863
24 Aug.
Serrano, Ventura
1864
23 May
2:
24-26
Suaso,
José Miguel/N
Martín,
Rumaldo/S
Barranco
1863
25 Aug.
Abeita, Ramona
1880
31Dec.
6:
32-34
Barranco
1863
25 Aug.
Lobato, Pedro
1864
21 May
2:
14-16
Salazar,
Sabino/N
Plaza/S
Barranco
1863
25 Aug.
Martín,
José Antonio
250 x 215 varas
1864
18 May
2:
522-523
vacant/N
Montaño,
Baltazar/S
Barranco
1863
25 Aug.
Montaño, Baltazar
1866
18 Sep.
2:
228-229
Martin, José
Antonio/N
Montaño,
Melquiades/S
Barranco
1863
25 Aug.
Montaño,
Melquiades
1866
18 Sep.
2:
151-152
Montaño,
Baltazar/N
Montaño,
Tomás/S
Barranco
1863
25 Aug.
Salazar, Carpio
1864
18 May
2:
518-519
Montaño,
Tomás/N
Martín,
Bernardo/S
Barranco
1863
25 Aug.
Salazar, Sabino
1864
17 May
2:
517-518
Martín,
Antonio/N
Lobato, Pedro/S
Barranco
1863
25 Aug.
Suazo, José Miguel 1864
18 May
2:
523-525
Velasquez,
Ignacio/N
Serrano,
Ventura/S
Barranco
1864
4 Jul.
Velasquez,
María Nieves
1887
19 Nov.
9:
287-288
Barranco
1865
6 Jul.
Martín y Sánchez,
Juan
1865
8 Dec.
2:
147-148
Valdez,
Rumaldo/N
Martín,
Carmen/S
Brazos
1860
23 Jul.
Salazar, Ramón
1887
18 Nov.
9:
260-261
Brazos
1863
24 Aug.
Montoya,
Francisco
1864
27 May
2:
66-67
García,
Pedro/N
Chacón,
Francisco/S
Brazos
1863
24 Aug.
Romero, Ignacio
1864
27 May
2:
68-69
Martín,
Rumaldo/N
Martín,
Antonio/S
Brazos
1863
8 Sep.
Suazo, José
Ignacio
1864
27 May
2:
60-62
Salazar,
Ramon/N
Trujillo, José
Dolores/S
Brazos
1863
9 Sep.
Lopez, Preciliano
1864
27 May
2:
62-63
Suaso, José
Ignacio/N
García, Pedro/S
Brazos
1864
4 Jul.
García, Pedro
1866
8 Jul.
3:
351-353
Lopez,
Preciliano/N
Montoya,
Francisco/S
43
Location of
Hijuela
Date of
Document
Name
Date
Recorded
Book: Page
Recorded
Bounded
Bounded
Brazos
1864
7 Nov.
Sánchez, Bernardo
1865
28 Mar.
2:
132-134
Montoya,
Juliana/N
Archuleta,
Ignacio/S
Brazos
1866
4 Aug.
Montoya, Juliana
1866
18 Sep.
2:
230-231
Morfin, José
María/N
Archuleta,
Ignacio/W
Brazos
and
Barranco
(2 pieces)
1863
24 Aug.
Martín, Antonio
1864
27 May
2:
71-73
Romero,
Ignacio/N
Valdez,
Salvador/S
Salazar,
Sabino/S
Martín,
Rumaldo/N
Cañones
1863
25 Aug.
Archuleta,
Antonio José
1864
19 May
2:
529-530
Sánchez,
Manuel/E
Velasquez,
Paula/W
Cañones
1863
25 Aug.
Trujillo, Dorotea
1864
18 May
2:
525-526
Velasquez,
Paula/E
Serrano,
Mauricio/W
Cañones
1863
26 Aug.
Abeyta,
Juan Nepomuceno
1864
19 May
2:
33-35
Garduño,
Ascencion/E
Sandoval,
Justo/W
Cañones
1863
26 Aug.
Gallegos, Maríano
1864
27 May
2:
64-65
Valdez,
Rumaldo/E
vacant/W
Cañones
1863
26 Aug.
Garduño,
(As)cencion
1864
21 May
2:
16-18
vacant/E
Abeyta, Juan
Nepomuceno/W
Cañones
1863
27 Aug.
Naranjo, Diego
1864
21 May
2:
7-8
Velasquez,
Paula/E
Valdez,
Rumaldo/W
Cañones
1863
27 Aug.
Serrano, Mauricio
1864
20 May
2:
1-2
Trujillo,
Dorotea/E
Serrano,
Manuel/W
Cañones
1863
29 Sep.
Salazar,
Francisco Antonio
375 x 650 varas
1864
20 May
1:
544-545
cuchilla
cuchilla
Cañones
1864
6 Jul.
Sandoval, Justo
1873
23 April
3:
347-349
García,
Marcelino/N
Abeyta, Juan
Nepomuceno
[Epomoseno]/S
Cañones
1864
4 Jul.
Velasquez,
María Pabla
1874
14 Dec.
4:
240-241
Trujillo,
Dorotea/N
García,
Marcelino/S
Naranjo,
Diego/N
Archuleta, José
Antonio/S
Martín,
Juan/E
Gallegos,
Maríano/W
(2 pieces)
Cañones
1863
25 Aug.
Valdez, Rumaldo
1864
19 May
2:
530-531
(2 pieces)
Plaza/W
Naranjo,
Diego/E
Encenada 1865
21 Jun.
Valdez, Manuel
1877
3 April
4:
424-425
Valdez,
Meliton/N
Trujillo, Juan
Ignacio/S
Ensenada 1863
12 Sep.
Alen,
Christian Enones
1864
24 May
2:
40-42
Martín,
Antonio/N
García, Luz/S
44
Location of
Hijuela
Date of
Document
Name
Date
Recorded
Book: Page
Recorded
Bounded
Bounded
Ensenada 1863
12 Sep.
Delgado,
Antonio de Jesús
1864
23 May
2:
32-34
Salazar, don
Ramon/N
Martín,
Antonio/S
Ensenada 1863
12 Sep.
Martín,
Antonio José
1864
24 May
2:
42-44
García, Luz/N
Martinez,
Francisco/S
Ensenada 1863
12 Sep.
Martín, Antonio
1864
23 May
2:
34-36
Delgado,
Antonio de
Jesús/N
Aleman, Alen/S
Ensenada 1863
8 Sep.
Gallegos,
José Antonio
1864
25 May
2:
54-56
Gallegos,
Manuel de
Jesús/N
Ullibarri [Ribalí],
Juan de Dios/S
Ensenada 1863
8 Sep.
Gallegos,
Manuel de Jesús
1864
25 May
2:
52-54
Martín,
Pedro/N
Gallegos, José
Antonio/S
Ensenada 1863
8 Sep.
Jaramillo, Rafael
1864
16 May
2:
505-506
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
Juan de
Dios/N
Trujillo, Juan/S
Ensenada 1863
8 Sep.
Valdez, Melitón
1864
23 May
2:
30-32
Valdez,
Vigil, María
Nepómuceno/N Francisca/S
Ensenada 1863
8 Sept
Lente, Juan
1864
25 May
2:
46-48
Trujillo,
Juan/N
Valdez, Juan
Neopmuceno/S
Ensenada 1863
9 Sep.
Benavidez, Lorenzo 1864
23 May
2:
38-40
Chacón,
Roque/N
Montaño,
Juan/S
Ensenada 1863
9 Sep.
Chacón, Roque
1973
24 Dec.
4:
156157
Valdez,
Carmel/N
Benavidez,
Lorenzo/S
Ensenada 1863
9 Sep.
Gutiérrez,
José Manuel
1864
25 May
2:
48-50
Valdez,
Manuel/N
Suaso,
Geronimo/S
Ensenada 1863
9 Sep.
Martín,
Antonio María
1864
25 May
2:
50-52
Suaso,
Geronimo/N
Valdez, José
María/S
Ensenada 1863
9 Sep.
Montaño, Juan
1865
25 Mar.
2:
130-132
Benavides,
Lorenzo/N
Valdez,
Manuel/S
Ensenada 1863
9 Sep.
Suazo, Geronimo
1864
20 May
2:
2-4
Gutierrez,
José Manuel/N
Martín,
Antonio
María/S
Ensenada 1863
9 Sep.
Trujillo,
Juan Ignacio
1864
23 May
2:
36-38
Vigil, María
Francisca/N
Abeyta,
Manuel/S
Ensenada 1863
9 Sep.
Valdez, José María
1864
24 May
2:
44-46
Martín,
Antonio
María/N
Salazar,
Ramon [cura]/S
Ensenada 1863
9 Sep.
Valdez, Juan
Nepomuceno
1864
2: 10-12 Juan Lente / N
Meliton
Valdez/S
Ensenada 1863
9 Sep.
Valdez, Manuel
1877
3April
4:
424/25
Juan Ignacio
Trujillo/S
21 May
Meliton
Valdez/N
45
Location of
Hijuela
Date of
Document
Name
Date
Recorded
Book: Page
Recorded
Bounded
Bounded
La Puente 1863
2 Aug.
Gómez, Felipe
1864
19 May
2:
532-533
Lujan,
José María/N
tierras
baldiás/S
La Puente 1863
2 Sep.
Ávila, Domingo
1864
21 May
2:
18-20
Lopez, Pedro/N
Lujan,
Jesús María/S
La Puente 1863
2 Sep.
Lopez, Juan
1864
21 May
2:
13-14
La Plaza/N
Lopez, Pedro/S
La Puente 1863
2 Sep.
Lujan, José María
1864
17 May
2:
515-516
Avila,
Domingo/N
Gomez, Felipe/S
La Puente 1863
27 Aug
Gómez,
Antonio Nerio
1864
21 May
2:
20-22
Chacón,
Serafín/N
Gallego,
Julian/S
La Puente 1863
27 Aug.
Ávila, Vicente
1864
16 May
2:
503-504
Samora,
Encarnación/N
Gallegos,
José de Jesús/S
La Puente 1863
27 Aug.
Chacón, Serafín
1864
17 May
2:
512-513
Trujillo,
Juan/N
Gomez,
Antonio Nerio/S
La Puente 1863
27 Aug.
Gallegos,
José de Jesús
1864
16 May
2:
496-497
Avila,
Vicente/N
Gomez,
Francisco/S
La Puente 1863
27 Aug.
Gallegos, Julian
1864
17 May
2:
510-511
Gomez,
Nerio/N
Serrano,
Manuel/S
La Puente 1863
27 Aug.
Gómez,
María Francisca
1864
16 May
2:
498-499
Gallegos,
José de
Jesús/N
Trujillo, Juan/S
La Puente 1863
27 Aug.
Lopez, Pedro
1864
16 May
2:
506-508
Serrano,
Juan/N
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
Tomás/S
La Puente 1863
27 Aug.
Samora,
Encarnación
1864
21 May
2:
22-24
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
María Luz/N
Avila, Vicente/S
La Puente 1863
27 Aug.
Serrano, Juan
1864
18 May
2:
520-521
Serrano,
Manuela/N
Lopez, Pedro/S
La Puente 1863
27 Aug.
Trujillo,
Francisco Antonio
1864
17 May
2:
513-515
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
Tomás/N
Plaza/S
La Puente 1863
27 Aug.
Trujillo, Juan
1864
16 May
2:
508-510
Gomez,
Francisca/N
Chacón,
Serafin/S
La Puente 1866
22 Aug.
Lucero, Santiago
1886
24 Aug.
8:
832-833
Los
Brazos
1863
24 Aug.
Archuleta, Ignacio
1864
23 May
2:
26-28
Sánchez,
Bernardo/N
Sánchez,
Bernardo/S
Los Ojos
1863
25 Aug.
Martín, Ignacio
1864
18 May
2:
527-528
Martin,
Manuel/N
Sánchez,
María Josefa/S
Los Ojos
1863
27 Aug.
Luna, Juan de
1864
27 May
2:
75-77
Marquez,
Bartolo/N
Trujillo,
Francisco/S
Los Ojos
1863
27 Aug.
Márquez, Bartolo
1864
27 May
2:
73-75
Mestas,
Francisco/N
Luna, Juan
de/S
46
Location of
Hijuela
Date of
Document
Name
Date
Recorded
Book: Page
Recorded
Bounded
Bounded
Los Ojos
1863
27 Aug.
Sánchez,
María Josefa
1864
21 May
2:
8-10
Martín,
Ignacio/N
Martinez,
Desideria/S
Los Ojos
1863
27 Aug.
Trujillo, Francisco
1864
28 May
2:
77-79
Luna,
Juan de/N
vacant/S
Los Ojos
1863
27 Aug.
Trujillo, Ramón
1864
28 May
2:
79-80
vacant/N
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
José Trinidad/S
Los Ojos
1863
27 Aug.
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
María Luz
1864
16 May
2:
500-501
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
José María/N
Samora,
Encarnación/S
Los Ojos
1863
29 Aug.
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
José Trinidad
1864
16 May
2:
501-503
Trujillo,
Ramón/N
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
José María/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Alire, José Rafael
1864
13 Jul.
2:
98-100
Salazar,
Pablo/N
Trujillo,
Manuel/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Atencio,
1864
José Cicilio [Cirilio] 15 Jul.
2:
118-119
Mansanares,
Severo/N
Atencio,
Juan Gabriel/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Atencio,
José Gabriel
1864
14 Jul.
2:
106-107
Atencio,
José Cecilio/N
Chavez,
José María/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Atencio,
Juan Miguel
1864
14 Jul.
2:
110-111
Chavez,
José María/N
Cordova,
Jesús María/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Chávez,
José María
1864
14 Jul.
2:
108-109
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Cordova,
Jesús María
1864
13 Jul.
2:
100-102
Atencio,
Juan Miguel/N
Ortega,
María Rosa/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Madrid, Juan
Isidro
1864
12 Jul.
2:
85-86
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Manzanares,
Severo
1864
13 Jul.
2:
104-105
Ocaña,
Juan
Antonio/N
Atencio,
José Cecilio/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Martín y Sánchez,
Francisco
1864
12 Jul.
2:
81-82
Martinez,
Martinez,
Antonio José/N José Manuel/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Martínez,
(Juan) Cristóbal
1864
13 Jul.
2:
96-98
Martinez,
Francisco/N
Samora,
Santos/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Martínez,
Antonio José
1864
12 Jul.
2:
89-91
Martínez,
Francisco/N
Samora,
Santos/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Martínez,
Antonio José
1864
12 Jul.
2:
88-89
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Martínez, Desideria 1864
14 Jul.
2:
114-115
Martín,
Ignacio/N
Ulibarrí,
José Miguel/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Ocaña,
Juan Antonio
1864
13 Jul.
2:
94-96
Serrano,
Pedro/N
Mansanares,
Severo/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Ortega,
María Rosa
1864
13 Jul.
2:
92-94
Cordova,
Jesús María/N
Valdez,
José Gabriel/S
47
Location of
Hijuela
Date of
Document
Name
Date
Recorded
Book: Page
Recorded
Bounded
Bounded
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Salazar, Pablo
1864
12 Jul.
2:
90-92
Samora,
Santos/N
Alire,
José Rafael/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Samora, Santos
1864
13 Jul.
2:
102-104
Martín,
Cristobal/N
Salazar,
Pablo/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Trujillo, Manuel
1864
12 Jul.
2:
83-84
Alire,
José Rafael/N
Madrid,
Juan Isidro/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Ulibarrí,
José Miguel
1864
15 Jul.
2:
116-117
Martín,
Desideria/N
Ulibarrí,
Candelario/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Ulibarrí,
Candelario
1864
12 Jul.
2:
87-88
Ulibarrí,
José Miguel/N
Mestas,
Francisco/S
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Valdez, José
Gabriel
1864
14 Jul.
2:
112-113
Ortega,
María Rosa/N
Martín,
Antonio/S
Los Ojos
1865
20 Feb.
Maestas,[Mestas]
Francisco
1871
16 May
2:
366-367
Ulibarrí,
Candelario/N
Marquez,
Bartolo/S
Los Ojos
1871
1 June
Manzanares,
Francisco
1871
18 Aug.
2:
390-392
Los Ojos
1871
14 Dec.
Sánchez, Bernardo
1872
16 Jan.
3:
101-102
Los Ojos
1864
2 Jul.
Martínez,
Antonio José
1864
12 Jul.
2:
89-91
Martinez,
Francisco/N
Martinez,
Francisco/S
Tierras de los
herederos/N
Martín y
Sánchez,
Francisco/S
2 pieces
Nutritas
1861
11 Sep.
Ulibarrí, Jesús
1887
16 Nov.
9:
257
Nutritas
1863
6 Sep.
Espinoza,
Juan Nepomuceno
1864
20 May
2:
4-6
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
Jesús/E
Valdez,
Desideriio/W
Nutritas
1863
6 Sep.
Martín, Juan Pablo 1864
20 May
1:
540-542
Valdez,
Juan Pablo/E
Romero,
Manuel/W
Nutritas
1863
6 Sep.
Martínez,
José del Carmel
1864
27 May
2:
58-60
Romero,
José Manuel/E
Gallegos,
Rafael/W
Nutritas
1863
6 Sep.
Martínez, Carmel
1864
25 May
2:
56-58
Gallegos,
Rafael/E
tierras que
divide el
bordo/W
Nutritas
1863
6 Sep.
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
Jesús
1864
19 May
2:
537-538
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
Juan
Antonio/E
Espinosa,
Nepomuceno/W
Nutritas
1863
6 Sep.
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
José Ignacio
1864
23 May
2:
28-30
Montaño,
Fernando/E
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
Juan
Antonio/W
Nutritas
1863
6 Sep.
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
Juan Antonio
1864
19 May
2:
535-536
Ulibarrí [Ribalí].
José Ignacio/E
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
Jesús/W
48
Location of
Hijuela
Date of
Document
Name
Date
Recorded
Book: Page
Recorded
Bounded
Bounded
Nutritas
1863
6 Sep.
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
Justo
1864
20 May
2:
539-540
Nutritas
1863
6 Sep.
Valdez, Juan Pablo 1864
20 May
1:
542-543
Ulibarrí [Ribalí],
Justo/E
Martín,
Juan Pablo/W
Nutritas
1863
8 Sep.
Valdez,
Juan Nepomuceno
1864
21 May
2:
10-12
Lente, Juan/N
Valdez,
Meliton/S
Nutritas
1865
3 Jul.
Espinoza,
Nepomuceno
1887
16 Nov.
9:
256-257
Nutritas
1865
3 June
Montoya,
Fernández
[Fernándes]
1872
26 Oct.
3:
187-188
Mercure,
don
Enriques/E
Ulibarrí,
José Ignacio/W
Nutritas
1865
9 Dec.
Madrid, Diego
1866
1 Jan.
2:
151-152
Madrid,
Felipe/E
Plaza/W
Nutritas
1865
9 Dec.
Madrid, Felipe
1866
1 Jan.
2:
149-150
Casias,
Felipe/E
Madrid,
Diego/W
Omitted
1861
23 Aug.
Salazar, Carpio
1889
23 May
10:
229
Omitted
1861
23 Aug.
Suazo,
Juis Eugenio
1887
23 Dec.
9:
384
49
Appendix C – Catron Exclusions
Deed: Charles Catron to Chama Valley Land Co. 6.12.1909
Chama Townsite
Chama Valley
Cañones
Plaza de Brazos
57.93
508.71
1517.4
811.95
Brazos Valley
1671.53
Park View
2424.27
Ensenada
1511.2
Tierra Amarilla
1173.4
Mesa between Rio Chama and Rito Nutritas
1770.99
Lower Nutritas
706.84
Upper Brazos
135
Rio Nutritas
838.5
El Vado
754.55
Not mentioned
0
Esperanza Mine
41.33
Depot at Chama
91.4
D&RG ROW for pipeline
3.19
D&RG ROW for mainline
300.95
D&RG ROW for lumber branch
104.96
Iron Springs Vega
Total
50
91.4
14515.5
Appendix D – 1900 Rio Nutrias Census
Head of Household/Age
Family Members/Age (1900 Rio Nutrias)
Occupation/
Relationship
House#/
Family#
Date of Birth
Birthplace
No. of Years
Married
Archuleta, Bernardo/41
Archuleta, Sencion/49
Archuleta, Fransisca/5
Archuleta, Bernarda/1
Archuleta, Relles/?
head/sheepherder
wife
daughter
daughter
niece
152/152
June 1858
Apr. 1861
Jan. 1895
Sep. 1898
?
NM
"
"
"
"
?married
?married
Arny, Cyrus/29
Arny, Feliz/29
Arny, Anita/5
Arny, Isabel/2
head/cattleherder
wife
daughter
daughter
139/139
Jul. 1870
May 1871
Apr. 1895
Mar. 1898
NM
"
"
"
10
10
Esquibel, Antonio Jose/25
Esquibel, Honorata/25
Esquibel, Elisa M./not 1 mos.
head/farm
wife
daughter
130/130
Aug. 1874
Jan. 1875
June 1900
NM
"
"
10/12
10/12
Esquibel, J. Eufracio/31
Esquibel, Emelia/24
Esquibel, Jose Teodoro/7
Esquibel, Eduardo/5
Esquibel, Adolfo/3
Esquibel, Hilario/1
Romero, Pabla/50
farmer/head
wife
son
son
son
son
mother-in-law
122/122
Mar 1869
Aug. 1875
Sep. 1892
Sep. 1894
Jul. 1896
Aug. 1898
Jan. 1850
NM
"
"
"
"
"
"
Esquibel, Maríano/28
Esquibel, Lucia/20
Juliana M./4 mos.
head/farm
wife
daughter
129/129
May 1872
Jan. 1880
Feb. 1900
NM
"
"
4
4
Esquibel, Perfecto/58
Esquibel, María Gregoria/47
Esquibel, Hipolito/20
Esquibel, Francisca/18
Esquibel, Manuel Antonio/11
Esquibel, María Gregoria/8
head/farm
wife
son/sheepherder
daughter
son/at school
daughter
128/128
Apr. 1842
May 1853
Jul. 1879
Feb. 1882
Nov. 1888
Mar. 1892
NM
"
"
"
"
"
32
32
Gallegos, María Cecelia/58
Juan Jose Antonio?/16
María Juana/11
Sanchez, Leonor/45
head
150/150
son/sheepherder
daughter/at school
boarder/day laborer
Feb 1851
Mar. 1884
May 1889
Feb. 1855
NM
"
"
"
widow
Giron, Leocadio/42
Giron, Asencion/34
Giron, Guillermo/16
Giron, Eduardo/15
Martinez, Rufina/69
farmer/head
wife
day farm/son
day farm/son
mother-in-law
121/121
Nov. 1856
Mar 1866
Jun 1883
Oct. 1884
Sep. 1830
NM
"
"
"
"
19
19
Jaramillo, Juan/56
Jaramillo, Rita/50
Jaramillo, María Epolita/15
Jaramillo, Josefa/10
head/sheepherder
wife
daughter
daughter
144/144
Oct. 1843
May 1850
Aug. 1884
Jun 1879
NM
"
"
'
35
35
widow?
widow
51
Head of Household/Age
Family Members/Age (1900 Rio Nutrias)
Occupation/
Relationship
House#/
Family#
Date of Birth
Birthplace
No. of Years
Married
Jaramillo, Teofilo/26
Jaramillo, Alejandrina/17
head/day laborer
wife
145/145
Sep. 1873
Feb. 1883
NM
"
1
1
Lopez, Bonifacio/68
Lopez, Margarita/46
Lopez, María Tomasa/9
Lopez, Bersabel/3
Lopez, Patricio/9
head/day laborer
wife
daughter
daughter
grandson
155/155
Dec. 1831
May 1854
Dec. 1880
Aug 1896
Apr. 1891
NM
"
"
"
"
22
22
Lopez, Epifanio/45
Lopez, Nicomenes/35
Lopez, Fermin/17
Lopez, Esmiria/16
Lopez, Pabla/4
Lopez, Nieves/2
head/cattle herder
wife
son
daughter
daughter
daughter
157/157
June 1854
Feb. 1865
Nov. 1882
Feb. 1884
Oct. 1884
Aug. 1897
NM
"
"
"
"
"
20
20
Luna, Encarnación/62
Luna, ? Cordelia/37
Luna, Ruben Jose/16
Luna, Jose Gregorio/4
head
daughter
grandson/herder
grandson
137/137
Mar. 1838
Jun. 1862
Nov. 1883
Nov. 1895
NM
"
"
"
widow
widow
Maez, Casimiro/65
Maez, Guadalupe/60
Maez, Adolfo/24
Maez, Jesus María/20
Maez, Vicenta/17
Maez, Felima/12
head/day farm
wife
son/sheepherder
son/sheepherder
daughter
daughter
141/141
Mar. 1835
Dec. 1840
Aug. 1876
Sep. 1879
Dec. 1882
Nov. 1887
NM
"
"
"
"
"
36
36
Martin, Eugenio/48
Martin, Cleofas/35
Martin, Patrocinio S./13
Martin, Adelina/10
Martin, Antonío María/6
Martin, Carolina/3
Martin, Jose Benino/6 mos.
head/sheepherder
wife
son/sheepherder
daughter
son
daughter
son
154/154
Feb. 1852
Feb. 1865
Nov. 1886
May 1890
Aug. 1893
Aug. 1896
Oct. 1900
NM
"
"
"
"
"
"
31
31
Martinez, Jose/37
Martinez, Petra/16
Martinez, Donaciano/8
head/ not listed
wife
boarder? cousin
123/123
Nov. 1862
Apr. 1882
Jan. 1892
NM
"
"
2
2
Martinez, Santiago/52
Martinez, María Salome/42
Martinez, Rita/34
head/farm
wife
daughter
adopting?/servant
(Indian)
131/131
Jul. 1847
Jul. 1857
Nov. 1865
NM
"
"`
29
29
Miera, Epifanio/43
Miera, Filomena/34
Miera, Jose de Jesus/18
Miera, Celeá/12
Sara/5
day farm/head
wife
sheepherder/son
daughter
daughter
124/124
Feb. 1857
June. 1865
Apr. 1882
Jun 1886
Mar 1895
NM
"
"
"
"
21
21
52
Head of Household/Age
Family Members/Age (1900 Rio Nutrias)
Occupation/
Relationship
House#/
Family#
Date of Birth
Birthplace
No. of Years
Married
Miera, Macleofio/38
Miera, Eulalia?/35
Miera, Sofia/9
Miera, Vicenta/4
Miera, Lisardo/3
Miera, Eginia/11 mos.
head/day laborer
wife
daughter/goatherd
daughter
son
daughter
149/149
Jul. 1861
Apr. 1865
Nov. 1880
Dec. 1885
Nov. 1887
June 1889
NM
"
"
"
"
"
16
16
Montaño, Felipe/45
Montaño, Juanita/37
Montaño, Onofre/14
head/sheepherder
wife
daughter/at school
142/142
Apr. 1855
Jun. 1862
Jul. 1885
NM
"
"
21
21
Montaño, Isaac/43
Atencio, Juan/18
Montaño, Justiniano/21
Montaño, Victoriano/11
day farm/head
cattle herder/son
cattle herder/son
cattle herder/son
120/120
Feb. 1857
Jun 1881
Jul. 1878
Jun 1888
NM
"
"
"
Widow
Montaño, Jose Filadelfio/29
Montaño, Bersabe/24
Montaño, Juan/3 mos.
head/sheepherder
wife
son
136/136
Oct. 1870
Jan. 1875
Feb. 1900
NM
"
"
5
5
Montaño, Vicente/51
Montaño, Carlota/44
Montaño, Evaristo/24
Montaño, María Encarnacion/16
Montaño, Josefa/5
Montaño, Geronimo/17
head/day farm
wife
son/sheepherder
daughter/at school
135/135
Nov. 1848
Oct. 1855
Dec. 1875
Nov. 1883
Sep. 1894
?
Jul. 1882
NM
"
"
"
"
"
"
29
29
Quintana, Eduardo/32
Quintana, Marselina/31
Quintana, Luciano/1
head/day laborer
wife
son
153/153
Aug. 1868
Aug 1898
"
NM
"
"
married
married
Salazar, Donaciano/51
Salazar, Marina/46
Salazar, Moises/16
Salazar, Senaida/12
farm laborer/head
wife
sheepherder/son
daughter
118/118
Aug. 1848
May 1854
Jan. 1884
Dec. 1887
NM
"
"
"
30
30
Salazar, Jose P./21
Salazar, María Antonia/50
Salazar, Mercedes/6
head/day laborer
mother
daughter
127/127
Jun. 1878
May? 1850
June 1893
NM
"
"
single
widow
Salazar, Patalco/32
Salazar, María Juanita/21
Salazar, Sipriano/3
Salazar, Eginia/8
Salazar, Sabino/5
head/sheepherder
wife
son
cousin
cousin
151/151
Jun. 1867
Jul. 1879
Jan. 1897
May 1892
May 1895
NM
"
"
"
"
6
6
Sanchez, Manuel/65
Sanchez, Preciliana/39
Sanchez, Jose/16
Sanchez, María de la Luz/12
Sanchez, Rafela/5
head/day farm
wife
son/sheepherder
daughter
daughter
156/156
May 1835
Jul. 1860
Apr. 1884
June 1887
Jul. 1895
NM
"
"
"
"
20
20
daughter
servant (Indian)
53
Head of Household/Age
Family Members/Age (1900 Rio Nutrias)
Occupation/
Relationship
House#/
Family#
Date of Birth
Birthplace
No. of Years
Married
Serna, Leandro/45
Serna, Pulas/39
Serna, Leonor/15
Serna, Carpio/10
Serna, Belarnino/4
head/blacksmith
wife
daughter/at school
son/goat herder
son
143/143
Apr. 1855
Jul 1860
Apr. 1885
--1890
--1896
NM
"
"
"
"
20
20
Tafoya, David/49
Tafoya, Asencion/41
Tafoya, Ramon/24
Tafoya, Juliana/4
head/farm
wife
son/sheepherder
daughter
125/125
Feb. 1851
May 1859
Jan. 1876
Aug. 1895
NM
"
"
"
14
14
Ulibarri, Jose Ignacio/71
Ulibarri, Pelegrina/60
Ulibarri, María Teodora/29
head/day laborer
wife
daughter
132/132
Feb 1829
May 1840
Nov 1870
NM
"
"
47
47
Single
Ulibarri, Jose Leon/24
Ulibarri, Rosendo/2
Ulibarri, Jose Onesimo/4 mos.
head/sheepherder
son
son
133/133
Jul. 1875
May 1898
Jan. 1900
NM
"
"
7?
Ulibarri, Jose/31
Ulibarri, Tifania/14
head/sheepherder
wife
134/134
Apr. 1869
Dec. 1885
NM
"
1
1
Ulibarri, Prudencio/45
Ulibarri, Filomena/35
Ulibarri, Florentina/16
Ulibarri, Juan Antonio/11
Ulibarri, Victoriano/9
Ulibarri, Severiano ? Reyes/3
Ulibarri, Cleotilde/not yet 1 mo.
head/farm
wife
daughter/at school
son/at school
son/at school
son
daughter
140/140
Apr. 1855
May 1865
Oct. 1882
Jun 1886
Jul. 1891
Dec. 1896
Jun. 1900
NM
"
"
"
"
"
"
19
19
Valdez, Pacomio/26
Valdez, Gregoria/22
Valdez, Aleja/10/12
head/sheepherder
wife
daughter
147/147
Sep. 1873
Mar. 1878
Jul. 1899
NM
"
"
2
2
Valdez, Prudencio/47
Valdez, Beneranda/39
Valdez, Doroteo/14
Valdez, Furgencia/10
Valdez, Eufemia/7
Valdez, Fernandez/5
Valdez, David/1
Valdez, Benerandia/1 mo.
Lovato, Jesus/59
head/farm
wife
son/sheepherder
daughter/at school
daughter
son
son
daughter
servant (white)
138/138
Nov. 1852
Jun. 1860
Mar. 1885
Jan 1890
Mar. 1893
Mar. 1895
Jun. 1898
Apr. 1900
Oct. 1840
NM
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
20
20
Valdez, Ramon/43
Valdez, Anastacia/41
head/sheepherder
wife
148/148
Jun. 1856
Apr. 1859
NM
"
20
20
Valdez, Victor/46
Valdez, Arcadia V./29
Valdez, Onofre/24
Valdez, Gonzalo/14
Valdez, Leonor/12
Valdez, María Encarnacion/9
Valdez, María Agustina/7
head/day farmer
wife
daughter
son/at school
daughter/at school
daughter
daughter
146/146
Mar. 1854
Dec. 1860
Apr. 1876
Dec. 1885
Feb. 1888
Jun. 1890
Aug. 1892
NM
"
"
"
"
"
"
26
26
54
Head of Household/Age
Family Members/Age (1900 Rio Nutrias)
Occupation/
Relationship
House#/
Family#
Date of Birth
Birthplace
No. of Years
Married
Velarde, Francisco/28
Velarde, Adelaida/17
head/day laborer
wife
126/126
June 1871
Feb. 1882
NM
"
0
0
Velasquez, José Guadalupe/24
Velasquez, Demetria/24
Arny, W. E./53
day laborer/head
wife
boarder
119/119
Dec. 1875
Dec. 1878
Jul. 1846
NM
"
WV
8/12
8/12
widow
55
Appendix E – Chronology
Date
1713
The Ute/Comanche alliance, which began in the early 1700s, was successful
in driving the Navajo out of the Rio Chama watershed/Piedra Lumbre area
for the next 35 years. The Navajo withdrew to their homeland until 1848.
1724
First grant in the Abiquiú area made by Governor Juan Domingo de Mendoza
to Cristóbal Torres (SANM I: 943 and 944).
1726-27
Cristóbal Torres died and his heirs attempt to settle on the grant.
1731
Diego Torres asks Governor Cruzat y Gongora to order settlers to take
possession of their tracts of land within the Cristobal Torres grant or forfeit
their interests in the grant (SANM I: 950).
1733
Governor Gervasio Cruzat y Góngora notified the heirs of Cristóbal Torres to
resettle on the grant; when they do not resettle, the governor declared the
grant abandoned and the land became public domain (SANM I: 943).
1735
Jeronimo Martín, owner of a revoked grant, was ordered to stop building his
house or pay a 100-peso fine (SANM I: 524).
1735
Six grants in the Abiquiú and El Rito areas made by acting Governor Páez
Hurtado during the absence of Governor Cruzat y Góngora were revoked by
Cruzat on his return from El Paso. 1) Juan Estévan García de Noriega,
SANM I: 320; 2) Manuel García de las Rivas, SANM I: 322; Geronimo and
Ignacio Martín, et al., SANM I: 518; Geronimo Martín, SANM I: 524; José
Antonio de Torres, SANM I: 955; Antonio Ulibarrí, SANM I: 1022.
1746
October 26
Viceroy Horcasitas orders Governor Codallos y Rabal to put into effect the
provisions recommended by the Auditor General of War for dealing with the
attacks by the Comanche. The Comanche are a threat because they are so
disciplined, numerous, and brave, that they instill fear in the Spaniards.
The Comanche are proud of their triumphs over the Spaniards and Pueblos
and are willing to lose 100 Comanche in order to kill one Spaniard. The
Comanche attack the pueblos as well, though they used to trade with them.
The Auditor General recommends that the governor try to make peace with
the Comanche through an exchange of captives, but if that does not work,
they should be attacked after reading them the Requerimiento, and if
necessary, exterminated. The Spaniards need to instill fear in the Comanche
to reverse the present situation where the Spaniards consider the Comanche
"a most intimidating and feared nation . . . because of [their many]
atrocities."
1747
August
The Utes and some Comanches attack Abiquiú taking 23 women and
children captive. The Spaniards thought the Ute were responsible so
attacked a rancheria of 100 Ute tipis. The Ute struck back at Santa Cruz de
la Cañada (Schroeder, Brief History, 59).
1747
October
Codallos y Rabal leads an attack against the Ute and Comanche beyond
Abiquiú, killing 107, capturing 206, and taking 1,000 horses.
1748
Settlers at Abiquiú, Ojo Caliente, and Cordova seek permission to withdraw
from their settlements because of Indian raids. Codallos y Rabal grant
permission "for the time being" (SANM I: 28).
56
1750
February
Governor Vélez Cachupín is ordered by the viceroy to resettle the
communities of Abiquiú, Embudo, and other abandoned communities
northwest of Abiquiú (SANM I: 1098). Vélez Cachupín orders that Abiquiú be
resettled "in order to plant during the coming spring." Settlers are to resettle
on their old lands and those who refuse to settle will lose their lands (SANM
I: 1100).
1750
Abiquiú is resettled under order by Governor Vélez Cachupín. Alcalde Juan
José Lobato brought the settlers together at Santa Rosa de Lima and allotted
them house lots around a plaza 135 varas on each side. The Genízaros who
had already been living at Abiquiú were assigned to Miguel Montoyas's house
temporarily.
1751
March
Governor Vélez Cachupín ordered that the Ojo Caliente settlers return to
their lands and resettle the community.
1752
January
Governor Vélez Cachupín again ordered that Ojo Caliente be resettled. Those
refusing to go were to lose their lands under the governor's decree.
1752
March
Alcalde Juan José Lovato resettled nine heads of family at Ojo Caliente and
rendered a formal decree of resettlement.
1820s
late
Former enemies, the Capote Ute and Navajo make peace and begin to raid
NM settlements instead of fighting each other.
1827 & 1829
Navajo raids on Abiquiú region.
1844
Navajo raid on Ojo Caliente.
1844
Governor Mariano Martínez kills a Ute in the Governor's Palace during an
official parley and other Utes are attacked; feeling betrayed, the Capote Ute
attack NM settlements.
1845
José María Chávez is named by Prefect Juan Andrés Archuleta to lead a
retaliatory raid against the Utes. Chavez is assigned 812 militia from the Rio
Arriba and 118 men from the Rio Abajo, together with about 80 troops from
the Santa Fe presido. Captured because the general and his troops managed
to drive the Ute north of the Arkansas River, the boundary between the
United States and Mexico, and Chavez was not allowed to cross the
Arkansas into the U.S.
1850
Ute Agency established at Abiquiú to issue supplies to the Capote Ute and
deal with complaints about Ute depredations.
1852
Ute raid on Abiquiú with loss of stock by citizens.
1852
Fort Massachusetts established, later called Fort Garland and moved a few
miles north.
1855
Some Ute attacks are caused by unprovoked attacks on them by Hispanos,
such as one near Ojo Caliente led by Francisco Gallego and Quirino Maez.
1855
spring
The Utes tell Indian Agent Lorenzo Labadi that they do not want to settle on
a reservation and become farmers because occupations other than hunting
were "unworthy of them."
1856
April 30
Jesús María Velasquez, Juez de Paz at Conejos, reports to Indian Agent Kit
Carson that he inspected a trading party headed by Pedro Leon Lujan near
the Rio de la Jara and found 69 lbs. of lead bullets, 53 1/2 lbs. of powder,
and 27 small boxes of liquor (fermanantes). Other members of the party
included Tomás Chacón and Juan de Dios Montoya.
57
1857
late summer
Indian Agents worry that game such as elk and deer are diminishing and
that the Ute can no longer sustain themselves through hunting.
1858
Gold rush in Colorado due to discovery near Denver brings in 100,000
immigrants.
1860-61
Another gold discovery in southwest Colorado brings more immigrants and
helps establish settlements in San Luis Valley along the Rio Culebra and in
Tierra Amarilla communities.
1861
Indian Agency established at Conejos under Agent Lafayette Head for the
Tabequche Ute.
1866
The Wiminuche Ute are said to number 1200, the Paiute about 1500, the
Navajo about 800, totaling 3500, have been joined by the Green River Ute
driven out of Utah by the Mormons or the troops. It is feared that they will
attack the Tierra Amarilla settlements and destroy them. The Capote Ute
numbering between 600-700 are at peace with the whites, but are
discontented and could also make war on the settlers, as the Jicarilla
Apache have been advising them to do.
1866
December
The Ute give as a reason for not moving to a reservation that "they are
necessary" to protect the frontier against the Navajo.
1866
January
The Paiutes, Capote Utes, and the Wiminuche hatch a plan with the
Hispanic citizens to go to the Rio San Juan in Navajo County and send word
to the Navajo at Hopi to come to them in peace, but then the allied Ute and
Hispanic citizens would destroy them. The Ute chief, Cabeza Blanca, was
against the plan and when a fight broke out in which Cabesa Blanca was
killed, the Capote fled to the settlements around TA.
With two sons of Cabesa Blanca they attacked the TA settlements, killing
three herders, wounding the daughter of Alcalde Martínez, and stealing
stock from Henry Mercure, T. D. Burns, Santos Samora, and Jesús Cardura.
1866
January 27
Some of the principal citizens of TA ("quite a flourishing settlement NW of
Abiquiú") petition for military protection against the Ute who inhabit the
neighboring country.
1866
July 29
Citizens from Tierra Amarilla report that 1200 hungry Utes were committing
depredations on their herds and turning their horses in upon crops of the
Hispanic citizens. Superintendent of Indian Affairs, A.B. Norten ordered that
200 sheep and 100 lbs. of tobacco be purchased and distributed among the
Ute. In addition, they were given ammunition and encouraged to hunt for
their own subsistence.
1866
October
As a result of a clash between the Buffalo Soldiers and the Ute, twelve Ute
were killed. W.F.M. Arny fears that this will lead to a war with the Utes. The
Ute killed were Moache under the leadership of Kaneatche. Col. [José María]
Chavez and Arny are going to ride into the mountains to find Kaneatche to
talk with him.
1870
A census taken by William F. M. Arny enumerated 365 Capote Ute in New
Mexico under the leadership of Sobita.
1870
October
T. D. Burns and Jesús María Cordova of Tierra Amarilla submit claims to
the U. S. for cattle killed by Capote Ute.
58
1871
February
Indian Agent J. B. Hanson reports that the residence of the Agent at Abiquiú
and an adjacent storehouse and one half acre of land is leased for $200 per
year from José Pablo Gallegos of Abiquiú and there is no available
agricultural land at Abiquiú for the Ute to farm. Abiquiú is not the best
place to establish the Ute permanently for the land for forty miles around
Abiquiú is settled and farmed by Hispanos.
1871
January
Indian Agent Wm. F. M. Arny reports that the Navajo interpreter, Thomas
Kearns, stated that the Navajo will run out of beef in two days and will steal
from the US citizens, or will kill their own sheep and goats before they will
starve. Under the peace treaty, they were given 15,000 sheep and goats, "to
manufacture blankets and clothing." Their farming during the last season
was not completely successful for though "they worked hard and steady . . .
late frosts killed their crops, but this will not feed the whole nation."
1872
April
Tomás Chacón pursued a band of Capote and Weemenuche Ute who had
stolen and killed Hispanic livestock. When he overtook them, they admitted
that they had stolen horses which they would return when they got back
from the Green River. When Chacón asked them why they killed cattle and
did not use them, the Ute told him to leave without offering him "the
hospitalities of the camp."
1872
May
Battle of Tierra Amarilla. Few if any casualties, but was the turning point in
the U.S. effort to move the Ute from the Rio Arriba area to their Southern
Colorado reservation.
1872
September
Ute Agency moved from Abiquiú to Tierra Amarilla.
1878
June
The last of the Ute at Tierra Amarilla move to the Ute Agency at Los Pinos.
1881
The Jicarilla Apache move from Tierra Amarilla to their reservation at
Amargo (near present-day Dulce).
59
Appendix F – Bibliography
Chappell, Gordon S. Logging Along the Denver and Rio Grande. Golden, Colorado:
Colorado Railroad Museum, 1971.
Ebright, Malcolm. Land Grants and Lawsuits in Northern New Mexico. Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press, 1994; Santa Fe: Center for Land Grant Studies Press,
2008.
__________. The Tierra Amarilla Grant: A History of Chicanery. Santa Fe: Center for
Land Grant Studies Press, 1980.
Fratello, Edward M. “Economic Factors in the Early Settlement of the Tierra Amarilla
Grant.” Unpublished manuscript in possession of the author.
Knowlton, Clark S. “Flood Control and Reclamation Projects: Curse or Blessing to the
Rural Spanish-Speaking People of the Middle Rio Grande Valley?” Center for Land
Grant Studies Research Paper.
Leithausen, Jennifer. “Lumber Barons and Timber Pirates.”
http://www.animasmuseum.org/Lumber%20Barons.html
Mausolf, Lisa. “McPhee, Colorado, A 20th Century Lumber Company Town.” In The
River of Sorrows: The History of the Lower Dolores River Valley edited by Gregory D.
Kendrick. Rocky Mountain Regional Office: U.S. Department of the Interior, National
Park Service, 1981.
Northwest New Mexican. Newspaper published in Chama, issues published in 1890s,
Amador Collection, Special Collections, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.
Torrez, Robert J. “El Campo Forgotten Sentinel of the Tierra Amarilla.” Unpublished
manuscript in possession of the author.
______________. El Primer Siglo: A Centennial History of San José Parish, 1883-1983.
Los Ojos, NM: The San José Parish Council, 1983.
______________. “A History of the Tierra Amarilla to 1880.” Unpublished manuscript in
possession of the author.
______________. “The Southern Utes’ Last Stand in New Mexico.” Old West (Winter
1996): 16-21.
______________. “A Report: State Owned Lands Within New Mexico’s Community Land
Grants,” submitted in fulfillment of Professional Services Contract 06-369-0222-0006,
June 30, 2006.
______________. “The Tierra Amarilla Land Grant: A Case Study in the Editing of Land
Grant Documents.” Southwest Heritage 13 (Fall 1983 & Winter 1984), 2-4.
______________. “Worthy the Pen and Brush of Poet and Painter: A Chicago Colony in
Northern New Mexico.” Center for Land Grant Studies Research Paper.
Westphall, Victor. Thomas Benton Catron and His Era. Tucson: University of Arizona
Press, 1973, 39-46.
Wilson, Chris and David Kammer. Community and Continuity: The History, Architecture
and Cultural Landscape of La Tierra Amarilla. Santa Fe: New Mexico Historic
Preservation Division, 1989.
Young, John V. The State Parks of New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico
Press, 1984.
60
Appendix G – Map of El Vado Lake State Park, El Vado
Reservoir area, and land included in abstract.
61