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

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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 Lazlo-

Henry, 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.

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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.

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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.

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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

7 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. 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).

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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.

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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.

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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

Pueblo of Santo Tomás de Abqiuiú.17 By 1793 the population of the Abiquiú

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; Poling-Kempes, 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.

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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 nineteenth-

century 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 twenty-

eight 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 seventy-

six 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. "New Mexican [is] 101 Years Old," Sánchez, Forging the Old Spanish Trail, 114. 51 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

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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.”

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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-of-

way 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 Dominguez-

Escalante 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).

84 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).

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. 86 “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.

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

87 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. 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 1903-

1923?

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 (314-

38

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. A concrete boat-

launching pad is available. 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 Administration

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 Salazar, Sabino/S

Valdez, Salvador/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 (2 pieces)

1864 4 Jul.

Velasquez, María Pabla

1874 14 Dec.

4: 240-241

Trujillo, Dorotea/N Naranjo, Diego/N

García, Marcelino/S Archuleta, José Antonio/S

Cañones (2 pieces)

1863 25 Aug.

Valdez, Rumaldo 1864 19 May

2: 530-531

Martín, Juan/E Naranjo, Diego/E

Gallegos, Maríano/W Plaza/W

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, Nepómuceno/N

Vigil, María 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: 156- 157

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 21 May

2: 10-12 Juan Lente / N Meliton Valdez/S

Ensenada 1863 9 Sep.

Valdez, Manuel 1877 3April

4: 424/25

Meliton Valdez/N

Juan Ignacio Trujillo/S

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, José Cicilio [Cirilio]

1864 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, Antonio José/N

Martinez, 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 2 pieces

1864 2 Jul.

Martínez, Antonio José

1864 12 Jul.

2: 89-91

Martinez, Francisco/N Tierras de los herederos/N

Martinez, Francisco/S Martín y Sánchez, Francisco/S

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 57.93 Chama Valley 508.71 Cañones 1517.4 Plaza de Brazos 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 91.4 Total 14515.5

50

Appendix D – 1900 Rio Nutrias Census

Head of Household/Age Family Members/Age (1900 Rio Nutrias)

Occupation/ Relationship

House#/ Family#

Date of Birth Birth-place

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 son/sheepherder daughter/at school boarder/day laborer

150/150 Feb 1851 Mar. 1884 May 1889 Feb. 1855

NM " " "

widow 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 widow

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

51

Head of Household/Age Family Members/Age (1900 Rio Nutrias)

Occupation/ Relationship

House#/ Family#

Date of Birth Birth-place

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 Birth-place

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 daughter servant (Indian)

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

53

Head of Household/Age Family Members/Age (1900 Rio Nutrias)

Occupation/ Relationship

House#/ Family#

Date of Birth Birth-place

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 Birth-place

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