Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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in the territory. In 1848, the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo officially transferred
title of New Mexico, along with Texas,
Arizona, and California, to the United
States.
Kearny promised that the United States
would respect religion and property rights
and would safeguard homes and posses-
sions from hostile Indians. His troops
behaved with rigid decorum. The United
States upheld Spanish policy toward the
Pueblos, assuring the survival of their
ancestral lands, their traditional culture,
and their old religion—which even 3 cen-
turies of Hispanic Catholicism could not
do away with.
Meanwhile, on a broad valley of what is
now southeastern Nevada, Spanish explor-
ers found a new route to Los Angeles.
Named Las Vegas (the meadows), the
place had abundant wild grasses and plen-
tiful water. It was also the home to the
Paiute Indians. With hopes of teaching the
Paiute to farm, in 1855, Brigham Young
assigned 30 Mormon missionaries to build
a fort in the valley. It was raided and left in
ruins just a few years later, but a precedent
was established. By the 1880s, precious
minerals had been found, bringing miners
to the area. And the land itself proved
fertile, attracting farmers. The phenome-
non that would become Las Vegas had
begun.
THE CIVIL WAR As conflict between
the North and South flared east of the
Mississippi, the Southwest found itself
caught in the debate over slavery. South-
erners wanted to expand slavery to the
western territories, but abolitionists fought
a bitter campaign to prevent that from
happening. In 1861, the Confederacy,
after seceding from the Union, laid plans
to make the region its own as a first step
toward capturing the West.
In fact, southern New Mexicans, includ-
ing those in Tucson (Arizona was still part
of the New Mexico Territory), were disen-
chanted with the attention paid them by
Santa Fe and already were threatening to
form their own state. So when Confeder-
ate Lt. Col. John Baylor captured Fort
Fillmore, near Mesilla, and on August 1,
1861, proclaimed all of New Mexico
south of the 34th parallel to be the new
territory of Arizona, there were few com-
plaints.
The following year, Confederate Gen.
Henry Sibley assembled three regiments of
2,600 Texans and moved up the Rio
Grande. They defeated Union loyalists in
a bloody battle at Valverde, near Socorro;
easily took Albuquerque and Santa Fe,
which were protected only by small garri-
sons; and proceeded toward the federal
arsenal at Fort Union, 90 miles east of
Santa Fe. Sibley planned to replenish his
supplies there before continuing north to
Colorado, then west to California.
On March 27 and 28, 1862, the Con-
federates were met head-on in Glorieta
Pass, about 16 miles outside Santa Fe, by
regular troops from Fort Union supported
by a regiment of Colorado Volunteers. By
the second day, the rebels were in control,
until a detachment of Coloradoans circled
behind the Confederate troops and
destroyed their poorly defended supply
train. Sibley was forced into a rapid retreat
back down the Rio Grande. A few months
later, Mesilla was reclaimed for the Union,
and the Confederate presence in the New
Mexico Territory ended.
THE LAND WARS The various tribes
had not missed the fact that whites were
fighting among themselves, and they took
advantage of this weakness to step up their
raids on border settlements. As retaliation,
in 1864, the government interned the
Navajo; in what is known in tribal history
as “The Long Walk,” they were relocated
to the new Bosque Redondo Reservation
on the Pecos River at Fort Sumner, in east-
central New Mexico. Militia Col. Kit
Carson led New Mexico troops in this
venture, and was a moderating influence
between the Navajo and those who called
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