La Junta Indians
Encyclopedia
La Junta Indians is a collective name for the Indians living near the junction (la junta) of the Rio Grande and Conchos rivers on the borders of present day Texas
and Mexico
. These people were first visited by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
in 1535. In the eighteenth century they mostly lost their tribal identifications and became part of the mestizo
population of Mexico or joined other Indian groups.
and Ojinaga, Mexico. The Conchos is more than twice as large as the Rio Grande although below their junction their combined waters are called the Rio Grande. The area was named “La Junta” by Spanish explorers. A mile-wide floodplain extends from La Junta 35 miles upstream to Ruidosa and 18 miles downstream to Redford on the Rio Grande and 30 miles up the Rio Conchos to Cuchillo Parado. The floodplain supports a thick growth of reeds, mesquite, willows, and groves of cottonwood trees.
Above this floodplain two terraces rise 20 and 60 feet above the river. Only desert vegetation grows on the terraces. The La Junta Indians lived on the terraces and utilized the flood plain below for agriculture, fishing, hunting, and gathering wild foods. Rugged mountains ring the river valley and terraces.
La Junta is near the center of the Chihuahua Desert and receives an average of 10.8 inches (270 mm) of precipitation annually. Lengthy droughts are common. Summers are very hot and winters are mild although freezes are frequent.
A theory by archaeologists has been that La Junta was an expansion southeastward of the Jornada Mogollon culture and people who lived around El Paso, Texas
, 200 miles up the Rio Grande. La Junta was also believed to have been influenced by Casas Grandes
, an impressive Indian civilization 200 miles west in present day Mexico.
Recent research however indicates that the people of La Junta may not have been a colony of the Jornada Mogollon, but rather indigenous to the area. Between 1450 and 1500 many of the Jornada Mogollon settlements in western Texas were abandoned, possibly because of drought that made agriculture infeasible. The inhabitants possibly reverted to a hunter-gatherer culture that has left few traces in the archaeological record. However, the settlements at La Junta apparently survived, although changes in the types of dwellings occurred and distinctive, locally-produced pottery became common—or more common.
Architectural styles of houses and mortuary practices differ from the Mogollon. Most of the pottery at La Junta from pre-historic times is Jornada Mogollon but seems to have been imported rather than locally produced. La Junta eventually produced its own distinct style of pottery, although perhaps not until about 1500 A.D. Thus, the La Junta people, although influenced by the Mogollon culture, may have been a different linguistic and ethnic group.
An unexpected finding from research on bones and teeth indicates that the La Junta people continued to be heavily dependent on hunting and gathering even after they became settled villagers and adopted agriculture. The La Junta people depended upon maize for less than 25 percent of their subsistence.
The linguistic identification of the La Junta people has not been possible as little of their language, or languages, has been preserved. The most common guess is that they spoke Uto-Aztecan although Kiowa–Tanoan and Athapaskan (Apache
) have also been suggested. As the La Junta people lived at a crossroads in the desert it is possible that they were of mixed ethnic groups and spoke more than one language. For example, it is speculated that the nomadic Jumano
, who were frequent visitors, and perhaps part-time residents, at La Junta were ethnically different from the villagers.
A population of 3,000 or 4,000 people at La Junta seems a reasonable estimate given the limited amount of land suitable for agriculture and the austere environment for hunting and gathering. However, the Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo
estimated a population of more than 10,000 at La Junta and a modern scholar has calculated that the resources available were adequate for a population of that size The population probably varied as many of the Indians were semi-nomadic, residing in their villages only part of the year and the rest on hunting and gathering expeditions. A wide variety of names were given by the Spanish to the Indians of La Junta, including Amotomancos, Otomoacos, Abriaches, Julimes, and Patarabueyes. They were often collectively called Jumanos, although that name may more properly apply to the nomadic buffalo
hunters who also frequented La Junta.
The Spanish castaway Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca probably passed through or near La Junta in 1535. He told of encountering “the people of the cows” and said they were “people with the best bodies that we saw and the greatest liveliness.” These were likely the Jumanos, buffalo-hunting Indians who lived further north and east along the Pecos
and Concho
Rivers and traded and wintered in the La Junta region. Cabeza de Vaca described the area as well populated and agricultural, although with little good land. The Indians had not planted corn for the previous two years because of drought. Of particular interest was Cabeza de Vaca’s comment that they cooked their food by boiling it with hot stones. This implies they did not use pottery – which strengthens the view that the Indians he met were nomadic as pottery is too heavy to be carried and utilized extensively by nomads. (Horses were not yet in use by Indians.)
In the 1580s, two small expeditions of Spaniards passed through La Junta: the Chamuscado and Rodriguez and Antonio de Espejo
. They reported that the men were “handsome” and the women “beautiful,” although “naked and barbarous people.” The Indians lived in low, flat-roofed houses, grew corn, squash and beans, and hunted and fished along the river. They gave the Spaniards well-tanned deer and buffalo skins. Their description of La Junta indicated a more settled agricultural people than described by Cabeza de Vaca fifty years earlier.
The houses at La Junta resembled “those of the Mexicans…The natives built them square. They put up forked posts and those they place rounded timbers the thickness of a man’s thigh. Then they add stakes and plaster them with mud. Close to the houses they have granaries built of willow…where they keep their provisions and harvest of mesquite and other things.” This type of house is called a jacal
. The floors of the houses were usually about 18 inches below ground level. Their towns, built on terraces above the river, had populations estimated to be about 600. The people grew crops on the floodplains below, apparently not practicing true irrigation, but instead planting in areas moistened by overflow from the rivers or near ephemeral streams. Agricultural under such circumstances is risky and wild foods which could be gathered such as mesquite, prickly-pears, and agaves were important. Catfish were an important part of the diet. Some of the La Junta Indians journeyed to the Great Plains
150 or more miles northeast to hunt buffalo or traded for buffalo meat with the nomadic Jumanos.
The Spaniards found the Rio Grande Valley well-populated all the way north to present-day El Paso, Texas
. Beyond there they saw no people until they encountered the Pueblo
settlements fifteen days travel up the river from El Paso. The Indians they encountered along the river above La Junta included the peoples later called the Suma
and Manso Indians
who seem to have been less agricultural and more nomadic than the La Junta Indians.
Warfare between La Junta Indians and their neighbors seemed common. Spanish explorers described composite bows strengthened with buffalo sinews and ‘’excellent shields’’ of buffalo hide.
It is likely that soon after – or perhaps even before—these two expeditions Spanish slavers began raiding La Junta from the south and Apache
Indians began raiding from the north. Many La Junta Indians, willingly or unwillingly, journeyed to Parral, Chihuahua
to work in the silver mines there.
A Jumano Indian, Juan Sabeata
, re-ignited Spanish interest in La Junta in 1683. He appealed to the governor in El Paso to send priests to La Junta as the Indians there were desirous of becoming Christian. Sabeata also appealed to the Spanish to assist the Indians in defending themselves against Apaches. Four priests and several soldiers shortly moved to La Junta. The Indians had already built thatched-roof churches for them. The Spanish appointed Sabeata Governor and La Junta became temporarily prominent as a regional trade center. However, Sabeata was unable to enlist Spanish assistance to combat the Apaches.
In 1689, the Indians all over northern Mexico revolted to protest the continuing slave trade and the missions in La Junta were closed. Several attempts to reestablish a Spanish presence at La Junta failed until finally in 1760 a fort and mission were established. However, by this time the La Junta Indians were much reduced in numbers and many of the survivors soon left the area, discouraged by the harshness of Spanish rule and the continuing raids of Apaches and a new threat, the Comanche
. The La Junta Indians dispersed to the silver mines of Parral, intermarried with Spanish soldiers, or joined their former enemies, the Apache and the Comanche.
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. These people were first visited by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was a Spanish explorer of the New World, one of four survivors of the Narváez expedition...
in 1535. In the eighteenth century they mostly lost their tribal identifications and became part of the mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
population of Mexico or joined other Indian groups.
Setting
The Rio Grande and Conchos rivers unite near the present day cities of Presidio, TexasPresidio, Texas
Presidio is a city in Presidio County, Texas, United States. It stands on the Rio Grande , on the opposite side of the U.S.-Mexico border from Ojinaga, Chihuahua. The population was 4,167 at the 2000 census....
and Ojinaga, Mexico. The Conchos is more than twice as large as the Rio Grande although below their junction their combined waters are called the Rio Grande. The area was named “La Junta” by Spanish explorers. A mile-wide floodplain extends from La Junta 35 miles upstream to Ruidosa and 18 miles downstream to Redford on the Rio Grande and 30 miles up the Rio Conchos to Cuchillo Parado. The floodplain supports a thick growth of reeds, mesquite, willows, and groves of cottonwood trees.
Above this floodplain two terraces rise 20 and 60 feet above the river. Only desert vegetation grows on the terraces. The La Junta Indians lived on the terraces and utilized the flood plain below for agriculture, fishing, hunting, and gathering wild foods. Rugged mountains ring the river valley and terraces.
La Junta is near the center of the Chihuahua Desert and receives an average of 10.8 inches (270 mm) of precipitation annually. Lengthy droughts are common. Summers are very hot and winters are mild although freezes are frequent.
Prehistory
The abundant water, plant, and animal life has attracted Indians to the La Junta region for thousands of years. Village life with agriculture supplementing traditional hunting and gathering began by 1200 A.D.A theory by archaeologists has been that La Junta was an expansion southeastward of the Jornada Mogollon culture and people who lived around El Paso, Texas
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
, 200 miles up the Rio Grande. La Junta was also believed to have been influenced by Casas Grandes
Casas Grandes
Casas Grandes is the contemporary name given to a pre-Columbian archaeological zone and its central site, located in northwestern Mexico in the modern-day Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is one of the largest and most complex sites in the region...
, an impressive Indian civilization 200 miles west in present day Mexico.
Recent research however indicates that the people of La Junta may not have been a colony of the Jornada Mogollon, but rather indigenous to the area. Between 1450 and 1500 many of the Jornada Mogollon settlements in western Texas were abandoned, possibly because of drought that made agriculture infeasible. The inhabitants possibly reverted to a hunter-gatherer culture that has left few traces in the archaeological record. However, the settlements at La Junta apparently survived, although changes in the types of dwellings occurred and distinctive, locally-produced pottery became common—or more common.
Architectural styles of houses and mortuary practices differ from the Mogollon. Most of the pottery at La Junta from pre-historic times is Jornada Mogollon but seems to have been imported rather than locally produced. La Junta eventually produced its own distinct style of pottery, although perhaps not until about 1500 A.D. Thus, the La Junta people, although influenced by the Mogollon culture, may have been a different linguistic and ethnic group.
An unexpected finding from research on bones and teeth indicates that the La Junta people continued to be heavily dependent on hunting and gathering even after they became settled villagers and adopted agriculture. The La Junta people depended upon maize for less than 25 percent of their subsistence.
The linguistic identification of the La Junta people has not been possible as little of their language, or languages, has been preserved. The most common guess is that they spoke Uto-Aztecan although Kiowa–Tanoan and Athapaskan (Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
) have also been suggested. As the La Junta people lived at a crossroads in the desert it is possible that they were of mixed ethnic groups and spoke more than one language. For example, it is speculated that the nomadic Jumano
Jumano Indians
The Jumano Indians were a prominent Native American tribe or several tribes who inhabited western Texas and adjacent New Mexico, especially near the La Junta region. They were discovered by Spanish explorers in the 16th century. but had nearly disappeared as a people by 1750.-The Jumano...
, who were frequent visitors, and perhaps part-time residents, at La Junta were ethnically different from the villagers.
A population of 3,000 or 4,000 people at La Junta seems a reasonable estimate given the limited amount of land suitable for agriculture and the austere environment for hunting and gathering. However, the Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo
Antonio de Espejo
Antonio de Espejo was a Spanish explorer who led an expedition into New Mexico and Arizona in 1582-1583. The expedition created interest in establishing a Spanish colony among the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande valley.-Life:...
estimated a population of more than 10,000 at La Junta and a modern scholar has calculated that the resources available were adequate for a population of that size The population probably varied as many of the Indians were semi-nomadic, residing in their villages only part of the year and the rest on hunting and gathering expeditions. A wide variety of names were given by the Spanish to the Indians of La Junta, including Amotomancos, Otomoacos, Abriaches, Julimes, and Patarabueyes. They were often collectively called Jumanos, although that name may more properly apply to the nomadic buffalo
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
hunters who also frequented La Junta.
Early Contacts with the Spanish
Pecos River
The headwaters of the Pecos River are located north of Pecos, New Mexico, United States, at an elevation of over 12,000 feet on the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Mora County. The river flows for through the eastern portion of that state and neighboring Texas before it...
and Concho
Concho River
The Concho River is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. It has three primary feeds: the North, Middle, and South Concho rivers. The North Concho River is the longest fork, starting in Howard County and traveling southeast for until merging with the South and Middle forks near Goodfellow Air...
Rivers and traded and wintered in the La Junta region. Cabeza de Vaca described the area as well populated and agricultural, although with little good land. The Indians had not planted corn for the previous two years because of drought. Of particular interest was Cabeza de Vaca’s comment that they cooked their food by boiling it with hot stones. This implies they did not use pottery – which strengthens the view that the Indians he met were nomadic as pottery is too heavy to be carried and utilized extensively by nomads. (Horses were not yet in use by Indians.)
In the 1580s, two small expeditions of Spaniards passed through La Junta: the Chamuscado and Rodriguez and Antonio de Espejo
Antonio de Espejo
Antonio de Espejo was a Spanish explorer who led an expedition into New Mexico and Arizona in 1582-1583. The expedition created interest in establishing a Spanish colony among the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande valley.-Life:...
. They reported that the men were “handsome” and the women “beautiful,” although “naked and barbarous people.” The Indians lived in low, flat-roofed houses, grew corn, squash and beans, and hunted and fished along the river. They gave the Spaniards well-tanned deer and buffalo skins. Their description of La Junta indicated a more settled agricultural people than described by Cabeza de Vaca fifty years earlier.
The houses at La Junta resembled “those of the Mexicans…The natives built them square. They put up forked posts and those they place rounded timbers the thickness of a man’s thigh. Then they add stakes and plaster them with mud. Close to the houses they have granaries built of willow…where they keep their provisions and harvest of mesquite and other things.” This type of house is called a jacal
Jacal
The jacal is an adobe style housing structure historically found throughout parts of the south-western United States and Mexico. The structure was employed by some Native people of the Americas prior to European colonization and was later employed by both Hispanic and Anglo settlers in Texas and...
. The floors of the houses were usually about 18 inches below ground level. Their towns, built on terraces above the river, had populations estimated to be about 600. The people grew crops on the floodplains below, apparently not practicing true irrigation, but instead planting in areas moistened by overflow from the rivers or near ephemeral streams. Agricultural under such circumstances is risky and wild foods which could be gathered such as mesquite, prickly-pears, and agaves were important. Catfish were an important part of the diet. Some of the La Junta Indians journeyed to the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
150 or more miles northeast to hunt buffalo or traded for buffalo meat with the nomadic Jumanos.
The Spaniards found the Rio Grande Valley well-populated all the way north to present-day El Paso, Texas
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
. Beyond there they saw no people until they encountered the Pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
settlements fifteen days travel up the river from El Paso. The Indians they encountered along the river above La Junta included the peoples later called the Suma
Suma-Jumano
The Suma and the Jumano were people in western Sonora and Trans-Pecos region of western Texas. The Suma was the western division and the Jumano were the eastern division.-History:...
and Manso Indians
Manso Indians
The Manso Indians are a indigenous people who lived along the Rio Grande, near El Paso, Texas from the 16th to the 18th century. Their descendants remain in the area to this day....
who seem to have been less agricultural and more nomadic than the La Junta Indians.
Warfare between La Junta Indians and their neighbors seemed common. Spanish explorers described composite bows strengthened with buffalo sinews and ‘’excellent shields’’ of buffalo hide.
It is likely that soon after – or perhaps even before—these two expeditions Spanish slavers began raiding La Junta from the south and Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
Indians began raiding from the north. Many La Junta Indians, willingly or unwillingly, journeyed to Parral, Chihuahua
Parral, Chihuahua
Hidalgo del Parral, is a city and seat of the municipality of Hidalgo del Parral in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is located in the southern part of the state, 220 km from the state capital, the city of Chihuahua, Chih....
to work in the silver mines there.
Later History
The Spanish found shorter routes to travel north to their colonies in New Mexico and La Junta became a quiet backwater of little interest except to slavers and priests. In the 17th century Apache and Spanish raids probably caused the population to diminish – as did infectious European diseases.A Jumano Indian, Juan Sabeata
Juan Sabeata
Juan Sabeata was a Jumano Indian leader in present day Texas who tried to forge an alliance with the Spanish or French to help his people fend off the encroachments of the Apaches on their territory. -Life:...
, re-ignited Spanish interest in La Junta in 1683. He appealed to the governor in El Paso to send priests to La Junta as the Indians there were desirous of becoming Christian. Sabeata also appealed to the Spanish to assist the Indians in defending themselves against Apaches. Four priests and several soldiers shortly moved to La Junta. The Indians had already built thatched-roof churches for them. The Spanish appointed Sabeata Governor and La Junta became temporarily prominent as a regional trade center. However, Sabeata was unable to enlist Spanish assistance to combat the Apaches.
In 1689, the Indians all over northern Mexico revolted to protest the continuing slave trade and the missions in La Junta were closed. Several attempts to reestablish a Spanish presence at La Junta failed until finally in 1760 a fort and mission were established. However, by this time the La Junta Indians were much reduced in numbers and many of the survivors soon left the area, discouraged by the harshness of Spanish rule and the continuing raids of Apaches and a new threat, the Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
. The La Junta Indians dispersed to the silver mines of Parral, intermarried with Spanish soldiers, or joined their former enemies, the Apache and the Comanche.