Navajo rugs, blankets and weavings
Camino Real Navajo trade route - page 2 of 6

Indian trails quickly attracted Spanish attention, and Spanish parties began using them for slave trading raids as early as 1530. Later the Spanish expeditions marched over these routes in their conquest of the Southwest. When the Spanish established control of New Mexico, the Rio Grande Pueblo Indian Trail became the upper part of the Camino Real. Over the next two centuries, Spanish colonists and Pueblo communities would trade with Apaches and Navajos in some years, and suffer raids in others. Foodstuffs, hides, livestock, woven blankets, tools, jewelry, and people made their way back and forth across the frontier, along the canyons of the Gobernador. By 1608, Navajo and Apache raids on villages and towns across the region brought Spanish mounted soldiers across the border. By 1659, captive Navajo men, women and children were being sold along the Rio Grande and sent south to work in silver mines south in Zacatecas.

In November of 1518, Hernan Cortes sailed from the port of Santiago de Cuba to carry out the conquest of Mexico. In the spring of 1519, a runner reported to the Emperor Moctezuma that 'two floating mountains' and strangely dressed men had appeared on the coast of Mexico. Attracted by bountiful gifts sent by the Aztec emperor, Moctezuma, gifts meant to appease the Spaniards and turn them back, Cortes and his six-hundred men stayed on to found the port of La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. From there an expedition marched on the highland heart of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan, the site of present day Mexico City. At first forced to retreat, Cortes returned later to the capital with numerous Spanish reinforcements and Indian allies and, after a five-month siege, defeated the new Aztec leader Cuahtemoc. Thus, the stage was set for the establishment of the Vice-royalty of New Spain.

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was appointed to the Panfilo de Narvaez expedition in 1527, which came to a disastrous end in Florida. Cabeza de Vaca and three companions, the only survivors, found their way back to Mexico after eight harrowing years, having traversed the unknown wilds of Florida, Texas, and northernmost Mexico. The marvelous tales of Cabeza de Vaca's wanderings caused much excitement. The Spaniards were spurred on to new conquest. They were sure, just over the next horizon, lay more wealth and more exotic civilizations waiting to be conquered.

In 1540, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado set off for Arizona, accompanied by 292 men, 1300 Indian allies, several friars, 1,000 horses, 600 pack animals and supplies. Coronado's men were the first to see the Grand Canyon, to explore Hopiland, and to penetrate as far east as Kansas. Coronado's expedition spent the winter of 1541-42 near present-day Bernalillo south of the great 1,200 room pueblo of Kuaua. Soon their arrogant conquerors' assumptions brought them into armed conflict with the Indians. The Coronado expedition returned to Mexico, their hopes shattered, for they had entered 'the great wilderness' and 'seeing nothing were down-hearted.'

By the mid-1570's, the rich mining district of Parral in southern Chihuahua had been settled and served as a staging area for future explorations. In Santa Barbara in 1581, Fr. Agustin Rodriguez heard of an advanced civilization to the north. Given official permission to evangelize, he set off in 1581 with a small party under the command of Captain Francisco Sanchez Chamuscado. The party reached the vicinity of Socorro in August and for the next five months explored the Rio Grande pueblos. Leaving behind two priests to continue religious conversion, the main party returned in 1582. The Spaniard Antonio de Espejo, caught up in the excitement caused by the returning Chamuscado-Rodriguez expedition, decided to personally underwrite the costs of an expedition. In 1582, he led a small group to New Mexico, only to learn that the friars he had hoped to succor had been killed. The reports, written by Espejo, and by expedition member Diego Perez de Lujan upon their return to Mexico, added to a growing fund of information about the pueblo people of New Mexico.

Camino Real Navajo trade route - page 3

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