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

On the appointed day a huge crowd would assemble and, accompanied by a military escort, set off to the south. In the assemblage would be the sick or wounded going to the hospital in Chihuahua, traders, government officials, friars and often entire families, including their servants, forming a complete cross-section of New Mexico society. On occasion 5-10% of the New Mexican population took the arduous trip. Secured in trunks, leather or hide sacks, were those efectos de pais, local products, which New Mexicans took south. These included pinon nuts, highly prized as delicacies, cotton mantas, roughly woven woolen cloth, the elkhides, deer and antelope skins, buffalo hides, pickled buffalo tongues, and tallow garnered in the trade with the Plains Indians, as well as teguas, leather moccasins, and Indian slaves. On the return trip merchants brought fancy textiles of all kinds, including silk and linen, hats, ironwork, and hardware. Their mule trains also brought back dyes of Brazilwood and indigo, drugs, paper, luxuries such as chocolate, sugar and rice, mirrors, silverware, majolica dishes, and Chinese porcelain.

Annual trade fairs, where traders could purchase what they needed for the coming year, were established in San Juan del Rio near Durango, and at el Valle de San Bartolome near Chihuahua. Smaller groups of traders would continue on to Sonora, Coahuila, and other parts of Mexico. In the late summer, at harvest time, when the air was still and clear, hundreds of Indians from various tribes came from all directions to the famous Taos trade fair. Located at a convenient crossroads, even in prehistoric times, Taos may have been such a meeting place. It began to emerge as an important colonial trading center by the early 18th century. By 1723, it was officially proclaimed as an annual occurrence. The Governor rode up from Santa Fe to preside over the two-week event, to maintain order and adjudicate disputes among the traders. A month long Peace of God was proclaimed and warfare temporarily suspended so that travelers going and coming from the fair could do so in safety. To the fair came Navajos, Kiowas, Utes, Apaches and the richest and most powerful of the nomadic Indians, Comanches. The Comanches had originally been situated farther to the north but shifted their range to the south, in part to take advantage of the trade opportunities which the fair afforded.

On the broad green meadows, Los Esteros, not far from Taos pueblo, the Indians and their families pitched their tipis until villages covered many acres. It must have presented a wildly colorful assortment of tribes! There was always a lack of reach cash and the usual form of exchange was barter or Cambalache. The Indians brought buffalo robes, pickled buffalo tongues, the elk and deer skins which they knew how to tan as soft as velvet. In trade they received such Spanish goods as iron wear, knives, cloth, beads, blankets and other items. The Indians also brought slaves and captives to be bought or ransomed. Thus the fair came to be called Rescate, or ransom. Most frequently traded were women and children, these had been captured from other Indian tribes or abducted from European settlements. While trade was the principal objective, horse-racing and gambling also took place and the gathering often became noisy, wild and even dangerous. The trade at Taos was crucial to Camino Real commerce, for the goods traded here would be taken by mule train to Santa Fe and thence to Mexico in the annual caravan. Throughout the 18th century, the Taos trade fair continued as an important event. By 1821, however, it had virtually disappeared. Other economic factors intervened and the Comanches again shifted their range and no longer attended the fair, thus bringing to a close, a brilliantly colorful chapter of New Mexico history.

Camino Real Navajo trade route - page 1

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