The history of the first Coloradans passed through many stages between the first known appearances of these peoples up until the arrival of the Spanish in the 1540’s. The arrival of the Spanish dramatically changed the course of history for the original Coloradans, culminating in the 1800’s with the Spanish losing hope of ever truly claiming the land.
Approximately 11,000 years ago, the first people began reaching the region that is now Colorado. Over 50,000 prehistoric sites in Colorado indicate these first immigrants were highly nomadic, hunting the wooly mammoth for sustenance. When the wooly mammoth began to die out and disappear, these original Natives were forced to turn to other game such as bison and smaller mammals.
Over time, people started entering a hunter/gatherer method of obtaining their sustenance. They were still highly nomadic, but obtained more nutrients by gathering plants to eat. Many tribes started splitting into predominately hunter and predominately gathering tribes; the gathering tribes would later develop into agricultural civilizations.
The Anasazi, or Ancestral Pueblo People, were one of the first and few groups to end their nomadic culture. They began by building pit houses. Although the exact reasons are unknown, eventually they chose to begin building entire cities into cliff walls. This presumably afforded much protection from warring tribes and the weather. At this time, the Ancestral Pueblo People began to experience great economic success and led a luxurious lifestyle compared to the less wealthy of the time. They began growing vast, successful crops which they supplemented with meat brought back with the hunting parties.
Despite the relative success of the Anasazi, this was a turbulent time between tribes and much war and death was occurring. It is unknown if the rampant war and death was a reason the Anasazi chose to leave their cliff dwellings. However, there is evidence to suggest that neighboring tribes went through stages of attacking and stealing goods and transitioning to trading their meat and hides for luxury items and other goods the Anasazi could provide.
When the Puebloans did vacate their cliff dwellings, the Utes assumed their position as the dominant tribe of the region. During the time the Puebloans were preparing to vacate, other tribes such as the Utes, Apache, and Navajo had already been making their way into the Colorado region. These are the same tribes that would attack then trade with the Puebloans. This cycle marked a period of unrest and tension between the tribes who had entered the region.
In 1540 AD, Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado entered the region with 1,300 men. The authors of the text described this event as disrupting “the uneasy equilibrium among the Indian tribes of the region.” By this, they meant to indicate that a society precariously balanced on the brink between war and peace now had a new situation to handle. The attempt by the Spanish to then conquer the land and the tribes who lived there thrust them into a state of war, Natives versus Spanish, with continuing conflict between Native tribes. Some tribes were able to form alliances with each other over the years, but in general, the tribes had a great deal of unrest.
The greatest change brought by the arrival of the Spanish was the introduction of horses. Though horses used a lot of grazing land and were difficult for the Natives to keep, their usefulness as a tool of war was insurmountable at the time. Where the Natives would easily have been overrun by the Spanish- being outnumbered and outgunned- the acquisition of horses made it possible for young warriors to prove themselves to their tribes as war heroes, thereby gaining respects for themselves while systematically pushing back the Spanish from a full conquest.
By the 1800’s, enough Spanish forts had been attacked by Natives that the Spanish realized they could not legislate nor control the Natives. It became a dangerous land for the Spanish to settle. Although Spain’s Juan de Onate had tried to claim land for New Mexico, it became a futile gesture in the face of the Natives who had warred on that same land for many centuries before the arrival of Europeans.
Identifications:
1) El Cuartelejo ruins are the northernmost Pueblo ruins, located in Kansas on Beaver Creek. Natives lived in the structure until 1706, after which the French occasionally used it as a shelter until they abandoned the area in 1764.
2) Zebulon Pike was an explorer who was hired to chart the land acquired by the US in the Louisiana Purchase. Pikes’ Peak is named after Zebulon Pike.
3) The Great American Desert refers to the land east of the Rocky Mountains. Early explorers described the land as worthless for agriculture or settlement.
4) The Anasazi, or Ancestral Pueblo People, moved into cliff dwellings from their former pit houses. They became highly agricultural and held meetings and religious ceremonies in circular structures called kivas.
5) Owl Woman, who married the owner of a fort on the Santa Fe Trail (Bent), was the daughter of a spiritual leader of the Cheyenne tribe. This marriage made it possible to increase the trade and amount of skilled labor in Bent’s Fort.
Related posts:
Top Articles