The Spanish Southwest: The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition of 1776; Wanderers in Mysterious Regions
This is part two of the four part series on the Dominguez & Escalante Expedition of 1776. If you haven’t given the previous intro episode a listen, you ought to or you may be as lost as our expedition will find themselves a few times going forward. After the Great Wide Open, the name of the song Derek Knowlton graciously made me for my musical intro, we will start our journey through the American Southwest.
Finally, July 29th, the day of departure had arrived, and after a celebration of their exciting journey to come, which was held at the military chapel in Santa Fe, the ten men of the Dominguez and Escalante Expedition were off down the well worn path towards the history books. This first path would take them to the Tewa speaking pueblo of Santa Clara. No doubt they had smiles on their faces and excitement in their step. The Governor was no doubt there to see them off as well as family members, friends, and lovers. Behind them, the Sangre de Christo Mountains, which are an offshoot of those long and imposing Rocky Mountains, would have slowly disappeared from view. Briggs has a great excerpt in his book about these mountains:
A Spanish lieutenant in the 1760s had drawn a map of Santa Fe inscribed: Now quoting the Spaniard, to the was of the villa… there is a chain of very high forested mountains which reach so far from south to north that its limits are unknown even to the Comanches, who came from the north, ever along the base of said Sierra during their entire migration, which they say was very long. End all quotes. They’d become quite accustomed to these rockies for the next few weeks, at least until they cross into modern day Utah. But for now, the Blood of Christ mountains would slowly fade from view behind them.
The following day, they’d reach the old Tewa town of Abiquiu where they would stay for two days. It was their last stop before the wild and woolly unknown west came calling beyond.
In the footnotes for that last stop in the Spanish realm, Ted J Warner sums up what must have been happening within the expedition before the initial thrust into the wilderness:
Abiquiu was on the frontier and was the last contact which the explorers had with a Spanish settlement for the duration of the journey, and one can readily imagine the final rush to complete provisions and send final messages, and the anticipation with which the group prepared to move on. End quote.
The town had been a rough and tumble place where Ute slaves were traded to the Spaniards for horses and knives and where the priest of that church there, Sebastián Fernández, according to Dominguez, who had visited all the churches, remember, well according to Dominguez, Fernandez would practice something that would soon become popular again in New Mexico but something that had been popular centuries before in Spain. Dominguez wrote, quote, Fridays of Lent, after dark, discipline is attended by those who come voluntarily, because the father merely proposes it to them, and following his good example, there is a crowd of Indian and citizens. End quote. In this instance, discipline, it means self flagellation. 50 years from this time, in the 1820s, a group known as the Penitentes would be quite the rage in New Mexico and they were all about self-flagellation. As well as crucifixion reenactments…
After that, once the city came under US authority, the Army would occupy the area while trying to keep Navajos, Utes, and Jicarilla Apaches on their reservations.
Today, it’s best known for being the place near where Georgia O’keeffe had her Ghost Ranch. One of my favorite hikes of all time, Kitchen Mesa is on that ranch. From the top of the hike you can see the Rio Chama. D&E and Crew were following this river.
After Abiquiu, they followed the Chama although, it seems it was a little slow and quote unquote very bad going on account of the quote, little mesas very much strewn with rocks, end quote. They camped early the night after Abiquiu after getting caught in a nice monsoon style downpour of heavy rain. Which, the Southwest likes to throw at travelers. I myself have been caught in a few of these monsoons.
I did not know this prior to exploring the American Southwest but southern Asia isn’t the only place that is inundated with massive rain storms. In the American Southwest, from June 15th through September 30th, what’s known as the North American Monsoon System literally rains down upon the four corners region and beyond bringing that much needed and precious water. The huge rain bursts and resulting flash floods are the essential tool in carving the amazing landscape that I love so much. And it’s possible… those haunting floating legless petroglyph figures found throughout the Southwest, carved by the Ancient Ones, it’s possible those represent rain bursts themselves. The tops of the figures being proto Kachinas that live in the clouds while their bodies are that life saving rain. It’s just a theory, and not mine, but I like it.
The next day, the expedition stumbled through a quote, scruboak thicket so dense that in it four horses vanished from our sight while passing through, so that we had to make a halt in order to look for them. End quote. After they’d emerged from the thicket, they came to a pasture filled with beautiful purple and white flowers that modern historians can’t quite figure out what species of flower it was. They’d find the horses, thankfully, and then find themselves in yet another thicket of beautiful flowers, which Escalante clearly enjoyed. He writes fondly and admiringly about the flowers. He doesn’t ever write about the landscape except to say how harsh it is but he does like his plants. He would go on to eat or grind into a drink just about every flower he’d come across. Which is pretty brave, in my opinion.
Roberts writes of Escalante’s lack of landscape descriptions, and he does so because it annoyed him as it annoys me! When I write in my journal after trips out west I write quite descriptively and longingly about the cliffs, mountains, streams, and American Southwest beauty… Escalante? Not so much. He will go through some of the most beautiful places on earth and he won’t even mention the grandeur except to complain about the difficulty of traveling through it. Roberts writes, quote, Two thousand vertical feet of ribbed quartzite, the Brazos is the biggest cliff in New Mexico. He goes on to write, Escalate makes no mention of this dramatic landmark, which must have frowned down on his team for three August days. End quote.
I have been to the top of the Brazos Cliffs on Highway 64 that winds its way through the Carson National Forest, although I did not know that until doing research for this episode. When I went it was in April of 2019 and the mountains and cliffs were covered in snow. I snapped a picture of the Brazos Summit, again, without knowing what it was. The information and placards had been hidden or obscured due to the copious amounts of snow. It was a beautiful scene. Pictures will be up at the site. Actually, all the pictures I’ve ever taken of the places they go through will be up at the site. It turns out, I’ve inadvertently travelled quite a bit of their route myself. Or at least what you can reach by car or short hikes.
For the time being, the team is still following the Chama River, a river I’ve mentioned in previous episodes. It’s the river the Tewa legends say they followed from Mesa Verde. It flows into the Rio Grande from the north, from the Rockies in Colorado, just across the New Mexico border so it makes sense to follow it out of Santa Fe, past Abiquiu. But in a move that vexes historians and researches, the team inexplicably leaves the comfortable water and just… wander the harsh landscape. If you’ve ever been to the four corners in August, you know it is deadly hot! And sunny! Luckily they found a spring but it was so shallow that for the horses to drink, they had to dig holes in the mud.
This theme of leaving the shores of rivers to take inexplicably difficult or confusing paths is a reoccurring one. It will happen multiple times on their journey. They would though, find the river again and they’d decide they needed to cross it. But as they did so, one of the men, the 60 year old friend from Zuni, Juan Pedro Cisneros nearly drowned as his horse’s head went underwater after the horse had stepped into a sinkhole. I’m not sure if all the crew members could swim, but the fast moving waters of many a river prove to be the toughest element they end up facing during the duration of their journey. Rivers and their crossing prove to be their harshest foe. Along with the cold and hunger.
Everyone survived this crossing, thankfully! Although, despite almost losing a man, all Escalante could write about in his journal was how good the surrounding landscape would be for future Spanish farmers. So I guess he does write about the landscape after all. But only ever to say how good it would be for crops and colonies. This is another theme in the journal.
On August third, yet again to the befuddlement of the modern reader, the party leaves the rio Chama to trek out across the hills. And in these hills they lose a mule. And also in these hills Escalante comments, quote, there was no water at this site. End quote. That’s probably because you left the river and its water. They do though, find the mule.
Despite the area’s quote unquote, broken brambly ground and the fact that no water was found nearby, they named their camp for the night, in the most Spanishly religious way they knew how: the most holy trinity or in Spanish, La santísima Trinidad.
They would name every campsite, every night. Or nearly every night. And it almost always is a religious name.
The next day they continued northwesterly through a trailless alien environment until they came into a forest, still lacking that basic human necessity of water. Briggs writes of the necessity of water in the Southwest when he writes quote, in every account of southwestern exploration, before and since, water is of constant moment. Man can carry enough for several days, but man’s animals need new sources daily to carry on. End quote. So continuously leaving the sources of water is quite puzzling. You’d think the Muñez brothers would know that as well…? But honestly, they might, and the reason they’re leaving the banks of the river is because the canyon becomes too narrow for the horses and mules and the guides probably knew that. But… I’m not so sure.
As I mentioned at their introduction, Andres, and probably his brother Lucrecio as well, but both had actually done some exploring in the area north of Abiquiu some 11 years prior to the D&E Expedition way back in 1765. That expedition, probably one of the first to the area that far north by the Spaniards, had been led by a man named Juan María de Rivera. Unfortunately for us, almost nothing exists in the historical record except his journal, which was only found rather recently. But, at the time, 1776, both Dominguez and Escalante were familiar with his journey and his work, which must have been somewhat circulated because it seems they brought along Rivera’s journal on their own expedition.
Obviously we’ve got to talk a little about Rivera’s expedition because it’s rather exciting as well… at least, what’s known of it. Rivera was probably born in 1738 in Chihuahua to parents who had been prominent before the Revolt of 1680 but it seems they lost all but their lives in the Revolution. By 1765 though, we know the 27 year old was exploring the territory that would eventually be known as Colorado and he was the first European-American to do so as far as anyone knows. He actually went twice and both times he interacted heavily with the Ute and Paiute American Indians. And that fact is rather puzzling because, not to spoil our adventure with D&E here, but they don’t run into an Indian for twenty, eight, days… D&E don't. It seems unbelievable but it’s true. Back to Rivera though.
Rivera had probably been a miner, as in mines, before his exploring days but during his exploring days, that became secondary to his task, which was probably a reconnaissance and information finding expedition. But on that first entrada into modern day Colorado, Rivera left Abiquiu in June and they made it to Chimney rock! The far eastern outpost of the Chacoans I talked about so long ago. That significant ritual landscape town that mapped the stars and the phases of the moon. Well, during that first expedition they named quite a few rivers and places that still stick to this day, including the Navajo River, San Juan River, The Animas, and the Dolores Rivers. All rivers travelers to the area are familiar with today. And if you’ve been listening to the past episodes, the San Juan River has been important as well.
Towards the end of that first journey, Rivera met up with a Ute named Cuero de Lobo or Wolf Skin, and Wolf Skin was to show Rivera some silver in the area of the San Juan Mountains but that never… panned out. I’m kidding, I don’t think you pan for silver… But this looking for silver did help Rivera with the actual goal of the mission: to map out and find out not only what the heck, but WHO the heck was out there to the north of New Mexico.
The governor at the time, Tomas Velez de Cachupin had recently reached a peace with the Utes that allowed the Spanish to explore the area to look for silver. Silver became the talk of the region after a big chunk of the stuff was brought down to Abiquiu by a Ute man who promised there was actually way more of it up there in them there hills. So looking for silver was the pretext for Cachupin to explore north. Thomas Alexander in his piece the Rivera Expedition that he wrote for the Utah State Government said Cachupin asked Rivera after that first journey to, quote, return to the lands he had just visited, Velez de Cachupin instructed the explorer to Rio del Tizon–the Colorado. The governor also asked him to learn the extent of Indian settlements to the north, whether other Europeans had yet arrived on the scene, and whether Lake Copala Gran Teguayo–the reputed seat of a wealthy civilization sought by Coronado–lay in the unexplored territory. Since Velez de Cachupin knew of the expansion of other European powers, he thought the possibility of European colonies to the north quite likely. End quote.
Another author, Clell Jacobs in his Phantom Pathfinder, Juan Maria Antonio de Rivera and His Expedition, also writes of the reasons for Rivera’s adventure, quote:
A careful reading of the authorization for the second entrada reveals the deeper intent of the expedition. Governor Cachupin directed Rivera and his companions to go disguised as traders and conceal the fact they were Spanish; to reconnoiter the land along the trail, at the crossing, and on the other side of the river; to determine the names of the nations they encountered; and to ascertain the languages of the native groups and their attitude toward the Spanish; and to make a journal account of the trip and map the trail to the crossing. That is consistent with objectives issued to people making a military reconnaissance. The instructions authorized the search for precious metals only on the return trip, clearly suggesting that the search for silver was to be a private quest or at most a secondary goal. End quote.
On this second journey to find the Colorado River and map out the lands in between it and New Mexico, Rivera would be given guide after guide and taken on detour after detour. Jacobs in Phantom Pathfinder again:
It is obvious throughout the diary that the Utes resisted all attempts by the Spanish to find the route to the crossing of el Rio Grande (he’s writing about the Colorado River) crossing of el Rio Grande and to make contact with the people on the other side. It is apparent the Utes wanted to make the trip so difficult and dangerous that Rivera would become discouraged and disheartened, give up his quest, and return to Santa Fe without finding the crossing and without making contact with the people on the other side of the river. End quote.
So this second adventure was a meandering wandering one with guides being swapped almost daily. But during this second entrada, Rivera and crew would pass by the Abajo Mountains, those beautiful high mountains in between Canyonlands and Cedar Mesa in Utah, in between Blanding and Monticello. He’d also pass by the La Sals and eventually he’d travel through today’s city of Moab and on the banks of the Colorado River. He would indeed find the Rio Tizon and I believe he would cross it. And it's near this crossing in eastern Utah near Moab that Rivera was told some information that would be useful down the road. Jacobs writes, quote:
He listened with great interest as his Ute friends informed him of the trail they used when they visited the Spanish on the Lower Colorado River. This would be welcome news for the planners of the Empire, the Royal Corps of Engineers, who, being aware of the resistance offered by the Hopi and Apache nations to the passage of commerce through their territories to the regions of the Lower Colorado River, sought a route to that area through the territory of the then friendly Ute nations. Perhaps the groundwork was laid at that early date for what developed into the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition in 1776. End quote.
On both adventures, much like D&E, Rivera had no armed escorts or soldiers which… I mean, that seems pretty brave, honestly. And on the second entrada, he was actually told by the governor to dress like a local and not an official, so that he could blend in and better find out information. The Spanish it seems, knew the Indians didn’t really want anything to do with them and ultimately, the ruse didn’t stick but the information Rivera found out was instrumental in the planning and logistics of the D&E Expedition. And Rivera’s journal acted somewhat as a guide, albeit, a not too helpful one, in the end but his journal acted as a guide for D&E and crew.
And speaking of guides, Dominguez & Escalante really wouldn’t have much better luck, as you’ll learn, with guides during their journey either. Right down to Andres Muniz himself who like I mentioned earlier claimed to be on the Rivera Expedition but it seems… he may have been stretching the truth a little. Here’s one last quote from Jacobs:
Another irony lies in the assertion by the Dominguez-Escalante guide and interpreter, Andres Muniz, who claimed to have been with Rivera on his entrada and affirmed that Rivera went over the Uncompahgre Mountains to the confluence of the Gunnison and Uncompahgre rivers instead of the Great Tizon. He stated that although he was with Rivera, he did not accompany him to the river; he stayed behind for the distance of a three-day march. However, that appears to be contrary to fact because Andres Muniz was not listed in the Rivera diary, so if he had traveled with Rivera on his expeditions, it would have had to have been on a follow-up trip after 1765. From the events recorded in the diary it is evident that he could not have stayed behind for three days. His statement to Escalate probably was made to increase his prestige among the padres and his peers. Yet it caused historians to be led afield for many years. They treated Muniz’s statement as fact and never gave Rivera credit for finding the Ute Crossing of the Colorado River. End quote.
Well, after Rivera returns to Santa Fe he simply… vanishes from the historical record. From brave explorer of new lands to disappearing in his own lands.
Now, back to D&E and… the Muniz brothers. While the group was wandering the area very near the Colorado border in modern Jicarilla Apache land, something disheartening happened among the group, something throws off the cohesion and sours the band for a bit. Although Escalante gives no indication of what that betrayal was except in the name that they give the area. He writes, quote, we halted in a canyon which, on account of a certain incident, we named El Cañon del Engaño. End quote. The Canyon of deceit. Again, he didn’t expound upon what that certain incident was but may it have been the Muniz brothers? What if, after some chastisement by the padres of why on earth they were being dragged all over God’s green earth, why couldn’t their guides find the way? Sure the Rivera expedition was 11 years prior but this was ridiculous. Maybe after some berating by the father, the brothers may have caved and what if they admitted that their history as guides with Rivera were… stretched, to say the least?
I honestly have no idea, but it would seem appropriate. And D&E aren’t too happy with the brothers for the remainder of the journey. Just take this passage from August 5th, quote: The experts lost the trail and even the slight acquaintance they showed to have had with this terrain. End quote. It isn’t a stretch to imagine the disappointment the leaders of the expedition and probably Maria y Pacheco as well, but I can see the group asking why on earth they were traveling the seemingly silly way they were throughout this tough land when finally, the Muniz brothers broke down and admitted to a little deceit. They were just guessin’… As usual, I have no idea, but I like it.
As I just mentioned, the area today that they’re at in early August near the confluence of the Navajo River and Amargo Creek is on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation but at the time, the nearest Jicarilla Apache would have been around Taos, not this far west. As usual, with these sorts of things, their reservation sits where it does today because the United States Government decided to put them there. The Jicarilla Apache actually claim the area from Taos to modern day Kansas as their ancestral homeland, although… ancestral is a strong use of the term since, they’re from way up north. But ancestral at the time of the founding of the reservation by President Grover Cleveland in 1887. That much is true, at least. So during the time of the Escalante jaunt through the modern day Apache reservation, the Spanish group would have met little to no Apaches, that’s iffin they met any Indians at all. Which I already spoiled by telling you they don’t for some confounding 28 days. Although, I’m beginning to think that was on purpose by the Indians.
As we know, the American Indians would have seen this big group coming from miles away. Surely they knew they were headed their way but as the Rivera expedition showed, they wanted nothing to do with them. Also, events later in the journey will prove that same thing as group of Utes and Paiutes after group flat out refuse to offer their guiding services despite the Spaniards begging and offering whatever they could.
Around this time they also crossed over the Continental divide, although they probably would not have known its significance. The continental divide is that invisible line on the landscape that determines where the water will flow and to which sea it will ultimately empty itself into. To the east of the line, every creek, stream, and river will flow to the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean. To the west of the line, every precious blue highway will flow to the Pacific or to the Sea of Cortez.
On the fifth of August, the team finally finds the water they need at the San Juan river, north of its confluence with the Navajo river. You’ll remember the San Juan river as the one the Mesa Verdeans follow out of Tewayo and to the Rio Grande. It is also the river that separated the Chaco-Aztecans from the Mesa Verdeans, at least until the Mesa Verdeans came down from their mesa and inhabited the old ruins, making it their own. I will talk about that in more detail when I revisit my Anasazi Civil War and Migration episodes sometime in the future. I got some stuff wrong, I also got a lot correct, but I got some stuff wrong and I’ve learned a lot more and read a bunch more and I have made some friends with this podcast who have pointed out information so a revisit, an addendum, will be necessary in the future.
Back to August 5th and Escalante. On that day he seems to have wandered by himself which is the first time in the journal that it’s mentioned anyone left by themselves. In the journal though, he comments on the San Juan River and how it was as mighty as the Rio Grande.
Despite that mightiness though, they ford it, make it to the other side, and bed down for the evening. They call their camp that night, Nuestra Señora de las Nieves or, Our Lady of the Snows. This could have been because, towering to their north were the possibly still snow capped, still snowcapped despite it being the end of summer, but tearing at the sky to the north were the San Juan mountains which rise to over 14,000 feet just north of Cortez and Durango and Mesa Verde. They’re beautiful and imposing mountains and you can see em from even way into Utah on Cedar Mesa. Briggs writes beautifully about them, as always, quote, Gray granite peaks up there, fourteen of them over fourteen thousand feet, are broken by sharp pinnacles and deep crevasses, erosion having yet to do its polishing. As with several ranges en route, the san Juans rise from a semidesert base to arctic above timberline, lacking only the tropical of nature’s seven life zones. End quote.
August 5th also happens to be the feast day of Our Lady of the Snow. Not snows. So maybe the name had a nice double meaning.
The following day some trouble struck the party when Don Miera y Pacheco or the Don or M&P, I’ll use em all, but on the 6th, M&P fell ill with severe stomach troubles. Or as Briggs put it, quote unquote, Miera had a stomachache. It won’t be the last time he or other members of the group would fall ill. They gave no name to their encampment that evening, and today, it’s believed to be under the water of man-made Navajo Lake.
Thankfully though, the following day, the 7th, some good news for M&P landed when, as Escalante put it, God willed that he got better… so that we could continue on our way. End quote. And continue they did. They’d cross through the land and over many a river that Rivera had named like the Piedra, the Pinos, the Florido, the Animas. And once they crossed that one, they came to Chimney Rock!
I have mentioned Chimney Rock in my episodes a surprising number of times. It’s a shame I’ve only ever driven past it during the off season in the months of December, February, March, and April. One day I will visit it. But that visit will be better cause I now know its significance.
On the 8th they travelled through modern day Durango, Colorado, which is a bustling town of almost 20,000 people. One of my archaeology professors at OU called it the northern boundary of the archaeological boundaries of the American Southwest. Durango Mexico to Durango Colorado. And Las Vegas New Mexico to Las Vegas Nevada. Maybe that’s true for Archaeology, but I tend to extend the American Southwest to include The Colorado Plateau, the Basin and Range regions of Nevada and California, and the Mojave. I definitely include cities as far north as Moab and Fruita which sit on opposite sides of the Utah Colorado border. The Alabama Hills below the tallest point in the lower 48, Mount Whitney all the way over in California are certainly Southwestesque. And Big Bend in Texas. There’s definitely a feel of the Southwest there. And many other places too. Even the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota, although… that’s a reach, even I’ll admit. Anyways.
At Durango, Escalante comments instead of how great it would be for a place to have a town, which he does constantly and many of those places are now devoid of humans and ghost towns. But at Durango he writes how terrible of a place it would be to settle and instead it should just be stayed in for one night at most. Today, it’s the largest town the D&E Expedition has passed through so far on their adventure, since Santa Fe. There will be bigger towns, but few.
While the crew clambered through Animas Canyon, it wasn’t easy going. And then climbing out of the canyon that the river flows through on the 9th was, quote, quite difficult, consisting of plenty of rock and being very steep in places. End quote. So maybe there was a point to leaving the water’s edge every so often as they did. As a person, you can find a way, but with all those horses and mules, it would be a lot tougher. And those horses and mules weren’t eating as well on the sandy banks of the river as they would out in the valleys. Because of the weary beasts of burden and the climbing out of the canyon, the day was slow going.
On top of that though, the region would prove to be quote, excessively cold even in the months of July and august. End quote. It rained a ton on them and Escalante would also write of the region that it was quote unquote very moist. The trail turned to mud and the cold was getting to them. Especially Dominguez who, on the ninth of August was recorded as having a quote, rheumy flow in his face and head. End quote. The man had a cold. A pretty nasty one with a fever and chills and everything. All of this, the cold, the rain, the head cold, it forced them to tarry a while and take their time.
Curiously, for days the group would have been in eye sight of the beautiful and haunting Sleeping Ute Mountain, but they never once mention its presence. I've talked about the mountain and the area before, especially in my Chaco and Anasazi series. They were in the land of the Mesa Verdeans. They were in the land of the Tewa Puebloans who lived back in the Santa Fe area. In later writings after the expedition, Escalante will remark how this particular area was the homeland of the Puebloans before their migration, which tells me they knew of the oral traditions… at least enough to know that part, which is pretty important.
The mountain today is off limits to all but the Ute and those who get permission. That’s probably because of the haunting part I mentioned. Burned kivas with children’s skulls stuffed into the air vents. Evidence of man corn. Before the civil war, the civil authority, whatever it may have been, rotating princely kings known as an altepetl maybe. But state sanctioned violence would decimate a household who was breaking the rules. Maybe performing witchcraft. Not paying taxes. Whatever it was, they were defying the state, which sent its thugs to the house as a warning to other rule breakers. Your walls will come down and you will be eaten. Your bones will be scattered on the surface of the land to be found in a thousand years by people from across the sea.
Today, Canyons of the Ancients and its fantastic Sand Canyon Trail to Sand Canyon Pueblo sit just north of the mountain on the border of Utah off of State Road G. It’s a place I’ve only been to once but I cannot wait to go back. That hike is one of my all time favorites. It’s beautiful, quiet, filled with ruins, spectacular views… and it’s haunting. And I’m not the only one to feel it.
Briggs writes of August 12th thusly:
With Dominguez better and quote, to change terrain and climate rather than to make progress, end quote our expedition traversed an easy eight and a half leagues. Did the departure reflect the guides eagerness to leave the Mesa Verde vicinity? Bolton asks. Quote. With all its wonders, Mesa Verde is mighty spooky. End all quotes. Bolton is the author I mentioned in the very beginning who was the first to really write about D&E back in the 50s. Bolton, Briggs, Roberts, Childs, Myself. The feeling of the place is unmissable. Even the Mesa Verdeans left, after all. And their descendants rarely return.
The very next day though, the 13th of August, the crew would purposefully find and inspect some actual Anasazi ruins that are today known as… Escalante Ruins! He wrote, quote, on an elevation on the south bank of the river in ancient times there was a small settlement of the same form as those of the Indians of New Mexico, as is shown by the ruins which we purposely examined. End quote. Normally, the Spaniards couldn’t care less about such things as ruins or temples, especially after they’d looted them. So it’s curious that he went out of his way to say they visited the site.
Roberts isn’t convinced that Escalante Ruins which is today right next to the Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center by the McPhee Reservoir. But he’s not convinced those ruins named after the Explorer were the ones the D&E Crew actually visited. I don’t think it’s too important but I think that they indeed are. It’s very probable they knew of the ruins from Rivera. Later American explorers would find the same ruins on account of the location of them. They’re in a beautiful setting on a hill with a great view of the land. It only makes sense that even men in search of the Grand Canyon like Captain John Macomb in 1859, would find them, comment on them, and then leave them for future explorers.
I’ve been to the Anasazi Heritage Center slash Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center because I wanted to see the impressive museum and the ruins but alas, it was closed on that cold, windy, snowy, late December day. One day I will visit it.
The exploration of the ruins by D&E brings up that yet again confounding fact that they don’t run into another living soul, much less an Indian for 28 freakin’ days after leaving. I am convinced it’s because the Ute’s and Paiute’s took the exact opposite approach as they did the last time a group entered their lands. Instead of sending these padres guide after confounding guide, they just completely avoided them. They probably figured, rather correctly, without any guides, these Spaniards would starve or die or at least turn back before ever making it too far north. They underestimated these explorers though. Dominguez and Escalante weren’t your average Spaniard. They were Franciscan Friars. And we know all about them.
Even still, one would think that they’d at least run into a Navajo Hogan or Navajo person eventually, right? They will, over 5 months wander through a huge swath of Dinetah or Navajo Land. Yet throughout the entire expedition, they will not a single time see a Navajo. Or really even any evidence of Navajo.
Roberts also questions this and writes about a possible explanation after asking an anthropologist friend:
One, he means explanation, One was suggested to me by my friend Matt Liebmann, a Harvard anthropology professor whose specialty is the Southwest. Matt wondered whether the Indians might have been busy with the annual transhumance. The Navajos, of all the region's tribes, had become the master shepherders, driving their flocks each summer into the mountains at and above timberline. Perhaps when D & E passed through (and Rivera before them), they missed the Navajos altogether because they never climbed higher than about 7,500 feet above sea level, well below timberline. End quote.
I mean, sure, that’s possible but I’m not sure if it’s feasible. The other explanation is the one I figured when reading and have suggested already, and that is that the Indians saw them coming and ignored them because of how little they packed and how they didn’t seem worthy of trading with or stealing from or even interacting with. They did not want them penetrating too far into their lands so to dissuade them from further exploration, they just ignored them and left their fate in God’s hands. Apparently, God was indeed looking out for them.
And that’s exactly what Escalante was thinking as well. Remember when he told the Hopi man who warned him of the impending death by a thousand Navajo? Quote, I was not worried ... because I trusted in God who is infinitely more powerful than all the men there ever were, are, or will be. End quote.
By the 14th of August, the expeditions leader, Dominguez, had recovered from his cold so they set off down the Dolores river. They covered 22 miles that day and walked through some rough quote unquote tall and craggy canyons, and sagebrush and crossed the river again. But historians and researchers who study and follow the journal are confused by these directions and writings because there is no tall and craggy canyon in this area. Unless they got off course and went down some tributary.
Roberts writes of their curious paths:
Throughout their long journey, the padres seem to have suffered from a kind of canyon phobia. Already they had veered away from the easy course of the Chama to blunder through brush and forest and over high hills in search of the Navajo River. Now they seem deliberately to have left the canyon of the Dolores, only to have rediscovered it downstream, after a ride up a side canyon that went nowhere and across a dry mesa. At each campsite, the team needed abundant water for both men and mounts. Why not simply stick close to the perennial flow of the Dolores? End quote.
I’ve kinda guessed at why they keep leaving the water but really, there is no way of knowing, we can only guess. Briggs in his book suggests its because the cattle wouldn’t have fit in the canyons but that doesn’t fit the narrative I’m telling because I don’t believe they brought cattle. I’d even say, I 100% believe there is no cattle among the expedition. He bases this guess on previous entradas and excursions by the Spanish, but this one, nowhere is it written that they were paid for, brought, or at, the entire journal or in writing prior or after by anyone in the crew. They almost starve many a time and eventually they will go hunting, although it seems like that’s a very rare occurrence. Which that in itself is strange because the land would have been teeming with game as it is today. Look, they kill and eat horses later, so there’s no way they brought cattle.
Another reason they took to wandering could have been because the Muniz brothers fabricated their past expeditions to the area and had no idea what they were doing. It could be because they’re following the wrong trails. There are thousands of years worth of trails in the region both of man and beast. You’d think Miera y Pacheco would have a say in where they go, and indeed, it turns out he does, as we will hear about later. So it’s anyone’s guess why they took the meandrous routes they end up taking. But to be fair, down the river a bit, there is indeed a steep, 1,500 foot canyon so maybe those Muñiz brothers knew what they were up to all along…
Parsing through various sources and the journal itself, it can get a little confusing at times. Plus the tangent side canyons I like to explore along with the authors I read. The random memory hills I climb in telling this story… it can get a little confounding and for that I apologize. But stay with me, I will be a better guide than whatever was leading the D&E Crew.
And speaking of those 10 men, on that same day, August 14th, they’re about to gain two more companions! Roberts writes of this incident, quote, sometime during that day an event took place that must have been the most monumental occurrence to befall the expedition since leaving Santa Fe. It's maddening that Escalante narrates it in a single paragraph in his journal, and never again refers to what it signified for the team. And even more maddening is the tone in which he recounts the event, reverberating with annoyance shading into disgust. Here's the passage: and now he’s quoting the journal, quote:
This afternoon we were overtaken by a coyote and a genizaro from Abiquiu, the first Felipe and the second Juan Domingo by name. So as to wander among the heathens, they had run away without the permission of their masters of that pueblo, with the desire of accompanying us as their excuse. We had no use for them, but, to forestall the mischief which either through their ignorance or through their malice they might do by wandering further among the Yutas if we insisted on their going back, we took them on as companions. End all quotes.
So for two weeks… escaped… Indian… workers, had been following them in the wilderness and they never noticed until the men wanted to be found?! For 234 miles or so?! How on earth were these guys so blind? And deaf? Not even the storied soldier M&P had witnessed them. Or at least it wasn’t recorded that he had. The horses hadn’t picked up on their followers? Those two had had no fires for 2 weeks in the cold and the rain. What had they eaten? It’s actually super impressive, honestly. But, as Roberts points out and as Escalante himself wrote, the group was NOT pleased about this turn of events.
I like to put myself in the moccasins of these men often and I did so for this event as well and frankly… I don’t know how I’d react. I mean, strength in numbers, right? But also, that’s more mouths to feed. But they may have knowledge and skills that could come in handy, right?! I would think so… but there’s the issue of that word, coyote that Escalante uses. Roberts defines it as, quote, a coyote was what in frontier culture would later be called a half-breed, looked down on as inferior by citizens with "pure" Spanish blood in their veins. End quote.
Remember when I defined the term genizaro in the beginning? The indentured servants until 18 Indians or half Indians that abounded on colonial pueblos. These two men were probably of Ute origin but had been captured and sold by Navajos or Apaches or the Spaniards themselves and it’s possible they just wanted to go back home. Even Escalante realizes that and mentions it. You can’t blame the nearly slaves for wanting freedom. I do wonder what the others on the journey thought though, like M&P or the once mayor of Zuni, Cisneros. So maybe the fact that they were escaped workers and probably considered under the charge of someone that would be missing them about now, maybe that irritated the men. Or it could have just been that more mouths to feed part.
In due time, the two new comrades, Felipe and Juan Dominguez, will earn their keep at a crucial moment. It involves their continued survival and the fabled Rio Tizon…
The arrival of these two though, Felipe and Juan Domingo, it seems to have put the entire crew in a bad mood. Especially Escalante and Dominguez. For a bit after this incident, the journey, and journal seem… tinged with malaise, as Roberts puts it.
Really quick, it’s almost insultingly strange that Felipe gets no last name… or surname. Maybe he didn’t care to give it because whoever gave it to him was a powerful man of Abiquiu and he didn’t want to alarm the group by identifying his pueblo patriarch… or maybe he just was not given one. Or maybe his Spanish wasn’t great. Regardless, it’s interesting.
On the 15th they leave the Dolores river and trudge through some sagebrush and rough country on their way to a spring that the guides promised had water… we promise guys! But, no… no water was there and it was bone dry. Muñiz brothers swing and miss again. Scouts were then sent ahead in the hopes of finding that precious water. That water that had for days, only a few days ago, rained down on them, soaking and chilling ‘em to the bone.
Thankfully, the scouts would find that water but it was quote, so scanty that it sufficed for the people only and not for the horse herds. End quote. But what was amazing about this water and this spring, was that it had been deliberately covered. Probably by the Utes. It had been hidden by rocks and logs. Mostly to stop evaporation but also possibly to hide it from beasts. Or as one of the guides most likely incorrectly pointed out, they could have hidden it from other Indians during times of disagreement. Nonetheless, the men, as Roberts writes, quote, realized that on the eighteenth day of the expedition, some 280 miles from Santa Fe, they had at last discovered signs of Indians. End quote.
They still would not meet an Indian for 10 more days… that is of course, I suppose, if you don’t count Felipe and Juan Domingo who most certainly would have been American Indians but they were going TO the Utes not coming FROM them so they weren’t locals and thusly, historians don't count them and nor will I.
They cleverly called that night’s camp Agua Tapada… Covered Water. And this camp is apparently near the modern day city of Egnar, Colorado… Egnar: E, G, N, A, R, as in the word, Range, backwards. No joke, y’all. I love it.
The following morning, the 16th, the expedition awoke to find half the horses had broken free overnight and were completely missing, no doubt quote unquote crazed for water as Briggs puts it.
Eventually though, they were returned to the group by divine intervention. No doubt. After they found the horses, Escalante wrote about their departure and then Briggs makes an astute observance that I hand’t really thought of. Quoting Escalante first, quote, for this reason we did not leave Agua Tapada until half past ten. End quote. Here is indication both that there was a timepiece among them and that camp usually was broken early to start marching in the coolness of a sun low in the sky. End all quotes.
I read the journal and then Roberts and then Briggs but it wasn’t until that last work that I realized they had to have had a watch. Otherwise, how would they have known the time that is so often recorded? Unless of course everyone back then just, knew around what time it was by looking up at the sun, which… is also totally plausible.
I’ll always be grateful for Bear Grylls teaching me the 15 minute finger method of figuring how long one has until sunset. This method consists of each finger representing 15 minutes, like if you extend your arm fully and hold your hand… perpendicular to the ground with your pinky resting on the horizon directly below the sun, you can determine how much time, up to an hour per hand, you have left until the sun hits the horizon. I suggest you try it one of these days.
So that passage lets the readers and researchers know they had a watch. And they liked to leave early so as not to huff it through the southwestern sun in the heat of the day.
After finding the wayward horses and leaving later than planned, they set out on a path towards the Dolores River once more. But the trail they followed disappeared. Apparently the recent rains had washed it away. And essentially, they became lost… with no water and no trail, they were wanderers, wandering in a strange land. They were desperately needing to find that Dolores River for themselves and for their weary thirsty horses. The reader has to wonder, why on earth didn’t the Muñiz guides know where this life saving water was? Were they deliberately misleading them as had the guides during Rivera’s excursion… or where they simply clueless?
If you’ve ever been to the Southwest or anywhere that has its fill of natural landmarks, which honestly, nowhere on earth may have as many easily recognizable landmarks as the American Southwest. I’m talking: Navajo Mountain, the Henry mountains, Sleeping Ute Mountain, Abajo Mountains, Fifty-Mile Mountain, the La Sals, The san Juan Mountains, the San Francisco Peaks, the Book Cliffs, Comb Ridge, The Vermillion Cliffs, the water pocket fold, Mount Taylor, the Sandia, Chuska, Mogollon Rim, etc etc etc, but if you’ve ever been to the region, you know that landmarks abound and finding your way, if you’ve ever been there, ahem… finding your way should be easy. Especially to something as important as a water source… like, say, A RIVER. Again, it may be that the Muñiz brothers knew little to nothing of the route they were leading the expedition down and they’d just blustered their way into being guides. But honestly.. I could be totally wrong about the brothers and I could be soiling their name and asking for a post life defamation suit. The evidence though, points in the direction that I’m correct.
So, at this point, after losing the trail, maybe an argument ensued. Maybe the padres chastised the brothers and the sour mood since the two genizaros joined grew even more sour… regardless, it seems M&P had had enough. And he set out down a canyon, today’s Summit Canyon, to see where it led and to maybe get the expedition moving again. And his solo excursion, at least at first, wasn’t even noticed by the padres.
Roberts writes of the incident like this:
Searching the hillsides for a trail, Dominguez and Escalante did not even see him leave. Waterless once more, the team set up camp, then sent one man ahead to track Miera down quote unquote before he could get lost. End all quotes.
I seriously doubt the man who could create maps in his mind and who would go on to create the greatest map of the area until modern times, would get lost, but the padres had to save face… at least in the written record of the account.
M&P’s secret departure worried the group’s leaders though, so they sent someone after him while they waited by a water source for the evening.
At midnight, the scout and M&P returned and told the party the good news. The Dolores river was reachable through the canyon, although it wouldn’t be easy.
The following day, they travelled through the tough canyon and all the while, Escalante seems to be praising M&P’s rash decision to secretly reconnaissance the way ahead. They named the canyon after the Don. Escalante writes, quote, The canyon we named El Laberinto de Miera because of the varied and pleasing scenery of rock cliffs which it has on either side and which, for being so lofty and craggy at the turns, makes the exit seem all the more difficult the farther one advances- and because Don Bernardo Miera was the first one to go through it. End quote. Miera’s Labyrinth.
Look at that… he writes about the landscape besides in relation to what can grow there! That Summit Canyon is 2,300 feet deep. It was no doubt a beautiful but tough hike indeed.
Also, while hiking through the canyon, they came across some footprints! They were most likely Ute footprints and that meant they were nearby. And that meant they could finally get some help and that help could enable them, quote, to continue our journey with less difficulty and labor than we were now suffering because none of the companions knew the waterholes and terrain ahead. End quote. There’s the digs at the Muniz brothers again… I’m starting to believe my theory on them finding out that they lied about being with Rivera is true. Briggs even writes tongue in cheek about this when he wrote, quote, perhaps it was asking too much of the guides, even of one who had made two round trips, to recognize every landmark over hundreds of miles. End quote. At least… I think he’s being tongue in cheek. Regardless, the Muniz brothers weren’t being much help and the days were beginning to stack up. These Ute footprints may have been just the blessing they needed.
So, it was at this point, they made the decision to… turn, east? California and Monterrey are definitely west… almost exactly due west. Now, of course they didn’t know that since they couldn’t accurately find the correct longitudinal lines. But even they knew they were heading in the wrong direction. But it was worth it. They needed to finally find some Indians. They needed help from the locals. Quote: we decided to seek them out. End quote. Them being the Utes.
Actually finding the footprint’s owners, the Ute Indians though… that was easier said than done. Roberts writes:
Once the team had reached the Dolores, a three-man party went ahead- Dominguez himself, accompanied by Andrés Muñiz as interpreter and Juan Pedro Cisneros- to try to make contact with the Utes. For eight miles they followed the tracks upstream without scaring up a single Indian. Escalante's account of that futile errand piles more mysteries onto the predicament in which the Spaniards felt they had become ensnared. The scouting party following the footprints quoting Escalante now, quote, ascertained that they were Tabehuachi Yutas but could not find them, after having gone as far as the point where the little Rio de las Paraliticas (so named because the first of our own to see it found in an encampment by its edge three female Yutas with the infirmity of this name) separates the Tabehuachi Yutas from the Muhuachi ones, the latter living to the south and the others to the north. End all quotes.
Escalante and the Spanish called the Utes, the Yutas, hence the name of the state, but also why I will read from here on out the Yutas, but I will personally refer to them as Utes. In the footnotes of the journal, Ted Warner writes that the Muhuachi Yutas are today known as the Mowatei band of Utes. And apparently, Tebehuachi is a Ute word meaning people living on the warm side of the mountain. Which mountain? Well they roamed from northern New Mexico to Pikes Peak in Colorado so… take your guess. There is a Tebehuachi Peak in Colorado, North of San Luis Valley which is where Great Sand Dunes National park sits up against the Sangre de Christo Mountains. The same mountains that reach down into Santa Fe. The Peak is just south of Mount Princeton. I’ve been to the massive San Luis Valley many a times. The Great Sand Dunes is a favorite spot of mine, not to mention the UFO watchtower just off of 17. I’ve also stayed at the hot springs resort that sits below Mount Princeton. The Tebehuachi’s homeland is a beautiful place so I’m not sure what they were doing that far west, unless maybe the Comanche and Apache had forced them in that direction.
Ultimately, they were moved to a reservation in southwest Colorado and became known as the Uncompahgre Utes. And Uncompahgre is a Ute word that means the rocks that make water red. Uncompahgre is also a word that will be thrown around a lot because at this point in our journey while they are looking for the Utes and following these mysterious footprints, they find themselves wandering today’s rough and tumble Uncompahgre Plateau after turning northeast, in the wrong direction.
One more note on that Escalante entry, he says the creek is known as the creek of the paralytics because someone, possibly Muniz, possibly Rivera before them, but someone had previously seen three paralyzed Indian women at its banks and so named it the river of the paralyzed. How Muniz was able to recognize that little creek but not the mountains and canyons around him… is beyond me. I’m almost certain he just made up a good story about that particular spot and told Escalante… to make it seem like he knew exactly where he was.
“oh yeah, I know this place, I once say three paralyzed Indian woman right on the banks of that river right there in that spot. That means these footprints are Tebehuachi, trust me, I know my footprints.”
I can picture Dominguez and Escalante rolling their eyes. How was he able to know who left the footprints?
Despite following the fresh prints around present day Disappointment Creek, they still wouldn’t see an Indian for 6 more days. Disappointing indeed.
On August 18th they didn’t want to cross the Dolores river because it was quite treacherous with steep cliffs and many a rock with which they would have had to have crossed. Not to mention the tall mesas. They also feared their horses hooves would get worn out and bruised. They traveled on that day, the least so far.
Today the area’s filled with various mines and barely traversable roads. A lot of the mines were for Uranium. The Cold War wasn’t going to win itself and all those nuclear reactors on our subs and ships had to run on something. Not to mention those 10s of thousands of nuclear bombs.
On the 19th, stuck between the rough wet canyon or a dry plateau with no water, panic begins to seep into the entries of the journal. And their quote unquote guides, Muñiz brothers weren’t much help. Escalante writes:
We conferred with the companions who had journeyed through this region as to which direction we should take in order to forestall so many difficulties, and each one had a different opinion. Therefore, finding ourselves in this quandary, not knowing if we could follow the path mentioned or if it was better to backtrack a little and take the trail which goes to the Sabuagana Yutas, we put our trust in God. End quote.
While trying to find a way out of the canyon and towards the Tabahuachi, the group found another trail that the guides claimed led to these Sabuaganas. Apparently the Muniz brothers are excellent footprint readers because they said, yeah these are definitely Sabuagana Yutas, trust us. And also, Escalante writes, albeit four days from this time, but he writes, quote, a Sabuagana chief is said by our interpreter and others to be very friendly toward the Spaniards and to know a great deal about the country. End quote.
So the Adres Muñiz and others… others being? His brother? And the two stowaways? He doesn’t specify. They now had a dilemma on their hands. To fix the problem, the padres prayed and did some Catholic recitation stuff and then for the first time but not the last time on this expedition, they decided to draw lots. Were they going the way they were presently going down despite it being difficult and dangerous to the Tabahuachi, or were they going to find the Sabuagana Yutas aka the Mowataviwatsiu Utes. The method they use to draw the lots, is unknown but the one they drew was to head towards the Sabs. They were going to start looking for these new Indians. The Sabs as I took to writing it out during research, aka the Sabuagana, aka the Mowataviwasiu Yutas are now also known as the Uncompaghre Utes after they joined with the Tabahuachi and others upon the benevolent insistence of the United States Government in the 1800s. Best to deal with aka conquer one unified tribe and chief than a bunch of separate and individual groups the thinking was in Washington.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret the conquering our ancestors accomplished, I wouldn’t have this podcast if it hadn’t have happened. We wouldn’t be a nation. But the destruction of culture and individuality is lamentable and is just one in a sea of tragedies against our neighbors. Which is always easy to lambast with hind site.
This drawn lot and the decision to follow the trail to the Sabs, that did not go over well with their seasoned veteran, M&P and apparently he vociferously disagreed with their new route-finding. Therefore, the padres put Andres Muñiz in charge. After all, he was the one that said they were definitely for sure heading in a much better direction towards much better Indians.
This passage from the journal then follows: Andrés the interpreter took us over a high rough incline, so rocky that we expected to find ourselves forced to backtrack from halfway up, for the mounts were being so much abused that many of them were marking the spoor on the stones with the blood which these were drawing from their hind and fore feet. We climbed it with the most trying labor and at the end of several northbound hours, after having gone about a quarter league in the ascent, we traveled a mile northwest atop the crest.
And from here we saw that the trail went along the base of this mesa and over good and entirely level terrain. End quote.
So all of that climbing was for nothing. Why’d they even leave the trail and climb the hill in the first place? Muñiz brothers swing and miss again. You just know M&P was fuming at not being listened to…
And then, going down, while not rocky, was very steep and trying. And then, they found themselves enveloped in a painful field of prickly pear cactus. And then they were in yet another dry arroyo dead end canyon.
At the end of the grueling and aggravating day, they only went 10 miles and they didn’t see a single Sabuagana. Again… Miera y Pacheca, and by now, everyone else except the Muñiz brothers must have been quite chapped. Roberts writes this of the end of that rough day:
At the end of the day, however, just when tempers must have been stretched to the breaking point, the men stumbled upon a generous pool of water fed by a small spring. And not only were there abundant footprints around the spring, but also "the ruins of huts"-Ute wickiups. The Sabuaganas had camped here, though how long before, no one could say. End quote.
The next two days were filled with bad canyons and waterless stretches and plenty of rough land and rough desert prickly plants. And probably much frustration. It almost seemed like aimless wandering. They would hit rivers and creeks though.
They were still heading northeast on the 23rd towards what they hoped would be Ute Indians. Instead they passed more dry land. At least they finally found some grass at one point for their horses.
At this point, Escalante confusingly wrote that they were now expecting to run into Tabehuachi Utes instead of the Sabs. Go figure.
Near this grassy area they also found some Anasazi or Fremont ruins that seemed to have been repurposed as a fortification against some sort of attack. Although, they could have just always looked like that. These ruins have yet to be rediscovered in the modern era. I would love to be the one to find them one day…
BUT, on THAT day, the 23rd of August, the D&E Expedition finally found what they’d been so desperately searching for the past few days! Yet, in the journal, none of the joy and excitement they no doubt felt is portrayed throughout these passages.
Quote: After one league of travel to the northeast and another to the east, we were overtaken by a Tabehuachi Yuta, who was the first one we had seen in all that we had traveled until now.... In order to talk with him at leisure, we halted near the beginning of the water source where we had rested, and here we named it La Fuente de la Guia [The Guide's Fountain]. We gave him something to eat and to smoke, and afterward through the interpreter we asked him various questions about the land ahead, the rivers, and their course. We also asked him where the Tabehuachis, Muhuachis, and Sabuaganas were. At first he denied knowing anything, even the country where he lived. End quote.
Could he have been briefed by his elders to not help these Spaniards and to keep them away from their lands? Just as the Utes had done over a decade before with Rivera? Or was it truly as Escalante suggests and this guy, who was on horseback mind you, but could this guy really just have been so scared as to not be able to answer? I doubt it.
Escalante continues: After the Ute had lost some of the fear and suspicion with which he conversed with us, he said that the Sabuaganas were all in their own country and that soon we would be meeting them. End quote.
This man then went on to describe in detail the lay of the land and the people. Escalante studiously wrote it all down. Afterwards, Escalante suggested towards this Tabehuachi man that maybe possibly he might want to be their guide? At least to the chieftain of this friendly band of Sabuagana Utes?
To the party’s relief and to my surprise, this man eventually agrees on condition that they wait for him here at this watering hole until he arrives back in the morning. They all agreed that this was good and off he went, probably to talk over the next steps with his people.
Do they follow the same playbook they had thus far of avoiding the Spanish? Especially now that these guys were pretty far north and pretty deep into their territory and avoiding them will get increasingly more difficult as they approach their camps? Or do they use the Rivera playbook and deflect, deflect, deflect. Of course without telling them they’re deflecting.
The following morning, before the sun was at mid day, the man returned and he brought with him his family of two women and five children of which two of the children were at the breast. So new little babies. Escalante remarks that they were all quote, good looking and agreeable. End quote.
This good looking little family also brought them some tanned deerskins, dried manzanita berries, and quote, other articles to barter, end quote. But remember, these guys were NOT there to trade with the Indians. At least, not yet. They weren’t in dire need quite yet, so trading was a no go, as everyone had promised before leaving. It isn't like they brought much to trade with anyways, honestly.
This though, this lack of wanting to trade, confused the Ute man and his family at first. If you’re not wandering around here wanting to trade, then why on earth ARE you wandering around here? I think the padres could sense the questions and accusations forming in the minds of these Utes and the expedition desperately did not want to be seen as conquerers. So shortly after explaining they weren’t there to trade, the Spaniards did some trading. They exchanged some flour for some venison and some manzanita berries, which Escalante had earlier written that they were, quote, like grapes, and very tasty. End quote. And then eventually the Ute man accepted two knives and sixteen strings of white glass beads for… his services as a guide.
********************** Again, would this man guide them to their intended destination or was he gonna pull a Rivera on them? I would certainly think this man was old enough to remember Rivera’s entrada, right? So far, they’ve been on the road for 28 long, arduous, and beautiful days filled with intrigue, danger, deception, and a little drama. But the expedition was just getting started and the road ahead was even longer and tougher than anyone on the team anticipated it would be. How long and tough?
Next time the group arrives at the camp of the Sabuaganas before plunging even deeper into the unknown and towards that mythical land of Tewayo. Stay tuned, and I’ll be seeing you again, in the American Southwest.
The Dominguez & Escalante Journal Edited by Ted J Warner
Escalante’s Dream: On the Trail of the Spanish Discovery of the Southwest by David Roberts
Without Noise of Arms: The 1776 Dominguez-Escalante Search for a Route from Santa Fe to Monterey by Walter Briggs
The Report of Fray Alonso de Posada in Relation to Quivira and Teguayo by S. Lyman Tyler & H. Darrel Taylor
The Myth of the Lake of Copala and the Land of Teguayo by S Lyman Tyler
http://npshistory.com/publications/kessell/kiva-cross-crown/chap6.htm Kessell- Kiva cross and crown
https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/juan-antonio-maría-de-rivera
The Phantom Pathfinder: Juan Maria Antonio de Rivera and His Expedition by G Clell Jacobs
The Rivera Expedition by Thomas G. Alexander