The American Nation A History of the United States, Combined Volume (14th Edition)

their hunting bands increased, the
Comanche encroached on Apache
territory. Soon Comanche warriors,
occasionally assisted by French
traders and soldiers, raided remote
Spanish and Pueblo settlements in
New Mexico and Texas. “We do
not have a single gun,” declared
one Spanish missionary in 1719,
“while we see the French giving
hundreds of arms to Indians.” One
recent historian refers to the emer-
gence of a Comanche “empire.”
The new threat from maraud-
ing Indians and scheming
Frenchmen prompted the Spanish
to strengthen the presidio—fortified
bases—at Santa Fe and San Antonio
and to build new missions in east
Texas. In an effort to preempt
future attacks, the Spanish also dis-
patched a military expedition into
Nebraska. But Pawnee Indians and
the French ambushed and routed
the invaders; from now on, Spanish
garrisons and their Pueblo allies
rarely ventured beyond their towns
and missions.
The ascendancy of the Plains
Indians endangered all of the new
frontier missions and discouraged
further settlement. In 1759 a
Spanish commander of a presidio complained that
the Comanche were “so superior in firearms as well
as in numbers that our destruction seems probable.”
San Antonio, the largest town, had only 600
Hispanic settlers.
The trade in Indian slaves remained an enduring
aspect of life along the sparsely populated northern
rim of New Spain. Catholic missionaries usually
prevented Spanish traders from enslaving Pueblo
Indians, many of whom lived in mission towns and
knew the rudiments of Catholicism. But no such argu-
ments could protect the “wild” Indians such as the
Ute of the foothills of the Rockies.
Because adult males resisted capture and incorpo-
ration into colonial society, most Indian slaves were
women and children. In 1761 Father Pedro Serrano
reported that at one New Mexican trade fair Indian
women over the age of ten were raped “in the sight of
innumerable assemblies of barbarians and Catholics”
before they were sold.
Indian slaves often had children by Hispanic
fathers, who rarely acknowledged these offspring.
Known as genizaros, these children occupied the

bottom rung of a social system largely based on the

status of fathers. Genizaros learned Spanish and

received training in Catholicism. In some towns, they

comprised a third of the population. Females usually

worked as household servants, and males, as

indentured servants on ranches. Spanish officials,

eager to increase the numbers of Spanish colonists,

grantedgenizarosthe right to own property. Many

became ranchers and herders.

While the Comanche terrorized the frontier of

New Mexico and Texas, Spanish officials learned of a

new threat in the 1760s: Britain and Russia were

attempting to colonize the Northwest, the region

that now comprises Oregon and Washington. This

threatened Spain’s claims to California, a remote

wilderness inhabited by some 300,000 Indians. As in

New Mexico, Spain failed to attract Hispanic settlers;

so it invited Franciscan missionaries to create

“Spanish” settlers by converting the Indians to

Catholicism and Hispanicizing their language and

culture. This did not prove easy. The Indians of

California belonged to over 300 tribes that spoke

nearly 100 different languages.

Society in New Mexico, Texas, and California 55

Gulf

of

Mexico

PACIFIC

OCEAN

Ri

oG

ran

de

Under Spanish Control

Presidio

Presidio with Town

Mission

Township

Indian Tribes

PUEBLO

APACHE

NEW SPAIN

UTE

YOKUTS

Mexico City

Loreto

Culiacán Durango

Zacatecas

San Luis Potosí

Guadalajara

Santander

Monterrey

Monclova

San Antonio

Chihuahua

El Paso

Santa Fe

Arispe Janos

Nacogdoches

Monterey

Santa Rosa

Sinaloa

San Buenaventura

Horcasitas

El Pitic

San Diego

Santa

Barbara

Altar

Tubac

Tucson

La Bahía

San Francisco

San Juan Bautista

Cerraivo

Spain’s North American Frontier, c. 1750This map of Spanish settlement is somewhat

deceptive: It shows a broad swath of land “under Spanish control” extending far north of New

Spain, to Santa Fe, and to San Antonio. In fact, Spanish colonization in the northern regions

was patchy, consisting of scattered religious missions and military garrisons. By 1750, Spanish

colonists, Indian natives, and slaves had intermarried, changing the cultures of all.