Zebulon Montgomery Pike was sent west in 1806, ostensively to find the headwaters of the Red River. But from then on resistance to the colonial policy grew.Īnd in the young United States of the early 1800s, fascination with the Southwest held strong. Revolution broke out in 1810 in Mexico and was quickly squelched. But the people of colonial Mexico chafed under the colonial restrictions of Spain. Yet, because of conditions in the empire, these trade routes were never opened. Louis (Missouri), and San Antonio, (Texas). He led expeditions between Santa Fe and Natchitoches, (Louisiana), St. Pedro Vial became the unofficial explorer for New Mexico. On the New Mexico side, realizing the potential value of trade within the empire, once Spain had bought the Louisiana Country from France in 1762, an itinerant gunsmith who was living with the Comanche was commissioned to open a trade route between San Antonio (Texas) and Santa Fe. They did not succeed, but other Frenchmen entered New Mexico with trade goods, were arrested, their goods were confiscated, and they were sent packing. Instead the Mallet brothers were allowed to stay in Santa Fe for about a year before they headed back to the Mississippi River country to attempt to return with more goods. Officials in this provincial capital did not detain them or throw them in jail as they should have. They had brought items for trade, but had lost them along the way. In the year 1739, brothers Pierre and Paul Mallet finally arrived on the plaza in Santa Fe. Not until 1725 did the French, attempting to reach Santa Fe from the east come upon the same area. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and his band of explorers reached the center of the country (area of Lyons, Kansas) in 1542. This city with the exotic name became the target of explorers and adventurers from the east who saw their glory there. In the Eastern part of North America the city of Santa Fe was mentioned and associated with visions of gold and riches. Thus, New Mexico at the far reaches of the Spanish empire, suffered for goods and any that came there were expensive. The mother country of Spain treated her colony of Mexico in a typical manner - the only trade that could take place had to benefit the mother country. No doubt, other people were met as the New Mexicans explored outside of their territory and trade took place. But this was dangerous because it was the job of the Plains People to provide the buffalo in trade. Eventually, both the New Spanish settlers and the Pueblo Indians would head out onto the eastern plains and hunt buffalo.
It provided better defense when the People of the Plains were in a stress situation and had to conduct raids into New Mexico to survive. They too settled along the Rio Grande because that was where the water for irrigation was and where the bulk of the people were. This interdependent trade, which had been ongoing for hundreds of years, was tapped into by the Spanish settlers of New Mexico. The people of the Texas panhandle and the Great Plains would trade buffalo meat and products of the buffalo with the Pueblos of New Mexico for agricultural products such as beans, corn, and squash. By the time Juan de Oñate arrived in New Mexico in 1598, trade was ongoing between the Pueblo Villages of the Rio Grande Valley and the people in the vicinity of the Texas panhandle, generally in the Amarillo, Texas, area. This trading may not have taken place with one person traveling across the plains to another village trade goods may have been traded hand-to-hand and village-to-village.
And, conversely, there is evidence of Hopewellian designs in the Pueblos of the Southwest. As early as 1200 A.D., there is evidence of Southwestern Pueblo designs in the area of the Hopewellian Culture along the Ohio River valley. Long before Europeans came to the North American continent, there was trading taking place across the Great Plains. Santa Fe Trail Association A History of the Santa Fe TrailĪ History of the Santa Fe Trail by Harry C.
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