622 



SPANISH INFLUENCE 



[b. a. e. 



of the S. W. have been discussed in detail 

 by Bandelier (Papers Arch. Inst. Am.), 

 Blackmar (Spanish Colonization in the 

 S. W., 1890; Spanish Institutions of the 

 S. W., 1891, and Bancroft (History of the 

 Pacific States). The fame of the so-called 

 Seven Cities of Cibola and the quest for 

 gold led the Spaniards northward from 

 Old Mexico as early as 1539. Within the 

 present bounds of Arizona the permanent 

 results of Spanish occupancy were of con- 

 sequence through the planting of Jesuit 

 missions in the southern part of the ter- 

 ritory, in the latter part of the 17th cen- 

 tury, where the Pima and Papago were 

 chiefly concerned. The expulsion of the 

 Jesuits in 1767 and the transfer of author- 

 ity to the Franciscans affected the Indians 

 unfavorably, at first, but the missions 

 prospered again later, and the famous 

 church of San Xavier del Bac (q. v. ) still 

 stands as a monument to their skill and 

 energy. The unsatisfactory condition of 

 affairs in Mexico, the constant incursions 

 of the Apache, and the neglect of the 

 outlying garrisons caused the missions 

 almost to cease their activity by 1830, 

 and in 1853, by the Gadsden purchase, 

 s. Arizona passed into the possession of 

 the United States. 



On the Hopi of n. e. Arizona the Span- 

 iards made no such deep impression as on 

 the Pueblos of the Rio Grande, chiefly 

 for the reason that missions were not re- 

 established among the former after the 

 Pueblo rebellion of 1680-92. Neverthe- 

 less, the introduction of horses, burros, 

 sheep, goats, cattle, wheat, peaches, fire- 

 arms, the cart, the wooden plow, iron 

 axes, adzes, and other tools, and prob- 

 ably the hand loom, had marked effect on 

 the daily life of the people even if it did 

 not affect their religious beliefs and prac- 

 tices. The introduction of sheep alone 

 had an important result, no small meas- 

 ure of which was the complete changing 

 of the Navaho, once largely a predatory 

 tribe like their Apache cousins, into a 

 pastoral people. In New Mexico the in- 

 fluence of the Spaniards was more last- 

 ing and far-reaching than in Arizona. 

 The Europeans were welcomed at first 

 and hospitably received, the natives even 

 taking kindly to the new religion of the 

 missionaries as powerful "new medi- 

 cine," adding to their own ancient rites 

 and ceremonies those of the Roman 

 Catholic church and even sincerely 

 adopting the latter so long as the pro- 

 tection of the Spaniards against the pred- 

 atory tribes was effective. The Indians, 

 it should be said, were not affected 

 by the Inquisition, being regarded as 

 minors so far as religious inatters were 

 concerned. Not only is the outward 

 form of Christianity preserved among the 

 New Mexican Pueblos, but for many 



things they hold the Christian religion to 

 be the only potent magic, "God being 

 regarded as an outside spiritual being 

 who can do much good within a certain 

 sphere of action and great harm if inter- 

 fered with from the other side of the 

 house" (Bandelier, inf'n, 1905). Tools 

 of Spanish proveniance largely replaced 

 the wooden dibble, greatly facilitating 

 agriculture; the Spanish cart, however 

 clumsy, was a vast improvement over the 

 former method of transporting the har- 

 vest on the back; while the horse, the 

 mule, and the burro promoted travel and 

 traffic to a degree almost beyond reckon- 

 ing, and supplied the machinery for 

 threshing the wheat, that was unknown 

 before the Spaniards came. The houses 

 also show the effect of Spanish influence 

 when compared with the ruins of ancient 

 dMellings. The horse making it possible 

 to transport longer beams, the rooms are 

 more capacious than formerly. Wooden 

 doors and windows, molded adobe bricks, 

 chimneys, and probably surface ovens 

 also owe their origin to the Spaniards, as 

 do likewise doorways to the lower rooms, 

 access to which was formerly gained 

 through the roof until the presence of the 

 whites made no longer necessary this 

 device for protection against predatory 

 enemies. The Spaniards made some 

 changes in the method of government of 

 the New Mexican Pueblos, causing each 

 to elect annually a governor and other 

 civil officers, a custom still prevailing, 

 although the governor is usually selected 

 by the caciques, and is not much more 

 than their mouthpiece. 



From Bourke's resume of "The Laws 

 of Spain in their Application to the Amer- 

 ican Indians" (Am. Anthr., vii, 193, 1894) 

 we gain a more favorable view of the 

 disposition of the Spanish authorities 

 than is generally entertained . The Span- 

 iards accepted more or less assimila- 

 tion, and "left upon the American con- 

 tinent communities of aborigines whose 

 social and moral condition has been 

 most appreciably improved by the intro- 

 duction of horses, cattle, sheep, goats, 

 hogs, and chickens, the planting of or- 

 chards of peaches, oranges, and other 

 fruits, as well as vineyards, and instruc- 

 tion in such new trades as carpentry, 

 saddlery, blacksmithing, and wagon mak- 

 ing, or the improvement of such pre- 

 historic handicrafts as stone masonry, 

 weaving, basket-making, and pottery." 

 As Bourke points out, some of these 

 Spanish laws continue still to be observed 

 in the Indian pueblos. In the villages of 

 New Mexico, for example, the Indians 

 sell in their own markets and not to those 

 they meet on the way thither. As Bande- 

 lier (Papers Arch. Inst. Am., 188-319, 

 1890) and Lummis (Spanish Pioneers, 



