While putting this together, I came across a remarkable picture taken from the ISS of the whole San Luis Valley. There are few, if any clouds, and snow can be seen in the high county. The Rio Grande River can be seen snaking across the valley from the mountains above Creede. It flows Southeast across the valley to turn near Alamosa. It then flows south past Las Sauces and into New Mexico at the bottom of the picture.
It’s amazing.
Framed within that picture is millions of years of history.
Fact few know. Once, the valley was home to a super-volcano that easily rivaled the Yellowstone volcano. It’s responsible for much of the mineral wealth and geology of the Valley. It exploded millions of years ago. Experts say it was the most powerful explosion this planet has ever known. it even dwarfed the asteroid impact blamed for the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The remains of ancient animals to include fish and dinosaur fossils are occasionally uncovered.
About 10,000 years ago, the first humans wandered through. No doubt they were pursuing game animals. They left evidence behind in the form of arrowheads and pictographs. My father, who was an avid arrowhead hunter had found several spear points that closely resemble Folsom Points. and were no doubt left behind by some of the first visitors to the area.
Someplace in that picture is the remains of campsites and the remains of their dead. And someplace in that picture is one of the first permanent settlements in the area. That’s, the Taos Pueblo which rests at the foot of the Holy Mountain.
Someplace around 1598, the first Spaniards, an expedition under the command of Juan de Onate entered the Valley. He quickly laid claim to the area in the name of the King of Spain. Now, if the event would have only stayed there.
He was ordered to establish what we now know as Santa Fe. This is what we call colonization. The first rule of Colonization is you get rid of those already there. Spanish policies on Colonization were brutal in the extreme. It involved genocide and the forced submission of a people. Every effort was made to destroy their culture. This also meant enslavement, and a forcing of Spanish ways and Catholicism on them.
One such event that occurred at the pueblo of Acoma. The long and short of it, twelve soldiers, to include the brother of Juan de Onate raided the pueblo. They took food, blankets, and brutalized the people. The people of Acoma weren’t happy at all about this and found and killed the twelve soldiers.
As a result Juan de Onate fought what was destined to be one many of battles with Native Americans. In it, he and his troops killed over 800 inhabitants of the Acoma pueblo and enslaved almost another 500. At least two dozen of the inhabitants suffered amputations.
When reports the atrocities visited by De Onate and his men reached Spain, it shocked the king. In his eyes, Onate committed what we call today “A War Crime.” Onate was ordered home. He returned to Spain and never left it again.
There were several other expeditions into the valley, but Spain seems to have established colonies no further North than Taos. One the expeditions I plan to follow on this page is the Juan de Ulibarri expedition of 1706. His explorations (it was actually a rescue mission) took him out in the plains of Colorado and Western Kansas. There’s been some suggestion that he might have gone as far north as present-day Cheyenne, Wyoming.
I have a particular interest in this man since I married Julie Ulibarri, one of his descendants
The area was under the control of several different tribes and they were not to be trifled with. Attempts to push colonies North into the Valley almost always met with disaster. After the Mexican-American War, the area was ceded to the United States. With troops to help protect them, we saw the first towns established in the Valley.
The Acoma Massacre – learn about it here.
Juan de Ulibarri – Spain’s Captain Kirk – UNDER CONSTRUCTION
William R. Ablan, Police Mysteries 