Jicarilla Apache

The Jicarilla Apaches are one of the Athabaskan linguistic groups that migrated out of Canada, by 1525 CE, and possibly several hundred or more years earlier,[7] and lived in what they considered their land bounded by four sacred rivers in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado: the Rio Grande, Pecos River, Arkansas River, and Canadian River containing sacred mountain peaks and ranges and ranged out into the plains of northwestern Texas and the western portions of Oklahoma and Kansas.[8][9] They were found to be in the Chama Valley, New Mexico, and points east by the 1600s. Prior to that time, and the arrival of the Spanish, the Jicarilla lived a relatively peaceful existence.[10]

In the 1600s, the Jicarillas were seminomadic, practicing seasonal agriculture that they learned from the Pueblo people and Spaniards of New Spain along the rivers that flow through their territory.[11][12]

The Apache are linked to the Dismal River culture of the western Plains,[13] generally attributed to the Paloma and Quartelejo (also Cuartelejo) Apaches. Jicarilla Apache pottery has also been found in some of the Dismal River complex sites.[14] Some of the people of the Dismal River culture joined the Kiowa Apache in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Due to pressure from the Comanche from the west and Pawnee and French from the east, the Kiowa and remaining people of Dismal River culture migrated south, where they later joined the Lipan Apache and Jicarilla Apache nations.[14]

By the 1800s, they were planting along the rivers, especially along the upper Arkansas River and its tributaries, a variety of crops, sometimes using irrigation to aid in growing squash, beans, pumpkins, melons, peas, wheat, and corn. They found farming in the mountains safer than on the open plains. They primarily hunted buffalo into the 17th century, and thereafter hunted antelope, deer, mountain sheep, elk, and buffalo. From the wild, women gathered berries, agave, honey, onions, potatoes, nuts, and seeds.[11][12]

Apachean tribes ca. 18th century: WA – Western Apache, N – Navajo, Ch – Chiricahua, M – Mescalero, J – Jicarilla, L – Lipan, Pl – Plains Apache

From the Jicarilla creation story, the land bounded by the four sacred rivers was provided to them by the Creator, with select places for communicating with the Creator and spirits, sacred rivers and mountains to be respected and conserved, and very specific places for obtaining items for ceremonial rituals, such as white clay found 18 miles (29 km) southeast of Taos, red ochre 20 miles (32 km) north of Taos and yellow ochre on a mountain near Picuris Pueblo. They believe the "heart of the world" is located near Taos.[15][16]

Traditional Jicarilla stories of White Shell Woman, Killer of the Enemies, Child of the Water and others feature places and nearby people special to them, such as the Rio Grande Gorge, Picuris Pueblo, the spring and marsh near El Prado, Hopewell Lake and particularly of the Taos Pueblo and the four sacred rivers. The Jicarilla created shrines in sites that held spiritual meaning, sharing some of the Taos area sites with the Taos Pueblo.[17]

Of the connection to Taos, in 1865 Father Antonio José Martínez, a New Mexican priest, commented that the Jicarilla had a long history living between the mountains and the villages and making pottery as an important source of income. Clay for the pottery came from the Taos and Picuris Pueblo areas.[18]

Due to increase in other populations, Manifest Destiny, and Indian Wars, the Apaches' traditional cultural and economic lifestyle became strained. Many people died due to famine, Indian Wars, including the Battle of Cieneguilla and diseases not indigenous to the American continent for which they had no resistance.

When the Comanche, who had obtained guns from the French, with their close allies and kin, the Ute, were pushing out onto the plains, they were pillaging the various eastern Apache peoples (Jicarilla, Mescalero and Lipan) occupying the southern plains for control. As they were pushed off the plain, the Jicarilla moved to the mountains and near the pueblos and Spanish missions where they sought alliance with the Puebloan peoples and the Spanish settlers.[10] For instance, in 1724 several Apache bands were annihilated by the Comanches who forced them to "give up half their women and children, and then they burned several villages, killing all but sixty-nine men, two women, and three boys." The Jicarillas were forced to seek a refuge into the eastern Sangre de Cristo Mountains north of the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. Some chose to move to the Pecos Pueblo in New Mexico or joined the Mescalero and Lipan bands in Texas.[19] In 1779 a combined force of Jicarilla, Ute, Pueblo, and Spanish soldiers defeated the Comanche, who, after another seven years and several more military campaigns, finally sued for peace. Thereafter the Jicarilla were able to reestablish themselves in their old tribal territory in southern Colorado.[20]

The geography of the Jicarilla tribal territory consists of two fundamental environments which helped shape the basic social organization of the Tribe into two bands: the Llaneros, or plains people, and the Olleros, or mountain valley people.[21][22][23]

Beginning in the 19th century, after being pushed out of the plains, the Jicarilla split into two bands:

• The Olleros, the mountain people - pottery making clan, a.k.a. Northern Jicarilla, lived west of the Rio Grande along the Chama River[24] of New Mexico and Colorado, settled down as farmers, became potters and lived partly in Pueblo-like villages (6 local groups). They began subsidizing their livelihood through sales of micaceous clay pottery and basketry and learned to farm from their Pueblo neighbors. Ollero is Spanish for "potters". Their autonym, or name for themselves, is Saidindê for "Sand People" or "Mountain People" or "Mountain Dwellers"; The Spanish rendering is Hoyeros meaning "mountain-valley people".[21][22][23] The Capote Band of Utes (Kapota, Kahpota), living east of the Great Divide south of the Conejos River and east of the Rio Grande west towards the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in the San Luis Valley, along the headwaters of the Rio Grande and along the Animas River, centering in the vicinity of today Chama and Tierra Amarilla of Rio Arriba County, joined in an alliance with the Olleros (like the Muache with the Llaneros) against the Southern Plains Tribes like the Comanche and Kiowa (their former allies) and Southern Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne and maintained trade relations to Puebloan peoples[25]
• The Llaneros, the plains people clan, a.k.a. Eastern Jicarilla, lived as nomads in tipis, called kozhan by the Jicarilla, followed and hunted buffalo on the plains east of the Rio Grande centering along the headwaters of the Canadian River. During the winter they lived in the mountains between the Canadian River and the Rio Grande, camped and traded near Picuris Pueblo, New Mexico, Pecos, New Mexico and Taos, New Mexico (8 local groups). Their autonym, or name for themselves, is Gulgahén for "Plains People"; the Spanish picked it up as Llaneros - "Plains Dwellers".[21][23][26]

Southwestern Defense System before the Civil War. Source:National Park Service

The Battle of Cieneguilla (pronounced sienna-GEE-ya; English: small swamp) was an engagement of a group of Jicarilla Apaches, their Ute allies, and the American 1st Cavalry Regiment on March 30, 1854 [27] near what is now Pilar, New Mexico.[28]

By the mid-1800s tensions between the Spanish, multiple Native American nations and westward expanding United States settlers erupted as all sought and laid claim to land in the southwest. Diseases to which Native Americans had no immunity "decimated" their tribes, creating greater pressure for their lands to be taken from them. As tensions of Native Americans grew and numerous attempts to relocate them from their traditional hunting and gathering land and sacred homelands, the Jicarilla became increasingly hostile in their efforts to protect their lands.[29] The United States military developed a defense system of forts and troops to restrict attacks on westward travelers. Fort Union was established, in part, to provide protection from the Jicarillas. The disruption and "mutual incomprehensions" of one another's culture led to warfare among the Spanish, Native American nations and Americans.[29]

Leo E. Oliva, author of Fort Union and the Frontier Army in the Southwest, notes that: "The three cultural groups in the Southwest had different concepts of family life, personal values, social relations, religion, uses and ownership of land and other property, how best to obtain the provisions of life, and warfare."[29]

Fort Union was established by Colonel Edwin Vose Sumner who ordered Major James Henry Carleton's Company K 1st Dragoons on August 2, 1851 to protect of westward travelers between Missouri and New Mexico Territory on the Santa Fe Trail.[29] New Mexico Territory's Governor William Carr Lane made treaties with the Jicarilla and other Native American tribes of New Mexico to relocate to reservations and peacefully take up agriculture on new lands and in agreed for payments to recompense for loss of access to their hunting, gathering and sacred homeland. The United States government, however, pulled the funding for this agreement, betraying the Native American tribal members. Further complicating the situation, all the crops planted by the tribal members failed and the people continued raiding for survival.[29]

Cenotaph marking where the body of a killed dragoon was found

In March 1854 Lobo Blanco, a Jicarilla chief, led a band of 30 warriors to raid the horse herd of a contractor for Fort Union; a detachment of 2nd U.S. Dragoons, led by Lieutenant David Bell, pursued the raiders, engaging a fight on the Canadian River and killing many of them, including the chief, who was repeatedly wounded and finally killed by crushing him under a boulder (March 4).[30]

In late March, Maj. George A. Blake, commanding officer at Burgwin Cantonment, sent a detachment of 1st U.S. Dragoon of 60 men (company I and part of company F) to patrol along the Santa Fe trail, and on March 30, 1854, a combined force of about 250 Apaches and Utes fought the U.S. dragoons, led by Lieutenant John Wynn Davidson, near Pilar, New Mexico, then known as Cieneguilla.[31] The battle lasted for 2,[32] or 4 hours according to surviving soldier James A. Bennett (aka James Bronson). The Jicarilla, led by their principal chief, Francisco Chacon, and Flechas Rayadas, fought with flintlock rifles and arrows, killing 22 and a wounding another 36 of 60 dragoon soldiers, who then retreated to Ranchos de Taos lighter by 22 horses and most of the troops' supplies.[29][33][34]

Lieutenant Colonel Philip St. George Cooke of the 2nd Dragoons Regiment at once organized an expedition to pursue the Jicarilla. With the help of 32 Pueblo Indian and Mexican scouts under Captain James H. Quinn, with Kit Carson as the principal guide. After a winter pursuit through the mountains, Cooke caught up with the Jicarilla, whose leader, Flechas Rayadas offered an agreement for peace in exchange for the horses and guns the Jicarilla acquired from the Battle, but the arrangement was not accepted. On April 8, Cooke Chief fought tribal members at their camp in the canyon of Ojo Caliente. Dispersing in small bands, the Jicarilla evaded further pursuit, but many died from the harsh cold weather.[29][35][34]

A large unit under Maj. James H. Carleton fought again the Jicarillas near Fisher's Peak, in the Raton Mountains, killing several Jicarillas, and Francisco Chacon replied by trying an ambush against the soldiers with 150 warriors, but the Jicarillas were bypassed: five warriors were killed and six wounded, and seventeen among women and children were scattered and probably died of cold and hunger during the flight.[34] In May, Francisco Chacon sent word to Santa Fe for peace and surrendered at Abiquiu.[34]

Portrait of a Jicarilla man, 1904

Portrait of a Jicarilla maiden, 1905

Following westward expansion of the United States and the resulting impacts to their livelihoods, attempts began in the mid-1850s to relocate the Jicarilla Apache, who became increasingly hostile to these pressures. In addition, relations with the Spanish also became hostile when the Spanish captured and sold Apache tribal members into slavery. After years of warfare, broken treaties, relocation and being the only southwestern tribe without a reservation, the two Jicarilla Llanero and Ollero bands united in 1873 and sent a delegation to Washington, D.C. to appeal for a reservation. Eventually United States President Grover Cleveland created the Jicarilla Apache Reservation through a United States executive order signed on February 11, 1887.[36]

Although they had finally obtained a reservation, it was spiritually disheartening to realize that they would no longer roam on their traditional holy lands and have access to the sacred places.[9] Once settled, they occupied separate areas of the Reservation. The animosities stemming from this period have persisted into the twentieth century, with the Olleros usually identified as progressives and the Llaneros as conservatives.[37]

The land on the reservation, except that held by non-tribal members, was not suitable for agriculture. As a means of survival, timber from the reservation was sold. In 1907 additional land was secured for the reservation, for a total of 742,315 acres (3,004 km²), that was suitable for sheep ranching which became profitable in the 1920s. Until that time, many people suffered from malnutrition and up to 90% of the tribe members had tuberculosis in 1914; By the 1920s it seemed likely that the Jicarilla Apache nation may become extinct due to trachoma, tuberculosis, and other diseases. After several difficult ranching periods, many of the previous sheep herders relocated to the tribal headquarters in Dulce, New Mexico. The Jicarilla suffered due to lack of economic opportunities for decades.[9][38][39]

Oil and gas development began on the reservation after World War II resulting in up to $1 million annually, some of which was set aside for a tribal scholarship fund and to develop the Stone Lake Lodge facility.[38][39] In 1982, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe, 455 U.S. 130 (1982) that the tribe had the authority to impose severance taxes on oil companies that were drilling for oil and natural gas on reservation land.[40]

As a means of repayment for lost tribal lands, the Jicarilla received a settlement in 1971 for $9.15 million.[38] The Jicarilla Apache made a claim for compensation to the U.S. Government when the Indian Claims Commission was created.[41] A two-volume technical report was submitted to the Commission on Spanish and Mexican grants, both unconfirmed and confirmed as part of the case.[42] The tribe was awarded $9,150,000 in the Commission's final judgment of April 20, 1971.[43]

In 2019, the census showed that there were 3,353 people living on the reservation.[44] A site for New Mexico states that there are about "2,755 tribal members, most of whom live in the town of Dulce."[1]