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Show The Mexican Period: 1821-1848 The Mexican government was anxious to continue and even increase the trading with the Ute Indians. To encourage peace, the Mexicans gave the Utes gifts throughout the 1820's. This policy paid off with the opening of the "Old Spanish Trail" which went through much of the Ute domain. Mule trains were able to depart from Abi-quiu, move up the Chama River to the San Juan River in Capote land, and down the San Juan to Utah and on to Los Angeles without being disturbed by the Utes. The peacefulness of the 1820's fell apart during the 1830's, however, as the Southern Utes began to feel the pressure of the Mexicans. Trading expeditions into the area had attracted people to the region, and the Tierra Amarilla land grant was allotted in July, 1832. It covered the region from the Rio Nutrias, an eastern tributary of the Chama River, north to the Navajo River on the upper San Juan. Later attempts were made to settle in the Conejos Valley, but a war with the Navajos forced the settlers to withdraw. Again, in 1842 or 1843, another settlement attempt was made in the same valley but the Mouache band drove the Mexicans off. As the Mexicans encroached on Ute land, the Utes strengthened their alliance with the Navajos against the Mexicans and other Indian tribes who were being pushed off the plains into the Ute hunting grounds. Both Utes and Navajos were raiding Mexican settlements in northern New Mexico during the 1830's and the 1840's, As the rule of the Mexican government came to an end in New Mexico, the northern regions of that area experienced raids from all directions. To the north the Mouache band was attacking on the east side of the Sangre de Cristo mountains and the Capote band with the aid of the Navajos was raiding in the Rio Arriba area.1 These raids worried the American officers who were occupying New Mexico during the Mexican War. To end this worry a treaty was signed between a band of Mouache Utes and the Americans. Signed in 1846 the treaty offered protection for that area which lay east and north of Taos, the area where these Utes lived. The treaty however did little to stop the Ute raiding on other New Mexico settlements. 1 Albert H. Schroeder, "A Brief History of the Southern Utes," Southwestern Lore, XXX, No. 4 (.1965), 63. |