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Show TERRITORY OF THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO 30 this time and for many years afterward were the most numerous of the Indians in New Mexico. They roamed along both sides of the Rio Grande from the Navaj6é country in the north to the extreme southern line of the territory and from thence over the states of Chihuahua, Sonora, and Durango, in Mexico. Their range to the east was as far as the Pecos valley and they roamed the deserts and mountainous regions of western New Mexico, now Arizona, as far as the Pima villages on the Gila river. They were divided into numerous bands, each of which took its name from the district of country in which it was most frequently found, and all of which were under the control of separate and independent chiefs. It was never possible to control these Indians during the Mexican sovereignty, as they not only infested the entire portion of New Mexico but carried their depredations and plundering forays as far south as the city of Durango itself. The valley of the Rio Grande below the parallel of 33° 30’ was midway between the haunts of the Mescaleros or White Mountain Apaches and the Gila or Copper Mine and Mimbres river members of this tribe; as a consequence, along the valley of the Rio Grande and the highway known as the Jornada del Muerto, most they often raided of their the hone i rs * be fwae eh Palas ee Mee Se et ° cues A et Pwr ee ee Ree ae other settlements much depredations settlements were committed, although in the vicinity of Socorro farther north. It was always a and very difficult matter for the Mexicans to keep the route between El Paso and Valverde open so that travelers or trains would be approximately safe in making the journey from New Mexico to Chihuahua. The Apache would lie in wait along portions of the route remote from Settlements, for small parties and unprotected trains, and having plundered both travelers and wagons, would rapidly retreat to the fastnesses of the mountains east and west of the river. The Apaches, “xcept on a very limited scale, were not an agricultural people; their country did not abound in game, and no treaties or induceents could for any length of time restrain their plundering expeditions into the settlements of New Mexico. Prior to the advent of the Spaniard they had ravaged the towns and villages of the sedentary tribes. The Apache was entirely different in his characteristics from the majority of the tribes of the great plains; he Was legs intelligent, less bold, and had none of the war-like tastes or ‘ccomplishments of the Pawnee, the Kiowa, or the Sioux and other |