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Show The Utes were in a favorable position during the time that New Mexico was ruled by the Spanish, 1598-1821. The northward thrust of their empire reached but did not enter very much of the Ute area of residence, thus bringing the new items from Europe, especially the horse, without bringing the control of Spanish armies and government. Such areas of Ute residence as Abiquiu and Cimmaron were used as Spanish land, but because the Utes were usually part of an alliance which made their contacts with the Spanish desirable, they took advantage of this situation rather than resist it. As a response to growing French and British power in North America, Charles III of Spain launched an attempt to expand and garrison the areas north of Mexico. The California missions and presidios were founded in this thrust to the north, and the new capital of Alta California was established at Monterey. It seemed natural that the two capitals of the north, Santa Fe and Monterey, should have a road connecting them, thus avoiding the necessity of a return to Mexico to go from one northern outpost to the other. The journey to attempt to discover such a route brought the first journal descriptive of a large part of the Ute domain. Two fathers of the Franciscan Order, Atanasio Efominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante, were chosen to lead the expedition in 1776. Dominguez was the formal leader, but Escalante was the scribe, and his remarkable diary has caused the expedition to bear his name. |