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Show 30 The Intruders, 1550-1882 anche to fight these intruders. As a result, the pattern of alliances in the area shifted. By 1750 the Ute-Navajo alliance had broken up. Ute raids drove the Navajo further south, and the Navajo joined the Spanish and the Apache to oppose the Ute-Comanche alliance. About 1748 the Comanche allied themselves with the French and their Pawnee allies. With access to the French guns, the Comanche broke with their Ute allies and turned against them.8 In 1749 leaders of three Ute groups â€" Don Thomas of the "Utas," Barrington of the "Chaugaguas," and Chicito of the Moache â€" came to the Spanish settlement at La Canada to trade. This gave the Spaniards the opportunity to make peace and form a new alliance. Peace with the Utes was important. Ute attacks had forced Spaniards to abandon a number of their northern settlements, such as Abiquiu in 1747. The Utes were "a bold, warlike nation, skillful in the management of arms."9 And trade with the Ute People for tanned deerskins and other animal pelts was important to the Spaniards. There was also the extensive slave trade. The Ute People captured other Indians in the north and traded them for Spanish horses. The slaves were then sold in the southern Spanish settlements. Although there were protests against this trade from about 1650, the practice stopped only after the United States conquered the territory in the Mexican War two hundred years later. The Ute People were interested in allying themselves with the Spaniards for defense against the well-armed Comanche. And that alliance proved valuable for both. Spaniards found that the People helped protect the settlements, not only from the Comanche, but also from Navajo attacks. After nearly thirty years of periodic fighting, the Ute-Spanish forces, with their Apache and Pueblo allies, defeated the Comanche. The Comanche moved south, and the Apache moved further south and west. The Ute People were left in control of the lands north of New Mexico. In 1786 Spanish Governor Juan Baptista de Anza arranged a peace between the Comanche leader Ecueracapa and the Ute leaders Mora and Pinto. Soon the Spaniards had persuaded the Navajo to join this alliance, which was to last until the beginning of the nineteenth century.10 |