OCR Text |
Show The Spanish Period The first European people to invade the Ute lands were the Spanish. With the arrival of the Spanish came the horse and a change of life style for the Ute people. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish and the horse, the cultural level of the Utes was considered low by the Plains Indians and those people located to the south of the Ute domain. The Spanish helped to change the view of the Utes that other Indian tribes held. In a short time after Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean Isles in 1492, the Spanish explored that region, sailed along the eastern shores of the North and South Americas, discovered the Pacific, navigated the Gulf of Mexico, located the mouth of the Mississippi River, landed in Florida and conquered Mexico. All of this had been accomplished by 1530, only forty years after Europe had discovered the American continent. Ten years later Francisco Vasquez de Coro-nado extended the invasion of the Spanish into northern New Spain, now northern Mexico and southwestern United States. The desire for wealth had brought the Spanish to the American continent and Coronado to the Southwest. The Indians had told the Spanish stories of the rich cities of Cibola lying to the north. Coronado and his men were looking for these seven cities of Cibola when they came upon the Zuni pueblo and later discovered the Grand Canyon. Coronado's expedition failed to find the great wealth told of in the stories, but they did explore a large portion of the Southwest and Plains regions of the United States. While crossing the plains of northeastern New Mexico, Coronado may have encountered a group of Utes. By the time of Coronado the Utes were trading with the Plains Indians for products that could then be taken to the trading centers of Taos and Pecos in New Mexico. Buffalo hides and meat were important parts of these trading relations; consequently, the Utes were called "buffalo eaters" or Querechos by the Spanish.1 The stories of riches to the north continued to bring more Spanish explorers or conquistadores into New Mexico. One of these stories talked of the rich lands of Copala, an area far to the north of Mexico. 1 S. Lyman Tyler, "The Yuta Indians Before 1680," Western Humanities Review, V (Spring, 1951), 157-58. |