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Show The Spanish Period 7 also needed the trade in horses that the Spanish could provide. In 1750 peace between the Utes and the Spanish was obtained.1" Trading, trapping and exploration brought renewed interest in the land north of Taos. With the peace of 1750 the Spanish were able to re-establish Abiquiu as a point of departure to the north. From Abi-quiu the Spanish were then able to send trading parties into the Ute country to trade for the soft deerskins that the Utes were able to provide. The Spanish also became interested in trapping the numerous rivers of the Ute nation for fur bearing animals, a product that was in great demand in Europe. Finally, the Spanish were still interested in the land of Copala and its potential wealth and locating an overland route through that area to the West Coast.11 Almost immediately after Abiquiu had been re-established, trading parties were sent to trade with the Utes. In 1765 Juan Maria de Rivera was sent across the San Juan River, below the southern end of the La Plata Mountains, up the Dolores River and along the Uncom-pahgre Plateau to the Gunnison River to trade and trap for furs. During the next ten years Rivera led three other expeditions into the Ute lands. Others who explored the region to the north of New Mexico were Nicolas de La Fora in 1766-67, Pedro Mora with Gregorio Sandoval and Andres Muniz in 1775, and Fray Francisco Garces in 1775-76. Garces, first assigned as resident minister at San Xavier del Bac in 1768, traveled extensively for the next thirteen years in Sonora, Arizona, and California as a missionary to the Indians. During this time Garces undertook five expeditions to the Indians, two to the Gila River and one to the Colorado River, another to California and the fifth, in 1775-76, from the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers to the mouth of the Colorado River and west to the San Gabriel mission in California through the land of the Mohaves and Chemehuevis. He then returned to San Xavier del Bac through the Tulare Valley back into the Mohave country to the Gila River.12 The Indians Garces encountered on this fifth expedition were mostly of the Yuman stock but these people had much to say about the tribes surrounding them, among whom were the Utes. Garces brought 10 Schroeder, "Brief History," p. 59. 11 Tyler, "Spaniard and the Ute," p. 347. 12 Tyler, "Before Escalante," pp. 187-193. |
