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.And though theseofficial steps encouraged the development of the Rio Grandevalley as an area under U.S.control, the transition fromHispanic control was an awkward one.Although the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which endedthe Mexican-American War, had promised the benefits of43United States citizenship to Mexican Americans, as well asthe recognition of Spanish and Mexican land grants and theirtitles, in practice, both matters were commonly ignored byU.S.officials.This proved true in the territory of New Mexicoas well as in Texas.Despite the difficulties and tension thatsometimes marked relations between the Mexican populationof the Rio Grande valley and the Americans, a state of relativelypeaceful coexistence evolved.For Native Americans, however,life was harsher.Since the early days of European colonization of the region,the Native American population had suffered great indignities.While Spain had controlled the Southwest, Spanish authoritieshad promoted a dual program of subjugation and conversionof the Indians.During the years of Mexican control, NativeAmericans had gained some autonomy.With the arrival of theAmericans and their hands-on approach to governing, however,Native Americans faced new challenges.One of the immediate effects of the U.S.acquisition oflands in the Southwest was the arrival of thousands of minerswhose search for gold and silver disrupted Indian culturepatterns and their general way of life.Miners rarely expectedto remain for a prolonged period in one place; but althoughthey kept the Native population at arm s length, the presenceof so many miners was intrusive.Repeated clashes between The Americans Arrive 87miners and Native Americans led to a series of Indian Warsafter 1850.During the early 1860s, U.S.expansion in the territory ofNew Mexico drove the Apache and Navajo people to fierceresistance.Mescalero Apache and Navajo bands raided miningcamps and stole cattle.Utes, Zuis, and even Mexican-Americansjoined in these challenges to the U.S.presence along theRio Grande valley.U.S.Army Brigadier General James H.Carleton began developing a plan to subjugate the rebellioustribes and contain the resistance.He was not a man known forhis patience with the Indians.It became Carleton s mission toround up all renegade Native Americans in the Southwestand place them on a reservation.The site he selected was adry strip of land between the Rio Grande and the Pecos River.It was called Bosque Redondo, which translates as circulargrove of trees. (For additional information on this Indianreservation, enter Bosque Redondo into any search engineand browse the many sites listed.)Orders to accomplish Carleton s mission were handed toKit Carson, a mountain man and western guide, then a colonelin the New Mexico Cavalry.Carson launched a difficult butsuccessful campaign against the Mescaleros in 1863.Thatspring, he brought 400 Mescaleros to Bosque Redondo;another 200 Mescaleros were brought by year s end.For theMescaleros, the move to the reservation lands was not adramatic change.Bosque Redondo was near their homelands,and they agreed to move there in exchange for promises ofa renewal of peace negotiations.When such talks did nottake place, the Mescaleros left the reservation.(Because theMescaleros probably did not see themselves as having been captured, they most likely did not view leaving BosqueRedondo as an escape. )In the meantime, Carson went after the Navajos.For sixgrueling months, Carson and his men fought the Navajos in(continued on page 90) 88 THE RIO GRANDEWAR ON THE RIO GRANDE BORDERFrom the beginning of the arrival of the Americans into the regionof the Rio Grande, clashes between the Anglos and the Mexicanpopulation were common.One clash in the late 1850s escalatedinto a full-scale revolt.On a midsummer s day in 1859, Juan Nepomuceno Cortina, alocal cattle rancher and lifelong resident of the region, stood on astreet in Brownsville, Texas, and watched as a city marshal beat aMexican worker with the butt of his pistol.Outraged, Cortinademanded the law enforcement official stop the beating.When themarshal refused, Cortina shot him in the shoulder.The Mexicanworker and Cortina then rode out of town at a gallop.Cortina s family had lived in the Lower Rio Grande valley since hisgreat-great-grandfather had entered the then-northern Spanishborderlands during the 1700s.He had seen fellow Mexicans mis-treated by local Anglos on many occasions.The scene he witnessedin Brownsville so outraged Cortina that he returned two monthslater to the Rio Grande town with perhaps as many as 80 followers.Cortina s men broke 12 Mexicans out of the Brownsville jail andkilled three Anglos, including the city jailer, whom Cortina accusedof having murdered Mexicans.As the raiders raced downBrownsville s streets, they shouted: Death to the Americans! and Viva Mexico. Cortina s raid on Brownsville soon set the stage fora revolt of Mexicans along the Rio Grande.The self-proclaimed rebel leader soon issued a public proclama-tion to rally his supporters against the local American population:Mexicans! There are.[Anglo-American] criminals covered with frightfulcrimes, but.to these monsters indulgence is shown, because they are notof our race.When the State of Texas [became].part of the Union,flocks of vampires, in the guise of men, came and scattered themselves inthe settlements
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