Historical Introduction to Studies Among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico; Report on the Ruins of the Pueblo of Pecos Papers Of The Arch?ological Institute Of America, American Series, Vol. I

Excerpt

Part I.

The earliest knowledge of the existence of the sedentary Indians in New Mexico and Arizona reached Europe by way of Mexico proper; but it is very doubtful whether or not the aborigines of Mexico had any positive information to impart about countries lying north of the present State of Querétaro. The tribes to the north were, in the language of the valley-confederates, "Chichimecas,"—a word yet undefined, but apparently synonymous, in the conceptions of the "Nahuatl"-speaking natives, with fierce savagery, and ultimately adopted by them as a warlike title.

Indistinct notions, indeed, of an original residence, during some very remote period of time, at the distant north, have been found among nearly all the tribes of Mexico which speak the Nahuatl language. These notions even assume the form of tradition in the tale of the Seven Caves, whence the Mexicans and the Tezcucans, as well as the Tlaxcaltecans, are said to have emigrated to Mexico. Perhaps the earliest mention of this tradition may be found in the writings of Fray Toribio de Paredes, surnamed Motolinia. It dates back to 1540 a.d. But it is not to be overlooked that ten years previously, in 1530, the story of the Seven Cities, which was the form in which the first report concerning New Mexico and its sedentary Indians came to the Spaniards, had already been told to Nuño Beltran de Guzman in Sinaloa. The parallelism between the two stories is striking, although we are not authorized to infer that the so-called seven cities gave rise to what appeared as an aboriginal myth of as many caves.

The tale of the Seven Caves, as the original home of the Mexicans and their kindred, prevailed to such an extent that, as early as 1562, in a collection of picture-sheets executed in aboriginal style, the so-called "Codex Vaticanus," "Chicomoztoc," and the migrations thence, were graphically represented. All the important Indian writers of Mexico between 1560 and 1600, such as Duráro, Camargo, Tezozomoc, and Ixtlilxochitl, refer to it as an ancient legend, and they locate the site of the story, furthermore, very distinctly in New Mexico. Even the "Popol-Vuh," in its earliest account of the Quiché tribe of Guatemala, mentions "Tulan-Zuiva, the seven caves or seven ravines."

While it is impossible as yet to determine whether or not this legend exercised any direct influence on the extension of Spanish power into Northern Mexico, another myth, well known to eastern continents from a remote period, became directly instrumental in the discovery of New Mexico. This is the tale of the Amazons.

About 1524 a.d., Cortes was informed by one of his officers (then on an expedition about Michhuacan) that towards the north there existed a region called Ciguatan ("Cihuatlan"—place of women), near to which was an island inhabited by warlike females exclusively. The usual exaggerations about metallic wealth were added to this report; and when, in 1529, Nuño de Guzman governed Mexico he set out northwards, first to conquer the sedentary Indians of Michhuacan, and then to search for the gold and jewels of the Amazons. It was while on this foray that he heard of the Seven Cities in connection with Ciguatan....