Cañón de Carnue

The Villa de Albuquerque, founded early in 1706, was settled at a time unpropitious for success. Powerful Comanches continued to push various Apache groups from their adopted homes on the southern plains into the arid and often hostile Southwest. As early as 1706 Governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdés found it prudent to assign a squad of soldiers for protection of the tenuous new town in view of constant raids undertaken by Apaches.

New Mexico Historical Review, October 1976, vol. Li, no. 4, p. 313.

Copyright by the  University of New Mexico Board of Regents. Posted  electronically by permission. All rights reserved.

Cañon de Carnue: Settlement of a Grant

By Robert Archibald

The Villa de Albuquerque, founded early in 1706, was settled at a time unpropitious for success.[1] Powerful Comanches continued to push various Apache groups from their adopted homes on the southern plains into the arid and often hostile Southwest.[2] As early as 1706 Governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdez found it prudent to assign a squad of soldiers for protection of the tenuous new town in view of constant raids undertaken by Apaches.[3] The Apache menace became a fact of life for farmers and ranchers of the area who tenaciously struggled for survival along the Rio Grande. These pioneers found existence precarious and, with Pueblo allies, fought a continuous battle against incursions from all directions, particularly Apache raiding parties which conducted frequent and often violent attacks from the direction of the Sandia Mountains.[4]

Apaches variously identified as Faraones, Gileños and Natages raided for livestock and captives to be dearly ransomed at a later date.[5] These warriors were alternately at war or peace with the Spaniards and Pueblo Indians, depending upon advantages to be gained for themselves. Despite laws to the contrary, settlements in the Albuquerque jurisdiction, stretching from Alameda south, were poorly designed for defense. Instead of compact plazas adjacent to farm and stock land, foolhardy but brave settlers preferred to live each on his own piece of land.

In the 1780s Fray Juan Agustín de Morfi observed the disorder and chaos caused by the dispersed pattern of settlement. Not one town was well organized for defense. Albuquerque was the worst offender with its inhabitants scattered for a dozen leagues along the Rio Grande lifeline. If citizens could be compelled to form compact villages a large town would develop, common defense would be possible and sufficient acreage of land for agriculture and grazing would be available for all.[6]

Much of the menace to Albuquerque and its environs centered on the Sandia Mountains, located just to the east, and in the ancient pass through the mountains, Tijeras or Cañon de Carnué. As early as 1704 General Diego de Vargas had campaigned against the Faraon Apaches in this area. Vargas marched south on March 30, 1704 from Bernalillo to a wooded area between the Rio Grande and Sandia Mountains with his force complemented by a troop of thirty Pueblo auxiliaries. Vargas ordered his auxiliaries under Captain Joséph Naranjo to reconnoiter from the “watering place of Carnué” where Apaches were keeping sheep stolen from Spanish citizens. The troops reported that the entire Apache camp was fortified in a defensive position but that upon being spotted the group had abandoned their position and had left stolen stock in their wake. This document and others suggest that the canyon was frequented by raiding Apaches who found between its narrow walls a safe haven and a secure base of operations. Small fields with plentiful vegetation along the Tijeras Arroyo provided feed for stock and water for man and beast.[7] In 1754 Governor Vélez Cachupín noted the threat posed to the Rio Abajo villages and specifically Albuquerque by raiding Apaches:

The capital city of Santa Fe, with its forces, has the responsibility of repelling incursions by Carlana and Natage Apaches and also by the Comanches, that of Santa Cruz [de la Canada] with its adjacent districts and towns, from attacks by Utes and other allies; and that of Albuquerque against the Faraones and Gileños. Thus each town with its outlying districts has this annoying and difficult situation, its residents living in constant anxiety, they and all their rural property subject to becoming victims of the cruelty and fierceness of those barbarians.[8]

The Indian threat to Albuquerque, and the availability of fertile land and water determined that petitions for grants of land in Tijeras Canyon, known then as Cañon de Carnué, would receive favorable consideration. Settlement in the canyon could prosper because of geographical advantages and would additionally constitute a frontier buffer against raiding Apaches for larger Rio Grande Valley settlements.

In 1762 nineteen prospective settlers petitioned Governor Tomás Vélez Cachupín for a grant of land in the Cañon de Carnué. Governor Cachupín replied in February of the following year, confirming the grant.[9] A search of the provincial archives proved that indeed there were no adverse claims to the requested parcel and further that the land was unoccupied and uncultivated. All men named in the grant except Joséph Antonio Baca were married and with families. Baca was ordered to “marry for the increase and concord of the settlement” before he would be confirmed in his grant. The concession as specified by Governor Cachupín was for agricultural lands only, although a house lot fifty varas square was allowed per family to assure sufficient space in corrals for large and small stock “so that the enemy may not steal them.” The town and its buildings were to be constructed in the usual adobe style and precautions were to be made for security in view of incursions which hostile Indians frequently made.[10]

Antonio Baca, Alcalde Mayor of the Albuquerque jurisdiction in which the new settlement was to be located, was ordered to place the recipients in possession and to mark off lands most appropriate for the village and its houses. Grazing lands were to be held in common and the town rather than individuals was to be given title to them.[11]

On February 12, 1763, Antonio Baca led the prospective settlers up the gentle slope from Albuquerque into the Cañon de Carnué where, in accordance with the governor’s order, he put them in possession of land. In grand feudal style the alcalde related:

I took them by the hand, and one by one, I walked them over their lands where they shouted, pulled up grass, threw stones, and acquired royal and personal possession, shouting‑Long live our King, Don Carlos III…[12]

Ceremonies completed, the alcalde began the critical process of assigning lands to each settler. The settlement was laid out in a perfect square and lands for house lots were allotted on the basis of “thirty square Castillian varas to those who could do least and those who could do more were left to their own decision.” In this fashion each family was allowed a garden plot and agricultural lands for wheat and corn. It now remained for the alcalde to designate the permanent boundaries of the grant itself. As was standard, the grant was to encompass four leagues, one league in each cardinal direction from the center of the plaza. In 1763, without modern measuring devices, the league was an indefinite and personal measure at best. It is apparent that Baca did not literally walk the boundaries but rather gave landmarks in each direction towards which the boundaries extended.[13] Hence on the east the league extended toward an old ruined Pueblo near the center of the mountain; on the north toward Cañada de Oso; on the west toward the plain; and on the south in the direction of the Agua del Coyote.

The settlers were enjoined to set up permanent landmarks at the boundaries. All land not assigned individually, including pasturage, was to be held and used in common and shared with later settlers. A total of twenty‑five settlers were authorized by Governor Cachupín but only nineteen were put in possession, leaving room for some increase.

On February 20, Governor Cachupín gave his approval to the act of possession supervised by the alcalde mayor. He further approved the permanent boundaries which had already been delineated and added that this was a reduction of those originally sought by the grantees. The size of the grant was restricted because of possible future settlements in the area. The governor did allow that if the settlement of San Miguel de Carnué increased in size more agricultural lands extending west out onto the plain along Tijeras Arroyo might be added since there was no other irrigable land and the cañada out toward the plain was narrow. The governor scolded the alcalde for having restricted the size of the house lots and for having exceeded his authority by so doing. In accordance with legal provisions he decreed house lots were to be fifty varas square.[14]

Life in the fledgling community was difficult indeed. Under constant threat from marauding Apaches, the settlement lacked even a local church and was dependent upon San Felipe de Neri de Albuquerque. Several entries in books kept by the Albuquerque church testify to this dependent relationship.[15] Records of a later settlement on the same site provide a clue to farming activities at San Miguel. Major crops certainly included chiles, onions, maize, wheat, beans, tobacco and pumpkins. Small gardens provided other produce consumed domestically.[16]

In early 1771 the discouraged settlers of San Miguel de Carnué abandoned the grant because of their inability to defend themselves adequately and sought refuge in Albuquerque. On April 8 they returned, albeit reluctantly, to San Miguel under orders from Governor Pedro Fermín de Mendinueta. The settlement dwindled to thirteen men capable of bearing arms of which four had no weapons. “What force is this,” they asked Mendinueta, “to oppose the great boldness which the barbarous enemy now exhibits?” Answering their own question, the frightened thirteen once again abandoned the village and returned to Albuquerque on April 10th. They related to the governor that they had no food and no way of resisting the enemy which held the area in its possession. “The causes are sufficient,” they claimed, “that your Lordship may be pleased to relieve us from so perilous a situation.…”[17]

Governor Mendinueta denied the request. He had been informed by the Alcalde Mayor of the Albuquerque jurisdiction, Francisco Trebol Navarro that a number of genízaros who were scattered in the Rio Puerco region might be willing to join the original grantees at San Miguel de Carnué. Mendinueta fervently hoped that the settlement might succeed and thus provide a defensive bastion for Albuquerque and its environs from Indian attack. With the genízaros as an additional source of manpower, success might be possible. Thus Trebol Navarro was ordered to assemble the genízaros together with the original settlers and make clear to them the governor’s desire for a cooperative resettlement.[18]

Mendinueta accused the settlers of exaggerating the danger because of a lack of courage. If the unhappy grantees did not immediately proceed with a resettlement their grant would be revoked. The recalcitrant settlers were ordered to complete building the town, indicating that the eight‑year‑old village had never been finished and suggesting a reluctance on the part of the settlers to commit themselves to permanent existence in such a perilous situation. Fortification, cultivation of fields and buildings had never been completed. If the villagers did not return they were to be sent where they had lived before and work for others if they had no land. They were “not to wander about as vagrants” suggesting that some of the settlers had been unreliable vagabonds from the beginning.[19]

The alcalde mayor ordered all the settlers of Carnué to appear before him in the Albuquerque plaza on April 24th. The alcalde of the Rio Puerco region was ordered to notify genízaros without fixed homes in his area to appear at Albuquerque on the same day.” The meeting took place as scheduled. Trebol Navarro promised the genízaros perfect equality with original grantees if they would join in resettling the San Miguel grant. The wary and frightened people replied “that in no way could they consent to go up to the resettlement, nor was it in their interest. . .” Trebol Navarro pleaded and attempted to minimize the risks involved but neither genízaros nor grantees agreed to a return, despite loss of the grant. They had, they maintained, inadequate force of arms and feared greatly that they would lose their lives at the hands of the Apaches. They pointed out that they had initially abandoned the site because in October of 1770 a number of their companions had been killed in just such an Apache raid. They were perfectly willing to relinquish the grant to avoid going back. The frustrated alcalde ended the meeting by reminding the settlers to gather before him on an appointed day for the purpose of going to Carnué to destroy signs of habitation. Furthermore, they were to return guns and ammunition supplied by the governor.[21]

On May 27th Alcalde Mayor Francisco Trebol Navarro proceeded with the settlers to demolish San Miguel de Carnué. Upon arriving in the doomed village each was ordered to demolish his residence and the buildings “were left in ruins on the ground.”[22] The epitaph for this unfortunate initial settlement of San Miguel de Carnué was written by the famous clerical visitor, Fray Francisco Atanasio Domínguez, in 1776. Carnué, he observed, “was a settlement of ranchos like those everywhere, with very good farmlands irrigated from a stream of their own in that place. It was abandoned in the year 1772 because of the continual Apache raids.”[23]

The 1763 settlement of San Miguel de Carnué unfortunately preceded the great Spanish frontier offensive against the Apaches which covered the twenty‑five year period after 1772. The Reglamento of 1772 set the stage by sanctioning vigorous warfare against the Apache. This new policy became effective in 1786 when Viceroy Bernardo de Gálvez began to encourage a uniform policy for the northern frontier including peace treaties with various Apache bands and inducements for them to become dependent upon rations, inferior firearms and liquor provided by the government. The policy was implemented on the frontier by high caliber officials including Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola and Juan Bautista de Anza. Governor Anza of New Mexico effectively used Comanche and Pueblo allies to curb Apache resistance with vigorous campaigns. Unfailing support from Ugarte as Commandant General of the Provincias Internas gave Anza’s efforts official backing and substantial success.[24]

In the second decade of the nineteenth century settlers once more began to move into the Cañon de Carnué or Tijeras Canyon area. Indian danger had abated and the narrow thread of fertile land tracing the arroyo at the bottom of the canyon was attractive.

In 1817 José Laureano López and a number of companions were permitted by Governor Pedro María de Allande to cultivate land on or near the old Carnué grant. This, however, did not constitute a new grant of the tract since Governor Allande stated unequivocally that the “land was in the nature of a loan which they might be dispossessed of at any time they may be ordered.”[25]

A petition for a regranting of the Carnué tract was made by Juan Durán of Albuquerque on November 1, 1818, on behalf of himself and a number of companions.26 The petition was referred by Governor Facundo Melgares to the Alcalde Mayor, Pedro Bautista Pino, who in turn asked the Alcalde of Albuquerque, Josef Mariano de la Peña for an opinion. Peña replied positively and recommended approval of the grant which he clearly identified with the 1763 tract. Success was possible, he observed, since the Gilas (Apaches) who had previously forced abandonment were at peace.[27]

In January of 1819 a second petition for land in the canyon was made by Juan Ignacio Tafoya on behalf of twenty‑six residents of Albuquerque.[28] Alcalde Josef Mariano de la Peña notified the governor that there were three groups of petitioners for the lands but that many of the individuals already possessed land as a consequence either of grants or inheritances. Governor Melgares ordered the alcalde to prepare a list of those petitioners who had no land. Peña responded with a list of thirty‑five persons, including Laureano López who had been given provisional lands in 1817.[29] Investigations concluded, the governor ordered Peña to put the grantees in possession of the lands and to set the period within which they were to provide themselves with arms and horses for defense. The two new settlements were to be governed by two lieutenant alcaldes “to govern in peace and be responsible for that which belongs to the King.” This last provision included oversight and management of one‑third of all produce of the community which the grantees had promised to give the government for two years.[30]

On account of the number of petitioners it was determined to locate two towns, San Miguel and San Antonio, on the Carnué grant. The original petition had requested boundaries extending from the mouth of the canyon on the west to the pueblo ruins at San Antonito. The request was denied “because the woods, waters and pastures of watering places are common to the frontier from Bernalillo to Belen.” The grant as made was described as follows:

The grant being from the entrance of the Cañon de San Miguel de Carnué to the Tijera, the width of the Cañon west to east and from here south to north as far as the cross set up to the north of San Antonio…[31]

Within the grant some areas were left open for future settlement by petitioners with no lands of their own.

On February 24 and 25, 1819, the first settlement at San Miguel de Carnué was laid out and its residents put in possession of their lands. A cross marking the plaza was erected and a fifty vara square was measured. In several instances grantees were allotted lands on both sides of the stream, particularly where the canyon was narrow. Agricultural lands were thus located on both the north and south sides of the arroyo. Lands were measured in terms of numbers of cordels (fifty varas) along the stream and width depended solely upon the dimensions of the canyon at any given point. As a final reminder, settlers were enjoined to give one‑third of their crops for the first two years for the king’s account and it was expected that the town would be completed, planting done, and arms available for defense by May.[32]

On February 26, 1819, the second village, San Antonio de Padua, was laid out and lands assigned to anxious settlers. Allocations followed the contours of the canyon, and frontage along the arroyo depended on available width. The following day a fifty vara square plaza was measured off and residents were admonished in the same fashion as those at San Miguel.[33]

The Alcalde, Josef Mariano de la Peña, ordered the alcalde of the new settlements from San Miguel to San Antonio to repeat monthly a set of ordinances promulgated for the better government of the area. Theft of personal property would result in immediate loss of rights in the grant as well as all improvements made. The alcalde was given sole right to put new settlers in possession of land. Anyone harboring criminals was subject to exile and punishment. Persons failing to cultivate their land through indolence were to be removed. A corresponding reward was given for hard work since lands vacated through death were to be reassigned to the most industrious. No grantee was permitted to sell or alienate land on account of debt for a period of ten years.[34]

A few days later Peña turned his pen to the perennial problem of regulating the precious supply of water at San Miguel and San Antonio. All settlers were reminded of their equal rights to water and of their obligation to see that farmers at the west end of the canyon had sufficient water. No person was to construct a dam and each should “irrigate in his turn day or night, in order that all may irrigate equally, without preference.” All surplus water left in lateral ditches had to be returned to the acequia madre or arroyo.

Also held in common was the responsibility for construction and upkeep of the plazas, which fell to community members in proportion to the size of landholdings. The penalty for refusal to comply was exile from the settlement.[35]

Attracted by the possibility of fertile land a new group of eight led by Antonio Chaves petitioned Mariano de la Peña, the alcalde, for lands in the Cañon de Carnué. The prospective settlers, Chaves testified, were without lands of their own and all agreed to meet the terms agreed upon by the original grantees, that is, they would give a third of their crops for the first two years to the king. After appropriate investigations, Governor Melgares assented to the petition and ordered Peña to assign agricultural land.[36]

On March 26, 1819, Peña proceeded from Albuquerque to San Miguel with the seven petitioners and a number of others who made verbal requests to be included in the grant. These grantees were allotted lands along the canyon in the usual fashion and, as had been promised, the most industrious of the earlier settlers were given additional land.[37]

Although dwellings were concentrated in the vicinity of San Miguel and San Antonio, agricultural lands encompassed much of the irrigable land from west of San Miguel east along the canyon

to San Antonio. In November of 1819 there were fifty‑seven farmers living in the canyon, each with a parcel of farmland running 150 to 450 feet along the bed of the arroyo.[38] A rough estimate suggests that over three miles along the canyon was being used for irrigated agriculture. Practically, farmers must have gradually built houses near their fields to facilitate daily chores of cultivation and irrigation. This was possible as threat of Indian attack had subsided since the ill fated 1763 settlement.

At the end of 1819, the settlers were called to relinquish a third of their produce as had been stipulated in the grant. Fifty‑seven people were ordered to contribute in kind for the benefit of the government.

MAJOR CROPS IN 1819 [39]

                                                For The King         Home Use        Total

Corn (sacks)                                 96.25                       192.5         288.75

Wheat (almudes)*                       130.00                      260.0         390.00

Beans (almudes)                           11.00                        22.0           33.00

Chile (strings)                                  4.00                         8.00         12.00

Tobacco (bundles)                        33.00                         66.0           99.00

Onions                                         336.00                        672.0       1008.00

Pumpkins                                    205.00                        410.0         615.00

*An almud was a variable dry measure with an approximate value in New Spain of 6.88 dry quarts. See Manuel Carrera Stampa, “The Evolution of Weights and Measures in New Spain,” The Hispanic American Historical Review 30 (October 1950).

The size of the crop and the variety produced are remarkable considering the brief period in which these hardly colonists had to construct plazas, homes, ditches and tend crops including their cultivation and harvest. The alcalde was ordered by Governor Melgares to shell the corn and give notice when all was ready to be transported to Santa Fe where it would be disposed of for the benefit of the government.

By the end of 1819 the Cañon de Carnué grant sustained two permanent settlements at San Miguel and San Antonio. Despite apparent success the villages were forced to rely upon San Felipe de Neri de Albuquerque for spiritual necessities. A chaotic political and religious situation in an independent Mexico diverted attention from the needs of the northern frontier. Thus, although chapels were licensed for San Miguel and San Antonio in 1823 and the licenses later renewed, no structures were built until the 1830s.[40]

The settlements at San Miguel and San Antonio have been continuous since 1819. The two initial villages were complemented by a continuing settlement process which has resulted in an almost unbroken thread of human habitation through the canyon.

In July of 1882 heirs of the grantees submitted documents and depositions to the surveyor general’s office but confirmation waited until approval by the Court of Private Land Claims in 1894.[41] Testimony in the case reveals a chronologically continuous settlement. Witnesses were intimately acquainted with the grant through personal knowledge of many of the settlers of 1819. Typical testimony was provided in 1885 by Andrés Nuañez, an 85‑year‑old man who lived just north of Albuquerque. In reference to the Carnué grant Nuanez stated

I have known it since it has been inhabited there. It is east of here four or five leagues. The boundaries are on the east—the Town of Sedillo—which lies east of San Antonio. On the west the entrance of the canyon where there are some ruins, and on the south by the mountains and on the north by the mountains.[42]

All witnesses identified San Miguel and San Antonio with the two original settlements.[43] Since the depositions of 1882 the place names have remained as Carnuel toward the western outlet of the canyon and San Antonio toward the east in the vicinity of Cedar Crest, New Mexico.

Continuous habitation at San Miguel and San Antonio from 1819 to the present, corroborated by witnesses testifying before the surveyor general, and persistence of place names at Carnuel and San Antonio, leave little doubt concerning the location of these settlements. The grant made in 1819 was identified at the time as being identical with the concession of 1763. The obvious conclusion on this basis and on the description of the 1763 grant made by the alcalde is that the earlier allotment was in the vicinity of the present village of Carnuel.

NOTES

1. Richard Greenleaf, “The Founding of Albuquerque, 1706: An Historical‑Legal Problem,” New Mexico Historical Review (NMHR), 39: (January 1964): 1‑15. See also C. W. Hackett, ed., Historical Documents Relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya and Approaches Thereto, to 1773, 3 vols. (Washington, 1923‑1937), 3:378.

2. Rupert N. Richardson, The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement (Glendale, 1934), p. 53.

3. Fray Juan Alvarez to the Viceroy, Duque de Alburquerque, April 16, 1706, Archivo General de la Nación (AGN), Provincias Internas, 36. Alvarez was custodian of the Province of New Mexico.

4. See for example, Testimonio de las juntas de guerra que se formaron para hazarla campana a la sierra de los ladrones, Año de 1715, Spanish Archives of New Mexico (SANM), doc. 224.

5. The ranges of the bands are identified in Max L. Moorhead, The Apache Frontier (Norman, 1968).

6. Father Juan Augustín de Morfi, Desordenes que se advierten en al Nuevo Mexico, AGN, Historia, 25.

7. Autos de Guerra de la primera Campana que N. S. Marq. de la Nava de Brazinas gobernador y capitán general de la Provincia de la Nueva Mexico En persona sale. . ., March 3 to April 2, 1794, SANM, doc. 99.

8. Robert Ryal Miller, “New Mexico in the Eighteenth Century: A Report Based on Governor Velez Cachupín’s Inspection,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 79 (December 1975): i66‑8i. .

9. All land grant documents noted by Ralph Emerson Twitchell, The Spanish Archives of New Mexico, 2 vols. (Cedar Rapids, 1914), 1 (SANM I), and the records of the Surveyor General of New Mexico (SG) in addition to the Court of Private Land Claims (PLC) are located in the State Archives and Records Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

10. Decree of Don Tomás Vélez Cachupín Governor and Captain General, Santa Fe, February 6, 1763, SG, 150. Initial settlers were Cristóbal Jaramillo, Juan Moya, Bernardino Moya, Juan Moya the younger, Josef Molina, Antonio Molina, Gregorio Gutiérrez, Juan Jaramillo, Juan Gutiérrez, Juan de Díos Torres, Josef Vallejo, Juan Ulibarri, Rafael Pacheco, Feliciano Hurtado, Francisco Griego, Manuel Armijo, Josef Antonio Baca, Juan Candelaria and Ventura López. For a succinct description of the grant‑making procedure in New Mexico see Myra Ellen Jenkins, “The Baltazar Baca ‘Grant’: History of an Encroachment,” El Palaclo 61 (Spring 1961): 47‑64.­

11. Decree of Vélez Cachupín, February 6, 1763.

12. Antonio Baca, Act of Possession, San Miguel de Laredo, February 12, 1763, SG, 150. While the given name of this settlement was San Miguel de Laredo, its contemporarily used alias was San Miguel de Carnué.

13. Ibid. The vara was a common linear measure equivalent to approximately 33 inches. The cordel, a larger unit of linear measure equal to 50 varas was commonly used in measuring land parcels.

14. Don Tomás Vélez Cachupín, Santa Fe, February 20, 1763, SG, 150. See also Elizabeth Nelson Patrick, “Land Grants During the Administration of Spanish Colonial Governor Pedro Fermín de Mendinueta,” NMHR, 5, (January 1976): 5-18. For a discussion of Spanish law relating to the foundation of settlements see Frank W. Blackmar, Spanish Institutions of the Southwest (Baltimore, 1891).

15. Books of Marriages, Villa de San Felipe de Albuquerque, 1726-1776, May 3, 1764, Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

16. Don Facundo Melgares, Report and Account of Produce, Santa Fe, November 13, 1819, SG, 150.

17. Petition to Governor Mendinueta, April, 1771, SG, 150­.

18. Decree of Governor Mendinueta, Santa Fe, April 12, 1771, SG, 150 Genízaros were not, as they have sometimes been identified, halfbreeds. Rather they were Indians of nomadic tribes surrounding New Mexico who, after capture or ransom, were incorporated into colonial society. Thus they were ethnically Indian and culturally Hispanic.

19. Decree of Mendinueta, April 12, 1771.

20. Order of Francisco Trebol Navarro, April 16, 1771, SG, 150.

21. Report of Francisco Trebol Navarro, April 24, 1771, SG, 150. The abandonment of San Miguel de Carnué was not unique. See E. Boyd, “Troubles at Ojo Caliente, A Frontier Post,” El Palacio 64 (November-December 1957): 347‑60.

22. Report of Francisco Trebol Navarro, May 27, 1771, SG, 150.

23. Eleanor B. Adams and Angelico Chavez, trans. and ed., Missions of New Mexico, 1776 (Albuquerque, 1956), p. 254.

24. Ralph Ogle, Federal Control of the Western Apaches, 1848‑1886 (Albuquerque, 1970), pp. 18‑21. Documents relating to Anza’s efforts are translated and edited in Alfred B. Thomas, Forgotten Frontiers: A Study of the Spanish Indian Policy of Don Juan Bautista de Anza, Governor of New Mexico, 1777‑1787 (Norman, 1932).

25. Decree of Governor Pedro María de Allande, February 27, 1817, SG, 150.

26. Juan Durán to Governor Facundo Melgares, Albuquerque, November 1, 1818, SG, 150.

328 NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW LI:4 1976

27. Josef Mariano de la Peña to Don Pedro Bautista Pino, Albuquerque, November 4, 1818, SG, 150 Peña was familiar with a number of the 1763 grantees and referred to the grant asked for in the petition as “the same jurisdiction as it was formerly” thus identifying the two grants with one another geographically.

28. Juan Ignacio Tafoya to Don Facundo Melgares, Albuquerque, January 1819, SG, 150.

29. Josef Mariano de la Peña to Don Facundo Melgares, February 5, 1819, SG, 150.

30. Decree of Governor Melgares, Santa Fe, February 11, 1819, SG, 150.

31 Josef Mariano de la Peña, Certification, March 5, 1819, SG, 150.

32. Josef Mariano de la Peña, Act of Possession, SG, 150. See also Act of Possession, February 25, 1819, SG, 150. Acting under his own authority Peña admitted additional grantees making a total of twenty‑three who received lands at San Miguel.

33. Josef Mariano de la Peña, Act of Possession, SG, 150. At Peña’s discretion, twenty‑two persons were allotted lands at San Antonio.

34. Josef Mariano de la Peña to Juan Bautista Durán, Albuquerque, April 14, 1819, SG, 150.

35. Josef Mariano de la Peña to Juan Bautista Durán, Albuquerque, April 21, 1819,SG, 150.

36. Antonio Chaves et al. To Josef Mariano de la Peña, Los Padillas, February 4, 1819, SG, 150. There are a number of documents in this location relating to this grant and its approval by Governor Melgares.

37. Josef Mariano de la Peña, Act of Possession, Cañon de Carnué, March 26, 1819, SG, 150.

38. Report and account made of the produce from the third promised by the settlers of Carnué, November, 1819, SG, 150.

39. Report … of the produce … of Carnué, November 1819.

40. Loose Documents 1823, #21; 1829, #5; 1830, #18, Archive of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

41. Final Decree in the Court of Private Land Claims, September 28, 1894, PLC, 74.

42. Deposition of Andrés Nuañez. Albuquerque, May 20, 1885, SG, 150.

43. See Depositions of Salvador García, Pablo Crespín, Abad Nieto and Francisco Martínez, Albuquerque, July 18, 1882, SG, 150

 

 

Cañón de Carnue; Land Grants; Villa de Albuquerque; New Mexico Spanish Colonial History; Governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdés