By Lansing B. Bloom A recent review of a book relating to Mexico stated, "It is universally admitted that the Mexican people as such have never exercised a voice in their governmental affairs." Many will doubtless assent to this sweeping assertion, but there are others who have studied back…
On December 14, 1868, New Mexico Supreme Court Justice John P. Slough responds to Legislative Council censure from Col. William L. Rynerson, who was a member of the legislative assembly from Doña Ana County. Among the slurring remarks made, he noted that Rynerson was "a thief of the army,…
Senator Dennis Chavez and J. C. Morgan The moment he clasped the firm handshake and locked eyes with the intense and confident gaze of the stocky, bowlegged Navajo in the three-piece suit, Senator Dennis Chavez sensed that this man was the connection he had been looking for. It was…
La Vara By Michael Miller On December 27, 1888 the Surveyor General for the Territory of New Mexico, George Julian, publicly proclaimed that, “ninety per cent of the land entries in the territory were fraudulent.” A land title study conducted by the New Mexico State Planning Office in 1971 uncovered evidence…
By David Correia From February 1889 until the summer of 1891 a clandestine organization of night riders known as Las Gorras Blancas cut the fences and burned the barns of ranchers enclosing the Las Vegas Land Grant commons and destroyed railroad ties and burned bridges in a related effort…
Musings on the Navajo Nation and the Ideology of Development and the Politics of Tradition By Jennifer Denetdale, Ph.D. For most of my career as a scholar, I have been interested in myriad ways that the Diné/Navajos have been represented by generations of travelers, writers, anthropologists, federal policy makers,…
By Aleta J. Lawrence The area surrounding Bear Spring that includes the Sheep Lab Historic District became a major area for Navajo settlement in the eighteenth century. The spring was one of a few dependable water sources in the region. Historical records date use of the Bear Spring area…
By Rick Hendricks When death overtook Capt. Bernardo Antonio Bustamante y Tagle, lieutenant governor of New Mexico during the administration of Governor Juan Domingo de Bustamante, at the presidio of Guajoquilla at eight o'clock on the night of 15 January 1773, it set in motion a struggle over the…
Letter from Ferdinand II to the Duque del Infantado Transcription, Translation and Analysis by Rick Hendricks Del Rey Duque primo, la condesa de Saldaña vuestra hija, mi sobrina entrara mañana en esta villa, como ya vos escrivj y por que como sabeys las velaçiones se abrira pasado el…
1881 By Priscilla Solis Ybarra, Ph.D. Adelina (Nina) Otero Warren—suffragist, educator, politician, entrepreneur, and writer– was born in 1881 in La Constancia, New Mexico, near Los Lunas. She was the second child of Manuel B. Otero and Eloisa Luna Otero. Both her parents had deep roots in New Mexico,…
