"Depredation and Deceit" Topic

"Yes, there were violent deaths, too, but depredation and deceit were the bigger D's on the 1846–55 New Mexico frontier. The period was fraught with uncertainties and cultural tension. Though American soldiers led by Brig. Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny wrested Santa Fe from the Mexicans on Aug. 18, 1846, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican War was not official until May 30, 1848, and New Mexico didn't become an organized territory until Sept. 9, 1850. Many residents who dreamed of statehood would not live to see it arrive on Jan. 6, 1912.

Despite the largely bloodless conquest, many Nuevomexicanos resented the Americans, who had promised to protect them from raiding Jicarilla Apaches, Utes and other area Indians. The raiding parties were not a serious threat to the newcomers at first, but citizens blamed the Indians, innocent or not, for stealing stock and other depredations. "The Army," writes author Gregory Michno, a Wild West special contributor, "quickly realized that often it was not the Indians but the white frontierspeople who were the major adversaries. The Army often had to impose itself between rabid civilians and the Indian population." Civilian allegations of Indian theft and murder often proved false. The motive for many such false claims, Michno argues, was greed…"
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