tradicion revista fall 2012 - LPD Press & Rio Grande Books

men suffered from varying degrees
of frostbite, and Juan Lueras lost
two fingers of his left hand. In another
action, 140 of the men suffered
frostbite of the hand and feet,
while one lost an ear and three toes.
The hardships endured by the
citizen militia was exceeded only by
the suffering of the Navajo. In addition
to the Navajo killed and captured,
Governor Pérez reported he
had dispersed numerous rancherías,
depriving them of shelter and exposing
them to the extreme weather.
He felt that more Navajo had
died as a result of this subsequent
exposure than had been casualties
during the armed encounters of the
campaign itself. 2
The governor concluded that although
the campaign had failed to
completely defeat the Navajo and
eliminate them as a threat to frontier
settlements, their efforts had
partially succeeded. He noted that
two days after arriving in Santa Fe,
four Navajo delegates came into the
capitol seeking peace negotiations.
If these had succeeded in achieving
even a short respite of hostilities,
the suffering of both sides during
the expeditions of 1836-37 might
not have been in vain.
But peace was not forthcoming.
Sporadic raiding continued
through the winter and spring of
1837. However, just as Pérez contemplated
another concerted campaign
against the Navajo, New Mexico
was thrown into the turmoil of
the Revolt of 1837 in which Pérez
and a number of officials of his administration
were killed. It is possible
that the physical and financial
hardships imposed on New Mexi-
98
co’s citizen soldiers by the preceding
campaigns were a significant factor
in the opposition that developed
against the Pérez administration in
the spring of 1837.
It was not until late summer
1838, following Pérez’s demise and
the end of the Revolt of 1837 that
New Mexico was able to muster the
energy and resources to respond
to the Navajo raids that continued
throughout 1837 and 1838. In addition
to the militia, Governor Manuel
Armijo could now count on
the reinforcements provided by the
Vera Cruz squadron that had been
sent to New Mexico to assist in suppression
of the 1837 insurrection.
A total of 978 men, including 130
soldiers of the Santa Fe presidio and
Vera Cruz squadrons, left Jémez on
or about 13 September. For nearly
This essay is excerpted from Sunshine and
Shadows in New Mexico’s Past: The
Spanish Colonial & Mexican Periods
1540-1848, published in collaboration with
the Historical Society of New Mexico. The
book can be ordered from Rio Grande Books
or online at Amazon.com.
three weeks, these forces conducted
operations south to the Gila, where
they concluded the campaign with
a pitched battle with the Navajo and
some allied Apache. 3
Governor Armijo’s memorandum
of 6 November 1838 ordered
the following statement be inserted
into the ojas de servicio, or service
records, of the officers and men who
participated in the recently concluded
Navajo campaign. The statement
effectively provides an official
summary of what the campaign accomplished.
Each entry would note
the particular officer or soldier had
participated in the campaign that:
during the months of September
and October of
1838, achieved the death of
seventy-eight warriors, imprisonment
of fifty-six individuals
of both sexes, the
rescue of one of our captives,
capture of 226 horses
and mules (vestias), 2,060
sheep, 160 gamusas, six serapes,
all their personal property
as well as destroyed or
captured 1,600 costales of
corn. 4
Once again, the campaign
brought about no lasting respite
from Navajo raids and by early December
1838, another campaign
was being organized. On 9 December
expedition commander Pedro
León Luján departed from Santo
Tomás de Abiquiú with fourteen
soldiers of the Santa Fe presidio and
248 militia from the northern New
Mexico communities of Abiquiú,
Santa Cruz de la Cañada, Chama,
Taos, Ojo Caliente, San Juan, San
Yldefonso, Trampas and Rito Colorado.
Luján’s journal of the cam-
TRADICIÓN October 2012