The Indians of Carlsbad Caverns National Park

The calendar was divided into four named seasons with daily and monthly tallies kept on a notched stick. Counting was done on the fingers, and some observations of astronomy were made. Various colors were symbolic. East was black; south, blue; west, yellow; and north, white. Their God, Nayiizone, when coming from or going to the sky, rode on a black ray to the east, on a blue horse to the south, on a yellow (sorrel) horse to the west, and on a white horse to the north.

Mysticism, taboo, and definite procedure governed childbirth, naming, education of the young, marriage, affinal relations, death, mourning, labor by both sexes, slaves, land ownership, personal property, war, scalping, dances, ceremonies, political and clan organizations, peyote, kinship systems, religion and shaman ritual.

Little is known about Mescalero pottery, except that it was tempered with vegetable material, made only by women, fired in an open fire, and made with pointed or rounded bottom for inserting into fire coals, and perhaps decorated with incised marks near the rim on occasion. The knowledge of when this art was first practiced is unknown, but is logically historic and very limited. No known sherds of this pottery have been found on the Park.

In 1875, the Mescalero Apache Reservation was established for the Mescalero and Lipan tribes; but in 1913, a band of Geronimo’s Chiricahuas was released from Ft. Sill in Oklahoma and came to Mescalero where they now reside.

Locally there is a rumor that the Apaches have a myth concerning the bats of Carlsbad Caverns. The bats are said to be an ancient lost war or hunting party, but research has failed to verify this story. Most of the Western Apaches regard BAT as an excellent horseman. The Chiricahua Apaches say, “If a bat bites you, you had better never ride a horse any more. If you do ride a horse after being bitten, you are just as good as dead.” They were cautious of bats but not superstitious of them.

THE COMANCHES

Originally the Comanches lived far to the north of southeastern New Mexico; but about 1700, moved to the South Plains. By this time they were well adapted to their relatively new life of mobility brought about by the acquisition of horses directly or indirectly, and by hook or crook from the Spanish. With horses it was much easier to follow the buffalo, fight their enemies, raid, and trade.

Comanche is a Ute Indian word meaning “enemy,” and it is often felt that they found their way to New Mexico under the tutelage of the Utes. Yet, sometime between 1747, and April, 1749, the two became deadly enemies. After 1750, the Utes joined the Apaches to fight the Comanches.

Actually, there are about 20 different names given for Comanche, meaning everything from “enemies” to “snake people.” The Ute definition is more fitting, however; for from about 1705 to 1875, they raided and fought the Spanish, Utes, Apaches, Pueblos, Texans and the U. S. Army among others. They ranged from Kansas to Mexico in thirteen different bands.

That they were practical and businesslike is perhaps best shown by their dealings with the French. The Comanches were first contacted about 1725 by the French, who traded them guns and ammunition. Yet the Comanches would not let the French cross their territory to trade with the Apaches and others, thus monopolizing the source of firearms.

These Shoshonean speaking people were a true South Plains horse Indian. They were often considered the finest horsemen of the plains, these nomadic buffalo hunters who lived in tipis of the skins from this animal. The Comanche tongue was universally spoken by numerous other Indian tribes of the South Plains; so little sign language was necessary, as was the case farther north.

Buffalo were reported on the South Plains in 1540-41, by the Spanish. As there was constant warfare between the Comanches and the Apaches, it may well have started over the bison.

The words fighting and Comanche go hand in hand. They were spasmodically at war with most of their neighbors; yet if peace and alliance achieved a goal, they would concede, as is shown in their relationship with the Kiowa. Bitter enemies, these two, until 1790, when an alliance was made which lasted until sometime in the 1870s. Together they raided the Spanish, Pueblos, Apaches, and their first real enemy, the Anglo-Americans of Texas.

Although the Park and Guadalupe Mountains area was not part of the Comanches positive range, which lay north, east and southeast of the Pecos River, it was frequently crossed by hunting and raiding parties. There is no reason to assume that the Kiowas did not accompany them from time to time, especially when raiding into Mexico.

These “Lords of the South Plains,” as they were later called, looked and dressed every bit the now “Hollywood” Indian. In costumes of buckskins or buffalo hide, decorated with beads and gewgaws, wearing the typical warbonnet, the Comanches ruled a tremendous portion of the South Plains for 175 years. (See Map.) They were fearless fighters who rescued their dead and wounded in battle, who on occasion used poison from an unknown plant on their arrow-points, or stuck them in a dead, ripe skunk to create the same effect; and were great thieves and gamblers. The successful theft of horses from the enemy was a high mark of prestige to a man; yet this same man could and did lose his spoils to other Comanches through the media of dice and hand games.

The Comanches were one of the few tribes of the South Plains who did not eat dog or human flesh. Their religion contained the belief of an after life in a “Happy Hunting Ground” beyond the sun. Naturally, these people utilized many wild plants. One among these that grows in the Park is mescal, which was used as a drug. (Quite a contrast to the Apaches, this.)

A valiant but bloody chapter in the history of the Southwest was closed in June, 1875, when the Comanches surrendered to the U. S. Army at Ft. Sill, and went on to a reservation in the then Indian Territory of Oklahoma. It is said the introduction of the Colt revolver, in the hands of the Texas Rangers, was the deciding factor toward their surrender.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bailey, Vernon—Animal Life of the Carlsbad Cavern, 1928.

Bourke, John G.—Medicine Men of the Apache, B.A.E. #9, 1887-88.

Colton, Harold S. and Hargrave, L. L.—Handbook of Northern Arizona Pottery Types, MNA, 1937.

Cosgrove, C. B.—Caves of the Upper Gila and Hueco Areas in New Mexico and Texas, Papers of the Peabody Museum, 1947.

Dodge, Natt N.—Flowers of the Southwest Deserts, SMA, 1952.

Ferdon, Edwin N., Jr.—An Excavation of Hermit’s Cave, New Mexico, 1946.

Fewkes, J. W.—Casa Grande Arizona, Antiquities of the Upper Verde River and Walnut Creek, Arizona, B.A.E. #28, 1906-07.

Gale, Bennett T.—Historical Sketch Carlsbad Caverns National Park, manuscript, 1952.

Carlsbad Caverns—An Interpretation of Their Origin and Development, manuscript.

Gifford, E. W.—Culture Element Distributions: XII Apache-Pueblo, Anthropological Records, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1940.

Hawley, Florence M.—Field Manual of Prehistoric Southwestern Pottery Types, U. of N. M., 1936.

Henshaw, Henry W.—Animal Carvings from the Mounds of the Mississippi Valley, B.A.E. #2, 1880-81.

Howard, E. B.—Caves Along the Slopes of the Guadalupe Mountains, Bul. Texas Arch. and Pal. Soc., Vol. 4, 1932.

Jennings, J. D.—A Variation of Southwestern Pueblo Culture, Lab. of Anth., Tech. Series, Bul. #10, 1940.

Lehmer, Donald J.—The Jornada Branch of the Mogollon, U. of Ariz. SS Bul. #17, 1948.

Mallery, Garrick—Picture Writing of the American Indians, B.A.E. #10, 1888-89.

McGee, W. J.—The Seri Indians, B.A.E. #17, Part 2, 1895-96.

Mera, H. P.—An Outline of Ceramic Developments in Southern and Southeastern New Mexico, Lab. of Anth., Tech. Series, Bul. #11.

Reconnaissance and Excavation in Southeastern New Mexico, AAA Memoir #51, 1938.

Mooney, James—Myths of the Cherokee, B.A.E. #19, 1897-98.

The Ghost Dance Religion, B.A.E. #14, 1892-93.

Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians, B.A.E. #17, 1895-96.

Neumann, George—Analysis of the Skeletal Material, Lab. of Anth., Tech. Series, Bul. #10, 1940.

Opler, Morris Edward—An Apache Life-Way, 1941.

Pearce, Dr. J. E.—Kitchen Middens, Bul. Texas Arch. and Pal. Soc., Vol. 4, 1932—See also Victor J. Smith.

Reed, Erik—Historical Narrative and Archaeological Values, Interpretive Section, Master Plan, Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Roth, W. E.—Animism and Folklore of Guiana Indians, B.A.E. #30, 1908-09.

Schmitt, Martin F. and Brown, Dee—Fighting Indians of the West, 1948.

Swanton, John R.—The Indian Tribes of North America, B.A.E. Bul. 145, 1952.

Thomas, Alfred Barnaby—The Plains Indians and New Mexico 1751-1778, 1940.

Wallace, Ernest and Hoebel, E. Adamson—The Comanches, U. of Okla., 1952.

Williams, Jack R.—Papago, manuscript, 1952.

FOOTNOTES

Transcriber’s Note

• Corrected a few obvious typographical errors.
• Transcribed some text from illustrations, for the sake of the text versions.
• Added a Table of Contents based on headings in the text.