genizaro trading

Fidencio yawned as he exited the door of the adobe. The first gray light of day had lightened the eastern horizon. To the east, at the eastern edge of the salt playa, he watched a small herd of buffalo standing at the water’s edge. He and his wife had been waiting for his friends for two weeks. She had wanted shelter, so he had built a small adobe for them to get out of the sun, and for protection in case the Apaches wandered by. Their food was about gone. He had killed a pronghorn just five days ago, but with 5 dogs in camp, meat did not last long.

The year before, Fidencio had met his wife on the River of Pearls. He had come with some Spanish soldiers as one of their arrieros (mule packers). His Apache mother, a slave, had died during a smallpox epidemic, and his Spanish father did not recognize him as a son, so he had no one back in Northern New Mexico. When the Spanish soldiers returned to northern New Mexico, he stayed behind. His wife was beautiful and sweet. She was in awe of him, for he knew how to handle horses and mules, and her people had never owned one. The Spaniards called her people Jumanos, but they were a little different than the Jumanos of Gran Quivira, or the trader Jumanos that came from the Rio Bravo far to the south.

Those Jumanos lived in adobe pueblos, but her people lived in long grass huts. Some of her grandparents came from far to the east, where everyone lived in grass houses, but they had intermarried with the pueblo dwellers. At the River of Pearls were many trees with wonderful sweet nuts, and the trader Jumanos came every year to haul big bags away on the back of their pack dogs. Other people liked the pearls, too, so when the trader Jumanos came her people were happy to get black obsidian for arrowheads, abalone shell for jewelry, and pottery from the Pueblo dwellers far to the northwest in exchange for the nuts and pearls. 

His sweet wife was pregnant. He had promised her that he would trade pearls and nuts for a horse. His friends had promised to bring two horses for him – a stallion and a mare. Their Spanish bosses were unaware that some of the mestizo arrieros had some horses hidden with their Apache kinfolk. Some of the Apaches would trade with the Spanish, but not all did. The Spanish sometimes would raid an Apache rancheria to take men to work as slaves in the mines far to the south, or to take women to serve as servants in the houses in Nuevo Mexico.

Fidencio walked slowly along above the draw that led to the playa. He had dug a hole in the loose sand of the draw, and about three feet down he hit water. The hole would keep about six inches of water in it at all times, but if his friends came with horses, they would have to dig a larger hole. It was sweeter water than what was in the salt playa, and a lot closer. He was surprised that buffalo had appeared. His wife’s father had told him that buffalo did not come to the western edge of the flat country.

His Apache mother had taught him how to use a bow and arrow by making a toy bow when he was a child. She taught him to make bigger ones when he became a teenager that helped the other genizaro (mestizo) men herd the thousands of sheep the Spanish ricos owned. It was all they had to keep the wolves away from the flocks, and the only defense when unfriendly Apaches came to raid the Spanish settlements. He returned to the small adobe to get his bow.

His wife awakened at his entrance and sleepily asked him what he was doing. “Be careful, my husband. My grandfather died when a buffalo trampled him after being wounded. My grandfather had thought it was dead and came too close too quick. You will be successful, my husband, for I know it. This trip has been very good. All of the grass is green, and now that the buffalo are here, I know your friends will come. The earth is in agreement with us. We are doing the right thing. We will own some horses soon!”

Fidencio headed into the sunrise, hoping to go around the buffalo and be hidden by the rising sun when they left the water. A hundred yards from camp, he looked back. His wife was standing in the door, and she waved. He admired her beautiful shape, now swelling with their first child. He was a lucky man, indeed. In thirty minutes, he was in place, and sure enough, the buffalo came back up a draw leading from the east. He hid himself behind an old mesquite and watched. He let the lead cow go by, but the third cow had an arrow sticking out of its right hip. Apache arrows! As it neared, he saw screwworm fly maggots eating the flesh around the wound.

This told him that the wound was several days old. The buffalo were acting very calm, not skittish at all, not looking around, so the Apaches had not followed the group. They must have had a successful hunt further east, and maybe north, and this group must have panicked and run from the hunting grounds. The buffalo were headed to the valley where his Jumano friends lived, but they would not arrive for another month or more. The Jumanos feasted all winter, for thousands upon thousands of buffalo would fill the three valleys of the River of Pearls.

His Jumano relatives had told him stories of the first Spaniards they had seen – three bearded white men, and one bearded black man. The four were great healers and had helped their people. In his father-in-law’s youth, the Jumanos had seen a ghostly woman dressed in blue who had helped them in their time of need. His father-in-law had walked to Gran Quivira and found a black robe man to tell him about the woman in blue, and the black robe man had come with him and spent a summer with the Jumanos. Many of the Jumanos wore little crosses in memory of that visit long ago.

Fidencio let go two arrows into the side of the wounded cow. Both hit behind the front shoulder, and at least one pierced its heart. It thudded to the ground as the other buffalo stampeded away. Fidencio and his wife would eat well until his friends arrived.

This story is based upon the discovery (in the 1960’s) of a small adobe structure near a salt lake not more than fifty miles from Midland. Archaeologists did not find any artifacts to date the structure, but some of them have wondered if it dated to the 1650’s, the time of this story.