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.Girls smoked salmon, gathered roots and berries, wove baskets, andsewed clothing and moccasins.Both went on vision quests.In the high-desert Southwest, Anasazi boys learned to raise corn, beans, and squashin an arid land, to hunt and to weave cotton, and to understand thenature of their spiritual role.Girls cared for the home, ground corn andcooked, and participated in the seasonal ceremonies.Both learned thatthe village was of greater importance than the individual.Since nativegroups.relied exclusively on oral learning, storytelling was ubiquitous.(Szasz 2006)SummaryAmong the important early influences of European immigration on thenative peoples lives in eastern North America were the newcomers" taking Indian lands through occupation, warfare, treaties, andpurchase," bringing disastrous diseases for which aboriginal peoples had noimmunity," imposing political structures and educational practices founded onChristian tradition," holding Indian religions in contempt, and" making a partial effort to civilize the natives by teaching them aEuropean way of life with emphasis on Christian beliefs and practices. 172 History's PathINVADERS FROM THE WESTAs in the account of invaders from the East, the following discussion firstaddresses sociopolitical developments in the Southwest (societal conditions,government policies and practices, settlers actions, Indians responses) andthen turns to religious and educational matters.Sociopolitical DevelopmentsSOCIETAL CONDITIONSIn 1519, a scheming, bold conquistador, Hernán Cortés, moored 11 Spanishgalleons in the harbor of San Juan de Ulúa Island off the east coast of Mexico.Aboard were 550 sailors and soldiers along with 16 horses, which were thefirst steeds to set foot on the North American continent.Within two years,Cortés would conquer the region s powerful Aztec (Mexica) empire.In 1522he was appointed Governor and Captain General of Nueva España (NewSpain) by the Spanish king, Carlos V.To provide headquarters for this newSpanish colony, Cortés destroyed the magnificent Aztec capital of Tenochtitlánand erected on that site Ciudad de Mexico (Mexico City), a European-stylecolonial center built from rubble of ruined Aztec pyramids, temples, and pala-ces.That act launched three centuries of Spanish control over CentralAmerica.As the decades advanced, a social-caste structure evolved in the colony.Interms of power and prestige, pure-blood Spanish from the mother countrywere at the pinnacle of the system, with persons of aristocratic heritage rankedabove ordinary Spaniards.On a step below those from Spain were criollos,Mexico-born children of Spanish parents.One step lower were the mestizos.The dearth of Spanish women at the start of the Colonial era led tonumerous unions between Indian women and Spaniards.An immediateconsequence was the birth of many mixed-blood mostly illegitimateoffspring.These so-called mestizos made up a rapidly growing socioeco-nomic class that, for the most part, were considered inferior by pure-blood Spaniards.Mestizos who today make up the vast majority ofMexico s population were to remain poor and uneducated for manygenerations.(Palfrey 1998a)The bottom of the caste system was occupied by Native Americans.Scarcely looked upon as human beings, hundreds of thousands of Indianswere literally worked to death.Others succumbed to new diseases intro-duced by the Spaniards: smallpox, measles, plague, tuberculosis, andeven the common cold.At the time of the Conquest, about nine million The Colonies 1600 1775 173indigenous people inhabited Mexico s central plateau.By 1600 theynumbered a scant two and a half million.(Palfrey 1998a)GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND PRACTICESIn 1535 the Spanish sovereign appointed Antonio de Mendoza as the first of61 viceroys who would govern New Spain over the next 300 years.Under Men-doza s fifteen-year rule, explorers spread south and north to claim new landsfor the Spanish crown.The aim of their travels was to further the Spanish gov-ernment s tripartite goal in the New World accumulate riches (primarily goldand silver), force more territory under Spanish rule, and convert America snative peoples to Catholicism.Expeditions north of the Rio Grande wouldrange as far east as present-day New Orleans, as far north as Kansas, and asfar west as the Grand Canyon.The general tone of the Spanish conquistadores intended relationship withNorth American Indians was reflected in Francisco Vázquez de Coronado sstandard exhortation to native peoples when he and his troop of explorersentered the Zuñi [Southwest] village of Hawikuh in 1540.Coronado hadarrived during the Indians summer religious festivals, and he announced tothe villagers that they were henceforth required to acknowledge the[Catholic] Church as the ruler and superior of the whole world, and the highpriest called Pope, and in his name the King and Queen of Spain.If the Zuñifailed to obey the newcomers orders, with the help of God we shall forcefully.make war against you.take you and your wives and children, and shallmake slaves of them (Public Broadcasting System, 2001).Although Coronado and his men failed in their search for the mythical gold-laden Seven Cities of Cibola, their reports about the geography and peoples ofa great portion of the territory north of the Rio Grande would be useful a halfcentury later when the Spanish sought to establish permanent colonies in theSouthwest.The impetus for colonizing the area was King Philip of Spain s order in 1583that a man be selected to lead such a conquest,a man who was not only wealthy, devout, and of good repute but could bedepended upon to obey the laws controlling colonization and the conver-sion of Indians, and who had demonstrated his ability to serve as the firstgovernor of the new province, which would be called New Mexico
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