Looking at the question of the rise and fall of Pueblo Indian power in New Mexico and Arizona from a geographical as well as an historical point of view, I have come to the following conclusions respecting it; but in expressing these views I do not bind myself very closely to them; for I think it quite probable that far more light may some day be thrown upon this interesting subject by others, who will be able to bridge over many gaps in the evidence which now form almost impassable barriers to a complete line of argument.
These town-building Indians, I consider, were the skirmish-line of the Aztec race when that race was united and in the plentitude of its power. They came originally from the southern provinces of Mexico, probably in separate detachments -- the restless spirits of semicivilized tribes, speaking distinct dialects, although more or less united under one central government; and they tried, with all the skill brought from Anahuac and the southern provinces of Mexico, to colonize the outlying countries to the northward. The route taken by these Aztec pioneers was probably that which the physical geography of the country naturally suggests, viz. through the provinces now called Sina-loa and Sonora, west, of course, of the main Cordilleras, to the Gila valley, and thence northward, along the tributary streams of that river towards the Great Canon of the Colorado.
Some followed the Gila, across the Gila desert, to its mouth, and thence up the Colorado, until, attracted by the fertility of some of its valleys, they planted a colony on its banks, and appear to have fraternized to a great extent with the native tribes of that district. And thus it was that Captain Fernando Alarcon, who, in 1540, discovered the Rio Colorado, "having passed various tribes," as he ascended the stream, "without being able to communicate except by signs, at length reached a people who understood the language of an Indian he had brought with him from Mexico, and told him of a similar people who dwelt far to the eastward in great houses built of stone, wore long white robes, and came yearly to the river to buy maize; for their fields were small, whereas the lands along the Colorado, being subject to an annual overflow, produced food in abundance."
The main stream of emigration evidently flowed northward; the rich bottom-lands along the Gila were occupied and placed under irrigation, the valleys of the Rio Verde, Salinas, and other streams were taken possession of, and the Apaches (who probably carried on agriculture to some extent along their banks) were driven into the mountains. These savages were probably treated by the Aztecs as barbarian hordes, whom they found it impossible thoroughly to subdue, but who harassed them perpetually, and obliged them to devise means of protecting their settlements against surprise, and their rich, corn-fields from pillage.
Thus they introduced the art of building houses of stone and adobe from Mexico into their newly acquired territory, and adapted that system of communism in their fortified towns which best suited their purpose. They chose commanding positions upon the summits of the mesas, overlooking large tracts of fertile bottom-land, and added story to story in such a manner that a few resolute defenders could keep almost any number of assailants, similarly armed, at bay. The Apaches seem to have been at last so successfully kept under, that Father Marco and Yasquez de Coronado were conducted by the Aztecs through the very centre of a country which is now entirely given over to the savages, and across which no one at the present time would dream of passing. Nor do we hear much about these sons of plunder until nearly the middle of the 18th century.
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adapted from A. W. Bell
"On the Native Races of New Mexico"
1869 (Journal of the Ethnological Society of London)
