The Family at Serpiente

by Raymond Tolman

  “Once upon the water, every person is an island and a world apart, totally responsible for his own life. That is the way it is going to be when you get there. Let’s hope that most of you display a physical and mental toughness when we get there. Be prepared to classify and collect a world of invertebrate fossils. This is why we will be going there on your next scheduled field trip. Class dismissed.”

  One of the ladies who worked in the main office walked over to him as the students picked up books and notebooks and loaded them into small backpacks, “Dr. Douglas, I have some mail that just arrived for you,” she said handing him several simple letters. He quickly browsed through them until he came to one that was marked with the return address; Ken Anderson Ranch, Serpiente, New Mexico. That one he immediately opened and read.

  Dr. Douglas

  “Southwest Airlines Flight 1473 is now arriving at gate 14,” announced the overhead intercom as I, along with my new husband Corey, and our friend Hidalgo, waited at the gate. The three of us had become very close friends over the last three years, with Hidalgo being the best man at our wedding. Corey kept glancing at me as they all anxiously watched the entryway from the tarmac for a view of Dr. Wayne Douglas, a geophysicist and amateur archeologist from Denver and a good friend of the Anderson family.

  After several people walked through the entryway door, Dr. Douglas made his appearance, a disheveled professor with his carrying bag that undoubtedly contained his most personal possessions, his field notes. He was tall, lanky, and balding, yet with the dark tan he sported, it was obvious he had spent his fair share of time out in the field. He was indeed a field geologist who disliked the time he spent in the classroom teaching students who often had no idea what he was talking about. He would rather be out in the field doing real geology.

  I walked up to him and introduced Corey and myself. Hidalgo then reached out and shook his hand Indian style grasping the wrist rather than the hand and slipping his hand down into a regular handshake.

  Dr. Douglas seemed in good spirits, he knew he was on the percipience of an adventure, but he was a little amazed at how young Corey and I were, and as far as Hidalgo was concerned he was a little amazed, thinking to himself that this doesn’t seem like something a typical Navajo would be involved with. But then, he had spent a lot of time in the field where he had worked with many Native Americans, usually in the oil production business, or dealing with them trying to get access rights to uranium deposits. He even knew a few Navajo words but was far from being able to converse with them in their native tongue.

  On the way to the luggage carousal Hidalgo glanced over to Corey and me and said, “You know you can tell a world of things about a person by their hands.”

  “What do you mean,” I replied. “Well, silky smooth hands, mean someone who never does physical labor, which means he would have to be taken care of on a trip like this. You look or feel for the little things like the bump formed where a pencil rides the tip of the index finger or well-manicured finger nails. Dr. Douglas’ hands are rough and well calloused, he will be just fine.

  They gathered up the professor’s luggage from the luggage carousal, and then walked through the corridors lined with milling people to the La Fonda, a restaurant where a young guitarist, Hector Pimental was playing classical and Spanish music on his guitar. They ordered some food from the obliging waitress and settled down to discuss their project.

  “I understand that you are the folks that contacted me at the university about a possible new find up on the Rinconada. Well, you can make some money from these finds or you can invest a fortune looking for a payday and finally find yourself broke. However what you hinted at in your letter was a connection to the ancient Indians that lived here in New Mexico. Sometimes the real treasure isn’t found in gold and jewels but rather in an academic understanding of the ancient people themselves.”

  Despite the fact that Dr. Douglas was putting the meal on a university money account, they ate rather lightly that evening dining on tacos and diet cokes. Corey and I had accumulated a small fortune while working at our uncle’s ranch in Serpiente, however we had been brought up to be very frugal with our money; never spending money on anything they really didn’t need. It was a personal choice we had all made. Rather than watching others on a television we had decided, as a way of life, to live our own adventures. We were historical detectives.

  Soon we settled down to discuss the situation. “We are dealing with a mine that was hidden by the Anasazi Indians a long time ago. The Anasazi or ancient enemies, as Hidalgo explained, hid gold, silver and turquoise mines in New Mexico hundreds of years ago.”

  Dr. Douglas finally spoke, “Mr. Hidalgo, I have heard a little bit about the pueblo revolt but I would appreciate it if you could provide insight into it. I would like some background information and your perception on it.”

  Hidalgo looked a little sheepish but responded with “I’ll explain it in detail tomorrow on the way up.” With that everyone finished their meal, gathered up the suitcases and duffel bags, which were heavy with gear, and headed to the parking lot, where Hidalgo opened up a brand new four wheel drive Jeep Cherokee truck that had been loaned to them by Uncle Ken. From the parking lot we proceeded to find a good place to spend the night.

  The Pueblo Revolt

  The following morning after breakfast we historical detectives and Dr. Douglas loaded up the Cherokee Jeep and headed toward Santa Fe, stopping for gas and a few last groceries that Dr. Douglas insisted they get. We were pretty well prepared with the rear of the jeep crammed with all manner of camping gear that spilled over to several bundles of gear tied on top of the jeep. Hidalgo did the driving and with a captive audience and several prompts from Dr. Douglas asking him questions about the pueblo revolt as well as a Navajo view of the origins of Native Indians in North America, Hidalgo finally agreed to share what he knew. As it turned out, Hidalgo had an encyclopedic knowledge of the revolt.

  “According to many anthropologists the first people that migrated into New Mexico were of the Sandia culture. It is thought that they came from Siberia across the Bering Straits some thirty five thousand years ago. However, archeologists are now discovering through radiometric dating they may have been here long before that. The remains of cave fires have been carbon dated going back as far as one hundred and twenty five thousand years ago, but anthropologists just don’t know for sure. The carbons deposited from those fires are old but they found no artifacts. But then again, how does a fire occur deep in a cave by itself? The earliest Americans apparently followed the coast line all the way down into South America and then migrated back northeast via land routes, probably following rivers into the interior. Many of their artifacts were discovered in a large cave on a ridge behind the crest of Sandia Peak just outside of Albuquerque.”

  “During the last Ice Age there is ample evidence of these people in the form of spear points actually embedded inside of mastodon bones found near Clovis, New Mexico. Ten thousand years before Christ was born, people were wandering around this area living a hunter-gatherer, life leaving evidence of their presence and even some petroglyphs showing mastodons. New Mexico was very different back then of course. Colder and wetter, it provided all the food they needed. Soon afterwards, many other clans of humans wandered into this area including Folsom Indians that appeared near the end of the last ice age. During this same time the Cochise people migrated into this area. They were apparently the first to settle into communities where they cultivated corn, squash and beans.” Dr. Douglas knew all of this but listened attentively anyway.

  While dealing with the traffic of Santa Fe, Hidalgo continued his story; “The Mogollon culture followed, which is why their pottery is found all over New Mexico, and at the same time the Anasazi culture took root here. They are the ones we are interested in. Just a few miles to the west of where we are going is where Chaco Canyon, one of the greatest Anasazi cities is located. All Indian tribes warred among themselves as the climate in New Mexico became har
sher and dryer. Where you now see desert land the first tribes enjoyed a lush countryside filled with pine trees with game to hunt everywhere. When that lush countryside started to disappear, the people competed for the available resources. This competition for survival led to war among the various tribes.”

  “Then the Spanish arrived” says Hidalgo, and the tone of his voice changed, his mood became darker. “As far back as 1536 Cabeza de Vaca came into southern New Mexico and that is when the rumors of the Seven Cities of Cibola started.”

  “In 1540 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado invaded New Mexico looking for gold and the seven cities. In order to get rid of him the local Indians just lied about richer cities elsewhere and he followed that lie all the way into Kansas. Then in 1598 Juan de Onate established the first Spanish capital in the Tewa village of Ohke north of present day Espanola.”

  “So what was the problem with Spanish,” said Dr. Douglas?

  “Well, said Hidalgo, at that time in their history most of them were a cruel and greedy people. Most of the young Indian men were put into forced labor raising crops for the invaders. The buildings that the Spaniards lived in were all built by Indian labor at the end of a whip. In fact, many of the women were forced into slavery to take care of the lusty demands of the soldiers. And the priests, Hidalgo hesitated, they had a fanciful idea that all an Indian had to do was to be exposed to the Catholic religion and they would be saved. Saved from what? That book, the bible, supposedly had all the answers but the natives had no written language, had never needed one, and certainly had no idea what a book was, much less how to speak in Spanish! The natives were forbidden to practice their own religion, on pain of death.”

  We pulled into a gas station just outside of Pojaque for soft drinks and a bathroom break I desperately needed, afterwards Hidalgo continued. “The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. Meanwhile here in New Mexico there were over fifty families living in Hacienda styled homes. Most history books that students read don’t take that simple fact into account. While the pilgrims were scratching out an existence on small farms on the east coast, Spanish people had been living here in New Mexico, in well-built haciendas, built by the slave labor of the local Indians.”

  He waited a moment while that simple fact sunk in. “But back to the pueblo revolt, the war began in Acoma when the Indians rebelled from their cruel masters. During that time over five hundred native Indian men were rounded up and the Spanish removed one foot from each of them to induce them into Christianity, then in 1626 the Spanish Inquisition was established in New Mexico. The situation yearly got worse and worse until finally a San Juan Pueblo medicine man found a way to unite the tribes to face their common enemy; the Spanish.”

  For some time Hidalgo got quiet as he negotiated traffic but soon he returned to his conversation. Everyone listened spellbound to what he was saying while reflecting upon their own experiences.

  Hidalgo continued, “The Encomienda system in New Mexico allowed the Spanish to seize a portion of every Native’s farm crop to support the Spanish missionaries, military and civil institutions. Then there was the Repartimiento, which provided for forced Indian labor to work in Spanish fields and weaving sweatshops. Then there was the Inquisition, an all-out holy war on anything that was not Franciscan Christian. This Inquisition spanned the entire 17th century.”

  “In Zuni,” Hidalgo continued, “Over in west central New Mexico, unlike many other pueblos like Isleta, they were one of the last holdouts against the Spanish during the Pueblo revolt of 1680. Geography and isolation is probably why. Throughout the 17th century, Spanish authorities destroyed Pueblo kivas and sacred objects. Religious intolerance, in conjunction with a persistent abuse of pueblo labor prompted several pueblos to revolt. Unfortunately, the Spanish usually crushed them. In 1675, forty seven pueblo caciques, or priest were convicted of practicing sorcery and plotting to rebel against the Spanish. Four of these religious leaders were hanged. The others were whipped, reprimanded and finally released.”

  “Later real upsets happened when other Indian tribes came to raid. My ancestors, who had migrated from Canada, were now under the Spanish Inquisition and we despised them. It was all out war, everywhere. Not only did we fight the Spanish but my people, the Navajo, fought the Apaches as well as the Pueblo people, everyone was at war. The worst raiders were the Apache and my people, the Navajos.”

  “My people were hunter-gatherers who came from the north and knew nothing of farming. They did know, however, enough that when they raided a village, they didn’t kill everyone. They left enough people alive so that there would be crops to steal again the following year. By 1680 the Pueblo Indians banded together and drove the Spanish out of New Mexico all the way south into Mexico, and that’s the way it stayed until Don Diago de Vargas returned to New Mexico.”

  “When the Indians drove their cruel masters out of New Mexico they systematically hid all the old mines that they had been forced to labor in and only a few have been rediscovered.”

  Stories of Lost Treasure

  Dr. Douglas said, “You have got to be the smartest Navajo I have ever met.”

  “No,” replied Hidalgo,” I’m just one of the few Navajos that have ever been put into a position to learn and use what they knew. As Will Rogers once said; all people are geniuses, just in different ways.”

  Corey said, “I’ve heard stories about lost mines that the Indians hid. According to what I have read, starting in the middle 1500’s Franciscan missionaries came into New Mexico to plant the seeds of religion. During the late 1700’s they were still coming in. During this time, young Father La Rue came from his native France to Durango, Mexico. He spent some time administrating and toiling in a small village in Mexico but decided to go north after the crops in his village had begun to fail and the local people began to move out. While in Mexico he befriended an old soldier who had been all over New Mexico and the old soldier told him about a secret he had kept for many years of a rich deposit of gold he had discovered while on a scouting trip for the army. Since the village was failing as a farming enterprise Father La Rue became desperate and decided to venture into New Mexico. In time, he and many of the desperately poor people of the Mexican village made their way north along the Journada del Muerto and in due time they found the place described by the old soldier and made a camp by a spring.

  The men searched the peak and the Basin and finally found the vein of gold. Selecting a spot where observation of them would be difficult, they tunneled into the peak. For several years work went on. The gold was stored, and Father La Rue only spent what was necessary when he went to buy supplies and tools.”

  “The church, finding him gone from Mexico sent an armed expedition to determine what had happened to Father La Rue and the village. Discovering that he had journeyed north in search of gold they followed him to the general vicinity to where they thought he had gone. One day, one of La Rue’s men came into Mesilla for supplies for their village. He soon discovered that a party of soldiers and representatives of the Church were quartered there and that they were in search of Father La Rue and his colony. Returning to La Rue he told what he had learned. La Rue had the mine sealed and the gold hidden so no one could find it.”

  “It was not long before a Mexican house servant in Mesilla told the soldiers about the colony and the garrison of soldiers who were accompanying the Church representatives headed to the colony. The party arrived and made formal demand of Father La Rue that he deliver to them, in the name of the Church, the mine and all the gold which had been taken from it. The priest refused. He maintained that the gold belonged not to the church or himself, but rather to the people of the village.”

  “The soldiers at once opened fire. Although Father La Rue’s colony was greatly outnumbered, they valiantly fought to defend their rights, refusing to surrender. In the battle he and most of his people were killed. The few who were captured and tortured died in agony rather than reveal the hiding place of the treasure.”

  “In t
ime, all knowledge of the whereabouts of the mine were lost and forgotten then along came the Apache chief Victorio. Victorio plundered white settlements during the 1870’s including isolated mining transports, wagon trains, settlers and even isolated towns. It is thought that he knew of the old mine where the gold bullion was hidden but had little use for it except as a place to hide even more loot. The US Cavalry engaged him in 1880, after which he fled to Mexico where he was killed by Mexican troops, leaving a mystery as to what he done with the loot he captured.”

  “In 1937, Milton E. Noss, a Hot Springs doctor went deer hunting in the San Andres Mountains and was climbing what was to become known as Victorio Peak when he spotted an opening in the hillside. Supposedly, he climbed down into underground caverns to discover mine workings and gold bars stacked like cordwood, each one weighing from 40 to 60 pounds. There were also Wells Fargo strongboxes containing a multitude of old coins and jewelry.”

  “He also discovered some twenty-seven skeletons down there, some of them chained to the walls. He managed to get out a number of sacks of the gold bars that were mostly gold and copper. He even turned over much of it to the US Mint in Denver. They confiscated the gold and gave him a receipt for almost a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of gold. Ending up with a piece of what to him was worthless paper, he was furious. Fearing that Treasury agents intended to confiscate the other gold bars he had recovered, Noss returned to the cave and hid all the bars he had already recovered somewhere close by. He always claimed that only a small portion of the treasure from the original cave was ever recovered.”

  “So what finally happened,” I asked?

  “Well, the usual I suppose,” answered Corey. “The U.S. military couldn’t get the bars out without tremendous and dangerous effort so they used dynamite in an attempt to open up the mine, but it caved in instead. Noss enlisted another fellow, Charles Ryan to help him. There was gun play after he determined that the other fellow was trying to steal much of the gold for himself. Stories about the place circulated in many of the local newspapers particularly about the gunfight that supposedly took place. But Noss had been killed and only his wife now knew the whereabouts of the mine.”