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ix “New Mexico possesses but a few of those natural advantages, which are necessary to anything like rapid progress in civilization.” —Josiah Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, 1844 S o wrote this frail introvert who would be recognized as the outstanding chronicler of the West in his day. Indeed, his account of the time he spent as a trader on the Santa Fe Trail from 1831 to 1840 has become a classic of western Americana. Gregg traveled in New Mexico a good deal of that time, and his carefully documented observations provide a perfect snapshot of life in the territory the nineteenth century enfolded. Spanish livestock had thrived in New Mexico for well over two hundred years before Josiah Gregg crisscrossed the territory; however, his narrative provides insight into an industry then in transition. In addition, his perspective is singularly different from that of the earlier Hispanic travelers or residents who wrote about their observations. Gregg informs us that the cattle here had to be constantly herded, since few farms or ranches employed fencing. He goes on to describe precisely how the herders, or vaqueros, managed the critters, expertly using horsehair lassos to capture stray animals and branding them with hot iron. He tells us that stock of every kind were almost never fed but “generally maintain themselves in excellent condition upon the dry pasturage alone in the cold season,” and how the most esteemed work animal of the day— the mule—was painstakingly cared for and outfitted. We learn that by this time Navajos were cultivating “all the different grains and vegetables to be found in New Mexico” and that they “possess extensive herds of horses, mules, cattle, sheep and goats of their own raising.” Though Gregg was known to be a meticulous intellectual, he permitted a sense of excitement to embellish his writing. Consider the following: [I]magineourconsternationanddismay,when,upondescending into the valley of the Cimarron, on the morning of the 19th of June, a band of Indian warriors on horseback suddenly appeared Preface Thoughts from Josiah Gregg’s Commerce of the Prairies x • Preface before us from behind the ravines—an imposing array of deathdealing savages! There was no merriment in this! It was genuine alarm—a tangible reality! These warriors, however, as we soon discovered, were only the van-guard of a “countless host,” who were by this time pouring over the opposite ridge, and galloping directly toward us. Gregg was just one of a plethora of travelers who recorded their observations of the livestock scene in the American Southwest. They, along with the historians who have interpreted it and the scholars who have delved into topics that directly or distantly relate to it, have provided the meat for this history of livestock in New Mexico. I have tried to distill intelligence from as many of these sources as I could reasonably draw upon over the years to piece together the story. The chapters that follow are, in fact, somewhat of an extension of my 2004 book, Gardens of New Spain: How Mediterranean Plants and Foods Changed America, the research for which began seven years before the book was published. On the pages to follow, I provide a general background on animal domestication in the Old World and the New during pre-Columbian times. I then present some specific background information on each of the six livestock species brought to New Mexico by the early Spanish colonists. A chronological history of livestock in New Mexico from 1540 to the present makes up the heart of this book. Then, in separate chapters, I deal with the impacts of Spanish livestock upon the state’s Native population and upon the land itself. I wind up with a chapter on New Mexico’s place in the American livestock scene. But first I must dispel any notion that “Spanish” livestock were just another element of a larger picture. Readers might wonder how livestock from places other than Spain fit in. The fact is, however, all the principal animals we Americans call livestock today—horses, mules, donkeys, cattle , sheep, goats, and pigs—were brought to North America by Columbus on his second voyage, which began in 1493. Thus all livestock in the United States has a Spanish heritage. This book presents a history of that heritage —the history of domestic livestock in New Mexico. ...

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