Indian Alliances and the Spanish in the Southwest, 750-1750 (review)

532Southwestern Historical QuarterlyApril that will thrill any student ofTexas history. This reader, for one, is anxiously awaiting the next installment of this series and the next field trip into the fascinating history ofTexas. Victoria, TexasDeborah Bloys Hardin Indian Alliances and the Spanhh in the Southwest, J50—IJ50. By William B. Carter. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009. Pp 312. Maps, notes, bibliography , index. ISBN 9780806140094, $34.95 clodi.) In this refined version of a doctoral dissertation completed at Arizona State University in 2002, William B. Carter combines recent scholarship on the prehistory and early history of the Southwest in an ethnohistorical perspective to reveal how the Southern Athapaskans of New Mexico and Arizona (also known as the Apacheans, i.e. the Apaches and Navajos) and the Pueblos forged long-lasting ties in the centuries that preceded and followed the arrival of the Spanish on the scene. The author's oft reiterated contention that scholars have tended to view Apacheans and Puebloans in simplistic and antagonistic terms, as predator and prey, is something of a straw man given the current state of scholarship. Yet this should not distract from his attempt to reach a more complex and nuanced understanding of inter-Indian relations and cooperation. The roots of cooperation, as it turns out, run deep. Integrating indigenous traditions of origins with archeological evidence, Carter begins by retracing the migrations and cultural differentiation of Athapascan peoples, and by situating those who eventually settled in New Mexico and Arizona within the broader grouping . (Some readers will no doubt find that the narrative of Apachean-Puebloan cooperation and alliance occasionally gets lost in deep contextualization.) The triad of factors which most influenced the alliances of the Southern Athapaskans during the prehistoric period, he argues, were ideology, kinship, and environmental conditions. Major climate changes initiated the slow southward migration and fragmentation ofAthapaskan groups into the northwestern Great Plains and the Great Basin circa 800-1300 CE, while to the south Pueoblan communities and trade networks proliferated. Another major climate shift brought about violent conflicts, but also a surge in trade and cooperation in the region. As peoples tried to make the most of limited resources, Puebloans incorporated the Apachean newcomers into the recently reorganized world of the Southwest and the latter incorporated the former into a Plains-based trade in bison by-products. By the middle of the thirteenth century, Apacheans were interacting and, thanks to flexible kinship structures, intermarrying with Puebloans. The arrival of the Spanish, it comes as no surprise, brought profound transformations to the region. In his retelling of their entradas in New Mexico, from 1536 to 1591, and of their permanent setdement, from 1598 to 1665, Carter trains the attention of the reader on the complexity of motivations among the Apachean raiders—who were by no means inherendy belligerent—and to the continuing existence of alliances with their Pueblo neighbors. He goes on to argue that the Pueblos' Athapaskan allies played a crucial role in the resistance to the Spanish in 2OIo Book Reviews533 New Mexico during the seventeenth century, and uncovers sparse but convincing evidence of Apachean involvement during Pueblo insurrections, including the Jemez Revolt (1614), the Tacos-Picuris-Jemez Revolt (1639-40), and the Pueblo revolts (1680, 1696). Cooperation continued between Athapaskans and Puebloans after the uprising of 1680, but the broad coalition that had united them dissolved as a result of droughts, which triggered increased competition for resources, and in the momentary absence of a Spanish adversary. Carter's narrative ends rather abrupdy with the end of the seventeenth century and the Spanish recapture of New Mexico. A mere three pages bring the investigation into the first decade of the eighteenth century, and the period up to 1 750 is discussed only in an epilogue which describes all too briefly the transitions during the first half of die eighteenth century that "forever altered" the patterns of alliance, notably die growing French presence and the rise of the Comanches and horse culture. University ofTorontoJean-François Lozier Maria ofAgreda: MysticalLady in Blue. By Marilyn H. Fedewa (Albuquerque: University ofNew Mexico Press, 200g. Pp. 356. Illustrations, maps, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 9780826346438, $39.95 cloth.) On occasion a scholar...