A Harvest of Reluctant Souls: Fray Alonso de Benavides's History of New Mexico, 1630

30. The Vaquero Apaches of the Buffalo Herd

64 • Leaving behind this province of the Apaches de Navajó, and turning right toward the east, the province of the Vaquero Apaches begins. It runs along the eastern edge of the settlements for more than 150 leagues until it comes to the lands of the Apaches del Perrillo, where we began our entry into New Mexico. All this nation and province is sustained by cows that they call buffalo ,1 similar to ours in size but very different in form. The legs are short, as though the animal were crippled in legs or spine, and it has a high hump and chest. The horns are small and pointed, and they stick straight up. It has a long, shaggy mane; this blocks its views, and is very curly. It has shaggy fur on its muzzle and its knees as well—all dark brown or black in color. As a marvel, you may see one with a white spot. Their meat is more delicious and wholesome than that of our cows, and the suet a great deal better. They do not bellow like our bulls, grunting instead like pigs. They are not long in the tail, but short, and the tail has little fur on it. The hide is not like that of our cattle, but covered with curly wool like a very fine fleece. Extremely large and good rough cloths are made of it, and from the downy hairs, vicuña hats. Seemingly, ropes can be fashioned from the soft, hairy fur of the heifer calves, which looks like martens’ fur. 30. The VaqueroApaches of theBuffaloHerd The Vaquero Apaches of the Buffalo Herd • 65 I have dwelt on these cattle because they are so numerous and widespread that we have found no end to them. One might note that they run on to the South Sea and to the North Sea, and there are so many that they blot out the plains. These cattle by themselves would be enough to make a prince very powerful, if he had or were given a means by which to convey them elsewhere. In the herds, there are seemingly more than forty thousand bulls without a single cow among them, as the cows always remain apart until rutting season. These cattle will not let themselves get caught by men on horseback in a roundup, even though some of our domestic cattle can be set loose by men on foot among them. At birthing time, the Spaniards go out to collect the little heifer calves, and then they raise them with goats. As these buffalo are so numerous, and they shed or molt their pelts every year, the wool is left on the plains. The breezes scatter it up into the trees or off into ravines in such quantities that it could make a lot of people rich, and it is all lost. All these Vaquero Apaches are supported by these buffalo herds, in search of which they proceed with great craftiness to the watering holes. They hide themselves along the game trails, streaked with American buffalo on the edge of the plains. Photo by Baker H. Morrow. 66 • Chapter 30 vermillion, and stained with the muddy earth of the place. They lie stretched out in the deep ruts the buffalo have made. Then the Apaches make good use of the arrows they carry as the buffalo pass by. They are a doltish sort of cattle, though ferocious and fast. Upon feeling themselves wounded, they fall over after a few steps. And afterward the men flay them, carrying off the hides, the tongues, and the loins. They strip out the veins for sewing and to make bowstrings. They cure the hides in two ways. Some are cured with the hair left on, and they turn out like plush velvet. These serve as beds and capes during the summer.2 Others are tanned without the hair, and they are processed to be so very thin that they might be used for tents and other useful handicraft items. They trade these hides all over this land and make their living from them. Clothes made from them are the general wardrobe of the country, as much among Indians as Spaniards, who use them for clothing and to make sacks, tents, leather armor, shoes, and anything else that may come up. And although a great lot of buffalo are killed each year, not only do their numbers not...