Juan Bautista de Anza versus Cuerno Verde

On the morning of September 3, 1779, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Spanish Captain Juan Bautista
de Anza and Comanche Chief Cuerno Verde met in mortal combat to decide the fate of a century of rivalry
between the two peoples. Anza was the scion of a Spanish family with a long and honorable history of service
to the Crown. Cuerno Verde had inherited from his father the particular headdress surmounted by a bison horn
painted green, but also his deep hatred towards the Spaniards.

By the time darkness fell, fate was already fulfilled. One man lay lifeless at the foot of Greenhorn Mountain,
while the other won a crucial victory for his people. But the events that led the two leaders to this decisive
battle had unfolded for almost a century.

De Anza and the Comanches

In the years following the founding of New Mexico in 1598, explorers and missionaries penetrated deep into
the northern territories, traversing the canyons, mountains and plains of present-day Kansas, Colorado and
Utah. For more than a century the Utes and Apaches who occupied the mountains and valleys of the northern
regions tolerated and, at times, traded with the white foreigners who came to their domains. With horses,
swords and firearms, the Spanish had an early advantage over their Indian neighbors. But the revolt of the
Pueblos, in 1680, caused hundreds of horses to be dispersed throughout the American territory. In the early
1700s a fierce warrior people called, by the Spanish, Comanche, showed up on the northern frontier of New
Mexico, driving out the Apache bands.

New Mexico, in the mid-1700s, was unable to evade or stop the depredations of the Comanches. The
province, 1,000 miles of barren desert, was isolated from the nearest New Spain settlements.

Every three years a caravan of supplies was sent from the south, via the Jornada del Muerto, to assist the
Franciscan missions and settlers, but weapons and ammunition remained scarce and the settlers had to
decide whether to use the scarce amounts of iron to make spearheads or horseshoes.

Santa fe, nestled on the western flank of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. it had been the capital for a century
and a half and one of the few fortified settlements. Other missions and villages were more exposed to Indian
attacks. To the north was Taos, with its mission built near the massive Indian pueblo. Further south was
Albuquerque, which had its own problems with Navahos and Apaches. North of Santa Fe were the missions of
Abiquiu and Ojo Caliente. South Galisteo. East of the mountains the pueblo and mission of Pecos made a
perfect target for raiding by the Comanches. Scattered among these centers were isolated ranches, whose
herds of horses and cattle whetted the appetite of the mobile Comanches. With few professional soldiers, the
defense was entrusted to poorly armed and equipped local militias. But the time spent fighting the Indians
could not be spent with cattle and crops. When the Comanches swept into New Mexico they found a poorly
defended territory. And fight after fight. inconvenient neighbors became deadly enemies.

New Mexico's defensive prowess was challenged by the organization of the Comanche culture. Comanche
warriors were independent and not afraid to die. They learned to lead both through acts of persuasion and
valor. There was no central authority. Furthermore, the death of a warrior had to be avenged by his sons and
brothers. The death of a chief demanded the vengeance of the entire tribe. By assaulting a Comanche band,
one ran the risk of an immediate counterattack.

Year after year the raids against New Mexico became more and more incessant. During the 5 years of Joachin
Codallos y Rabal's governorship, the Comanches killed 150 people in Pecos alone. It seems that they were led
by a leader called, by the Spaniards, Luigi the Apostate. In 1747 a Comanche band assaulted Abiquiu in the
Chama Valley, and ravaged the surrounding region, taking many prisoners. Codallos pursued them as far as
the Rio Napestle, Arkansas River, and claimed to have killed more than 100 warriors. The following year, 1748,
the Comanches attacked the pueblo of Pecos. The Governor managed to intercept them. A furious battle
ensued and only the arrival of reinforcements from Santa Fe saved Codallos from defeat. In 1749 it was the
turn of Galisteo, where eight people died. In 1751 they raided Taos, Picuris and Galisteo again, taking many
prisoners.

Codallos' successor, Tomas Velez Cachupin decided to reinforce the pueblos of Pecos and Galisteo, which
were particularly exposed, ordering the construction of trenches, towers at the gates and sending thirty
garrison soldiers.

The bloodiest episode occurred in 1760, when 3,000 Comanches invaded the Alcadia of Taos. The village,
which the friar Francisco Atanasio Dominguez described "as resembling the walled cities with ramparts and
towers told to us from the Bible", resisted. The Comanches then swarmed into the Taos Valley, moving from
ranch to ranch. The terrified residents sought refuge and safety in the large
fortified house of Pablo Villalpando. Despite a strenuous defense, in which even the women, including
Tamaron, Villalpando's wife, fought alongside the men, the Comanches managed to overcome the parapets
and enter the walls. They killed all the men, 64 according to some witnesses, and took 56 women and children
captive. Governor Marin del Valle assembled a large expedition made up of Spaniards. Later the situation
worsened further. In 1757, according to an official census, New Mexico had more than 7,000 horses. In 1775
the Governatote Pedro Fermin de Mendinueta wrote, in a report to the viceroy, that he did not have enough
horses for an effective defense and begged him to send 1500 animals from Nueva Vizcaya, otherwise a
complete desolation would have followed. There was a real risk of losing New Mexico.
Particularly exposed was the frontier sector of Ojo Caliente, a village located near the Rio Chama, west of
Taos. In May 1768, Mendinueta decided to send a garrison of 50 soldados de cuera up Cerro de San Antonio,
18 miles north of Abiquiu, to garrison the ford over the Rio Grande that the Comanches usually used on their
way to Ojo Caliente. In June of that year, 100 Comanches moved against the pueblo, but at the ford they were
unexpectedly ambushed by the new garrison and forced to flee.

On September 26, a group of 24 Comanches showed up under the walls, having killed a settler, and
challenged the soldiers. The garrison, to which some Utes had been added, confronted them and, quite
unusual, managed to kill all but one of them. By interrogating the prisoner, Mendinueta learned that one leader
had risen above all others. The Governor called him a little king, with a personal guard of armed men and
pages who helped him mount and dismount and spread buffalo skins when he sat down. The Spanish called
him Cuerno Verde, after the headdress topped with a single green painted bison horn that he wore. In October
1768, 500 Comanches assaulted Ojo Caliente.
This is a portrait of Roman Nose, the Cheyenne chief. He wore a single horned bison headdress, due to a
vision. Probably the emblem of Cuerno Verde was like this, without the tail of feathers, with a bison horn
painted green
The revenge of the Comanches was not long in coming. On August 31, 1768, they killed Lieutenant General
Don Nicola Ortiz, second in command only to the Governor, in a battle at the Cerro de San Antonio.

That same year the Comanches raided Picuris. a village located between Santa Fe and Taos. and they sacked
the church, stealing the sacred furnishings and religious books, which were then recovered in very bad
conditions.

In the summer of 1772 500 Comanches attacked Pecos, and there were 5 raids against Picuris and 4 against
Galisteo. In July 1773 the Comanches raided Cochiti. Mendinueta pursued them to the Rio Conejos and was
able to recover some horses.

In the summer of 1774 there were more invasions. On June 23, the Comanches killed two inhabitants of
Picuris, surprised in the fields. The next day they stole Nambè's entire herd of horses.
A month later a war party of 1,000 warriors descended the Chama River to strike at the pueblos of Santa Clara
and San Juan. During the assault on Santa Cruz de la Canada, the alcade mayor and some settlers took
refuge in a field. They managed to kill the Comanches leader and some warriors sacrificed their lives to
recover his body.
On August 15, 100 Comanches assaulted Pecos and surprised some settlers working in the fields. They killed
nine and captured seven and stole the herd of horses.

Governor Mendinueta organized the pursuit and sent an expedition of 114 soldiers and Pueblos. Five days
later the Spaniards attacked a village "with so many tents that there was no end in sight". Due to the
Comanche counterattack, they were forced to defend themselves, forming a square and were able to retreat in
good order.

At the same time 100 Comanches stormed Albuquerque killing five people and 400 sheep. The local militia
was engaged in a campaign against the Navahos and there was no pursuit.

There were other clashes in 1775. On May 1, a Comanche band attacked Pecos and killed three Indians
surprised in the fields, the following week it was the turn of Nambè. Two were killed and two girls were taken
prisoner.

On June 23, the Comanches advanced as far as Alameda on the Rio Grande, where they killed three
inhabitants and some of the cattle.
Residents of nearby Sandia pueblo mounted a foot pursuit. Suddenly the Comanches halted and fell upon their
exhausted pursuers, killing 33. The same day a war party surrounded Pecos pueblo firing at the buildings. One
resident was killed.

Governor Mendinueta was forced to admit that he did not have enough horses to organize an effective
defense.

n the mid-1970s, Nuevo Mexico seemed to disintegrate under the pressure of Comanche raiding parties.
In 1766 Nicolas de Lafora, the engineer who had accompanied the Marquis de Rubi's expedition, had
described New Mexico as "an impenetrable defense against hostile Indians."

The Alcadia of Albuquerque. Note the inscription on the right "frontier and entry of the Comanche enemies"
But just a decade later, the most powerful of the Spanish colonies in North America was reduced to a captive
territory, where horseless and ill-armed troops were forced to watch, often helpless, as Comanche invasions
destroyed villages and farms.

Governor Mendinueta ordered settlers to reoccupy and rebuild the villages, calling them pusillanimous and
cowards, and threatened to confiscate the lands, but the vast region between the Rio Chama and the Rio
Grande was abandoned "destroyed by hostile Comanches," as a map explained of the time. On the eastern
side of the Rio Grande La Trampas de Taos, La Truchas and Chimayo were repeatedly abandoned and
reoccupied, while Picuris remained isolated and almost indefensible.

But even the largest pueblos were in constant danger. At Pecos, the eastern stronghold, surrounded by fertile
lands in all four directions, the fields could not be cultivated because the village was under siege by the enemy.
The settlers were forced to plant corn near the walls, where the land was not very productive. Nearby Galisteo
fared no better. Of the 80 families present in 1760, half had left.

In 1776, the year of the American Revolution, Charles III of Spain set out a series of reforms to modernize New
Spain, streamline administration, limit the power of the Church, and tame the wild and lawless northern frontier.

One of these was the creation of the General Command of the Inland Provinces of the North. The concept was
to unify the direction of this immense territory to better defend itself against hostile Indians.

At the head of this new jurisdiction was appointed Teodoro de Croix, a very experienced and capable officer
who set to work "with intelligence and vigor, something little known in the northern provinces".

Pecos pueblo was especially affected by the Comanches. It was finally abandoned in 1838
Meanwhile the Comanches were getting bolder and more ruthless.

In 1777, in a series of raids, they killed 23 New Mexicans at Valencia, 8 at Taos, 14 at Isleta, and "many more
everywhere."

The small community of Tomè, south of Isleta, was particularly tormented.

In May, 21 residents were killed. They were in church listening to mass. The Comanches burned the door and
exterminated everyone, including the priest, filled with arrows in front of the altar. In a second attack, in August,
30 people died.

According to a legend, the fury of the Indians was caused by the refusal of the alcade to marry his daughter to
a Comanche chief.

The next year, 1778, raiders killed or captured 127 settlers and Pueblos.

They seemed unstoppable.

One of Croix's first decisions was to appoint the new Governor of Nuevo Mexico. The choice fell on Don Juan
Bautista de Anza.
Anza was a Sonorense born at the Jesuit mission of Cuquiarachi, near Fronteras. He wasn't even four when
the Apaches killed his father. Raised among the Basque elite of Sonora, he had embarked on a brilliant military
career from cadet to lieutenant colonel. As Captain in Tubac, he had fulfilled his father's dream. In 1774 he led
an expedition across the Yuma Desert to Mission San Gabriel in Alta California, proving the feasibility of an
overland route to supply California. In 1775 Anza escorted a party of colonists to Monterey Bay and
established a garrison in San Francisco. He arrived in Santa Fe at the end of 1778 with the main task of
stopping the invasions of the Comanches and, in particular, of the great paraibo Cuerno Verde "the scourge of
the kingdom.
Instead of waiting for the annual invasions, which occurred mostly in the summer during harvest time, Anza
decided to counterattack.

The punitive expeditions of his predecessors followed two easily predictable paths. One east to Pecos, and
then north to southern Colorado, the other northeast from Santa Fe to Taos and then, passing the foothills of
the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, north to the Rio Napestle, the Arkansas River.

After consulting with his officers and more experienced merchants, Anza decided to choose an alternative
route, more difficult but unusual, "through different regions from those previously crossed", the only chance of
victory for Nuevo Mexico.

The route from Santa Fe went through the Chama Valley to the abandoned village of Ojo Caliente. Then,
passing through the Utes-controlled San Luis Valley and skirting the San Juan Mountains, one arrived at
Poncha Pass. Crossing the pass, one entered present-day Colorado's South Park and, turning east, into
Comancheria.

On August 15, 1779, the expedition, made up of 103 soldiers of cuera, veterans of the frontier, departed from
Santa Fe. Anza's chosen general muster site was San Juan de los Caballeros.
Here Anza's dragoons were joined by 203 militiamen and 259 Indians from the villages of Canada, Queres and
San Carlos. Anza's soldiers were well equipped. Each of them had three horses, at least ten loads of powder,
and forty days' provisions. The same thing could not be said for the militiamen and the Indians. Because of
their poverty, only a few owned two horses, poorly fed and almost useless, and three loads of powder.

Anza gave them a horse and a working weapon.

He then divided the soldiers into three groups of 200 men each, one in the vanguard, under his command, and
the other two under the first and second lieutenants of the garrison of Santa Fe.
On August 17, the Spanish encamped in the abandoned pueblo of Ojo Caliente, the site where Cuerno Verde's
father had been killed by a musket ball in 1768. That night Anza and his men slept among the ruined buildings
and the ghosts of those who they had been victims of the Comanche vendetta.

On August 20, the Spanish arrived at the Rio de los Conejos, near the present New Mexico-Colorado border.
Here they were joined by 200 Apaches and Utes who wanted to fight the common enemy. Anza immediately
made an agreement with the bosses. They would have had to obey his orders, on the other hand the booty
would then have been divided equally with the soldiers, except for personal captures.

From the 21st to the 23rd the expedition traveled only at night, to avoid enemy lookouts.

Anza ordered the fires not to be lit, despite the inclement weather. Because of the cold and frost, it felt like the
middle of winter. The direction was north and the Spanish and their allies crossed Rio del Pino, Jaras, Timbres,
San Lorenzo and finally the Rio Grande at El Paso de San Bartolomè.

On the 27th they arrived at Poncha Pass, a narrow canyon "rarely traversed previously", carved between the Continental
Divide, and the Sawatch Mountains in particular, and the Sangre de Cristo Range. It was a very difficult day. Fog and
snow made the passage of 800 men and more than 1,000 horses and mules extremely difficult.
After crossing the pass, one entered today's South Park in Colorado. Here the Spanish found a herd of bison, but no sign
of Comanches.

On the 30th the expedition passed Sierra Almagre, the red ocher sierra, probably Pike Peak, although not all historians
agree, through El Puerto de la Sierra Almagre (Ute Pass), and then camped on the bank of a torrent called, by Anza, Rio
Santa Rosa.

On 31 August the scouts that Anza had sent to scout returned with the awaited news. They had located a large camp,
consisting of more than 120 tents, on the Rio Sacramento (now Fountain Creek). Some Comanches had, however,
discovered the tracks of the scouts and raised the alarm.

Anza wasted no time. Leaving 200 men to guard the horse herd and supply train, he ordered the attack.

There was no time to encircle the enemy, who were already fleeing across the prairie. All Comanches
were on horseback, including the women and children. The Spanish pursued them for eight miles, until the
rearguard stopped to fight. A "running fight" ensued, a battle on the move, for another three miles. Eighteen
warriors were killed, many more wounded, and 34 women and children were captured. The Comanches lost
everything in their flight except the horses they rode.

Anza spent five hours interrogating prisoners to try to find out the whereabouts of other rancherias. Two
prisoners told him that many villages were converging on that place to meet Cuerno Verde. The "general jefe",
a few days earlier, had gone south with 250 warriors to assault Taos and the Rio Sacramento was the place
chosen to celebrate the victory. Since the fugitives would certainly alert everyone else, Anza decided to turn
back to New Mexico to intercept Cuerno.

Anza's men divided up the booty, 500 horses and goods which were loaded onto more than 100 pack train
animals. Then the Spanish, on September 1, began their journey south. "I was determined to follow Cuerno
Verde's trail to see if luck would allow me to meet him," Anza wrote in his campaign diary.

The Spanish continued to ride south on September 2, crossed the Arkansas River, and moved parallel to the
Wet Mountains, southwest of today's Pueblo City, to Greenhorn Peak.

The day had not started, for Anza, in the best way. The Utes had abandoned the camp, satisfied with the booty
they had received or perhaps reluctant to face Cuerno Verde and his warriors.

By midafternoon scouts informed him that a large band of Comanches was approaching. It could only be
Cuerno Verde, returning from his last raid in New Mexico. The final showdown that the Spanish had long
awaited was at hand.

By the time Anza had captured the village on the Rio Sacramento, Cuerno Verde and his warriors had
descended on Taos, but had been in for an unpleasant surprise. A few days earlier the Apaches had warned
the mayor of the approach of the enemy, and the mayor had alerted the whole province. Furthermore, the
pueblo's defenses had been improved with a rectangular palisade and triangular towers at the corners. By the
evening of August 30, all valid inhabitants of Taos had gathered on the walls. The assault, no longer a
surprise, was repulsed and seven warriors were killed by the Spanish counterattack. Having no alternative
plans, Cuerno Verde and the Comanches, having burned their crops, left.

To return to their village on the Rio Sacramento, the Indians, unaware of the enemy's presence, were forced to
cross a narrow valley surrounded by wooded hills. Anza set the trap. He divided his men into three columns,
sent two to hide in the thick vegetation on the sides of the valley, and led the frontal assault. He had organized
a perfect pincer movement, but Cuerno Verde saw the trap and the Comanches fled. The pursuit was
interrupted by a deep crack in the ground.

“At sunset the barbarians reached the valley and we attacked them with the column under my command, as
they seemed to expect. However, after seeing the other two columns that were about to surround them, they
gave themselves to a blind and frantic flight".

Despite the negative opinion of his officers, who feared a Comanche-style night attack, Anza decided to rest
the men inside the gully.
At dawn the Spaniards resumed their march. Anza sent two columns into the woods to left and right, and
advanced with a third column to scout.

Suddenly, about forty Comanches appeared from the trees and began firing their muskets. In front of them,
recognized for his "insignia and devices", ornaments and symbols, Cuerno Verde with his famous headgear.
The great chief advanced, alone, towards the Spaniards, insulting them and making his horse twirl wildly.

“I was determined to have his life,” Anza wrote, “and her pride and his arrogance led to his death.”

Anza ordered the enemy to be surrounded and, in the event that the maneuver failed, to isolate Cuerno Verde
and his personal guard from the main body of Comanches.

The leader saw the intent and began to flee, but was trapped with his followers in a dead-end gully or canyon.
The Comanches, dismounted, tried to defend themselves by sheltering behind the animals, but they were all
killed, Cuerno Verde, his eldest son, a medicine man, "sumo pujacante", who had predicted immortality, four of
his chief , including Aguila Bolteada, second in command only to Cuerno, and ten warriors.

Anza took possession of the legendary hat to be presented to the Spanish authorities and, at 10.30 am on 3
September 1779, amidst the hurrahs of his soldiers, proclaimed victory in the name of Charles III and the
Commander General Croix, and called the place of the battle, at the foot of Greenhorn Mountain, Los Dolores
of Maria Santissima. The place is still unknown today.
On September 10, the Spaniards returned to Santa Fe greeted by cheering crowds.

Anza sent Croix the legendary headdress of Cuerno Verde, the feathered one of Aguila Bolteada, a map of the
expedition, and a copy of the campaign diary. According to a legend, Cuerno's hat was then given to Charles
III who gave it to Pope Pius VI in the Vatican.
In 1812 Pedro Pino wrote in "Exposicion sucinta y sencilla de la provincia del Nuevo Mexico" that Anza's
opponent was called Tabivo Naritgante, a name translated by Thomas Kavanagh as "man dangerous to
others". I don't know, however, whether this was Cuerno's real name or a description of him.

Nor is it known which group he belonged to. He probably he was a Jupe, due to the geographical location of
the events.

Anza, in the years following his victory against Cuerno Verde, tried to consolidate the acquired advantage.

Beginning in 1783 he began negotiating a long-term peace with the Comanches. Although, after Cuerno's
death, some bands had come to New Mexico to negotiate an armistice, Anza had refused to negotiate until the
Comanches had chosen a leader to speak for them all.
Finally, in 1786, Anza concluded a treaty with Chief Ecueracapa. Peace between Nuevo Mexico and the
Comanches was final.

In 1787, to prove their sincerity to the Governor, the Comanches asked for help building a permanent
settlement on the Arkansas River.
Anza supplied them with a foreman, 30 laborers, farm tools, seeds, building materials, and livestock.

The settlement, called San Carlos de los Jupes, was located on the St Charles River in the foothills of the Wet
Mountains near where Anza had defeated Cuerno Verde.

Anza's health deteriorated, however, and he was forced to return to Sonora. When the Comanches learned of
his departure, they abandoned San Carlos, believing that their efforts to build a permanent colony were the
result of a pact between them and Anza, not an agreement with New Mexico.

On December 19, 1788 Don Juan Bautista de Anza, the greatest Spanish frontiersman of those times, died in
Arispe.