THE SANTA FEAN LAGAZINE, May 1993, 18

Chief of all Comanche

Cuerno VerdeMAGAZINE

May 1993THE SANTA FEANVol.21 No.4 Storv. Charles Bennett

Incessantraiding byApaches,

Utes, Navajosand

Comanchethroughout

much of thel Bth centurybrought theprovince to

the very brinkof extinction.

One hundred and fifty years after New Mexicohad been established as a province of New Spain, itstill had all the semblances of a rough-hewn fron-tier colony. The biggest threat to New Mexicans,

Spaniards and Pueblo Indians alike was raids con-ducted by the nomadic Indian groups living on thesurroundingi fringes of the province. Incessantraidingi by Apaches, Utes, Navajos and Comanchethrougihout much of the 18th century brought theprovince to the very brink of extinction.

Governor V6lez Cachupin tried to win thefriendship of the Comanche in the summer of I75Iby holding a council with a group who had gone toTaos to trade. The governor gave them presentsand told them that peace would prevail unless theComanche should steal any horses or attack Pecos

Pueblo, in which case he would wage war uponthem. For a time there were no incidents. In mid-autumn. however. 300 Comanche attacked Pecos

Pueblo. Spanish soldiers stationed there helped thePecos warriors repulse two assaults.

Governor Cachupin responded two days laterwith a force of 54 soldiers, 30 militia and eightPueblo Indians. He was able to catch and defeat a

group of 145 Comanche. He sent the survivorshome to tell the story of the defeat and to carryback his stipulation that they keep the peace. Fol-lowing this triumph, the first administration ofGovernor Cachupin (17 49 -I7 54) was characterized,except for a few isolated incidents, by peacebetween the Comanche and the New Mexicans.

Six years later, in 1760, an insult perpetratedby the Taos Indians sparked a Comanche attack onTaos, in which they took 56 Spanish women cap-tive. An expedition was dispatched after them, butwith no results. The next year a group ofComanche went to Taos to talk peace and to trade,but New Mexico Governor Manuel del Portillo y

Urrisola, in retribution for the previous year'sattack, had 200 Comanche men killed and seizedthe surviving women and children as captives. TheComanche, seethingi with fury, were preparing for a

general attack against New Mexico when V6lezCachupin returned for a second term as governor,

just in time to avert the disaster and bring peace tothe troubled land.

Hostilities began to foment once more whenGovernor Cachupin's successor, Don Pedro Ferminde Mendinueta, learned that the Comanche intend-ed to attack the settlement of Ojo Caliente, about50 miles north of Santa Fe, and to forestall theattack he led a large force of men in June, 1768,

against them. The raiders were part of a largergroup of more than 400 who had arrived at Taos totrade. When the smaller party rejoined the maingroup at Taos, six Spanish settlers who happened tobe in the camp doing some unauthorized tradingwere killed. The Comanche then fled the area.

Later that summer, scouts brought word tothe Spaniards that a powerful new Comanche chiefhad emerged who had assumed control of the entireComanche Nation and who was treated like a kingby all the bands. It wasn't long after this news had

reached the Spaniards that the Comanche againattacked Ojo Caliente. In the pursuit that followed,21 Comanche were killed, one of whom it was dis-

covered had been a close associate of this new great

Comanche chief. His death was considered an

affront to all Comanche and the new chief personal-

ly undertook the campaign of retribution to avenge

his dead friend. This great chief wore an unusualleather helmet or headdress bearing a single buffalohorn, painted green, so the Spaniards named himCuemo Verde which means green horn.

Cuerno Verde was not present at the first inci-dent in the new campaign, which occurred in earlyOctober, 1768, but he was very much involvedwhen a major attack was mounted, at the end ofOctober, by a force of 500 Comanche warriorswhich surrounded and attacked Ojo Caliente before

dawn. The inhabitants of the settlement fought offthe first assault and even though Chief CuernoVerde personally led the second assault the settlersagain repulsed their attackers. During this fightCuerno Verde was killed, to the dismay of the otherComanche who, risking their lives, recovered thelifeless body of their fallen chief and retreated inconfusion. The death of the great Chief propelled

the Comanche Nation into a total and terrifyingi warwith New Mexico which would last for the nextdecade.

Cuerno Verde had left a son who, dedicatinghis life to avenging his father's death wore hisfather's emblem, the remarkable headdress with thesingle green buffalo horn, and assuming his father'sname Cuerno Verde-the-son became the scourge ofNew Mexico. The audacity of Cuerno Verde-the-son's attacks was fueled by his belief in his owninvincibility as assured him by the tribe's medicineman.

Soon the northern and eastern frontiers of

New Mexico felt the full impact of the Comanche atwar. Settlements, ranches and Indian villages wereattacked and sacked: Pecos Pueblo suffered sixraids, Galisteo Pueblo four, Cochiti Pueblo one andthe entire horse herd was stolen from NambdPueblo. Santa Clara and San Juan pueblos, and aSpanish settlement in the vicinity were alsoattacked. Pecos was again attacked on August 15,

1774, resultinS in the deaths of nine men, with sev-en captured and the horse herd stolen.

Three days later a party of 100 Comanchestruck Albuquerque, killing five, capturing four andstealing a herd of horses. A force of 600 Spanishsoldiers, militia and Indian allies left Santa Fe in

THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZINE, May 1993, 19

September, I774, on a campaign agiainst theComanche Nation. They attacked a Comanchegiroup about 125 miles from Santa Fe, killing orcapturing 100, and dividing as booty 1,000 horsesand mules, 80 tipis, and other Comanche posses-

sions. The campaign had been successful, butauthorities in Mexico City worried that it had beena peaceful group of Comanche who had beenattacked.

Although historians can only speculate todayas to whether the camp was hostile or peaceful, theintensity of Comanche response may be an indica-tion. The next year,1775, brought the fiercest

Comanche depredations ever. Pecos Pueblo wasattacked twice. Sandia, Alameda and Namb6 pueb-los were also attacked. Taos villagers fought 100Comanche in yet another raid. Even Santa Fe feltthe vengeance of the Comanche: one night in Mayfour warriors slipped into the town and killed ayoung boy herding oxen near his home. Pursuerssighted the raiders, but lost them when they aban-doned their horses and fled into the mountains.

The costly and unceasing Comanche war con-tinued the following year, reducing Pecos Pueblo,once the largest and wealthiest Pueblo Indian vil-lage, to a fraction of its human population, and leftonly eight old cows and a dozen old horses remain-

Unidentified Comanche war chiefs by Georlie Catlin, 1834. courtesyMuEeumorNewMexico,Nes.#t3ees8anrlNeg.#r3ee8z.

THE SANTA FEAN MACAZINE, May 1993, 20

... theComanchejumped off

their horses,killed themin order tomake a last

stand behindthem and

fought to thedeath in a

mannerwhich Anza

woulddescribe in

his report "asbrave as itwas glori-

ous."

ing of their once large herds. Galisteo Pueblo was

similarly affected by the prolonged hostilities.Finally, in 1,779, the exasperated viceroy of

New Spain, hoping to end the Comanche terror,appointed a new governor for New Mexico: Lieu-tenant Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza. Anza, a

highly capable administrator and proven militaryleader with much experience dealing with hostileIndians, would not arrive in the province for anoth-er year. Meanwhile, the Comanche continued toravage New Mexico.

Upon his arrival in New Mexico, one of Gover-

nor Anza's first acts was to consolidate the settle-ment of Albuquerque, a frequent target ofComanche attacks, and improve fortifications atTaos, the closest settlement to the Comanche fron-tier. Other settlements were strengthened as well.

Governor Anza's arrival brought new hope tothe settlers. Although he had bolstered the defens-

es of the New Mexico settlements, this was only a

stopgap measure. He knew that he would have tostrike the Comanche in their homeland to makethem think twice about leaving their families andvillages behind to raid New Mexico. Accordingly, he

made plans for a major campaign.Governor Anza formed his punitive expedition

in Santa Fe, regrouping the force near San JuanPueblo on August 16, 1779. He had assembled 100

regular soldiers, 200 militia and 250 Narive Ameri-can auxiliaries. Anza organized them into threecompanies of about 200 men each, and set out thenext day for Ojo Caliente, where the first CuernoVerde had fallen 11 years earlier initiating the longand bloody war. Ojo Caliente had by now been

abandoned as a consequence of continualComanche raids.

Anza's army continued north into presentColorado where it was joined by 200 Utes andApaches, traditional enemies of the Comanche. The

expedition, moving at night to avoid detection,crossed the Rio Grande at present Alamosa, Col-orado then skirted north around Pikes Peak, look-ing for Comanche camps.

A few days later a large Comanche encamp-ment was reconnoitered by one of Anza's scouts.Leaving 200 men to guard the horse herd and bag-

Sage train, Anza led the rest of his men quickly andquietly toward the Comanche camp. The Coman-che fled at once, having detected the force. Anzapursued for eight miles, enEiaging the Comancherear guard and inflicting some losses. Although themajority of the Comanche escaped with their lives

and the horses they rode on, they had left every-thing else behind. Anza counted 120 tipis and 500horses. More importantly, he learned from captivesthat other Comanche bands were expected to arrivein the camp to welcome Cuerno Verde and a party

of warriors who were returning from a raid on Taos.

Anza decided to start back for New Mexico, hopingto catch Cuerno Verde and his raiders on the trail.

Cuerno Verde's raid at Taos had not been the

success he had hoped. Alerted by some Apaches toexpect the Comanche raid, the inhabitants of Taos,

Spaniards and Pueblo Indians, working topiether,

had strengthened the stockade around the pueblo

and were ready for the Comanche. When Cuerno

Verde arrived to attack, he was repulsed, and muchto his astonishment, counterattacked by theTaoseflos. The counterattack unnerved theComanche, who lost a few warriors before retreat-ing. After destroying some corn fields, theComanche left the area, heading north over theSanpire de Cristo Mountains straight toward Gover-

nor Anza and his force.On September 2, 1779, as he crossed the

Arkansas River on his way south, Anza receivedword from one of his scouts that a Comanche force

was approaching. Anza, convinced it was Cuerno

Verde, concealed his men and waited to ambush hisquarry. At sunset the Comanche advance guard

rode into a narrow ravine where Anza's menattacked them, killing a few warriors before the restgot away. The next morning the New Mexicansagain took to the trail and soon encountered 50

Comanche galloping toward them with musketsablaze. Suddenly one Comanche burst forwardalone, fearlessly. He was wearingi the extraordinaryhelmet with the green horn: it was none other thanChief Cuerno Verde.

Cuerno Verde, with only 50 warriors againstAnza's 600 man force, charged. Anza directed a

portion of his men to isolate Cuerno Verde and theother warriors riding with him from the rest of the

Comanche, forcing them into the narrow ravinewhere the fight the day before had occurred. Real-

izing their predicament too late, the Comanchejumped off their horses, killed them in order tomake a last stand behind them and fought to thedeath in a manner which Anza would describe inhis report "as brave as it was glorious."

Falling with Cuerno Verde was his eldest son,

four leading war chiefs, the medicine man who hadproclaimed his invincibility and 10 other warriors.Cuerno Verde's headdress was now Anza's trophy,which he sent to his superior, Teodoro de Croix,commandant general of the Internal Provinces ofNew Spain.

Following Cuerno Verde's defeat, no newComanche leader arose to continue the war againstNew Mexico, but it would be several years beforeGovernor Anza was able to negotiate a lasting peace

with the Comanche, an achievement considered by

some historians to have been the most significantaccomplishment of his distinguished career. JuanBautista de Anza, Spain's most notable soldier onthe northern frontier in the 18th century, andCuerno Verde, a driven and dedicated leader, are

but two of a myriad of important individuals fromNew Mexico's Spanish colonial past.