Читать книгу Lost Worlds of 1863. Relocation and Removal of American Indians in the Central Rockies and the Greater Southwest онлайн

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In the first half of the nineteenth century, from California, through New Mexico, to Texas, gente de razón (literally “people of reason”), that is, people of any race whose way of life was Hispanic and not Indian, maintained the Spanish practice of taking, purchasing, and ransoming Indian captives. These captives, so-called gente sin razón (“people without reason”), became involuntary members of Mexican households. Rarely called esclavos or slaves because they were legally and theoretically free, the bondage was always justified on the grounds that these pagans were baptized and received the blessings of Christianity.²⁶

In 1927, Amado Chaves recalled the traditions of his family of frontiersmen by saying that:

To get Indian girls to work for you all you had to do was organize a campaign against the Navajoes or Utes or Apaches and kill all the men you could and bring captive the children. They were yours … . Many of the rich people who did not have the nerve to go into campaigns would buy Indian girls.²⁷