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Our C at/10/ic Heritage in Texas
fifty miles in breadth, extending from Janos on the west to La Junta on the east, had been partly Christianized and partly settled. There had been reduced to doctrine a part of six or more native tribes, repre- senting among other tribes the Mansos, Zumas, Janos, Julimes, Piros and Tiguas. There had been settled within this district fourteen Indian Pueblos: Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe of Mansos, San Francisco of Zumas, La Soledad of Janos and Zumas, Santa Gertrudis of Zumas, Nuestra Senora del Socorro of Piros, Isleta of Tiguas, San Antonio de Senecu of Piros and Tompiros, and seven pueblos-sometimes referred to as nine-of Julimes, at La Junta. All but one of these, La Soledad de los Janos, was in the Valley of the Rio del Norte, or Rio Grande, below the great bend. At each of these fourteen settlements there was a church, and in most cases a priest, there being ten Franciscan fathers administering to the group. Moreover, at each pueblo where dwelt a priest there was at least one Spanish family for the aid and protection of the priest. Finally, each pueblo was organized on a civic basis with a corps of Indian officers to manage the civic affairs of the Indians, the organi- zation being patterned after that of the Spanish pueblo ... "The importance of El Paso in the frontier history of New Spain can scarcely be overestimated. At the most critical period in the early history of New Mexico, El Paso became the bulwark of the New Mexican colonists against the ravages of the Pueblo Indians, and made it possible eventually for Spanish arms to repossess the abandoned province. And, as El Paso was the bulwark of New Mexico, it was also the safeguard of the frontier settlements of Nueva Vizcaya. Nor is the relation of El Paso to early Texas history the least important part that place plays in the frontier history of New Spain. Though the beginning of Texas is commonly associated with a small group of missions established by Massanet in 1690 on the Neches River in Eastern Texas, as a matter of fact, the true beginnings of what is now Texas are to be found in the settlements grouped along the Rio del Norte in the El Paso district." 62
6 ZHughes, The Be,t;i1111ifl,r:s of Spanish Settlements;,, !lie El Paso District, 390-392.
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