Tomás Vélez Cachupín ( 1730 – 1770) was a colonial judge and the Spanish colonial governor of

Santa Fe de Nuevo México Santa Fe de Nuevo México (; shortened as Nuevo México or Nuevo Méjico, and translated as New Mexico in English) was a province of the Spanish Empire and New Spain, and later a territory of independent Mexico. The first capital was San Juan d ...

province (present-day

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

), located in the northern

Viceroyalty of New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

(colonial México), from 1749 to 1754 and 1762 to 1767. During his rule, Cachupín achieved peace between Spaniards and the Amerindian peoples of New Mexico, especially the

Comanches The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in Lawton, Oklahoma ...

. He also protected the right to the possession of lands by the people of New Mexico, including the Amerindians, fining and imprisoning those who occupied the lands of others under the idea that these lands were the property of their inhabitants.

Governor

First term

Vélez Cachupín was appointed governor of

in early 1749 and assumed the office in May of that year. After settling in New Mexico as governor, he noticed the frequent attacks the Comanches were directing against places where the Spanish and

Mestizos ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to ...

lived. These attacks were not only dangerous because they resulted in kidnappings and the killing of settlers and their descendants in the province, but they also impeded economic growth. To remedy this situation, Cachupín decided to improve the quality of life of the indigenous people, hoping that they would respect him. In addition, he hoped that trade with the Native American tribes would help the economy of New Mexico. As a result, in July 1750, a group of about 130

moved to

Taos Taos or TAOS may refer to: Places * Taos County, New Mexico, United States ** Taos, New Mexico, a city, the county seat of Taos County, New Mexico *** Taos art colony, an art colony founded in Taos, New Mexico ** Taos Pueblo, a Native American ...

to live there temporarily. They were distributed in forty tents and established commercial relations with the residents of the region, with whom they exchanged hides and slaves. Although the governor agreed to the trade, he warned them to send a troop against them if, after trading with Taos, the Comanches raided Pecos and Galisteo. This mistrust was normal because the Spanish of the province considered the Comanches their main enemy. The Comanche chiefs promised not to assault those regions again, but not all Comanches cared about the threat. A group of them raided Pecos in November of that year. After hearing this news, Vélez Cachupín led an army against the Comanches and started looking for them, which lasted six days. He found 145 of the Comanche attackers, which provoked the Battle of San Diego Pond, which pitted Spaniards against Comanches. The governor ordered his army to murder any Comanche they saw. After the battle began, only the cries of women and children persuaded him to give the Comanches a chance to surrender, promising them that he would not kill them if they abandoned the battle. At first, the Comanches were determined to fight. The battle only lasted until midnight when an adolescent, who was already wounded, surrendered with a reed cross in his hands. Vélez accepted his surrender and respected him, so the rest of the tribe came to trust the governor and abandoned the battle themselves. After this incident, only the chief and seven other men wanted to keep fighting. A new battle started at three o'clock, but the Comanches were quickly defeated. During the night Cachupín's army captured 49 Comanches, while the number of horses and mules they captured was over 150. The rest of the Comanches were killed. At dawn, Cachupín released almost all the prisoners, although he kept four. Cachupín forced them to refrain from attacking Spanish settlements, warning them that if they did, he would ban their trade with Taos and he would murder all of them. The courage he showed when he fought with the Comanches and the respect and compassion he directed towards them earned him the nickname "the captain who amazes" by the Comanches, who began to respect him. This also boosted the peace of the Spanish and

Criollos In Hispanic America, criollo () is a term used originally to describe people of full Spanish descent born in the viceroyalties. In different Latin American countries, the word has come to have different meanings, mostly referring to the local ...

with the

Utes Utes may refer to: *Ute people, indigenous people of North America *Students of the University of Utah *Utah Utes The Utah Utes are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Uta ...

and

Apaches The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

(who became its principal allies). In 1754, Cachupín promulgated a list of products traded by the Amerindians of the Plains. This list included the prices of the products those peoples traded together with the equivalent prices in Spanish currency, in order to regulate buying and selling at the fairs. The list was intended to prevent misunderstandings between the Comanches and Spaniards. On the other hand, Cachupín learned to relate with the Comanches, Utes and Apaches through the study of these people. In fact, Vélez Cachupín wrote to his successor about the behavior and the actions he should take when he contacted the Comanches, in order to avoid misunderstandings and maintain peace in New Mexico.New Mexico Archives. Office of the State Historian: Cachupín, Tomás Vélez
Posted by Suzanne Stamatov between 2004–2010 Consulted 4 April 2011, to 23: 36 pm. Also in 1754, Cachupín favored the migration to both the places that had already been abandoned and new places. These last ones were founded in strategic places, creating the new settlements of Abiquiu, Las Trampas, Ojo Caliente and Truchas, among others. Following the indications of Cachupín, a square with defensive functions would be established in these places. Few settlers, however, accepted the type of settlement Cachupín proposed.

Confrontation with the friars

Although Vélez Cachupín achieved peace with the Comanches, he gained an enemy in the

Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...

, especially Andres Varo. Cachupín and Varo sent a large number of letters to the viceroy criticizing each other. Although Cachupín defended the

Christianization Christianization (or Christianisation) is a term for the specific type of change that occurs when someone or something has been or is being converted to Christianity. Christianization has, for the most part, spread through missions by individu ...

of the indigenous, which was carried out by the Franciscans, he rejected "to certain practices and specific priests". The Franciscans tried to expel Cachupín from his position as governor but were unable to do so, probably due to the familiarity and friendship between Cachupín and Viceroy Revilla Gigedo. Indeed, Cachupín was reappointed, despite the refusal of the Franciscans to make such an appointment.

Second term

After completing his first term in 1754, Cachupín returned to Spain. He appealed to the King of Spain for a new term as governor of New Mexico. Cachupín was reappointed as governor of the province on 14 March 1761. However, when he returned to New Mexico, he again had to solve many of the problems he had already solved during his previous term, as his successor had not followed his advice on to how to interact peacefully with the native peoples. When he began his second term as governor, Cachupín found many Comanche prisoners present, so he decided to release six women to establish a new beginning of peace with the Comanches. Because of this, a group of fifteen Comanches (nine warriors and six women) went to Taos both to check that Cachupín was back in the province and to "negotiate" with him. Cachupín banned trade in Comanche slaves by the Spanish, in order to maintain peace. However, he also ordered the Spaniards and Creoles who resided near the provincial capital, Santa Fe, to keep their Comanche slaves, as the governor might have problems with the Comanches in the future and might need to exchange prisoners with them. Cachupín not only had political functions, but also judicial and economic functions. In fact, he was New Mexico's chief judge (for both civil and criminal cases). In November 1750, French traders Paul and Pierre Mallet visited New Mexico from

New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...

. This was their second visit to New Mexico (the first was in 1739), but Cachupín took his goods and sold them at auction, which allowed him to pay four guards to take them to Mexico City. This was because the French had started a trade war with New Mexico and were trying to occupy most of northern

Spanish Texas Spanish Texas was one of the interior provinces of the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1519 until 1821. Spain claimed ownership of the region in 1519. Slave raids by Spaniards into what became Texas began in the 16th century and created ...

, making France one of its main rivals. In 1762, after learning that a Ute had been found in possession of a silver ingot, Vélez Cachupín ordered Spanish explorers Juan Maria Antonio de Rivera, Joaquín Laín, Gregorio Sandoval, and Pedro Mora to

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

to locate where the ingot had come from. Locating gold and silver was a priority in order to replenish the royal coffers. The expedition traveled through southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah (which belonged to Spain at this time), establishing sections of the future Old Spanish Trail. Cachupín also enacted a series of laws to protect Amerindian lands. In 1764, he gave land to the Amerindians and later convinced the

Suma people The Suma were an Indigenous people of Aridoamerica. They had two branches, one living in the northern part of the Mexican state of Chihuahua and the other living near present-day El Paso, Texas.Frederick Webb Hodge, ''Handbook of American Indians ...

to reside in

San Lorenzo San Lorenzo is the Italian and Spanish name for Saint Lawrence, the 3rd-century Christian martyr, and may refer to: Places Argentina * San Lorenzo, Santa Fe * San Lorenzo Department, Chaco * Villa San Lorenzo, town and municipality in Salta P ...

, near land he had given other Amerindians in 1764, promising to protect them. He also banned inhabitants of

El Paso–Juárez El Paso–Juárez, also known as Juárez–El Paso, the Borderplex or Paso del Norte, is a transborder agglomeration, on the border between Mexico and the United States. The region is centered on two large cities: Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexi ...

(which at that time was a unique city) from entering Amerindian lands for any reason including grazing sheep and gathering firewood. In addition, any person who cut trees on Amerindian lands would be punished with a fine of 40

pesos The peso is the monetary unit of several Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, as well as the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries of the Americas, the symbol commonly known a ...

or imprisonment for two years. Additionally, he would confiscate their carts and oxen. The money obtained from the fines was used to buy agricultural tools for the Sumas. In 1766, he banned the inhabitants of Atrisco from occupying land in San Fernando, because these lands were to be used only by their inhabitants. Whoever broke the ban would have to pay a fine of 30 pesos for each infraction. He also protected the lands of the Genizaros of Belen and of Santa Clara, and

San Ildefonso Pueblo San Ildefonso Pueblo (Tewa language, Tewa: Pʼohwhogeh Ówîngeh ’òhxʷógè ʔówîŋgè"where the water cuts through" ), also known as the Turquoise Clan, is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, Santa Fe Coun ...

.Ebrightm, Malcolm (2014)
Pages 219 - 230. In November 1765, Cachupín was forced to ban

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

growing in New Mexico, following a law issued by the Viceroy, who had established a monopoly on the plant. The governor had tried unsuccessfully to prevent enforcement of the law, because it could harm the economy of the province and the relations between the Native Americans and the Spaniards, since they bought the tobacco from the farmers of New Mexico. Indeed, in January 1766, Cachupín reported to the viceroy through a letter the reasons why the law banning tobacco cultivation in New Mexico was harmful to the province, but the viceroy ignored it. When the law was established in the province, Cachupín's alleged consequences became real. He was replaced by Pedro Fermín de Mendinueta y Garro as governor of

province in 1765.

References

Citations

Sources

New Mexico Office of the State Historian: Cachupín, Tomás Vélez
Published by Suzanne Stamatov between 2004 and 2010. New Mexico State Record Center and Archives. Consulted 4 April 2011, to 23: 36 pm. * Ebright, Malcolm (2014)
Advocates for the Oppressed: Hispanos, Indians, Genízaros, and Their Land in New Mexico
Pages 196 and 219 - 230. * Aton, James M.; McPherson, Robert S. (2000)
River Flowing from the Sunrise: An Environmental History of the Lower San Juan
Utah State University Press. * Buckley, Jay H.; Rensink, Brenden W. (2015)
Historical Dictionary of the American Frontier
Page 175.

Compiled by Dr. Juan Manuel Pérez. Hispanic Division. Library of Congress. Retrieved in Juny 15, 2014, ar 18:25.

External links

New Mexico Office of the State Historian: Governor Cachupin and the Pueblo Grant

�� ''(Heritage Association of Friends of Laredo''). {{DEFAULTSORT:Cachupin, Tomas Velez Colonial governors of Santa Fe de Nuevo México 1740s in New Mexico 1750s in New Mexico 1760s in New Mexico 18th-century Spanish judges