Spanish Exploration of Oklahoma 1763-1793

Spanish Exploration of Oklahoma 1763-1793

The transference of Louisiana to Spain in 1763 had its effect upon the frontier Indian policy of New Spain particularly with regard to the region considered here. With the acquisition of Louisiana, Spain’s frontier advanced from Texas to the Mississippi River, beyond which were the expanding English colonies. As a result of this advance, the Norteños, i.e., the Indian tribes of Northern Texas, the Red River Valley, and adjacent regions, heretofore beyond the frontier and, as we have seen, under French influence, were now brought into the empire. Their location accordingly presented a real problem for they were in a strategic position, on the one hand in the rear of the Spanish Illinois-Louisiana settlements and on the other north of those in Texas. Consequently over these Indians, their former enemies, the Spaniards now had to extend their control.

To meet these new conditions, Spanish officials characteristically made careful preparation by ordering a survey of the whole region so that all frontier relations could be viewed in their proper perspective. The undertaking was entrusted to the Marqués de Rubi in 1767. When his tour of the frontier was completed, he drew up recommendations that were incorporated, practically as submitted in a royal order issued in 1772, known as the “New Regulation of Presidios.” For our purposes here it is sufficient to note that the New Regulations provided for the abandonment of Western Texas since that region was now protected from the English colonists by Louisiana. Meanwhile measures had been taken to win over the Norteños and thereby protect the Texas establishments from attack. Here the Spaniards readily perceived the elements of their problem. For one thing they recognized that the Norteños were subject to the growing influence of English traders who had for many years prior been crossing the Mississippi River to operate among the Indians of the western bank, even as far as present Oklahoma and Arkansas. Secondly, the Spaniards realized that since these Norteños had long been accustomed to the influence of French traders the sensible plan was to utilize the services of the French agents who had remained in the province after the transfer to accustom the Norteños to Spanish rule. This policy was accordingly adopted.

Two Frenchmen appointed as Indian agents, De Villiers and De Mezieres, were to render signal service to Spain in this capacity among the Norteños. Happily the work of Athanase De Mezieres in Northern Texas has been thoroughly studied and his achievements given their proper recognition.

De Mezieres set about immediately to carry out his new duties. In 1770 he secured the attendance of powerful chiefs of the Taovayas, Tawaknoi, Yscanis, and Kichai tribes at a council near present Texarkana. There they promised their friendship and signed treaties drawn up in 1771 at Natchitoches. Next, in 1772, De Mezieres made an extensive journey through the northern tribes to explore their country, learn the strength, and investigate rumors of English trading among them. From Natchitoches he went to the Trinity River, thence up the Brazos to the Wichita Indians in Northern Texas. From there he communicated with the Taovayas, on the Red River. From his reports of this extensive exploration we learn that the Taovayas were procuring English goods in exchange for stolen horses and that the northern tribes were being hard pressed by the Osage. Indeed, his report of the hostility of the Oasge towards the Spanish and their Indian allies is paralleled by similar reports from the Spanish commandant, Don Pedro Piernas, at St. Louis and from the commandant at the Arkansas post.

In 1776 a further administrative change was put into effect on the northern frontier of New Spain. This was the establishment of the Privincias Internas, a department composed of the provinces from California to Texas inclusive, of which El Cavallero de Croix, a great but little known administrator of western North America, was made the first Commander-General. His most important problem was to check Indian raids on the northern frontiers of New Spain, of whom the Apaches of Western Texas were the greatest offenders. De Croix immediately laid plans to use the Norteños, Apache enemies, with Spanish forces in a joint campaign into Western Texas. A council was held accordingly at Monclova, and a later one in January, 1778, at San Antonio whence De Mezieres was summoned from Louisiana. To prepare the Norteños for their role, De Mezieres set out in March to visit the northern tribes. On this occasion he reached the Taovayas villages on the Red River after passing through the northern tribes of Texas about the Brazos. From the Taovayas villages he sent a warning to the Comanches. His visit informed him, too, that in 1777 English traders had pushed their way in the year before into these very villages, on the far side of present Oklahoma, a circumstance that impelled him to write De Croix urging a Spanish settlement among the Taovayas. On his return to Natchitoches he brought back Parilla’s cannon left there after the battle of 1759, recounted above. Shortly afterward De Mezieres was transferred to Texas from Louisiana to control the Norteños from San Antonio instead of Eastern Texas. His death in 1779 and Spain’s entry into our Revolutionary War, partly altered De Croix’s plans in this quarter for the joint campaign against the Apaches. De Meziere’s contribution to our subject is considerable. His marches reveal the importance attached to the tribes of the area within and about present Oklahoma; his reports show that the English have definitely replaced the French as a menace to the frontier here, and finally, his activities center attention on the Taovayas now friendly to Spanish control. In the next decade the Taovayas assume further importance in Spanish frontier explorations.
Vial 1786-1792

Another important problem raised by the adding of Louisiana to the Spanish possessions was that of establishing effective communication between the widely separated centers of St. Louis, San Antonio and Santa Fe. In the solving of this problem, much of the resulting exploration between these points passed through present Oklahoma. Before this time, plans, one of which appeared as early as 1630, had been proposed to establish routes between New Mexico and Texas. Apache and Comanche hostility, however, was the chief factor in preventing the opening of this route. During the eighteenth century the French traders had learned how to conciliate the Comanche and Apache, and De Mezieres and others had in large part transferred this affection for French traders to the Spaniards, so that the foundations were laid for the efforts now to be successfully made. Pedro Vial, another Frenchman, whose experience among the Indians between Texas and New Mexico well fitted him for the undertaking, was in 1786 the first to be commissioned for this purpose. In that year, directed by the governor of Texas, Don Domingo Cabello, Vial set out to explore a direct route from San Antonio to Santa Fe. Leaving on October 4^th, he went north to the Colorado River, turned east to the Brazos, followed that stream sixty-two leagues and then branched off to the Taovayas, northeast on the Red River. Leaving the Taovayas on January 8, 1787, Vial moved along the Red River to a Comanche village where he remained until February 18^th when he renewed his journey up the Red thence north to the Canadian, finally making his way to Santa Fe on May 26^th, after having passed through several Comanche villages. Vial thus established the fact that communication was not impossible and that the Comanches and other tribes were friendly.

In 1788 Vial set out on his return to Texas. This time his objective was Natchitoches. Accompanied by Francisco Xavier Fragoso and thirty soldiers, he left Santa Fe on June 24th, 1788, taking apparently a route between that of his first journey and that of Mares’, to the Taovayas. There his escort left him and after four days returned to Santa Fe. Vial himself reached Natchitoches on August 20^th, passing after leaving the Sabine the ranchos of six Frenchmen and one Englishman. In 1789 Vial again set out from San Antonio for Santa Fe. On this journey, however, he left the Brazos near the junction of the ninety-fifth meridian and the thirty-third parallel and went northwest directly to Santa Fe, consuming slightly less than two months. From the above account of these travels it will be observed that all except the last passed through the Taovayas, a fact which indicates the strategic importance of this part of the Spanish frontier then within present Oklahoma.

Vial’s extensive experience and successes entitled him to further honors and he was accordingly selected by the viceroy in 1792 to open a route between New Mexico and St. Louis. The governor of New Mexico, Fernando de la Concha, drew up Vial’s instructions. Accompanied by two young men Vial was to leave New Mexico via Pecos, march east to the villages of the Magages, thence east northeast to the Missouri River nearest to Los Ylinneses (Illinois). On this journey Vial was careful to note all landmarks, rivers, the direction of their flow, tablelands, etc., and Indian tribes that he encountered. His faithfulness in this respect enables us here to trace the general route of his travels.

Vial set out on May 21, 1792, from Santa Fe. Shortly after leaving the Pecos River they lost a day in camp with a band of Comanches and a Spanish interpreter coming from San Antonio. On the 26^th they renewed their journey to the Canadian River which they reached on the 29^th. Thereafter until June 22^nd the party followed the Canadian along Oñate’s old route. On that day they left the stream to turn northeast towards the Arkansas. Apparently they left the Canadian about the Antelope Hills region. Their northeast journey took them across several streams in this part of Oklahoma and southern Kansas to the Arkansas which they reached on the 27^th. Without doubt they came upon the latter where it turns to the northeast for, Vial, after spending the 28^th in camp, took up the journey on the 29^th. They shortly encountered Indians who took possession of their horses, cut off the clothes of Vial and his companions, and threatened to kill them. However, one of the savages, a former servant in St. Louis, recognizing Vial, interceded and fortunately saved the lives of the party. The explorers were then forced to remain with the hunters until August 16^th when they were permitted to set out once more, though still naked, for the northeast. A ten days’ journey of about fifty leagues brought them to a Cances village on the river of the Kances River. On September 11^th they secured some clothes from a passing French trader and on the 16^th, having secured a pirogue from three other traders going to St. Louis, followed the stream to the Missouri and thence to their destination. Arriving there on October 6th Vial presented his credentials and diary to Zenon Trudeau, the Spanish commandant, and told him that had they not encountered obstacles they could have made the journey in twenty-five days. Vial’s journey is particularly interesting in that it is the first to connect St. Louis and Santa Fe along the approximate route followed takes by the caravall trade to New Mexico.

Conclusion

This study of Spanish exploration in and about the region of present Oklahoma brings into view some important considerations. It is strikingly evident that Spanish sources contribute much to the Indian history of this area. The names, locations of tribes, unknown heretofore in some cases, can therein be determined; their customs and their relations with neighboring tribes indicated; and the part they played in the international struggle carried on by Europeans for this region, understood. In the second place, as appears here, long before the advent of Pike, Wilkinson, Dunbar, and other explorers of the early nineteenth century, much of the territory and the principal rivers of present Oklahoma and adjacent states was explored by Spaniards and Frenchmen. Thirdly, there is revealed in our knowledge of this frontier some gaps that await research. Particularly does the period of French control and influence over the tribes beyond those revealed by Spanish exploration, need investigation. Likewise the work of the Spanish traders after 1763 from St. Louis among the Osages and beyond, and from the Arkansas post westward into present Arkansas and Oklahoma presents a fascinating study. Finally, this survey of but a small corner of Spain’s immense empire suggests the fundamental nature of her contribution to North American civilization.

The earliest history of the Arkansas region dates back to Hernando de Soto, 1542. From his expedition we get the first geographical knowledge of the region, and our first real history of the Indians in the southwest. Other expeditions into this region came with the same object in mind, in search of the Gran Quivira. Coronado, 1541, "crossed the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma, and reached Quivira in eastern Kansas." The explorations of De Soto and Coronado were the most elaborate efforts made by the Spaniards into the interior of North America, and, in some respects, never surpassed in the later history of the country. Other explorations were made by the Spaniards, but it was left to the French to make the first permanent settlement.

The Arkansas region includes that part of our country between the Illinois country on the north, and the Natchitoches on the South extending west to the Spanish possessions of New Mexico, and embracing mainly the present states of Arkansas and Oklahoma—that country drained by the Arkansas, Verdigris and Canadian rivers. The history of this wedge-shaped country has been treated as only secondary to that of the country to the north and to the south; while its history has been just as distinct and important. The history of this country, especially of Oklahoma, could be written around the quest of the white man to find great riches, as the Gran Quivira, and the Seven Cities of Cibola, for which the Spaniards sought. The trade with the Spanish Southwest, Taos and Santa Fe, lured the French into this country. Then, last, but not least, Indian trade, free land, mines and oil have brought other white men into this country.

The French explorers of this country have left many traces in the naming of the rivers and mountains. And especially did they leave a marked influence upon the Indians with whom they came in contact. Among the Choctaws, there was a legend handed down from father to son that the French king was coming and with his coming all would be well. Even today this legend is familiar to the older members of the tribe. The first French explorers in the Arkansas region, of whom we have any knowledge, were Father Marquette and Joliet, who came down the Mississippi River as far as the Arkansas River. Father Marquette drew a map of this western region, and on his map the Mississippi River descended only to the mouth of the Arkansas. The next visit by the white man to this region was that of Father Hennipen in 1680. But it was left for La Salle and Tonty to take possession of this country and to establish the first post.

On March 14, 1682, La Salle reached the villages on the Arkansas, took possession of the country in the name of France, erected the arms of the king, and planted a cross. Father Zenobia Membre, who accompanied La Salle, related this act in a truly missionary way. "I took occasion to explain something of the truth of God, and the mysteries of our redemption, of which they saw the arms. During this time they showed that they relished what I said, by raising their eyes to heaven and kneeling as if to adore. We also saw them rub their hands over their bodies after rubbing them over the cross. In fact, on our return from the sea, we found that they had surrounded the cross with a palisade." This was the formal taking possession of the Arkansas region.

While in the Arkansas region, La Salle gave Tonty a grant of land, and it was on this grant that the historic old Arkansas post was founded. Here Tonty built a house and fort in 1683. This statement, with that of du Breuil that, in 1783, the post celebrated its hundredth anniversary, gives evidence of the fact that the Arkansas Post was established soon after the return of La Salle and Tonty from the first expedition to the mouth of the Mississippi, or, at least that they must have reckoned their beginning from that date.

This was the beginning of one of the oldest French posts in the southwest; and from this post, France made treaties with the different Indian tribes, in her efforts to keep back both English and Spanish, the Spaniards pushed in from the Southwest, and the English from the Carolinas, using the same methods to get control of the Indians through trade and by alliances.

The Arkansas Post was not only for the purpose of material gain. Tonty, like many other early explorers, was a missionary in thought. And that side of life in the Arkansas country was early considered. Tonty gave to the Superiors of Canada in 1689, a deed to a strip of land on the Arkansas a little east of his fort, "for a chapel and a mission-house, beside an immense tract on the opposite side of the river near the Indian village, for the support of the missionary." This mission was to have been erected in 1690, and, among other things, the missionaries were to build two chapels, raise a cross fifteen feet high, minister to the Indians, and say a mass for Tonty on his feast day." If any missionaries were sent to the Arkansas at this time there are no traces left.

Little growth or development had come to the Arkansas Post for the first quarter of a century, trade being slow in development, because of the Spanish deadlock. When, at the close of the seventeenth century, the Spaniards and the French came face to face on the Louisiana-Texas frontier, in a contest for commerce and empire, they found there several well-marked groups of confederations of native tribes, which became so the bases for much of the struggle. This contest for the control of the frontier tribes was one of the chief policies of both Spain and France; of course behind this was the ultimate object of territorial possession.

The effort expended by the two competing nations to maintain an influence over these tribes had, from the first moment of contact to the time when Louisiana was ceded to Spain, the nature of a contest. It, in the main, was waged only to a slight extent with weapons of military warfare. The principal weapon used by the French was the Indian trader and agent; by the Spaniards, the Franciscan missionary; each backed by a small display of military force. This contest to control the Southwest was fought along the Arkansas, Canadian, and Red rivers. The Arkansas Post served as a center for making alliances with Indians along the Arkansas River, and, later on, with those of the whole region. By these treaties and alliances, France hoped to open up trade with the Spaniards in New Mexico.

There was, at this same time, a contest in the southeast between the English and the French. From the first, the English had the advantage in numbers and bases of supplies. Tonty, in establishing the post on the Arkansas, hoped to forestall the English as well as the Spaniards. The hand of fate seems to have played a part here, because Jean Couture, who had been the one that Tonty had selected in establishing the post, deserted and went to the English in Carolina, and, in 1700, led a party of English to the mouth of the Arkansas, accomplishing what Tonty had feared, the diversion of the western trade from the French to the English. France realized that in order to cope with the Spanish and the English, and to reap the harvest of her discoveries, colonies must be established as posts of exchange. This caused her to turn to private individuals for aid in settling up and holding her possessions. In September 1717, John Law, and his Mississippi Company, was granted the commerce and control of Louisiana. Although, Law’s economic goals failed, a new interest in Louisiana had brought men like Bernard de la Harpe, Le Page du Pratz, and Du Tisne into the region; each giving new information concerning the Arkansas country.

Bernard de la Harpe had been granted by the company a tract of land on the upper waters of the Red River, and, in 1718, he started out to take possession of this grant. Leaving New Orleans in December 1718, he arrived at the mouth of the Red River on January 10, 1719, and, after much difficulty, reached the fort of the Natchitoches.

While at the Natchitoches post, La Harpe learned that the Spanish governor of Texas had ordered the establishment of a post among the Nassonites on the Red River. This news caused him to hurry on his way. Upon his arrival at the Nassonites, his first concern was to make alliances with them. This was accomplished when the Nassonites, Cadodaquins, Natsooe and Natchitoches sang the Calumet. This celebration lasted twenty-four hours. After the feast, La Harpe made them presents of a large amount of merchandise, in order to interest them in his company, for which the Indian trade was very necessary.

In the meanwhile, La Harpe, having learned that the Spanish and French were at war, and war being an obstacle to his attempt to establish a trade with the Spanish, set out to explore and to make alliances with the Indians to the northeast. This expedition led him through Northeastern Oklahoma, and near the mouth of the Canadian River, an alliance was made with eight nations including a part of the Roving Nation. La Harpe says that seven thousand persons were here assembled to sing the Calumet.

La Harpe considered that one of the best places in all Louisiana for the establishment of a post was at the mouth of the Canadian River, because of its importance in trade, and "because the French could thus obtain control of the trade with the Padoucas and Aricaras." This was the aim of France, to get control of the Indians by trade. The Spaniards had been trading with the Indians in this region for a long time, especially in the trade of horses and cattle.

While La Harpe was making alliances with the Indians in Oklahoma, as a stepping stone toward the trade in the Spanish southwest, Du Tisne was making alliances with the Indian tribes on the Osage, the Missouri, and the Arkansas rivers. He made an alliance with the Pawnees on the Arkansas, "bought Spanish horses from them and established the French flag in their village." These two expeditions mark a definite step in the direction of trade with the Spaniards in New Mexico.

To the early French trader, New Mexico held almost the same lure that the Gran Quivira held for the early Spaniards, gold and precious stones, and, in addition, perhaps, a route to the South Sea. For the French traders, there were three natural highways of trade with the Spaniards in New Mexico, the Missouri, the Arkansas, and the Red rivers. Each had its own difficulties. Between the French and New Mexico there roamed the treacherous Comanche and Apache, from the far north, to the south, following the buffalo. The jealous Spaniards kept these Indians hostile to the French, forming as the Spaniards wished, a barrier between the French and the Spanish possessions in New Mexico.

In order to trade with New Mexico, it would be necessary to maintain peace among the Indians by causing them to make alliances with each other. This was one of the main objects of the expeditions between 1718-1724. La Harpe, Du Rivage, Du Tisne, by series of alliances with Indians, treaties were made with at least thirty different nations in the western part of Louisiana. It was hoped that through these alliances, the coveted trade with the Spaniards in New Mexico would be established.

When the western company wished to open up the Arkansas River as a highway to Spanish territory, La Harpe was chosen for the task. La Harpe reached the Arkansas Post early in March, 1722. His first care was to gain knowledge of the course of the river and the nations along its banks. The Indians seemed to have been under Spanish influence, as they were rather reluctant to give any information. They told him that five Frenchmen from M. Law’s company had ascended the river to the Indian nation on the headwater of the river to purchase horses and had been killed by the Osages. After making some preparations for his journey, La Harpe left the Arkansas Post with a detachment of twenty-two men. He continued his explorations up the river nine days, when he became short of provisions. La Harpe then set out overland to see if he could find the fork of the river whose right branch led to the nations he had discovered by land in 1719. On account of the condition of his men, he went only about fifty leagues in a westerly direction. But, from the appearances of the river, he concluded that it was navigable in high water to the settlements of the Padoucas, and the Spanish in New Mexico. He recommended the establishment of posts near "the Rock" and at the Fork, and that the Arkansas Post be strengthened by sending out people to cultivate the soil.

In 1723, Bourgmont erected a post among the Missouri tribes and in order to open up this route, made treaties with various tribes along the route, and secured permission for the Frenchmen to pass through the Comanche country to the Spanish dominions. Although the Missouri post was soon destroyed, there are indications of traders attempting to reach New Mexico. The Mallet party, which reached Santa Fe in 1739 is an example. Four of this party returned by way of the Canadian and the Arkansas rivers. The safe return of this expedition gave added momentum to possibilities of opening up a trade by way of the Arkansas River.

Governor Bienville, in 1741, sent Fabray de la Brugeie, with a letter to the Governor of New Mexico, and, guided by the four men of the Mallet party, he was furnished with instructions to open up a commercial route. After going a short distance up the Canadian, Fabray was forced to go back to the Arkansas post for horses. Returning by way of the Cadodacho, he learned that the Mallet brothers had continued to Santa Fe on foot. He gave up the project, crossed Oklahoma from the Canadian to the Red River, where he visited the tribes which La Harpe had discovered in 1719.

The effect of the treaty between these important Indian nations that patrolled the western frontier of Louisiana was immediate. At once, new expeditions of all kinds, private, deserters, and official agents started toward New Mexico, the Mecca, of trade in the west. Professor Herbert E. Bolton, searching in the Archives of Mexico, has brought to light records of two of these expeditions which give some interesting facts concerning both the Indians of this western frontier and the methods the French traders used in getting to Spanish territory.

The Comanche were little known to the French at this time. Until the middle of the eighteenth century, they were hostile to both French and Spanish. This hostility made a barrier between Spanish New Mexico and French Louisiana. Between the French and the Comanche were the Jumano, Pawnee, and other tribes to the east, all of which had been enemies of the Comanche. This gave the Spaniards a better opportunity to trade with the Comanche. Their principal trading place was Taos, where, each year, they met in large numbers, and where pelts and captives were exchanged for horses, knives, and other merchandise.

This trading mart at Taos held great attraction for the French, and soon after the alliance between the Comanche and Jumano, the Comanche reported that two Frenchmen were at their village waiting to accompany them to the Taos fair. The Spaniards at once became concerned. In 1749, the governor of New Mexico sent his lieutenant to attend the Taos fair, and he brought three Frenchmen back to Santa Fe. In questioning these three men, as was the Spanish custom, it was found that all three claimed to have been deserters from the Arkansas Post, and that they had all heard of Santa Fe from Frenchmen who had come from there a few years before.

The route over which these travelers came is interesting. They started from the village of the Arkansas Indians, a short distance from the post, going up the Arkansas River to the village of the Jumano Indians. The Jumano conducted them one hundred and fifty leagues to the Comanche settlement; here they remained some time. From the Comanche settlement they came to the Taos fair and from there they were taken to Santa Fe, taking, in all, six months. This was the route that the French had long wanted to open, the nearest and the most direct, to New Mexico. Within a year another had entered New Mexico over practically the same route. The Arkansas and Canadian rivers became the international highway between the French and the Spanish in the New World, France using all means at her disposal to open and keep open the way, and Spain using all her means to block it.

The contest for the control of North America was, each year, drawing nearer and nearer to an end. The Indian on the frontier had borne the greater part of the burden. Two hundred and fifty years of contact with the white man, and the white man’s superior methods of warfare and diplomacy had made the Indian a tool, merely to be used in getting possession of the Territory. As that possession was gained, the Indian was pushed on to newer frontiers. The true pioneer of North America was not the European, but the Indian. For the first three hundred years, he blazed the way for the white man on every frontier. He was the buffer between hostile tribes and hostile nations. Neither of the European nations realized the importance of the Indian as a frontiersman. Had there been a better understanding, there would have been an entirely different Indian problem for the American government to take up later, and attempt to solve.

At the close of the Seven Years’ War, the Indian had only two masters. France had not been able to hold her possessions, though not for lack of support of her Indian alliances. The Indian knew that the aggressive English farmer would take the place of the French hunter and trapper. The Treaty of Paris, 1763, meant that civilization had taken a step forward on the North American continent. But, an old Choctaw Indian, in recounting what he had once had, said that he remembered the time when he and his fellow tribesmen owned a vast territory, "plenty horses and cattle, on a thousand hills. Now," he said, "all we have is civilization, just civilization." "Just civilization" did not appeal to the red man.

Spain accepted Western Louisiana as she found it and attempted to carry out France’s policy in dealing with the Indians. Monsieur de Clouet was commander of the Arkansas Post just after, and, possibly, at the time of the transfer. From his letters to Lord Aubry, at that time senior captain of the military forces, and, as such, the temporary governor of Louisiana until Spain took possession of the province, it can be seen that the commander of the Arkansas Post shared the feeling of opposition to Spanish rule, as did those near New Orleans.