Santa Fe Trail – Exploration & Illegal Trade – Pre-1821
The allure of the American Southwest, with its rich cultures and potential for commerce, beckoned explorers and traders for centuries before the official opening of the Santa Fe Trail in 1821. However, the story of this famed route isn’t solely about wagon trains and established trade; it’s also a narrative deeply intertwined with pre-existing Native American trade networks, clandestine exchanges, and the ambitions of various European powers vying for influence in the New World. This article delves into the exploration and illegal trade that characterized the Santa Fe Trail region before its formal establishment, highlighting the interactions between indigenous populations, Spanish colonists, French traders, and American adventurers.
Long before the arrival of Europeans, trade was a vital component of life for many American Indian tribes. Archaeological evidence reveals a complex web of communication, travel, and trade connecting the Great Plains with the Southwest and the prairies to the east since prehistoric times. Artifacts such as Southwestern aboriginal ceramics have been unearthed at Plains sites, while prehistoric cultural material from Plains cultures has been discovered in the Southwest. The Puebloan influence in architecture is evident even at El Cuartelejo in Scott County, western Kansas. Oral traditions and historical accounts detail exchanges between southwestern horticulturalists and Plains hunters, primarily the trade of corn for bison meat. Plains tribes also engaged in commerce with cultures further east, including the Mississippian peoples near St. Louis, with stone tools from Missouri frequently found at archaeological sites in Kansas.
The hub of much of this exchange was the trade fairs held in Pecos, San Juan, and Taos, New Mexico, particularly during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. These annual gatherings drew large numbers of Pueblo and Plains Indians, including the Apache, Comanche, Kiowa, and Ute. Here, under temporary truces, often conflicting tribes exchanged stone tools, foodstuffs, native products, horses, slaves, and captured Spanish goods. These fairs, typically held during the summer, also attracted Spanish residents of New Mexico, eager to participate in the trade. The introduction of new plants, animals, foods, and manufactured goods by the Spanish and other European traders had a profound impact on Plains peoples. These changes were generally welcomed, as items such as metal scrapers for processing hides and iron vessels for cooking simplified traditional tasks. The introduction of horses revolutionized hunting, transportation, and warfare, particularly for the Comanche, who were able to extend their reach and influence. However, by the late 18th century, the importance of these trade fairs diminished as the Spanish began providing large quantities of goods to the Comanche and their allies.
The approach to trade differed significantly between the American Indian nations and the Spanish. For Native Americans, trade was not solely an economic transaction but a means of establishing and solidifying relationships between trading parties, forging bonds of kinship that were intended to protect tribal members. In contrast, the Spanish, driven by the desire to accumulate wealth, often separated personal relationships from economic benefits. This fundamental ideological difference would later contribute to conflict between the two groups during the Santa Fe trade era.
By the early 1700s, most of the Indian tribes that would become familiar to travelers along the Santa Fe Trail were settling into their respective territories. The Mountain Route of the trail served as an escape route for Puebloan people fleeing Spanish oppression. The Missouri and Osage tribes occupied the region that would become the state of Missouri. West of them, in present-day northern Kansas, were the Kanza and Pawnee. The Wichita were located in southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma, while the Kiowa and Comanche roamed the shortgrass plains where Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico converge. The Cheyenne and Arapaho inhabited the western edges of the High Plains in western Kansas and Oklahoma. The Plains Apache resided in northeastern New Mexico, and the Ute occupied the northern frontier of the Pueblos near the westernmost extent of the Mountain Route in the Rockies.
Prior to 1821, numerous individuals had traversed portions of the route to Santa Fe, ranging from the region’s Native American inhabitants to Spanish, French, and American explorers. Early Spanish explorers documented tales of the riches of Cibola and Quivira, encountering natives from these places within the pueblos. In 1541, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led an expedition into the Plains, accompanied by Fray Juan de Padilla. Coronado’s journals reveal that they initially followed a route far south of the future Santa Fe Trail, entering the Texas panhandle before turning north. They reached the Arkansas River near present-day Ford, Kansas, and followed it northeast to the vicinity of Great Bend, Kansas. The expedition reached Quivira near Lyons, Kansas, inhabited by ancestors of the Wichita tribes. On their return in 1542, they followed a route closely resembling the Cimarron Route of the Santa Fe Trail from central Kansas to Santa Fe. It wasn’t until 1609 or early 1610 that Spanish residents of New Spain officially established La Villa Real de Santa Fe.
The rugged terrain of the Mountain Route presented significant challenges to accessing Santa Fe from the north, but several passes existed, including Raton Pass, San Francisco Pass, Manco Burro Pass, Trinchera Pass, and Emery Gap, with records of use dating back to the early 18th century. In 1706, Spanish Sergeant-Major Juan de Ulibarri followed a route similar to the Mountain Route through Raton Pass to El Cuartelejo in western Kansas, seeking to return a group from Picuris Pueblo who had fled after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. In the 1720s, the Comanche discovered a better route across the mountains from west to east. Between the 1730s and 1763, French traders from the Mississippi Valley supplied the Comanche with arms and possibly traveled as far as Taos, New Mexico. During the latter half of the 18th century, the Spanish sought to exclude others from the Sangre de Cristo route into the Arkansas Valley.
In 1720, Pedro de Villasur led an expedition of about 45 officers and soldiers, 60 Indian allies, a French interpreter, and a priest from Santa Fe to investigate reports of French presence among the Pawnee on the Platte River in Nebraska. The expedition traveled north and east to Nebraska, stopping at El Cuartelejo, where Apache joined them as guides. Villasur’s route through Colorado and New Mexico may have followed a path similar to the Mountain Route of the Santa Fe Trail. Pawnee warriors attacked Villasur’s expedition, killing all but a few Spaniards. The Spanish blamed the attack on French influence. Despite this, some trade between Santa Fe and the French on the Mississippi River may have occurred through Indian intermediaries during the 1700s.
Several French explorers and traders, including Jean-Baptiste Benard LaHarpe in 1719 and Etienne de Veniard de Bourgmont in 1724, attempted to open trade with the Plains tribes and Santa Fe. Bourgmont traded with tribes along the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, in the area that would later serve as the starting point of the Santa Fe Trail, and may have traveled as far as Council Grove or Lyons, Kansas.
Even before Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, there were accounts of illegal trade between New Spain and the United States. While residents of New Mexico welcomed traders, Spanish officials maintained a closed-door policy due to fears about outside influence. Contraband was allowed, and border guards were bribed. However, once inside, the Spanish often confiscated and sold goods, and arrested the illegal traders. By the late 18th century, this practice was commonplace. According to Juan Paez Hurtado, the alcalde of Santa Fe, brothers Paul and Pierre Mallet arrived in Taos in July 1739 with the intention of opening commerce. After a few months of "friendly captivity," they were allowed to leave. In 1803, the United States acquired the Louisiana Territory, and after 1803, trappers and traders visited Santa Fe, but legal trade did not begin until Mexican independence.
In 1792, New Mexico Governor Fernando de la Concha instructed Pedro Vial to seek a route from Santa Fe to St. Louis, Missouri, which he accomplished. Vial, a French frontiersman and Spanish citizen, had experience living among Indian tribes and had pioneered routes between Santa Fe and San Antonio, Texas, and Natchitoches, Louisiana. On his trip to St. Louis, Vial and his companions were briefly held captive by Indians in western Kansas but were released on the Republican River. His route approximated what later became part of the Mountain Route of the Santa Fe Trail.
Illegal trade continued into the early 19th century. In 1804, William Morrison sent Jean-Baptiste La Lande to New Spain with trade goods. La Lande severed ties with Morrison and used the goods for his own business. Spanish authorities did not allow him to leave. James Purcell, a hunter and trapper, was also detained in Santa Fe.
Following the United States’ acquisition of the Louisiana Territory, the American military conducted numerous exploratory expeditions in the West. In 1806, Captain Zebulon M. Pike set out to investigate the disputed southern boundaries of the territory and report on the Arkansas and Red Rivers. Accompanied by 22 men, Pike spent time among the Osage Indians and visited a Pawnee village before heading into central Kansas. Near the Great Bend of the Arkansas River, the party divided. Lieutenant James Wilkinson and a detachment returned east, while Pike and 16 men continued up the river toward the mountains, following part of the Mountain Route of the Santa Fe Trail. Pike’s party was eventually captured by Spanish troops in Spanish territory along the Rio Grande. Pike was taken to Santa Fe, where he saw other detained Americans, including La Lande and Purcell. Pike later published an account of his journey, Journal of the Western Expedition, in 1810, which generated new interest in trading with Santa Fe.
Jacques Clamorgan, a trader from St. Louis, is often considered the first genuinely successful Santa Fe trader. In 1807, he traveled overland to Santa Fe and Chihuahua, Mexico. Clamorgan’s success was attributed to his understanding of Spanish culture and language. In 1812, a group of Missouri frontiersmen, including James Baird, Robert McKnight, and Samuel Chambers, attempted to trade with Santa Fe, believing that the Mexican Declaration of Independence had removed trade restrictions. The Spanish government confiscated their goods, and the traders were imprisoned in Chihuahua.
Between 1812 and 1815, Manuel Lisa, a Missouri River fur trader, offered to trade with the Spaniards. He sent Charles Sanguinet toward Santa Fe with merchandise, but it was destroyed in a confrontation with American Indians. Auguste P. Chouteau and Jules de Mun conducted several trips to Taos before being arrested in 1817. Jedediah Smith guided a pack train to the Arkansas River in 1818, but the trading party returned home after the Spanish merchant did not arrive. In 1819, New Mexican Governor Melgares ordered a fort built on the eastern side of Sangre de Cristo Pass, which was attacked and destroyed six months later.
Before the Santa Fe Trail, New Spain’s northern frontier developed a unique character shaped by the arid environment. The Spanish government incentivized settlement, and Hispanics assimilated indigenous American Indians. This "frontier of inclusion" was viewed as more informal and egalitarian than central portions of the viceroyalty. However, it also developed a strong Hispanic urban tradition with trade restrictions. The populace primarily focused on subsistence farming and raising sheep, with woven textiles becoming popular trade items. New Mexico received most of its goods from the interior provinces, but distance, terrain, and restrictions isolated Santa Fe from markets farther south. Merchants in Chihuahua controlled trade, further oppressing settlers in the northern settlements. By 1803, goods imported from Chihuahua to New Mexico were valued at over $100,000, while the province’s exports were much less, leaving merchants in debt and the general populace in a perpetual shortage of manufactured goods.
The Santa Fe Trail followed pre-existing paths created by earlier explorers and traders, solidifying its legacy as a vital corridor for commerce and cultural exchange.