By fire and sword : Navajo raiding and nuevomexicano responses, 1540-1821

Abstract

This thesis explores Navajo raiding culture during the Spanish period of New Mexico, 1540-1821. Most basically, it addresses the social, spiritual, and political implications that raiding had in Navajo life and worldview, in addition to documenting the various ways in which nuevomexicanos responded to those raids. More broadly, this project explores how cultural conceptions of moral or ?acceptable? behavior?particularly in regard to theft, violence, and political alliance?were valued differently between Navajos and nuevomexicanos, leading to cultural misunderstanding between the two groups and resulting in a perpetuity of conflict in New Mexico. Both groups used raiding and warfare to their advantage when they could, but both groups also suffered from the conflict. In the end, Navajos were able to use raiding in order to maintain their social and political sovereignty, even while Spanish authorities attempted to assimilate them into their imperial society.