Sandoval by K Peralta
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
5:36 PM
ഀ
The
following article, Hot Grease Saves Pioneer Woman
written by J.S.C. (José Sandoval y Chávez)
appeared in the May 21,1961 Lincoln County News.
In
conducting family research I found this article and to my surprise discovered
that he was my second cousin. The article also clearly identifies my paternal
and maternal ancestors.
Jesus
María Sandoval and María
Torres were my (paternal) great-grandparents. José and Trinidad were also my
(paternal) great-great grandparents. From the preliminary research that I have
conducted, I believe they were Tiwa Indians, White
Corn clan. The Tiwas are considered to be part of the
Pueblo community. Also known as "Mansos"-the
word given by the Spaniards to Indians who were tame and who did not war
against other Indian tribes like the Mescaleros, Jicarillas and Comanches. Another
clue could be that José and Trinidad were Indians from the Cochiti area who
wound up in Manzano.
My
father, Filomeno Peralta and
grandson of María Sandoval, used
to hum Indian lullabys to my brother and me when we
were little; however, I never gave them much thought. They must have been the
same ones he learned from his grandmother who is the narrator and subject of
this article. I thought he was just making up the tunes to entertain us. I also
recall that when we didn’t mind him, after his attempts in
the English and Spanish language failed, he would scold us in Indian. He would say," ¡A ver si ahora entienden
y hacen caso!"
I
feel like I owe my dad an apology even after his death. He wasn’t making stuff
up. For me the lesson, is that "oral
history" should not be taken lightly. It has helped me immensely in
discovering my roots. My ancestors weren’t wrong. I was the one who was
disbelieving. The journey into my ancestry has been much more intriguing and
exciting than I could have imagined.
Ygnacio Niño Ladron de Guevara was my (maternal)ഀ
great-great grandfather. Placido Niño Ladron de Guevara was my (maternal) great grandfather. They
also have an interesting history as pioneer settlers of Lincoln County, New
Mexico.
M. Kathryn Peralta, J.D.
* * *
Hot Grease Saves Pioneer Woman
By J.S.C.
María Torres y Sandoval, member of a family of one of the first settlers of Lincoln County and who died in Carrizozo, New Mexico in 1910 at a ripe old age used to relate the following Indian episode which took place in the Village of Manzano1, New Mexico in the year 1858.
ഀHer family, which consisted of her parents, José and Trinidad Torres;
three brothers, José, Juan and Doroteo;
two sisters, Viviana and Isiquia; a widowed aunt whom they called Yilla and herself. The hamlet they lived in was a high, rock dwelling
with a loft and two high, small windows barred with cast iron. The one door was
built of heavy timber and could be bolted from the inside.
Tilla’s husband
had been killed in an Indian uprising. As was the custom, after her husband’sഀ
death she moved in with her sister and family of six who ranged in ages fromഀ
two to twelve years of age.
María was eight at the time and she remembered clearly the
tribulations and hardships they endured by the ever-marauding warring Indians.
Her father, a Genizaro2 had been drafted in the U. S. Calvary during the Civil War to pursue his warring brothers and also served as an interpreter. He also participated in the campaigns against the Confederate invasion of New Mexico.
ഀOnce
in a great while, when the men folk were not on the hot trails and events
warranted it, they would go to their homes to replenish the dwindling larder
(the high loft) and also cut and haul sufficient firewood for the hearths.
Some
would return only to find the ugly truth that their families had been massacred
and their homes had been ransacked-from the bin of cornmeal and dried jerky to
the milk goats and cows.
The
women went about their daily chores with an alert eye for the impending danger.
Before the sun had set in the horizon they gathered the children in the
one-room dwelling and bolted the heavy door for the night.
One afternoon just about dusk, as related by Mrs. Sandoval to her children and grandchildren, her aunt Yilla was frying sopapillas3 in an earthenware kettle on the fireplace when she saw a fleeting shadow high on the opposite wall from the one with the barred windows. She turned slowly without uttering a sound and saw the hairs of an Indian who was peering through the opening at his intended prey. The women had forgotten to fetch in the house ladder with oaken rungs fastened with rawhide thongs and the Indian had found it to good advantage.
ഀYilla who was a hardy woman of steel nerves picked up the
pot with boiling mutton tallow and edged up to the wall beneath the window.
With a mighty heave of her arm she hurled the pot with hot grease in the
prowler’s face. As he toppled down with the ladder they could hear his screams
of agony as he groped and stumbled away from the house.
When there was absolute silence from the outside they huddled in a corner to eat their meal, after which they put out the fire and tucked the children in for the night. The elders smoked punche4 andstood watch through the night listening for more unwanted visitors.
ഀAs
the sun was about to rise the next morning there was a hard knock on the door
accompanied by a gruff voice. It was José Torres, the man of the
house and he had an Indian child in his arms.
In a
battle, the Calvary had defeated a band of Indians and taken many squaws and
papooses captive, all of who had been taken to soldiers outfits as refugees.
The mother of this child had been killed. Torres adopted him with his
commandant’s consent.
The
child was christened Teodoso. When he
grew to manhood he became an expert hunter with bow and arrow and kept the
household well supplied with venison and other wild game including bear. In one
of those encounters with a grizzly he was mauled and chewed beyond recognition,
and he threw in the sponge as a brave hunter. He died before he could be
carried to his loved ones.
After Trinidad told the tale to her husband of what had happened the night before, he trailed thetewa5 tracks of the warriors to the rock barn where they kept their two milk goats, an old mule, one cock and a few hens. There in a heap of cornhusks lay the lifeless Indian with bulging eyes and a blistered face. Torres dug a trench behind the barn and buried him without ceremony6. No more Indians appeared, as was to be expected, so it was assumed that the lone Indian was on a scouting foray or else had strayed from the beaten and retreating tribe of Indians.
ഀWhen
the Civil War came to an end, Torres and his family, and his soldier cronies
who had already been in these parts during their tour of duty against warring
Indians, decided to come and stake their claims in the uninhabited and virgin
lands east of the Río Grande and what is now Lincoln County.
Among
them were Col. William Brady, Capt. Saturino Baca,
Cristobal Chávez, José Chávez
y Baca, Aniceto Lueras,
John Mack, Don McKinley, Pvt.Ygnacio
Niño Ladron de Guevara, Cpl. Placido
Niño Ladron de Guevara, Pablo Pino, Sgt.Jesus María Sandoval y Sena,
Apolonio Sedillo, Juan
Andres Silva, Joseph Swan and others whose names we do not remember.Torres homesteaded
below Nogal where he raised his family. He had many
heads of cattle and about 500 burros.
María married Jesus
María Sandoval y Sena who
continued with the U.S. Calvary stationed at Ft. Stanton, New Mexico as mail
carrier and scout on mule back with lead pack mule until he sold the property
he homesteaded known as Ojo Sandoval Ranch on the Nogal Mesa. He and his family then moved to White Oaks,
where he died in 1898. Sgt. Sandoval we might add was a veteran of bothഀ
the Battles of Valverde and Glorietta Pass.
Viviana died
in childhood. Isiquia married José María Vega, a black Mexican from we think Vera Cruz or Michoacan. After Isiquia died,
Vega married his niece, Josefa , the daughter of María and
Jesus Sandoval. Doroteo married Veneranda Cordova. Juan married Rita Padilla.José married Tiburcia
Telles. José Torres lived to a ripe
old age. He was 105 when he died.
J.S.C’s
final memory of his grandmother was the following. A musician of old Manzano by the name of José Luis composed a song entitled
"La India de Cochiti" and after the Indians massacred him and
his entire family, another musician wrote "La India de José Luis"
in his memory. According to J.S.C. great-grandmother María used
to hum these tunes as a lullaby for her small grandchildren.
1Manzano was initially an Indian area that was later
integrated with Spanish settlers.
2Genizaros were full-blood Indian who Spaniards converted to Catholicism and who
adopted Spanish names.
3Sopapilla is
a tortilla fried in oil. Today, Native Americans call it fry bread.
4Punche, a
combination of herbs and leaves, is smoked in a corncob pipe or rolled in
cornhusk leaves. Punche is raised to this day in Anton Chico, New
Mexico and vicinities.
5Tewas means
moccasins.
6Ceremony. In
the Native American tradition rites of passage must be performed to permit the
soul to leave the body and rest in peace.
Pasted from <http://www.somosprimos.com/sp2007/spnov07/spnov07.htm>