With the Indian situation settled, New Mexico underwent a boom in two
important areas, mining and cattle raising. These industries, so much a
part of the history of the American West, did and still play an
important role in the well-being of the Southwest. Mining camps sprang
up along the mountain fringes as new discoveries of silver and gold came
to light. Around Socorro and Magdalena, in the Mogollon Mountains, at
Hillsboro and Kingston in the Black Range, and hundreds of other places
in New Mexico and the Southwest, men hungry for quick wealth swarmed
over the hills and mountains and built their roaring camps. While miners
were tapping the subsurface wealth, cattlemen were staking out their
claims to the grasslands, both on the eastern plains and in the high
mountain meadows. Cattle empires grew to staggering proportions,
sometimes erupting into violent conflict over grazing and water rights,
such as the Lincoln County War made famous by the participation of Billy
the Kid.
[Illustration: Feature of the Old West]
The character of the Southwest still bears the stamp of the miner and
the cattleman. Although the cattle and grazing industry has declined, as
has the traditional mining camp, the past importance of these activities
has had a tremendous impact upon the character of Southwest folklore,
law, and music and on the thought of the people.
Other influences affected New Mexico as a result of the American
occupation, things inherent in the American culture. Ribbons of steel
across a continent, buildings of steel and stone, business and commerce,
technology, common law, the English language, the Protestant religion,
and, above all, the American-brought driving desire to dominate, to win.
Certainly the American had to adapt his culture to the desert lands, but
he did it in his own way, not in the way of the Indian or Spaniard. So
Anglo-American culture became superimposed upon a Spanish culture that
was superimposed upon an Indian culture.
_Disinherited_, that is the word that best describes contemporary New
Mexico culture. A stronger race came and took away the inheritance of
the Indian, though there did result a blood mixture. Only in superficial
matters did the Spanish adopt any of the Indian ways. The Spanish, too,
succumbed to a stronger people and have been denied the privilege
commonly accorded to conquered peoples, that of mixing their blood with
that of the conquerors. One finds today in New Mexico three distinct
people—Indian, Spanish, and Anglo-American—as sharply contrasted as the
strands in a Navajo blanket. There is pure red alongside white, and only
rarely do the colors blend into pinks or grays. This is why we must say
that New Mexico is a mosaic, not a synthesis, of many elements, clearly
defined.
Across the span of time, great men, people, and ideas have molded New
Mexico and Southwest history. Indian, Spanish, American—vital forces
that are today working toward a genuinely unique culture in New Mexico.
The modern world may well give to the Southwest the idea or catalyst
that will blend these elements into a single force. Science, techniques,
ideas are things of the present and are for the present to assess and
synthesize. The Indian gods of air, earth, and sky and the white man’s
gods of morality and science do not differ a great deal in their
aspirations for their chosen people, and perhaps they will decree a
splendid and unique synthesis from the cultural mosaic. Through
understanding comes knowledge; from knowledge, creation.