Rio Del Norte: People of the Upper Rio Grande from Earliest Times to the Pueblo Revolt

by Carroll L. Riley

Based on the most up-to-date archaeological and historical research, Rio del Norte is a tour de force, highlighting the upper Rio Grande region and its diverse peoples across some twelve thousand years of continuous history. Over eleven millennia ago, Paleoindians tracked mammoth and bison in the Rio Grand Basin. As the Ice Age ended and arid conditions caught hold, the place of the Paleoindians was taken by bands of hunters and gatherers who long maintained a presence in the valleys, deserts, and mountains. Three thousand years ago the idea of domesticated plants filtered up from Mexico. The Basketmaker-Pueblo, or Anasazi, appeared in the early centuries of the common era and flourished in the San Juan basin and the Four Corners region for several centuries. Anasazi occupation of the San Juan region ended about seven hundred years ago, yet that same period saw a quickening along the Rio Grande and its tributaries. Large towns appeared, some holding several thousand people who practiced irrigation-based agriculture, rich industry, and maintained complex social and political organizations. Trade with the civilizations of Mexico brought various luxury goods and introduced new and spectacular religious ceremonies. This "golden age" was continuing when Spaniards moving from west Mexico contacted the upper Rio Grande people, then colonized and miss ionized the region 1598. Eighty-two years later the Pueblos rose in a powerful revolt and ousted the invaders. In one sense Rio del Norte is about he flexibility of the Pueblo lifeway. During the fifteen hundred years of Backetmaker-Pueblo history, settlers of the Rio Grande and the San Juan River basin faced military threats from hungry nomads and European empire builders, internal pressures caused by the increasing complexity of Pueblo society, and recurring problems from the vagaries of weather. Although the Spanish returned, the Pueblos have maintained important parts of their cultural heritage to the present.

Genres: History

345 pages, Hardcover

First published February 28, 1995

About the author

Dr. Riley started his education in a one-room schoolhouse before attending Southeast Missouri State University. He served in England with the air division of the U.S. Army during World War II. After discharge from the U.S. Army, he entered the University of New Mexico, where he received his bachelor's degree with honors in 1948. In 1950 he was awarded his master's degree at the University of California Los Angeles, followed by a PhD at UNM in 1952.

Riley worked summers as a ranger for the National Park Service in Mesa Verde National Park and Hovenweep National Monument. While gathering data for his dissertation, he lived among and studied the jungle-dwelling Panare people in Venezuela.

From 1952 to 1955, Riley served as a consultant to the United States Department of Justice Land Division.

Riley began his teaching career at University of Colorado at Boulder and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1955, he was offered a position at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where he spent the bulk of his professional life.

He married author Brent Locke in 1948.

Dr. Riley received several major awards, including Historic Preservation Award in 1985 with Charles and Elizabeth Lange for their work on the Southwest Journals of Adolph P. Bandelier, and Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 from the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, Preservation Division. Dr. Riley died in 2017 at his home in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Reviews

[Angrboda Lyndasdottir]

Absolutely fascinating, and an excellent introduction to the subject area. The appendices and bibliography will keep me going with new books for some time.