La Junta Indians

La Junta Indians is a collective name for the various Indians living in the area known as La Junta de los Rios ("the confluence of the rivers": the Rio Grande and the Conchos River) on the borders of present-day West Texas and Mexico. In 1535 Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca recorded visiting these peoples while making his way to a Spanish settlement. They cultivated crops in the river floodplains, as well as gathering indigenous plants and catching fish from the rivers. They were part of an extensive trading network in the region. As a crossroads, the area attracted people of different tribes.

In the eighteenth century, the Spanish set up missions in the area and the Native Americans gradually lost their tribal identifications. After suffering severe population losses through infectious disease, the Spanish slave trade, and attacks by raiding Apache and Comanche, the La Junta Indians disappeared. Some intermarried with Spanish soldiers and their descendants became part of the Mestizo population of Mexico; others merged with the Apache and Comanche; still others departed to work on Spanish haciendas and in silver mines.

The Rio Grande and the Conchos River unite near the present-day cities of Presidio, Texas, and Ojinaga, Mexico. The Conchos is more than twice as large as the Rio Grande, but below the confluence the river is known as the Rio Grande. The area was named La Junta by Spanish explorers for the confluence, or junction, of rivers. A mile-wide floodplain extends from La Junta 35 miles upstream to Ruidosa and 18 miles downstream to Redford on the Rio Grande; it extends up the Rio Conchos 30 miles to Cuchillo Parado. The floodplain supports a thick growth of reeds, mesquite, willows, and groves of cottonwood trees.

Two terraces rise 20 and 60 feet above the floodplain. Only desert vegetation grows on the terraces. The La Junta Indians lived on the terraces and used the floodplain for agriculture, fishing, hunting, and gathering wild foods. Rugged mountains ring the river valley and terraces. La Junta is near the center of the Chihuahua Desert and receives an average of 10.8 inches (270 mm) of precipitation annually. Lengthy droughts are common. Summers are very hot and winters are mild, although freezes are frequent.

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