In the late 1830's, people from New Mexico settled a town called El Pueblo de la Leche, near La Junta. They brought cattle, sheep and goats with them. They supplied Bent's Fort with milk and vegetables. It appears this settlement was abandoned before 1840.

In 1842, El Pueblo was built a few miles above the junction of the Napeste (present day Arkansas River) and the Fontaine-qui-bouillon (present day Fountain Creek), just north from the Mexican border, about sixty miles upstream from Bent’s Fort, on the Arkansas River. Several men pooled their money together and formed partnerships to build the fort. No records have been found as to exact ownership, original proprietors, or how they divested themselves of their interest.¹ Some of these men came from the East and as a requirement of the Mexican government become Mexican citizens. They became part of Mexican society and married Mexican women from northern New Mexico. Among them were: Robert Fisher and Rumalda Lopez, Matthew Kinkead and Teresita Sandoval Suaso, George Simpson and Juana Suaso, Joseph Doyle and Cruz Suaso. Juana and Cruz were Teresita's daughters.

As with Bent's Fort, men from Taos built El Pueblo. They made the adobe bricks, scattered them all around and dried them in the sun while others did the carpentry. According to Lecompte, women finished the walls with a coat of adobe, spreading the mixture with the palms of their hands,² a process called enharar.

Lecompte further states that without the women's presence the places the men built would have been mere trading posts. The women had great influence in building, trading, hunting and farming methods. Most of the women were from New Mexico, or Indigenous from various tribes and different parts of the West. There were no American women there until the Mormons brought their families through in 1846.

Since the early 1800's, people from New Mexico started seeing the opportunities available to the north. Marcelino Baca, from Taos, was one of the early settlers in the Pueblo area. He had been trapping in Missouri before he arrived in Pueblo in the early 1840's. He later started farming. In 1853, he built a log cabin where he settled with his Pawnee wife, Tomasa, and their children. He provided adobe houses for his workers on the north side of the Arkansas River, east of Fountain Creek.

The son-in-law of Charles Bent, Alexander Hicklin, attempted to settle on the Arkansas River in 1848, but abandoned the settlement the next year. In 1853, another settler from Taos, Charles Autobees, arrived. He was originally from Missouri, of French-Canadian descent, married to Serafina Avila from Taos. He built a plaza where the Huerfano and Arkansas meet.

In 1851, Benito Sandoval had moved his family from Mora, New Mexico to Coyote, also in New Mexico, where he worked for José Pley. Later, he worked for Alexander Barclay and Joseph Doyle at Barclay's Fort nearby. In October of 1853, along with several other families, Benito and his family left New Mexico and moved into El Pueblo. Benito and his workers placed new roofs and applied whitewash on the inside walls. By 1854, Benito was amassing some cattle of his own, had moved into a log cabin on Maracelino Baca's ranch and helped him farm the cornfield. After selling his corn, he sent his wife, Maria Espinosa, and youngest son, Juan Andres, to visit their daughter, Cecelia, in New Mexico. Benito and his three other sons, Pedro, 16, Felix, 12, and Juan Isidro, 7, moved back to El Pueblo. By late December 1854, he was getting ready to move to Huerfano Village.³

The Muache Utes claimed the San Luis Valley and the Wet Mountain Valley. The Utes were peaceful at a time when other tribes attacked anyone they considered intruders, especially on the Santa Fe Trail. In 1849, the Utes lost a battle to the Arapahos that turned devastating. They lost most of their stock and were starving. They in turn started stealing stock and intended to make reparations later. They didn't have a chance. Lieutenant J. H. Wittlesey sent out fifty-seven soldiers to punish them. He used Charles Autobees, Asa Estes, Bill Williams and others as their guides and spies. They killed ten braves, captured two Indian women and a chief’s son, and destroyed fifty lodges with all the provisions and camp equipment. The Utes retaliated by killing two white men.⁴

James Calhoun was sent out as Superintendent of Indian Affairs and signed a treaty with the Utes that would stop hostilities, return captives and restore stolen property. The Utes were to live within prescribed limits and cultivate the soil. In exchange, the United States promised them protection by providing military posts on Ute territory and amenities as they deemed proper, including teaching them to farm.

The Utes kept their end of the bargain. Calhoun considered them the most easily managed of the Indian tribes. However, while the Utes maintained peace, other tribes became more aggressive; meanwhile, the Utes grew poorer. To make matters worse for the Utes, the raids and killings by other Indian tribes were supported by the United States Government in the form of sales of guns and ammunition to those Indians, while traders were forbidden to sell these items to the Utes.⁵

In 1852, the United States Indian Agent gathered some Utes at Abiquiu, New Mexico, and fed them mutton and beef. They also gave them flour and trinkets to be distributed among 400 warriors and 100 women and children. It was there that Chief Coniache, in simple language asked for very little — only guns and ammunition, and protection from the Plains Indians.

After this meeting the Utes were still neither given guns nor ammunition to use for hunting. As promised, they were not given tools for farming, or taught to farm, and an Indian agent still had not been provided. They were also not given protection from the Plains Indians as they had asked. When Fort Massachusetts was built at the foot of Mt. Blanca it was to protect Mexican settlers against the Ute and Apache Indians; therefore, in the wrong place and for opposite reasons that would offer the Utes any protection. Still, the Utes remained at peace.

February 1853, forty Ute families were found starving on the Culebra and Costilla rivers. William Carr Lane, Governor of New Mexico, was now beginning to understand their plight. He was setting policy in favor of the Utes when he was succeeded by David Meriwether, who appointed his son-in-law, a Kentucky lawyer who had never even seen a Ute, as the Indian agent. Governor Lane's policy went by the wayside.⁶

Governor Meriwether told the Indians, including the Jicarilla Apaches to which similar promises were made in Santa Fe in 1852, that the previous governor had exceeded his authority in feeding them and no food would be forthcoming. To avoid starvation, the Jicarilla Apaches started stealing and their actions cost the people of the territory between fifty and a hundred thousand dollars. Feeding them would have cost the government about twenty thousand dollars.⁷ Not feeding them only lead to more hostilities.

In March 1854, soldiers fought the Jicarilla Apaches and were badly beaten. It was suspected that Utes were among them, so on their way back from the battle, the soldiers attacked a Ute village. It was unlikely that the Utes had been with the Jicarillas. Chico Velasquez, a Muache Ute chief, along with his band was protecting a herd of government animals grazing near Fort Union. However, the Muache agent, Kit Carson, wrote, “they should be severely chastised and punished and be made to know and feel the power of the government."⁸

For five years after the 1849 treaty the Utes maintained peace even though they were starving. Still the government did little for them except, as mentioned earlier, on one occasion, they gave them some flour, meat, and trinkets, and for a short time prevented settlement on Ute lands. By the fall of 1854, the Utes were getting tired of broken promises. A Mexican murdered a Ute in cold blood and the Utes asked the governor for justice. Governor Meriwether promised he would personally see this man hang. Then he gave the chiefs each a gray cloth coat,  “decorated with red and yellow braid brass buttons down the front and a rosette on each shoulder.”

The Mexican who murdered the Ute was taken to Taos and put in jail but later escaped. As if this wasn't enough, the chiefs who had worn the coats given to them by Governor Meriwether had contracted smallpox and died. Among those who died was Chico Velasquez, who had fought so hard to keep peace.⁹ The Utes believed the governor had purposely infected the coats. Their new leader was Coniache. One of the chiefs was Tierra Blanca, an aggressive warrior, distinguished by his red woolen shirt and long black braids.

Pedro Sandoval, Benito's son, went down the Arkansas River the day before Christmas Eve, 1854. He left on the afternoon of December 23, with José Lopez and Juan Salazar, who both lived at the fort and worked for Benito Sandoval. They were taking a wagon loaded with corn to Levin Mitchell. As mentioned earlier, Benito intended to move to Huerfano Village on the Arkansas above the mouth of the Rio Huerfano. Pedro and his two companions were also taking wagons with household goods.

That night, Pedro and the two men spent the night at San Carlos where Levin Mitchell lived. Mitchell's wife was Luz Arguello. Two other Americans, known as Steel and Totes, from California, were also living there with their Indian wives. Mitchell owned much property and livestock.

In the early morning of December 24, 1854, Benito (Guero) Pais, on his way from the fort to fetch some milk at Marcelino Baca's place, saw many Indians approaching and hurried to Baca's to give the alarm. One of Baca's herders, nineteen-year-old Felipe Cisneros, caught sight of them approaching and hid in the bushes. The next person to spot them was Jose Barela, in his nineties, who warned the others, including Marcelino Baca not to be friendly with them. Baca ordered the house closed off and told the men to get their guns. After a confrontation between Baca and Tierra Blanca, the Utes ran off Baca's stock and then headed for the fort with Chief Blanca riding Baca's best mare.

There are several versions as to what happened when the Indians first approached the fort. According to Felix Sandoval, who was twelve at the time, Chief Blanca came to the gate and got off his horse. Benito Sandoval ordered Rumaldo Cordova to shoot Blanca. Rumaldo recognized Blanca and invited him into the fort, saying “This is my friend!” As more Indians went through the gate Blanca grabbed Rumaldo's gun out of his hands and shot him through the mouth. Benito then took Juan Isidro into the bastion and locked both of them inside. The Indians started to break in through the roof and Benito let go of Juan Isidro. He took his gun and killed two Indians before he was dragged out and killed.

Felix Sandoval was gathering wood when the killings began. An Indian forced Felix upon his horse but Felix jumped off. Forced to get back on, Felix looked back and saw an arrow hit his father. The Mexican men killed an unknown number of Indians before they were killed. When the battle ended, the Indians took the two boys, Felix and Juan Isidro, and Chepita Miera captive, but killed her soon after. It took eight months before the Americans delivered Felix to the Americans at Abiquiu. It took Juan Isidro five years and ten months to return home.

Some of the Mexicans killed were visitors who lived at Marcelino Baca's place and had stayed at El Pueblo for an all-night card game. Others were residents of the fort while others had come from Taos and Mora to work for Joseph Doyle and George Simpson. They lived in Huerfano Village, about twenty miles south of the Fort. From all accounts, including Cragin's notebooks, those killed were as follows:

1. Benito Sandoval, el comandante, was the principal man at the fort. His fingers clawed a bloody streak on the mud wall that remained for years afterwards.

2. Guadalupe Vigil,  referred to in Cragin's notes as both a Navajo Indian and a Mexican who lived for many years as a captive of the Comanches and later with Americans, was killed on the road.

3. Rumaldo Córdova, a visitor from Marcelino Baca's place, died almost a month after the tragedy. (See note at end of this chapter.)

4. Juan Rafael Medina was still alive when others reached him but died after they gave him a drink of water.

5. Juan Shoco Aragon from Ranchos de Taos, whose body was never found, was believed to have been swept away by the river.

6. Joaquin Pacheco from Arroyo Hondo was no more than twenty years old at the time.

7. José Francisco Mestas

8. Jóse Ignacio Valencia from Taos was killed outside the fort. He had left in the early morning to Baca's place, but realized he  left his knife at the fort and was returning to retrieve it.

9. Manuel Trujeque Lucero also from Taos was found dead, still clutching a flatiron in his hand.

10. Juan Blas Martin, Chepita's husband.

11. Estanislado de Luna was from Paso del Norte. His body was never found and was also believed to have been swept away by the river.

12. Captured and killed within two weeks was Chepita Miera, wife of Juan Blas Martin. According to Felix, who witnessed the killing, she was killed because she was “down-hearted and refused to be comforted.”

In an interview with Victor Cisneros Padilla, (referred to in Cragin's notes as “a stage driver — Watrous to Mora”), he indicated that three other people were killed: Guadalupe Miranda, Juan de Dios Encinas and Cristobal Sena. According to Pedro Sandoval, these men were probably Mexican soldiers who pursued the Utes in 1855, after the tragedy. Since they did not live at the fort, they may not have been there that fateful night.

In an interview with Jose Dolores Cruz, he stated that the son of Juan Shoco Aragon said these three men were Mexican dragoons, but did not indicate if they were at the fort when the killings took place. To have called them Mexican may have been an error as the United States had taken possession of the territory since 1846.

*Note: Juan Andres Sandoval, Benito's youngest son who was with his mother when the tragedy occurred, stated that it was the morning of December 24 when the people at El Pueblo first saw the Indians. He also stated the name of Rumaldo was Rumaldo Baca not Rumaldo Cordova. Juan Andres was fifty-seven years old when interviewed. Luna also indicates that Rumaldo Cordova was Rumaldo Baca, Marcelino Baca's brother. Cragin indicates that there was another Rumaldo in the vicinity who was Marcelino Baca's brother and later killed by the Utes. Raised by another family he went by the name of Rumaldo Rodriguez. It is known that another brother of Marcelino Baca's, Benito, was killed along with two Americans about one month after the tragedy, close to Marcelino's house. The most consistent information is that Rumaldo's last name was Cordova.

As mentioned earlier, Chepita was killed within two weeks after being captured. Felix saw the Utes shoot Chepita. The Indians stopped at a spring and allowed Chepita to get off her horse to drink some water. After drinking, she began to wash her face. About this time, she noticed two of the Indians trying to ride around behind her and they were talking angrily. She sprang up, and started to run and they shot at her, one of the arrows striking her in the back, its point coming out in her breast. She tried to pull it out but they ordered her to move on. Unable to do so she fell down and died. One month later some soldiers found her scalp hanging from a tree, distinguished by long black hair with ribbons on it. The soldiers wrapped it in paper and took it to her brother in Taos.

After the tragedy, the Utes went up the Arkansas River to a place above Canon City. They were content with the cattle they captured from Fort Pueblo and Marcelino Baca, but soon after the Arapahos attacked them and took the cattle. The Utes continued to attack different villages and by the end of February a military expedition was formed against them. The fighting continued for months. The Utes continued moving and starving because they did not have time to hunt. Finally, in September 1855, a treaty was signed with the Utes and the Jicarilla Apache chiefs at Abiquiu, New Mexico.This tragedy marked the end of early settlements in the Arkansas Valley. Superstitions of the Indians and Mexicans and the horror of the tragedy kept many travelers away from the fort and caused its abandonment shortly thereafter.

The gold strike of 1858 brought many people into the area and the city of Pueblo was established during the winter of 1859-1860. Ironically, people used the adobe bricks from El Pueblo to build the first houses.