The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, July 1927 - April, 1928 Page: 275
390 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Community Acequia: Its Origin and Development 275
Indians. These settlers were usually very poor, and in those cases
where livestock was their chief means of support and required
much attention24 they could not work on the ditches for many days
at a time, with the result that many of these ditches were years
in the building.
Permanent diversion dams were rare. Many acequias had no
dams at all, although the mission fathers in Texas and California
built splendid structures; others had temporary brush and earth
dams only during low-water stages; still others maintained tem-
porary dams of earth, brush and rock which were rebuilt after every
flood. Wing dams were sometimes used to guide the water into
the canal heading. Headgates and other canal structures were in-
variably made of wood. These conditions generally exist in con-
nection with the community acequias of New Mexico at the present
time.
Development in the Several States
New Mexico.-The first Spanish settlement within the bound-
aries of the United States was at San Juan, New Mexico, near the
junction of the Rio Chama and the Rio Grande, in the region of
the present town of Chamita. There Juan de Ofiate placed his
colony in 1598. On August 11 of that year work was begun on
an irrigation ditch, the Spaniards being assisted in their labor
by some 1500 Indians.25 Other colonies were located from time to
time, and although the Indians rebelled in 1679 and drove the
Spaniards from the country, a reconquest was effected in 1695 that
firmly established the Spanish hold on New Mexico. Settlements
grew, intermarriages took place between the whites and Indians,
and the ecclesiastics extended their control over the Indian pueblos.
In no other part of the Southwest was the Spanish colonization so
effective and so productive of lasting results.
The community acequia was the original or the eventual instru-
ment for providing water for most of the irrigated land. Just
prior to the Mexican War a writer stated that the population of
New Mexico was confined almost exclusively to towns and villages
generally surrounded by farms, and that "Even most of the indi-
vidual ranchos and haciendas have grown into villages,-a result
2The New Mexicans were essentially a pastoral people: Twitchell, "The
Leading Facts of New Mexican History," Vol. II, p. 175.
"2Bancroft, H. H., "Arizona and New Mexico," p. 132.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, July 1927 - April, 1928, periodical, 1928; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101088/m1/293/: accessed May 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.