Succesor to the Fremont Culture

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A bit of Background: The Fremont were a diverse group of horticulturalists and hunter gatherers who shared common material like one-rod-and-bundle baskets, and pit houses. They lived in Utah, western Colorado, and Southern Idaho from about 750-1250 A.D. Today they aren't very well known,and some people think that we are really dealing with a couple of cultures with similar traits to each other. The reason for their disappearance is not known, but two common ideas are that Uto-Aztecan peoples (like the Ute and Shoshone) migrated into the area at that time, and that their was significant drought.


What if they didn't disappear?


I think the way to create some kind of similar culture as a successor with minimal differences from OTL is to lessen the impact of the Uto-Aztecans, and have them assimilate more. If we change climate, thats way to many butterfly's for my taste. We still won't be able to create a culture in much of their former range, due to climactic conditions, but I think we could create a culture of small villages (and a few larger) scattered down western Utah to the Colorado. I don't think this will cause major changes later on, and I think the first big difference we will see is how the Spanish react to them. There are a couple of possibilities on how the Spanish deal with them in my view:
a)Ignore them, there just unimportant little villages way off on the frontier.
b)Send a few expeditions of conquistadors/explorers (not mutually exclusive obviously), but don't do much else with them.
c)Send missionaries to save their souls. I feel this one's pretty likely as it would correlate with what the Spanish did in other places.
Send missionaries and then later send soldiers as protection. Again following OTL patterns.
d)Conquer.


d) leads to the obvious question of Why? and I don' think there would be that much of a reason for them to go after these villages


Thoughts?


heres what a few minutes of searching brought up on the Fremont Culture:
http://www.nps.gov/archive/care/petpull.htm
http://www.cpluhna.nau.edu/People/fremont.htmhttp://www.cpluhna.nau.edu/People/fremont.htm

 

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Posted this too late at night for most of us, it would seem. BUMP!
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[Tocomocho]

The first butterfly would be that Coronado would explore the American West further and longer. In OTL the reason he turned back was because he found that the mythical 7 Golden Cities of Cibola weren't anything more than 7 mudy Zuni villages. If the Indians keep saying that there are cities further north, Coronado's men would keep exploring northwards in search of them. They would ultimately find that there wasn't a second Aztec Empire there, but by then Utah would be a lot more known by the Spanish. In short words, by the early 16th century the region would be as recognized, explored and claimed as it was in OTL late 18th century.

Then the missionaries would came and make some work, as sedentery tribes were a lot more "interesting" for them than scarce nomadic ones. Bear in mind that the Spanish made the way quite early into New Mexico following the Rio Grande because of the Pueblo tribes living there. With more Pueblo-like tribes further north, the Camino Real would be buit earlier and extend right into Utah's lands, and with them would came the presidios, the garrisons and the colonists. That means that the later Neohispanic/Mexican population in the American West would be a lot bigger than in OTL, and that any potential Mexican-American War could be very different than the OTL equivalent.

Not sure about what could be the consequences for California. Would it be explored and settled earlier by the Spanish, or would it be left free to the Russians?

 

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On California: The Spanish only really got into California when Galvez showed up, and then it was a stretch which they did to strengthen the frontier. With resources more focues on the Fremont people, would they have the resources to settle California? They wouldn't let it fall to the Russians, but they don't have the resources to really push in. Maybe a more military colony like Texas, designed to keep the Russians away from Mexico? or perhaps by the time they really start getting involved in California they'll have only slightly less resources, with a consolodated hold on Utah?