The Land of Mesas

The Soaring Eagles
by Jesus Two Soul

The birth of the Mesa Confederation was founded in opposition to the wills of old, Imperial powers centered thousands of miles away. The native people of the land rose up against the iron fist of the Spanish and threw them out, then proceeded to keep themselves a nucance, but not a threat to the Spanish while they were distracted fighting off their neighboring rivals. While the isolated geography and the strong will of the Mesa people were a large part in ensuring their independance it was also the corrupt and bloated bureaucracies of the Spanish who eventually lost most if not all interest in putting them down under a yoke once more. The Mesa Confederation had carved for itself a sea of independence surrounded by raiding nomadic groups of the great plains and scorned tribes stretching from the great canyon to the Pacific. What little European settlement occured adjacent or within their lands was run off by their neighbors, was managed carefully to not increase tension, or were already outcasts from their lands of origin.

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Those who came knocking at their borders in the early 19th century were unlike any foe they had faced before. They desired land in a much more deep and desireful way then the Europeans did. The two greatest foes of the Mesa Confederation, the American and Mexican Republics actually wanted to take land for their own people to use, not to simply have it to keep it from their rival or national prestige.

The Mesa Confederation only heard news of revolt by the Americans on the eastern seaboard of the continent years after they had won their independance and freed themselves from the British. On occasion they recieved American traders, but they generally operated with Spanish traders out of Mexico or trappers making deep hunting and trade expeditions and they had wandered into Commanche land and brought to Santa Fe to be ransomed. The Louisiana Purchase when announced did slightly raise the eyes of some in the Mesa Confederation, having been surprised that they shared a border with the French. Granted administration did not really change at all during the period this was not unsurprising. The Mesa Confederation anyway did not see the purchase as a threat just yet as the boundaries clearly or at least most likely would not have included their own lands and they did not yet realize the tenacity of the Anglo settlers from the east.

Their first major encounter with the Americans occured in 1807 with the arrival of Zebulon Pike. Attempting to explore the recent purchase American purchase Pike traveled through the Arkansas river to the base of the Rocky Mountains before winter and low morale forced Pike to bring his twenty or so man expedition southward in an attempt to find the Red River and return to Lousiana. Stumbling southward they were captured by Comanche traders and like many were taken to Santa Fe for the Mesa to deal with. Arriving at the northeastern border of the Mesa Confederation which at the time was along the Canadien river and had become inhabited by semi-nomadic bands of the Ute people who did well accepting protection of the Mesa Confederation and trading with their free roaming cousins. Arriving in the Mesa Confederation his retelling of the journey once back in the United States shows he was quite surprised to find the Mesa Confederation. A civilized or at least semi-civilized tribe that had thrown off the Spanish was known in the United States but not many had of course had visitedas the Spanish attempted to cut off as much contact with them as possible. The Mesa people treated Pike and his survivors with as much hospitality as curisoity. Meeting with several notable leaders amongst the Mesa people he was grilled through translaters about the American people and importantly their form of government. From what they could gather several made the comparision that the United States had fallen into their own footsteps of throwing off colonial rulers and a form of government where no one man had total power.

After a month of rest, Pike and his men were escorted out of the Mesa Confederation to the Rio Grande with a few gifts and good words from the Mesa's leaders. Upon returning to the United States Pike went before the United States Congress to give a debriefing of his expedition and relayed all that he had learned and seen. His views gave the impression that the Mesa Confederation was a civlized tribe (they would be the Sixth Civilized Tribe along with the Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Creek) that had adopted European culture (they had in their time only seen Santa Fe mostly), but did pick up on the hatred for Christanity that the majority of the Mesa Confederation still harbored (and only then those that did were Kachina/Catholic Christians). He also outlined their isolationist mindset and the scarcity of their geography. One congressman was said to have commented that perhaps it would be possible to get the Mesa Confederation to accept 'Indian immigrants' from east of the Mississippi.

The 1810 Mexican Revolution of Independance caused much, much more concern amongst the people-leading to a calling of the tribal heads to Santa Fe that same year. The Speaker Jose Luis, a half Taos Pueblo and half European, echoed the concerns of many by comparing the revolution to a owner letting their dogs slip their leash and attack a neighbor's cattle.
 
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Mexico - and the States - and are the Comanche still a threat? Hope the next update's soon.

The Comanche for a while were unified under a more central confederation but overtime they became looser again so the Mesa Confederation are able to pay off those tribes of the Comanche neighboring them. They still run rampant over Mexico though. This will change after the OTL Smallpox epidemic.
 
Shadows off the Canyon Wall
by Jose Luis de la Paso del Norte
The evolution of the Mesa Confederation was a gradual movement towards centralization as their neighbors the Comanche splintered into greater decentralization. The social, political, and economic factors involving this different progression through the late 18th century revolves around the geography of their environments and especially in relation to the oncoming European settlers.

The Comanche or Comanchiera as it is sometimes known was made up primarily of a society of nomadic horsemen who traveled the lower regions of the Great Plains. While for the most part the nomadicism of the Comanche was more semi nomadic, traveling bewteen spring and winter hunting and growing grounds. The main similarity bewteen the various tribes was the spread of a common language but, largely they kept amongst themselves with new blood coming from raids on their neighbors. Captives of Comanche raids becoming assimilated into their society.

In comparision the Mesa Confederation and its society was sedetary, with a few semi-nomadic tribes especially cattle and sheep herdsmen amongst the Dineteh people. Ethnic divisions amongst the Mesa Confederation gradually loosened, the main social structure being the tribe and place of living. Not to say that the level of distrust and discrimination amongst the Amerindians and the European newcomers fully evaporated, but with the growth of the 'Mesa Spanish' intergration would continue. Intermixing especially occured in the outlying tribes and populations, the main exception being Santa Fe and the southern Mescalero Pueblo which became a hub of trade toward the central valley from Spanish El Paso.

The Comanche invested most of their political strength in singlemen leaders, charismatic men who from important tribes and bands in their confederation. When such a man died a minor civil war of sorts would erupt bouncing the focus of power repeatedly every few years eroding any lasting political systems for intergration. On the otherhand while the Mesa Confederation did look to a single speaker he was backed by a council of leaders and political leverage was built up and supported by all groups throughout the Mesa Confederation. The basic republican principles of the system of tribes electing leaders to the council on a rotation helped allow leaders from across the Mesa Confederation to interact and play off each other.

Economicly the Comanche tribe allowed for a free flow of long distance trade across the bredth of Texas from Spanish and later Mexican settlers along the Rio Bravo to the tribes of the High Plains and incoming American traders. The Mesa Confederation became a hub for trade between everyone, in times between raiding with the Comanche and Mexico the Mesa Confederation facilitated relations.

In all of this the breadth of the Great Plains and size of the Comanche created patterns of long distance and decentralization. The general compact nature of the Mesa Confederation created a sense of inwardness amongst the people as well as heightening their own stand-offish isolationism. For the Comanche this furthened a disorganized response to the Europeans as tribes traded and raided with no control. Similarily the Mesa Confederation crafted a sort of high position for themselves, looking down on the Spanish and later Mexicans and Americans collectivly...
 
Thank you. Always glad to have more background for this interesting tl.

Looking forward to seeing the Confederation cope.
 
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Whats happening to other tribes in the continent, like those in Northern Mexico, the Rest of Spanish America, etc
Have they revolted against Spain (or Mexico) taking after those of the Mesa Confederation?
 
Whats happening to other tribes in the continent, like those in Northern Mexico, the Rest of Spanish America, etc
Have they revolted against Spain (or Mexico) taking after those of the Mesa Confederation?

Well, for the most part they are pretty OTL since they are closer to Spanish/Mexican centers of population, power, and economic interest. The Mesa Confederation has geography going for it what with the distance from Mexico City, surrounded by rivers, mountains, defendable plateaus, and semi-desert environment.
 

ingemann

Banned
Interesting, through I would imagine that Christianity would outcompete the local religions as it did in pagan Europe. As for disease I find it rather realisttic that they have avoided them, the tickling in of European settlers, captives and slaves would introduce the greater Euroasian immunities to the natives' genepool.
 
Interesting, through I would imagine that Christianity would outcompete the local religions as it did in pagan Europe. As for disease I find it rather realisttic that they have avoided them, the tickling in of European settlers, captives and slaves would introduce the greater Euroasian immunities to the natives' genepool.

Just as it did in China, India, Japan, and other such parts of the world.
 
Stars On the Rio Bravo

While Spanish settlement had largely withered along the western coast of the Americas they and their successors the Mexicans increasingly looked to shore up settlement in the region known as 'Tejas'. The reasoning for this initially was to shore up defenses first against the French in New Orleans and then the Comanche. By making the coast of the Gulf of Mexico a target to draw away Comanche raids into deeper Mexico. Settlements in the region rose and fell periodicly in the region under Comanche raids but in the early years of the 19th century settlement gradually increased with two factors. The first and most important of which was the spread of smallpox and other diseases amongst the Comanche tribes. Their warring, raiding, and disorganized control of their borders allowed for plagues to sap their strength gradually. The second reasoning was that a new type of settler had arrived into the region, the Americans.

Though that is to say that they were not alone, as from 1831-1838 nearly fifty-thousand Native Americans from the Six Civilized Tribes were moved over the Mississippi to new settlement just north of the Mesa Confederation. This arrangement largely started following the Louisiana Purchase by the American government. While some relations were established between the US-Mesa government the relationship was strained by simple distance between the two populations. As such the Mesa Confederation was not made aware of the Louisiana Purchase until after 1812. Borders between the United States and the Mesa Confederation was not established until 1836. In comparision the border between the Mesa and Mexico was established from the Spanish years.

The arrival of Choctaw and other native tribes actually began during the 1820's as representatives from the tribes saw the possibility of being forced westward as a increasing possibility. Establishing trade posts at Doaksville and later Fort Towson the arrival of the natives began a new era of increasing interaction with the United States. Though while both peoples were Indians the Mesa people were not wayward refugees who had lost their land and had much more in common culturally with the Mexicans rather then these English speaking, slave owning, people.

The declaration of the Empire of Mexico and the Republic of Texas seemed to many in the Mesa Confederation to be the death call of their nation.
 
The declaration of the Empire of Mexico and the Republic of Texas seemed to many in the Mesa Confederation to be the death call of their nation.

Given the utter, genocidal fury that some leaders of the Republic of Texas felt towards Natives, this isn't a misplaced feeling.
 
Hm. Hopefully the Mesa Confederation has enough men to hold off expansionism by the Texans and the Mexicans. I hope for more from you, be this timeline or the others soon.
 

Hnau

Banned
Trouble is brewing on the Confederation's frontier... I liked the update. :) Question: What are the Confederation's current borders?
 
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Trouble is brewing on the Confederation's frontier... I liked the update. :) Question: What are the Confederation's current borders?

The western extent is the Canadien River in the west, the northern extent is the San Luis Basin and the Colorado river further north west, and following a little burning the area of San Diego. Well, in reality the western extent is around the area of Yuma. The tribes across the Colorado are more loosely affiliated and supplied by the more centralized tribes east of the river.

Rising Tensions

The 1830s and onward saw once again the rise of factionalism in the Mesa Confederation over the international attitude of the people. Santa Fe and those border villages situated on the Rio Bravo river primarily took Pro-International trends which included allowing for open relations with neighboring states, and importantly allowing for more European migration. The majority of the Mesa Confederation on a populous level, lead by Taos, took a Isolationist stance that had so far secured the Mesa Confederation against plague and worse. Yet, as 'European' settlers such as the Mexicans and the Americans converged on the Mesa's borders it was not disputed that the aged cannons and weapons of the Mesa Confederation (which included antiques from their original bid for independence) would not be able to hold. Geography as always was their number one ally, but with growing population centers along the Rio Bravo and railroad technology their isolation was becoming increasingly less assured.

The Spanish attitude of the Mesa Confederation prior to their ejection from North America following the Mexican Revolution was of benign neglect. While it did several times ally with the Comanche the Mesa Confederation was seen as a barrier against the expansion of more hostile tribes and even negotiated peace with tribes that joinned. France was the only other major European power to take any interest in the Mesa Confederation throughout their history as they sought to retain their power on the Great Plains and use the Mesa Confederation to weaken Spain. Even as their colonial power in North America declined French government officials on a matter of honor took a parental attitude toward the Mesa Confederation, Napoleon himself having expressed interest to visit, but other engagements kept him occupied of course. Initially, the United States government saw the Mesa Confederation as a barrier against the Spanish and Mexicans then later as hopeful depository for their own Indian populations. Mexico similarly had hopes for the use of the buffer state as employed by their Spanish predecessors, but the hotblooded nature of Mexican leaders and the desire to gain the American West that the Spanish had lost was strong. During the Mexican Revolution both sides of El Paso were taken. American hopes were dashed however as tension between the Mesa Confederation and those living in the Indian Territory grew. For example in 1835 a raid occurred on Mesa territory when an Apache band along the northwest border had taken in escaped slaves. Texas was the most aggressive toward the Mesa Confederation.
 
This is a great TL.
I'm wondering how large the population of the Mesa Confederation is. Considering they live in a desert never very populated to begin with, I can't imagine it's that big, especially compared to Mexico or the US. Just demographically speaking, diseases and settlers remain a huge threat. Though in terms of disease, if they have managed to survive into the 1800s they may be home free; by the 1800s there is a smallpox vaccine!:D (If they can get their hands on vaccine, which is a big if.)
 
Ive thought about the issue alot myself. I am still doing research into the population of the natives around this time frame, but I havent found any definitive numbers. A very optimistic range would be around a hundred thousandish. I am leaning for half of that.
 
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