The Railroad and the Pueblo Indians

Richard Frost examines the profound effects that the coming of trains had on Pueblo Indians in New Mexico’s Rio Grande Valley, where their arrival was a social and cultural tsunami. It affected community autonomy, privacy, and well-being and destroyed or damaged crops, livestock, and irrigation ditches. The trains brought lawyers, speculators, politicians, missionaries, anthropologists, timber thieves, health seekers, and government servants. While the trains also brought farm tools, clothing for children, and customers for Pueblo pottery, these were comparatively marginal benefits.

The pueblos responded variously, though mostly conservatively, to sustain their communities, and this book spotlights two very different responses. Santo Domingo Pueblo was defensive, while Laguna Pueblo chose accommodation. Overlooked aspects of these pueblos’ histories provide compelling reasons behind their varying responses and the fateful consequences.