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161-534: The Comanche launched their raids from Texas, usually in autumn. In Texas, a full moon in September was known as a "Comanche Moon" as the mounted Comanche raiders rode south to Mexico at night by the light of the moon. Comanche raids usually consisted of 200 to 800 warriors. The raiders penetrated 400 miles (640 km) into Mexico south of the Rio Grande . Forty-four raids are recorded from 1831 to 1848. During that period,

322-507: A "semicolonized landscape of extraction from which they could mine resources with little cost." The Comanche have often been portrayed by historians in the U.S. as a simple and crude tribe lacking any coherent political organization or authority. Their success in creating an empire of the Plains, sophisticated diplomacy, and highly organized raids on Mexico contradicts that opinion. The numerous small Comanche bands came together in summer, usually on

483-742: A battle in eastern Colorado in which the Comanche leader Greenhorn was killed. Peace treaties were concluded with their eastern bands by Pedro Vial and Francisco Xavier Chaves in 1785 and their western bands in 1786. The Spanish welcomed the Comanche as an ally against the Apache , forgave their transgressions, traded manufactured items and corn to them for horses, captives, and buffalo meat, and showered them with gifts. The mutually beneficial relationship between Spaniards and Comanches began to come apart in 1821 when Mexico won its independence from Spain. The new country had no resources to continue paying tribute to

644-412: A bounty of 100 pesos (about U.S.$ 100) for each scalp of a hostile Indian man and lesser amounts for women and children. Anglo American and Indian, primarily Delaware and Shawnee , scalp hunters killed many Apache and peaceful Indians for the bounty over the next few years, but apparently had little success in hunting down and killing Comanches. The Comanche resolved most of the challenges facing them in

805-445: A broad denuded area as a piedmont deposit by the rivers which issued from the mountains. Since then, it has been more or less dissected by the erosion of valleys. The central section of the plains thus presents a marked contrast to the northern section. While the northern section owes its smoothness to the removal of local gravels and sands from a formerly uneven surface by the action of degrading rivers and their inflowing tributaries,

966-590: A broad stretch of country underlain by nearly horizontal strata extending westward from the 97th meridian west to the base of the Rocky Mountains , a distance of 300 to 500 mi (480 to 800 km). It extends northward from the Mexican boundary far into Canada. Although the altitude of the plains increases gradually from 600 ft (180 m) or 1,200 ft (370 m) on the east to 4,000–5,000 ft (1,200–1,500 m) or 6,000 ft (1,800 m) near

1127-637: A channel was dug for flood control which moved the river, creating what was called Cordova Island, which became the center of the Chamizal dispute . Resolving the dispute took many years and resulted in a 1909 combined assassination attempt on the American and Mexican presidents. Following the approval of the Rio Grande Project by federal lawmakers in 1905, the waters of the Rio Grande were to be divided between

1288-569: A cholera epidemic in 1849, encroachment on their lands in Texas by white settlers, the near-extinction of the bison which was their principal source of food, and the U.S. Army 's campaigns against them. The last known Comanche raid into Mexico was in 1870. In 1875, the U.S. army defeated the Comanches and forced them to live on a reservation in Oklahoma . In the words of U.S. Army General James Wilkinson ,

1449-587: A demoralized people. There was little resistance to the Anglo-Americans. Some Mexicans in the north perhaps hoped that the U.S. would be more successful in fighting the "barbarians" than Mexican forces had been. The U.S. victory in the Mexican–American War (1846–48) resulted in Mexico ceding vast territory to the U.S. and presented the Comanche with new challenges. Comanche raids into Mexico did not cease with

1610-441: A first, second, or third wife among the captives. The Mexican government accused the U.S. and independent Texas of encouraging Comanche raids, especially by trading guns to the Comanche in exchange for horses. In 1826, a Mexican official appealed to the U.S. to stop the "traders in blood who put instruments of death in the hands of those barbarians." In 1835, the state of Chihuahua, ravaged by Apache as well as Comanche raids, offered

1771-585: A gradual transition, this rainfall line may be taken to divide the drier plains from the moister prairies. However, in Canada the eastern boundary of the plains is well defined by the presence of the Canadian Shield to the northeast. The plains (within the United States) may be described in northern, intermediate, central and southern sections, in relation to certain peculiar features. In Canada, no such division

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1932-484: A hostile Indian. In 1849, the bounty was raised to 200 pesos per head, more than a laborer could make in wages in a full year. A careful, but incomplete tally, of the Mexican victims of Comanche raids shows that between 1831 and 1848 a total of 44 raids of more than 100 men each were sent into Mexico. The victims of these raids amounted to 2,649 dead and 852 captives, of whom 580 were redeemed. The number of livestock stolen surely amounted to more than 100,000. What livestock

2093-409: A large swing bridge , dates back to 1910 and is still in use today by automobiles connecting Brownsville with Matamoros, Tamaulipas . The swing mechanism has not been used since the early 1900s, though, when the last of the big steamboats disappeared. At one point, the bridge also had rail traffic. Railroad trains no longer use this bridge. A new rail bridge (West Rail International Crossing) connecting

2254-476: A peace agreement. The agreement permitted eastern Indians and Anglo-Americans to hunt on Comanche lands and did not restrain the Comanche and their Kiowa and Wichita allies from making war on Mexico. With their eastern flank secured by the treaty with the U.S., the Comanches next concluded a peace agreement in 1840 with the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho pressing on them from the north. It was highly favorable to

2415-532: A playa in the southern Albuquerque Basin where it deposited the Popotosa Formation . The upper reach of this river corresponded to the modern Rio Chama , but by 5 million years ago, an ancestral Rio Grande draining the eastern San Juan Mountains had joined the ancestral Rio Chama. The ancestral Rio Grande progressively integrated basins to the south, reaching the Mesilla Basin by 4.5 million years and

2576-580: A royal Spanish cartographer. In the autumn of 1540, a military expedition of the Viceroyalty of New Spain led by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado , Governor of Nueva Galicia , reached the Tiwa pueblos along the Rio Grande in the future New Mexico . On July 12, 1598, Don Juan de Oñate y Salazar established the New Spain colony of Santa Fe de Nuevo Méjico at the new village of San Juan de los Caballeros adjacent to

2737-542: A series of bloody reprisals and battles. Hundreds of Comanches descended upon and destroyed the towns of Victoria and Linnville in 1840 (see Great Raid of 1840 ). Although the Texans demonstrated they could punish the Comanche (See Battle of Plum Creek ) military campaigns emptied their treasury and Texas became more accommodating. (See Texas-Indian Wars ) In 1844, the Texans and the Comanches came to an agreement which recognized Comanche lands and left Comancheria intact. What

2898-586: A single river system draining into the Gulf of Mexico until relatively recent geologic time. Instead, the basins formed by the opening of the Rio Grande rift were initially bolsons , with no external drainage and a central playa . An axial river existed in the Espanola Basin as early as 13 million years ago, reaching the Santo Domingo Basin by 6.9 million years ago. However, at this time, the river drained into

3059-420: A small, sandy delta at the Gulf of Mexico. During portions of 2001 and 2002, the mouth of the Rio Grande was blocked by a sandbar. In the fall of 2003, the sandbar was cleared by high river flows around 7,063 cubic feet per second (200 m /s). The Rio Grande flows through a valley with diverse animal and plants communities. Conservation of the river and the valley is a recurring theme for people who live in

3220-559: A social stigma due to not being born as Comanche. The disarray in Mexico for the decades following its independence in 1821 precluded much assistance from the Mexican central government to its embattled northland. The old system of presidios (military bases) staffed by soldiers and scattered around the frontier deteriorated and most defense relied on locally recruited and equipped militia. The militias were poorly-armed and equipped. The Comanche were better armed with newer firearms purchased from American traders with stolen Mexican livestock. In

3381-575: A west-northwest direction in what is now Oklahoma and Texas which is now known as the De Soto Trail. The Spanish thought that the Great Plains were the location of the mythological Quivira and Cíbola , a place said to be rich in gold. People in the southwest began to acquire horses in the 16th century by trading or stealing them from Spanish colonists in New Mexico. As horse culture moved northward,

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3542-522: A year later, in October 2022, the reservoir had made only insignificant rebounds, resting at 6.4% of capacity. In late July 2022, due to extreme drought, the Rio Grande ran dry for about 50 miles in the middle Rio Grande Valley , including five miles in Albuquerque, the first time it had done so in over 40 years. The following winter, the basin experienced above-average snowfall, leading to very high flows in

3703-404: Is about 500 mi (800 km) east to west and 2,000 mi (3,200 km) north to south. Much of the region was home to American bison herds until they were hunted to near extinction during the mid/late-19th century. It has an area of approximately 500,000 sq mi (1,300,000 km ). Current thinking regarding the geographic boundaries of the Great Plains is shown by this map at

3864-512: Is better in flanking basins of the Rio Grande Valley, where numerous Folsom sites and a much smaller number of earlier Clovis sites have been identified. Later Paleo-Indian groups included the Belen and Cody cultures, who appear to have taken advantage of the Rio Grande Valley for seasonal migrations and may have settled more permanently in the valley. The Paleo-Indian cultures gave way to

4025-513: Is extraordinarily smooth. It is very dry, except for occasional shallow and temporary water sheets after rains. Llano is separated from the plains on the north by the mature consequent valley of the Canadian River , and from the mountains on the west by the broad and probably mature valley of the Pecos River . On the east, it is strongly undercut by the retrogressive erosion of the headwaters of

4186-489: Is not part of the Water Authority's long-term resource management plan, dubbed WATER 2120. Dams on the Rio Grande include Rio Grande Dam , Cochiti Dam , Elephant Butte Dam , Caballo Dam , Amistad Dam , Falcon Dam , Anzalduas Dam , and Retamal Dam . In southern New Mexico and the upper portion of the Texas border segment, the river's discharge dwindles. Diversions, mainly for agricultural irrigation, have increased

4347-774: Is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River ) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico . The length of the Rio Grande is 1,896 miles (3,051 km), making it the 4th longest river in the United States and in North America by main stem. It originates in south-central Colorado , in the United States, and flows to the Gulf of Mexico . The Rio Grande drainage basin (watershed) has an area of 182,200 square miles (472,000 km ); however,

4508-501: Is peculiarly elaborate. Known as the Badlands , it is a minutely dissected form with a relief of a few hundred feet. This is due to several causes: The central section of the Great Plains, between latitudes 42° and 36° , occupying eastern Colorado and western Kansas , is mostly a dissected fluviatile plain. That is, this section was once smoothly covered with a gently sloping plain of gravel and sand that had been spread far forward on

4669-562: Is unavailable for storage, reducing system capacity by about 180,000 acre-feet. MRGCD has requested storage of "native water" downstream at Abiquiu Reservoir , which normally only stores waters imported into the Rio Grande watershed from the Colorado River watershed via the San Juan–Chama Project . Elephant Butte Reservoir , the main storage reservoir on the Rio Grande, was reported at 13.1% of capacity as of May 1, 2022, further decreasing to only 5.9% full by November 2021. Nearly

4830-455: Is used: the climatic and vegetation regions are more impactful on human settlement than mere topography, and therefore the region is split into (from north to south), the taiga plains, boreal plains , aspen parkland , and prairie ecoregion regions. The northern section of the Great Plains, north of latitude 44° , includes eastern Montana , eastern Wyoming , most of North Dakota and South Dakota , southwestern Minnesota and portions of

4991-550: The American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americus), Salt Creek Tiger Beetle (Cinidela nevadica lincolniana), Great Plains Giant Tiger Beetle (Amblycheila chylindriformis), Microstylum morosum , Bean leaf beetle (Cerotoma trifurcata), Great Plains Camel Cricket (Daihinia brevipes), and the Great plains spittlebug (Lepyronia gibbosa). Some species in the Great plains have gone extinct in

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5152-675: The Archaic Oshara tradition beginning around 5450 BCE. The Oshara began cultivation of maize between 1750 and 750 BCE, and their settlements became larger and more permanent. Drought induced the collapse of the Ancestral Puebloan culture, at Chaco Canyon and elsewhere across the Four Corners region, at around 1130 CE. This led to a mass migration of the Ancestral Puebloans to the Rio Grande and other more fertile valleys of

5313-580: The Arikara , Mandan , Pawnee , and Wichita . Wars with the Ojibwe and Cree peoples pushed the Lakota (Teton Sioux) west onto the Great Plains in the mid- to late-17th century. The Shoshone originated in the western Great Basin and spread north and east into present-day Idaho and Wyoming. By 1500, some Eastern Shoshone had crossed the Rocky Mountains into the Great Plains. After 1750, warfare and pressure from

5474-606: The Central United States and Western Canada , encompassing: The term "Great Plains" is used in the United States to describe a sub-section of the even more vast Interior Plains physiographic division, which covers much of the interior of North America. It also has currency as a region of human geography , referring to the Plains Indians or the Plains states . In Canada the term is rarely used; Natural Resources Canada ,

5635-519: The Cheyenne and Arapaho pressed south, drawn by Bent's Fort and the herds of feral horses on the southern Great Plains . They were equal to the Comanche in their skills as mounted warriors. Comanche numbers were also declining from epidemics of European diseases. Comanche interests dictated peace with the Mexicans so threats from other Indians and Anglo-Americans could be addressed. On several occasions in

5796-735: The Colorado River basin via the San Juan-Chama Diversion Project and from the Rio Chama . The Rio Grande then continues southwards, irrigating the farmlands in the Middle Rio Grande Valley through the desert cities of Albuquerque and Las Cruces in New Mexico, to El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua , in Mexico. In the Albuquerque metropolitan area , the Rio Grande flows by historic Pueblo villages, such as Sandia Pueblo and Isleta Pueblo . South of El Paso,

5957-684: The Commission for Environmental Cooperation , a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) agency composed of the geographical agencies of the Mexican, American, and Canadian governments, uses the "Great Plains" as an ecoregion synonymous with predominant prairies and grasslands rather than as physiographic region defined by topography. The Great Plains ecoregion includes five sub-regions: Temperate Prairies, West-Central Semi-Arid Prairies, South-Central Semi-Arid Prairies, Texas Louisiana Coastal Plains, and Tamaulipas-Texas Semi-Arid Plain, which overlap or expand upon other Great Plains designations. The region

6118-806: The Department of the Interior . In contrast, U.S. Forest Service , an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture , administers the National Forests and National Grasslands, under a multiple-use concept. By law, the U.S. Forest Service must consider all resources, with no single resource emphasized to the detriment of others, including water, soil, grazing, timber harvesting, and minerals (mining and drilling), as well as recreation and conservation of fish and wildlife. Each individual state also administers state lands, typically smaller areas, for various purposes including conservation and recreation. Grasslands are among

6279-962: The Great Plains toad ( Anaxyrus cognatus ), plains leopard frog ( Lithobates blairi ), and plains spadefoot toad ( Spea bombifrons ). Some species predominately associated with various river basins in the Great Plains include sturgeon chub ( Macrhybopsis gelida ), peppered chub ( Macrhybopsis tetranema ), prairie chub ( Macrhybopsis australis ), western silvery minnow ( Hybognathus argyritis ), plains minnow ( Hybognathus placitus ), smalleye shiner ( Notropis buccula ), Arkansas River shiner ( Notropis girardi ), Red River shiner ( Notropis bairdi ), Topeka shiner ( Notropis topeka ), plains topminnow ( Fundulus sciadicus ), plains killifish ( Fundulus zebrinus ), Red River pupfish ( Cyprinodon rubrofluviatilis ), and Arkansas darter ( Etheostoma cragini ). The great plains also has many invertebrate species living here both alive and extinct such as

6440-556: The International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), US–Mexico. The most notable of these treaties were signed in 1906 and 1944. The IBWC traces its institutional roots to 1889, when the International Boundary Committee was established to maintain the border. The IBWC today also allocates river waters between the two nations and provides for flood control and water sanitation. Use of that water belonging to

6601-576: The Ohio and Mississippi Rivers were requisitioned by the U.S. government and moved to the Rio Grande during the Mexican–American War in 1846. They provided transport for the U.S. Army, under General Zachary Taylor , to invade Monterrey , Nuevo León , via Camargo Municipality, Tamaulipas . Army engineers recommended that with small improvements, the river could easily be made navigable as far north as El Paso. Those recommendations were never acted upon. The Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge ,

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6762-575: The Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo at the confluence of the Rio Grande and the Río Chama . During the late 1830s and early 1840s, the river marked the disputed border between Mexico and the nascent Republic of Texas ; Mexico marked the border at the Nueces River . The disagreement provided part of the rationale for the Mexican–American War in 1846, after Texas had been admitted as a new state. Since 1848,

6923-572: The Pecos River and Devils River , both entering the Rio Grande from the north in the vicinity of Amistad Reservoir in Texas, and the Rio Salado and Rio San Juan both entering from the south with confluences in Tamaulipas , Mexico. The Rio Grande rises in high mountains and flows for much of its length at high elevation; the valley floor at Albuquerque is 5,312 feet (1,619 m), and El Paso 3,762 feet (1,147 m) above sea level . In New Mexico,

7084-539: The Plains Indians killed thousands of Comanches and their allies. The 1850s saw a drought that had a severe impact on buffalo herds – already under pressure from market hunting – in Comancheria. The Comanche's huge horse herds put further pressure on the environment of their homeland. Soon, the Comanche were eating their horses as food. The fast-growing population of Texas – 600,000 by 1860 – encroached on Comanche lands. The U.S. army established five frontier garrisons within

7245-580: The Pueblo and Navajo peoples also have had names for the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo: The four Pueblo names likely antedated the Spanish entrada by several centuries. Rio del Norte was most commonly used for the upper Rio Grande (roughly, within the present-day borders of New Mexico) from Spanish colonial times to the end of the Mexican period in the mid-19th century. This use was first documented by

7406-580: The Red River or one of its tributaries in Texas or Oklahoma to formulate plans and organize groups of raiders. Comanches came all the way from the Arkansas River in Colorado to join the raids. Among the raiders were Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache, and other Indians plus a few Mexicans and Anglos. In fall, small groups of Comanche rendezvoused at Big Spring and headed south along well-known trails, riding at night during

7567-515: The Rio Grande in Texas. In the early nineteenth century, perhaps 20,000 Comanche shared this land, called Comancheria , with 2,000 Kiowa and 300 Plains Apache (Kiowa Apache). They sometimes granted hunting rights to other tribes, such as the Wichita . The Comanche came to the attention of the Spanish in the province Santa Fe de Nuevo México ( New Mexico ) in 1706. Conflicts led to punitive expedition by Juan Bautista de Anza in 1779, resulting

7728-753: The Rio Grande Gorge , and fully reintegrated the San Luis Basin into the Rio Grande watershed. Archeological sites from the earliest human presence in the Rio Grande Valley are scarce, due to traditional Indigenous nomadic culture, Pleistocene and Holocene river incision or burial under the Holocene floodplain. However, some early sites are preserved on West Mesa on the west side of the Rio Grande near Albuquerque. These include Folsom sites, possibly dating from around 10,800 to 9,700 BCE, that were probably short-term sites such as buffalo kill sites. Preservation

7889-472: The US Navy . It was a shallow-draft river port, with several smaller vessels that hauled cargo to and from the deeper-draft cargo ships anchored off shore. These deeper-draft ships could not cross the shallow sandbar at the mouth of the river. The port's commerce was European military supplies, in exchange for bales of cotton. The sedimentary basins forming the modern Rio Grande Valley were not integrated into

8050-411: The endorheic basins that are adjacent to and within the greater drainage basin of the Rio Grande increase the total drainage-basin area to 336,000 square miles (870,000 km ). The Rio Grande with its fertile valley , along with its tributaries, is a vital water source for seven US and Mexican states, and flows primarily through arid and semi-arid lands. After traversing the length of New Mexico ,

8211-441: The southwestern willow flycatcher . The water of the Rio Grande is over-appropriated: that is, more users for the water exist than water in the river. Because of both drought and overuse, the section from Las Cruces downstream through Ojinaga frequently runs dry and was recently tagged "The Forgotten River" by those wishing to bring attention to the river's deteriorated condition. In 2022, due to increasing drought and water use,

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8372-548: The 1820s the Comanche attempted to obtain Mexican military assistance to repel the Indian invaders of their land, but their requests were denied. As they had often aided the Mexicans in the past to fight their mutual enemies, the Apache, the Mexican government's denial undermined the Comanches' commitment to peace with Mexico. However, as an inducement to peaceful relations, Mexican provincial governments made haste to strengthen trade ties with

8533-541: The 1830s with adroit diplomacy. Their strategy was flexible. With New Mexico, a Mexican province to their west, they enjoyed friendly trading relations. New Mexico was more of an asset than a threat to the Comanches and the New Mexicans avoided war with the Indians. In 1841 Governor Manuel Armijo was ordered by the Mexican central government to join a military campaign against the Comanche, but Armijo declined. "To declare war on

8694-544: The 1890s, the Rio Grande flowed through Las Cruces from February to October each year, but this is subject to climate change. In 2020, the river flowed only from March to September. As of January 2021, the Elephant Butte Irrigation District (Ebid) expected that water shortages would mean the river only flows through Las Cruces from June through July. The water shortages are affecting the local ecosystem and endangering species including cottonwood trees and

8855-502: The Americans and New Mexicans and in Mexico they captured livestock and people to trade. At the same time the bison population was decreasing due to over-hunting by both Indians and whites, and in times of scarcity the Comanche ate some of the horses in their vast herds. Taos , New Mexico was one trading center. Bent's Fort in Colorado was another. The Bents' bought captives to use as herders and laborers and they bought horses and mules from

9016-546: The Blackfoot, Crow, Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho pushed Eastern Shoshone south and westward. Some of them moved as far south as Texas, emerging as the Comanche by 1700. The first known contact between Europeans and Indians in the Great Plains occurred in what is now Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska from 1540 to 1542 with the arrival of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado , a Spanish conquistador. In that same period, Hernando de Soto crossed

9177-744: The Brownsville and Matamoros Bridge Company, a joint venture between the Mexican government and the Union Pacific Railroad . At the mouth of the Rio Grande, on the Mexican side, was the large commercial port of Bagdad, Tamaulipas . During the American Civil War , this was the only legitimate port of the Confederacy. European warships anchored offshore to maintain the port's neutrality, and managed to do so successfully throughout that conflict, despite occasional stare-downs with blockading ships from

9338-447: The Canadian provinces including southeastern Alberta , southern Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba . The strata here are Cretaceous or early Tertiary , lying nearly horizontal. The surface is shown to be a plain of degradation by a gradual ascent here and there to the crest of a ragged escarpment, the escarpment-remnant of a resistant stratum. There are also the occasional lava -capped mesas and dike formed ridges, surmounting

9499-409: The Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln . This definition, however, is primarily ecological, not physiographic. The Boreal Plains of Western Canada are physiographically the same, but differentiated by their tundra and forest (rather than grassland) appearance. The term "Great Plains", for the region west of about the 96th meridian west and east of the Rocky Mountains ,

9660-399: The Cheyenne and Arapaho. They were permitted to reside and hunt on the buffalo and horse-rich Comanche lands and, in addition, the affluent Comanches gave them gifts, including as many as six horses to every Cheyenne and Arapaho man. The Comanche welcome to the southern bands of these two tribes, numbering more than 2,500, was both an acknowledgment that they were formidable rivals and also that

9821-550: The Civil War the Comanche were overwhelmed and the last of them, now reduced to about 1,500 people, surrendered to the U.S. army in 1875. Their long-term raiding partners, the Kiowa and Kiowa-Apache, also surrendered. Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( / ˌ r iː oʊ ˈ ɡ r æ n d / or / ˌ r iː oʊ ˈ ɡ r ɑː n d eɪ / ) in the United States or the Río Bravo ( del Norte ) in Mexico ( Spanish pronunciation: [ˈri.o ˈβɾaβo ðel ˈnoɾte] ), also known as P’osoge in Tewa and Tó Ba’áadi in Navajo ,

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9982-428: The Comanche and was embroiled in domestic political disputes rather than paying attention to troubles on its northern frontier. The Comanche, for their part, in the 1820s and 1830s were under intense pressure from competitors. The Osage were formidable enemies. The expulsion by the U.S. and the migration west to Oklahoma by the Five civilized tribes , the Shawnee , and the Delaware brought them into competition with

10143-460: The Comanche could not steal, they killed. The Comanche, on their part, suffered heavy casualties because they often seemed to seek out a fight rather than just raiding. 702 Comanche dead are known and 32 were taken prisoner. Comanches would also suffer from diseases brought back by Mexican captives. The bloodiest raiding year was July 1845 – June 1846 when 652 Mexicans and 48 Comanches were recorded as killed. The Comanches had turned northern Mexico into

10304-451: The Comanche for six dollars a head—and marketed them in Missouri for 60 dollars a head. Comanche raids before 1840 had generally penetrated only a short distance south of the Rio Grande and had usually resulted in only a few deaths and the theft of a few thousand livestock. The threat, however, from the Comanche was serious enough in 1826 in northern Nuevo León , that the Governor issued orders that no one should venture out of villages into

10465-407: The Comanche had to deal with the new Republic of Texas. Texas's first President, Sam Houston , was knowledgeable about Indians and favored a policy of accommodation with the Comanche. Continued Comanche raids led to the election in 1838 of Mirabeau B. Lamar who favored a more aggressive approach. The massacre of 35 Comanche chiefs attending a peace conference in San Antonio in March 1840 set off

10626-428: The Comanche in the early 1830s. An important factor encouraging Comanche raids of Mexican ranches was the huge demand for horses and mules by the Anglo-Americans now flooding into lands west of the Mississippi River . The Comanches could meet that demand by breeding and selling horses from their herds, capturing and training wild horses from the herds in Comancheria, or raiding Mexican ranches and taking horses. The last

10787-404: The Comanche killed more than 2,600 Mexicans, captured more than 800 people, and stole more than 100,000 head of livestock. The Mexican defenders killed more than 700 Comanches. When the US Army invaded northern Mexico in 1846 during the Mexican–American War , the region was devastated. After the mid-1850s Comanche raids into Mexico declined in size and intensity. Comanche power diminished due to

10948-416: The Comanche on the Great Plains . The Comanche lost several battles with the Osage and the eastern Indian tribes who were generally better armed. Anglo-Americans arrived on the heels of the eastern Indians. Traders journeyed in increasing numbers along the Santa Fe Trail across the northern border of Comancheria and Anglo hunters depleted the buffalo herds in that vicinity. Northern Plains Indians such as

11109-405: The Comanche used Texas as a sanctuary free from the risk of Mexican retaliation. Other Indian peoples aiding in the Mexican defense against the Comanche were transplanted Tlaxcalans , who had allied with the Spanish to defeat the Aztecs and had long been allies of the Spanish in settling frontier regions, the Alazapa, Tarascans , and Otomis . In 1841, a Mexican soldier, veteran of wars with

11270-423: The Comanche was their determination to recover the bodies of their fallen warriors. They took extreme risks and suffered additional casualties as a result. Moreover, they often seemed careless and were sometimes caught unawares by large contingents of Mexican soldiers. At the end of their yearly raids, usually in the late winter or spring, the Comanche drove their captured livestock back to Texas. They sold or traded

11431-428: The Comanche were "the most powerful nation of savages on this continent." That power would be amply demonstrated as the United States and the newly independent country of Mexico contested ownership of Texas and much of the area now known as the southwestern U.S. The Comanche considered themselves owners of a 500-by-400-mile (800 by 640 km) block of land that stretched from the Arkansas River in Colorado to near

11592-494: The Comanche were among the first to commit to a fully mounted nomadic lifestyle. This occurred by the 1730s, when they had acquired enough horses to put all their people on horseback. The real beginning of the horse culture of the plains began with the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 in New Mexico and the capture of thousands of horses and other livestock. In 1683 a Spanish expedition into Texas found horses among Native people. In 1690,

11753-509: The Comanche were short on men and resources to maintain their control over Comancheria. South and southeast of Comancheria were the fast-growing Anglo-American communities in the Mexican territory of Texas. In the 1820s and 1830s most Comanche raids were in the southern parts of Texas and affected the largely Hispanic population around San Antonio , Laredo and Goliad . After the Texas Revolution asserting independence from Mexico in 1836,

11914-465: The Comanche, stated to Fanny Calderón de la Barca "his firm conviction we should see [the Comanche] on the streets of Mexico [City] one of these days." The Legislature of Chihuahua described the situation it faced in 1846. "We travel the roads…at their [i.e., the Comanches and Apaches] whim; we cultivate the land where they wish and in the amount they wish; we use sparingly things they have left to us until

12075-547: The Comanches would bring complete ruin to the Department of New Mexico." In 1844, New Mexican officials learned of but did nothing to prevent a Comanche raid on Chihuahua. With their western flank secured by an unthreatening New Mexico, the Comanche dealt with rivals on their northern and eastern borders. In 1835, they met with a delegation of U.S. soldiers and eastern Indians in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma and concluded

12236-454: The Federal government of Mexico, embroiled in political disputes, gave little assistance to its northern states and their citizens to fend off the Comanche. Poorly-armed militia, organized by state and local governments and large ranchers, and hired scalp-hunters—often Anglo-Americans or other Indians—opposed the Comanche raids. Durango in 1847 adopted a bounty system, paying 50 pesos for the head of

12397-551: The Great Plains and into the valleys and lower elevations of the eastern Rocky Mountains and portions of the American southwest . Other snakes include the plains hog-nosed snake ( Heterodon nasicus ), western milksnake ( Lampropeltis gentilis ), great plains ratsnake ( Pantherophis emoryi ), bullsnake ( Pituophis catenifer sayi ), plains black-headed snake ( Tantilla nigriceps ), plains gartersnake ( Thamnophis radix ), and lined snake ( Tropidoclonion lineatum ). Reptile diversity increases significantly in southern regions of

12558-560: The Great Plains and that included trade networks west to the Rocky Mountains. Mississippians settled the Great Plains at sites now in Oklahoma and South Dakota . Siouan language speakers may have originated in the lower Mississippi River region. They were agriculturalists and may have been part of the Mound Builder civilization during the 9th–12th centuries. Pressure from other Indian tribes, themselves driven west and south by

12719-568: The Great Plains include National Parks and National Monuments, administers by the National Park Service with the responsibility of preserving ecological and historical places and making them available to the public. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service manages the National Wildlife Refuges, with the primary responsibility of conserving and protecting fish, wildlife, plants, and habitat in the public trust. Both are agencies of

12880-476: The Great Plains include the swift fox ( Vulpes velox ) and the endangered black-footed ferret ( Mustela nigripes ). The lesser prairie chicken ( Tympanuchus pallidicinctus ) is endemic to the Great Plains and the distribution of the greater prairie chicken ( Tympanuchus cupido ) predominantly occurs in the region, although the latter historically ranged further eastward. The Harris's sparrow ( Zonotrichia querula ) spends winter months in southern areas of

13041-506: The Great Plains is the most tornado active area in the world and is sometimes referred to as Tornado Alley . The Great Plains are part of the floristic North American Prairies province , which extends from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians . Although the American bison ( Bison bison ) historically ranged throughout much of North America (from New York to Oregon and Canada to northern Mexico), they are strongly associated with

13202-751: The Great Plains where they once roamed in immense herds. Pronghorn ( Antilocapra americana ) range into western areas of the region. The black-tailed prairie dog ( Cynomys ludovicianus ) is another iconic species among several rodents that are linked to the region including the thirteen-lined ground squirrel ( Ictidomys tridecemlineatus ), spotted ground squirrel ( Xerospermophilus spilosoma ), Franklin's ground squirrel ( Poliocitellus franklinii ), plains pocket gopher ( Geomys bursarius ), hispid pocket mouse ( Chaetodipus hispidus ), olive-backed pocket mouse ( Perognathus fasciatus ), plains pocket mouse ( Perognathus flavescens ), and plains harvest mouse ( Reithrodontomys montanus ), Two carnivores associated with

13363-481: The Great Plains. The ornate box turtle ( Terrapene ornata ) and great plains skink ( Plestiodon obsoletus ) occur in southern areas. Although few salamanders are strongly associated with region, the western tiger salamander ( Ambystoma mavortium ) ranges through much of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, as does the Rocky Mountain toad ( Anaxyrus w. woodhousi ). Other anurans related to region include

13524-497: The High Plains) is periodically subjected to extended periods of drought ; high winds in the region may then generate devastating dust storms . The eastern Great Plains near the eastern boundary falls in the humid subtropical climate zone in the southern areas, and the northern and central areas fall in the humid continental climate . Many thunderstorms occur in the plains in the spring through summer. The southeastern portion of

13685-576: The Mexican defenders. In 1848, the government of Mexico turned its attention to the Indian raids, allocated more money, and stationed more soldiers in the impacted northern states. To bolster defenses, Mexico granted land to bands of North American Indian tribes such as the Seminole (originally from Florida) and Kickapoo (originally from the Great Lakes region of the United States), plus "free Negroes" ( African-Americans ) who were runaway slaves living among

13846-408: The Mexican people on invading northern Mexico, 1846 Also, in 1847, traveler Josiah Gregg said that "the whole country from New Mexico to the borders of Durango is almost entirely depopulated. The haciendas and ranchos have been mostly abandoned, and the people chiefly confined to the towns and cities." When American troops invaded northern Mexico in 1846 and 1847 they found a devastated landscape and

14007-595: The Palomas basin by 3.1 million years ago, forming Lake Palomas . River capture by a tributary of the Pecos River then occurred, with the Rio Grande flowing to Texas by 2.06 million years, and finally joining the Pecos River 800,000 years ago, which drained into the Gulf of Mexico. Volcanism in the Taos Plateau reduced drainage from the San Luis Basin until a spillover event 440,000 years ago that drained Lake Alamosa , forming

14168-630: The Red, Brazos, and Colorado rivers of Texas and presents a ragged escarpment approximately 500 to 800 ft (150 to 240 m) high, overlooking the central denuded area of that state. There, between the Brazos and Colorado rivers, occurs a series of isolated outliers capped by limestone that underlies both the Llano Uplift on the west and the Grand Prairies escarpment on the east. The southern and narrow part of

14329-472: The Rio Grande becomes the Mexico–United States border , between the U.S. state of Texas and the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila , Nuevo León and Tamaulipas ; a short segment of the Rio Grande is a partial state-boundary between the U.S. states of New Mexico and Texas. Since the mid–twentieth century, only 20 percent of the Rio Grande's water reaches the Gulf of Mexico, because of

14490-463: The Rio Grande by discharge is the Rio Conchos, which contributes almost twice as much water as any other. In terms of drainage basin size, the Pecos River is the largest. Great Plains The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flatland in North America . The region is located just to the east of the Rocky Mountains , much of it covered in prairie , steppe , and grassland . They are

14651-431: The Rio Grande farther north in Colorado and near Albuquerque, the 1938 Rio Grande Compact developed primarily because of the necessary repeal of the Rio Grande embargo among other issues. Though both Colorado and New Mexico were initially eager to begin negotiations, they broke down over whether Texas should be allowed to join negotiations in 1928, though it had representatives present. In an effort to avoid litigation of

14812-401: The Rio Grande has marked the boundary between Mexico and the United States from the twin cities of El Paso , Texas, and Ciudad Juárez , Chihuahua, to the Gulf of Mexico. As such, crossing the river was the escape route used by some Texan slaves to seek freedom. Mexico had liberal colonization policies and had abolished slavery in 1828. In 1899, after a gradual change to the river position,

14973-493: The Rio Grande is the national border between the U.S. and Mexico. The segment of the river that forms the international border ranges from 889 to 1,248 miles (1,431 to 2,008 km), depending on how the river is measured. The Rio Conchos is a major tributary of the Rio Grande, with its confluence 310 km. (193 straight air miles) southeast of El Paso near Ojinaga , in Chihuahua , Mexico. Downstream, other tributaries include

15134-530: The Rio Grande's discharge increases to its maximum annual average of 3,504 cubic feet per second (99 m /s) near Rio Grande City. Large diversions for irrigation below Rio Grande City reduce the river's average flow to 889 cubic feet per second (25 m /s) at Brownsville and Matamoros. The major international border crossings along the river are at Ciudad Juárez and El Paso ; Presidio and Ojinaga; Laredo and Nuevo Laredo ; McAllen and Reynosa ; and Brownsville and Matamoros. Other notable border towns are

15295-503: The Seminoles. In 1850, more than 700 of the Seminole, Kickapoo, and African-Americans agreed to assist in the defense against Comanche raiders in exchange for land to settle in the Mexican state of Coahuila . The Kickapoo launched a few raids into Texas, part of the United States since 1845, to steal livestock. The Kickapoo used Mexico as a sanctuary without risk of American retaliation, just as

15456-702: The Southwest, competing with other indigenous communities such as the Apache with territory in the Rio Grande Valley. This led to decades of conflict (the Coalition Period), the eventual merging of cultures, and the establishment of most of the Tanoan and Keresan pueblos of the Rio Grande Valley. This was followed by the Classic Period, from about 1325 CE to 1600 CE and the arrival of the Spanish. The upper Rio Grande Valley

15617-477: The Spanish in 1582. Early American settlers in South Texas began to use the modern 'English' name Rio Grande. By the late 19th century, in the United States, the name Rio Grande had become standard in being applied to the entire river, from Colorado to the sea. By 1602, Río Bravo had become the standard Spanish name for the lower river, below its confluence with the Rio Conchos. The largest tributary of

15778-601: The Texas/Coahuila pairings of Del Rio – Ciudad Acuña and Eagle Pass – Piedras Negras . Río Grande is Spanish for "Big River" and Río Grande del Norte means "Big River of the North". In English, Rio Grande is pronounced either / ˈ r iː oʊ ˈ ɡ r æ n d / or / ˈ r iː oʊ ˈ ɡ r ɑː n d eɪ / . In Mexico, it is known as Río Bravo or Río Bravo del Norte , bravo meaning (among other things) "furious", "agitated" or "wild". Historically,

15939-466: The U.S. and Mexico was built about 15 miles west of the Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge. It was inaugurated in August 2015. It moved all rail operations out of downtown Brownsville and Matamoros. The West Rail International Crossing is the first new international rail crossing between the U.S. and Mexico in over a century. The Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge is now operated by

16100-545: The U.S. had little more success in curtailing Comanche and Apache raids than Mexico had. If anything the tempo of the raids increased in the 1850s. In 1852, in perhaps the most far-ranging of all the raids, the Comanche reached the Mexican state of Jalisco in the tropics near the Pacific Ocean , 600 miles (970 km) from their usual crossing point of the Rio Grande, near Presidio, Texas , and nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from their Great Plains homeland. The obligation of

16261-420: The U.S. to counter the raids was abrogated by mutual assent in 1853. By 1856, authorities in horse-rich Durango would claim that Indian raids, mostly Comanche, in their state had taken nearly 6,000 lives, abducted 748 people, and forced the abandonment of 358 settlements over the previous 20 years. The Comanche reached the peak of their power in the late 1840s and declined quickly. In 1849 a cholera epidemic among

16422-567: The United States is regulated by the Rio Grande Compact , an interstate pact between Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. 62,780 acre-feet (77,440,000 m ) of water from the upper Colorado River basin per year is allotted to municipalities in New Mexico by the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact ; Albuquerque owns 48,200. The water is delivered to the Rio Grande via the San Juan–Chama Project . The project's construction

16583-461: The agreements with the United States and neighboring tribes and a hiatus in the struggle with Texas accomplished was to free up the Comanche to make unrestrained war on the Mexican provinces south of the Rio Grande. As the 1830s demonstrated, the Texans, the United States, and neighboring tribes all had the ability to invade Comancheria and attack the Comanche homeland. Mexico, by contrast, was rich in horses and unable to counterattack due to distance and

16744-475: The agricultural interests of the Mesilla Valley and those of El Paso and Juárez . In the agreement provisions were made to construct Elephant Butte dam on public lands. This act was the first occurrence of congressionally directed allocation of an interstate river (although New Mexico would not achieve statehood till 1912). Following the admittance of New Mexico into the union, the increased settlement of

16905-703: The area of the ancient Great Plains for thousands to millions of years. The vast majority of these animals became extinct in North America at the end of the Pleistocene (around 13,000 years ago). A number of significant fossil sites are located in the Great Plains including Agate Fossil Beds National Monument ( Nebraska ), Ashfall Fossil Beds ( Nebraska ), Clayton Lake State Park ( New Mexico ), Dinosaur Valley State Park ( Texas ), Hudson-Meng Bison Kill (Nebraska), Makoshika State Park (Montana), and The Mammoth Site ( South Dakota ). Public and protected lands in

17066-460: The borders of Comancheria, inhibiting their mobility and reducing their range. By the end of the 1850s the Comanche population had been reduced by about one-half what it had been before 1849. During the American Civil War (1861–1865) the Comanche would push back the Texas frontier and reclaim some of their territory. The last Comanche raid into Mexico may have been in 1870 when the Comanche reportedly killed 30 persons near Lampazos, Nuevo Leon . After

17227-425: The captives were ransomed. The treatment of slaves was sometimes brutal, but the Comanches integrated thousands of Mexicans, Anglos, and members of other Indian tribes into their society. They needed the workers as their population was decimated every few years by epidemics of smallpox and other diseases of European origin. Many of the slaves and other people adopted into the tribe became culturally Comanche, albeit with

17388-464: The central section, it is for the most part a dissected fluviatile plain. However, the lower lands which surround it on all sides place it in such strong relief that it stands up as a table-land, known from the time of Mexican occupation as the Llano Estacado . It measures roughly 150 mi (240 km) east-west and 400 mi (640 km) north-south. It is of very irregular outline, narrowing to

17549-593: The completion of San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project (SJCDWP) by the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority. The SJCDWP uses an adjustable-height diversion dam to skim imported San Juan-Chama water from the Rio Grande, then pumps this water to a treatment plant on Albuquerque's north side. From there it is added to a municipal drinking water distribution system serving Albuquerque's metro area. Diversions are restricted during periods of low river flow in order to protect

17710-412: The countryside except in groups of at least thirty armed men. In the 1840s, Comanche raids became larger, more deadly, and penetrated deeply into Mexico. In September 1840 and continuing until March 1841 came the first of the great raids. During this period six Comanche armies each numbering between two hundred and eight hundred warriors invaded northern Mexico. The most far reaching of these raids reached

17871-526: The encroachment of European settlers as well as economic incentives such as the fur trade, alongside the arrival of the horse and firearms from Europe pushed multiple tribes onto the Great Plains. Among those to have lived on the Great Plains were the Blackfoot , Crow , Sioux , Cheyenne , Arapaho , Comanche , and others. Eastern portions of the Great Plains were inhabited by tribes who lived at Etzanoa and in semi-permanent villages of earth lodges, such as

18032-665: The end of the Mexican–American War in 1848, but the Comanche faced a new situation as the U.S. took over the future states of California, Arizona, and New Mexico. One of the few benefits Mexico derived under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo , that ended the war, was a pledge from the United States that it would police the border to prevent Indian invasions of Mexico. Further, the U.S. would outlaw all trade in goods and property looted from Mexicans by Indian raiders and promised to return Mexican captives to Mexico. Despite enormous expenditure,

18193-411: The fact that, after 1836, any Mexican military offensive against the Comanches would have to enter Texas and Mexico had a hostile relationship with its former colony. In attacking Mexico, the Comanche were motivated by opportunity and economics. The Comanches found it profitable to establish trade relationships with the United States and the Mexican state of New Mexico. They needed guns and other goods from

18354-469: The findings of which helped lead to the final agreement. The 1938 Rio Grande Compact provided for the creation of a compact commission, the creation of gaging stations along the river to ensure flow amounts by Colorado to New Mexico at the state line and by New Mexico to Elephant Butte Reservoir , the water once there would fall under the regulation of the Rio Grande Project which would guarantee provision to Texas and Mexico. A system of debits and credits

18515-400: The frontier been unvisited, and every where the people have been killed or captured. The roads are impassible, all traffik is stopped, the ranchos barricaded, and the inhabitants afraid to venture out of their doors. — George Ruxton , 1846 The Comanche conducted their raids in Mexico with no risk of retaliation by Mexico in their home territory north of the Rio Grande in Texas. Moreover,

18676-502: The full moon. A full moon in the fall was called a "Comanche Moon" by Texans. They crossed the Rio Grande either east or west of the Big Bend and met up and united in the Bolson de Mapimi , a large empty desert and range region. The Bolson offered good grazing, abundant springs, and mild winter temperatures. Many Comanche men brought their families south with them and resided for a winter there in

18837-433: The general level by 500 ft (150 m) or more and manifestly demonstrating the widespread erosion of the surrounding plains. All these reliefs are more plentiful towards the mountains in central Montana. The peneplain is no longer in the cycle of erosion that witnessed its production. It appears to have suffered a regional uplift or increase in elevation, for the upper Missouri River and its branches no longer flow on

18998-631: The government department responsible for official mapping, treats the Interior Plains as one unit consisting of several related plateaus and plains. There is no region referred to as the "Great Plains" in the Atlas of Canada . In terms of human geography, the term prairie is more commonly used in Canada, and the region is known as the Canadian Prairies , prairie provinces or simply "the prairies". The North American Environmental Atlas , produced by

19159-721: The great plains like the Rocky Mountain Locust (Melanoplus spretus). During the Cretaceous Period (145–66 million years ago), the Great Plains were covered by a shallow inland sea called the Western Interior Seaway . However, during the Late Cretaceous to the Paleocene (65–55 million years ago), the seaway had begun to recede, leaving behind thick marine deposits and a relatively flat terrain which

19320-435: The horses and mules at several American trading posts as far north as Bent's Fort in Colorado. They needed the captives, mostly women and children, as laborers. The boys were put to work taking care of their horse herds. The girls assisted in household chores, including preparing buffalo skins for sale as robes. The boys often grew up to be Comanche warriors and the girls often became one of several wives of Comanche men. A few of

19481-501: The largest group. They rise like a large island from the sea, occupying an oval area of about 100 mi (160 km) north-south by 50 mi (80 km) east-west. At Black Elk Peak , they reach an altitude of 7,216 ft (2,199 m) and have an effective relief over the plains of 2,000 or 3,000 ft (610 or 910 m) This mountain mass is of flat-arched, dome-like structure, now well dissected by radiating consequent streams. The weaker uppermost strata have been eroded down to

19642-533: The least amount of control over the waterway, has routinely seen an under-provision of water since 1992. In 1997, the US designated the Rio Grande as one of the American Heritage Rivers . Two portions of the Rio Grande are designated National Wild and Scenic Rivers System , one in northern New Mexico and the other in Texas, at Big Bend National Park . In mid-2001, a 328-foot (100 m)-wide sandbar formed at

19803-468: The least protected biomes. Humans have converted much of the prairies for agricultural purposes or to create pastures. Several of the protected lands in the region are centered around aberrant and uncharacteristic features of the region, such as mountains, outcrops, and canyons (e.g. Devil's Tower National Monument , Wind Cave National Park , Scotts Bluff National Monument ), and as splendid and worthy as they are, they are not primarily focused on conserving

19964-426: The level of the plains where their upturned edges are evenly truncated. The next following harder strata have been sufficiently eroded to disclose the core of underlying igneous and metamorphic crystalline rocks in about half of the domed area. In the intermediate section of the plains, between latitudes 44° and 42° , including southern South Dakota and northern Nebraska , the erosion of certain large districts

20125-478: The line that divides the Great Plains into an area that receives 20 in (510 mm) or more of rainfall per year and an area that receives less than 20 in (510 mm). In this context, the High Plains, as well as Southern Alberta , south-western Saskatchewan and Eastern Montana are mainly semi arid steppe land and are generally characterised by rangeland or marginal farmland . The region (especially

20286-674: The matter in the Supreme Court a provisional agreement was signed in 1929 which stated that negotiations would resume once a reservoir was built on the New Mexico-Colorado state line. The construction of this was delayed by the Market Crash of 1929 . With negotiations remaining stagnant, Texas sued New Mexico over the issue in 1935, prompting the intervention of the president who set up the Rio Grande Joint Investigation

20447-431: The moment that it strikes their appetite to take them for themselves." In 1847, 200 Comanches were bold enough to parade through the city of Durango and depart unchallenged. It is our wish to see you liberated from despots, to drive back the savage Comanches, to prevent the renewal of their assaults, and to compel them to restore to you from captivity your long lost wives and children. —U.S. General Zachary Taylor to

20608-739: The more common "prairie". The Great Plains are the westernmost portion of the vast North American Interior Plains , which extend east to the Appalachian Plateau . The United States Geological Survey divides the Great Plains in the United States into ten physiographic subdivisions: Further to this can be added Canadian physiographic sub-regions such as the Alberta Plain, Cypress Hills , Manitoba Escarpment (eastward), Manitoba Plain, Missouri Coteau (shared), Rocky Mountain Foothills (eastward), and Saskatchewan Plain. The Great Plains consist of

20769-442: The mountains, the local relief is generally small. The semi-arid climate excludes tree growth and opens far-reaching views. The plains are by no means a simple unit. They are of diverse structure and of various stages of erosional development. They are occasionally interrupted by buttes and escarpments . They are frequently broken by valleys. Yet on the whole, a broadly extended surface of moderate relief so often prevails that

20930-405: The mouth of the river, marking the first time in recorded history that the Rio Grande failed to empty into the Gulf of Mexico. The sandbar was dredged , but reformed almost immediately. Spring rains the following year flushed the reformed sandbar out to sea, but it returned in mid-2002. By late 2003, the river once again reached the Gulf. For much of the time since water rights were introduced in

21091-436: The name, Great Plains, for the region as a whole is well-deserved. The western boundary of the plains is usually well-defined by the abrupt ascent of the mountains. The eastern boundary of the plains (in the United States) is more climatic than topographic . The line of 20 in (510 mm) of annual rainfall trends a little east of northward near the 97th meridian. If a boundary must be drawn where nature presents only

21252-401: The natural decrease in flow such that by the time the river reaches Presidio , little or no water is left. Below Presidio, the Rio Conchos restores the flow of water. Near Presidio, the river's discharge is frequently zero. Its average discharge is 178 cubic feet per second (5 m /s), down from 945 cubic feet per second (27 m /s) at Elephant Butte Dam. Supplemented by other tributaries,

21413-418: The next three years, but resumed even more intensely between 1844 and 1848—after the Comanches had made peace with Texas. They [the Comanche] are now overrunning the whole departments of Durango and Chihuahua, have cut off all communication, and defeated...the regular troops sent against them. Upwards of ten thousand head of horses and mules have already been carried off, and scarcely has a hacienda or rancho on

21574-434: The plains and prairies. United States: Canada: the Great Plains biome is found to be at the brink of collapse due to woody plant encroachment , with 62% of Northern American grassland lost to date. The first Peoples ( Paleo-Indians ) arrived on the Great Plains thousands of years ago. The introduction of corn around 800 CE allowed the development of the mound-building Mississippian culture along rivers that crossed

21735-409: The region of San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas 400 miles south of the Big Bend , their most common crossing point into Mexico. 472 Mexicans were reported killed and more than 100 captives were taken from these six raids. Many others were left homeless, their livelihoods destroyed, their livestock stolen or killed. So much wealth did the Comanches obtain that the number of raids dropped off slightly for

21896-475: The region. Although the river's greatest depth is 60 feet (18 m), the Rio Grande generally cannot be navigated by passenger riverboats or by cargo barges . Navigation is only possible near the mouth of the river, in rare circumstances up to Laredo, Texas . Navigation was active during much of the 19th century, with over 200 different steamboats operating between the river's mouth close to Brownsville and Rio Grande City, Texas . Many steamboats from

22057-647: The region. Other species migrate from the south in the spring and spend their breeding season on the plains, including the white-faced ibis ( Plegadis chihi ), mountain plover ( Charadrius montanus ), marbled godwit ( Limosa fedoa ), Sprague's pipit ( Anthus spragueii ), Cassin's sparrow ( Peucaea cassinii ), Baird's sparrow ( Centronyx bairdii ), lark bunting ( Calamospiza melanocorys ), chestnut-collared longspur ( Calcarius ornatus ), thick-billed longspur or McCown's longspur ( Rhynchophanes mccownii ), and dickcissel ( Spiza americana ). The prairie rattlesnake ( Crotalus viridis ) ranges throughout much of

22218-492: The riparian ecosystem and mitigate effects on endangered species like the Rio Grande silvery minnow . Treated effluent water is recycled into the Rio Grande south of the city. Surface water from the SJCDWP comprises a significant percentage of Albuquerque's drinking water supply, with groundwater constituting the remainder; annual percentages vary according to runoff and climate conditions. Acquisition of native pre-1907 water rights

22379-418: The river flows through the Rio Grande rift from one sediment -filled basin to another, cutting canyons between the basins and supporting a fragile bosque ecosystem on its flood plain . From Albuquerque southward, the river flows through desert. Although irrigated agriculture exists throughout most of its stretch, it is particularly extensive in the subtropical Lower Rio Grande Valley . The river ends in

22540-474: The river from a better graded preglacial valley by the Pleistocene ice sheet . Here, the ice sheet overspread the plains from the moderately elevated Canadian highlands far on the north-east, instead of from the much higher mountains nearby on the west. The present altitude of the plains near the mountain base is 4,000 ft (1,200 m). The northern plains are interrupted by several small mountain areas. The Black Hills, chiefly in western South Dakota, are

22701-463: The river in spring of 2023 and flooding of some of its tributaries, including the Jemez and Pecos Rivers . By that summer, after the spring runoff had concluded and due to a failed New Mexico monsoon season and record high temperatures, the river went dry in Albuquerque for a second consecutive year. The United States and Mexico share the water of the river under a series of agreements administered by

22862-458: The safety of its vastness. From the Bolson, the Comanche branched out in all directions in small and large groups, expanding their range to raid into tropical Mexico as far south as Jalisco and Querétaro . Each warrior took three or four horses with him, saving his favorite for battle. Women and children commonly traveled with the men and were prepared to defend themselves if necessary. A weakness of

23023-555: The seaway had once occupied. During the Cenozoic era , specifically about 25 million years ago during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, the continental climate became favorable to the evolution of grasslands. Existing forest biomes declined and grasslands became much more widespread. The grasslands provided a new niche for mammals, including many ungulates and glires , that switched from browsing diets to grazing diets. Traditionally,

23184-405: The south. Its altitude is 5,500 ft (1,700 m) at the highest western point, nearest the mountains whence its gravels were supplied. From there, it slopes southeastward at a decreasing rate, first about 12 ft (3.7 m), then about 7 ft/mi (1.3 m/km), to its eastern and southern borders, where it is 2,000 ft (610 m) in altitude. Like the High Plains farther north, it

23345-459: The southern section owes its smoothness to the deposition of imported gravels and sands upon a previously uneven surface by the action of aggrading rivers and their outgoing distributaries. The two sections are also alike in that residual eminences still here and there surmount the peneplain of the northern section, while the fluviatile plain of the central section completely buried the pre-existent relief. An exception to this statement must be made for

23506-416: The southwest, close to the mountains in southern Colorado, where some lava-capped mesas ( Mesa de Maya , Raton Mesa ) stand several thousand feet above the general plain level, and thus testify to the widespread erosion of this region before it was aggraded. The southern section of the Great Plains, between latitudes 35.5° and 25.5°, lies in western Texas , eastern New Mexico , and western Oklahoma . Like

23667-588: The spread of grasslands and the development of grazers have been strongly linked. However, an examination of mammalian teeth suggests that it is the open, gritty habitat and not the grass itself which is linked to diet changes in mammals, giving rise to the " grit, not grass " hypothesis. Paleontological finds in the area have yielded bones of mammoths , saber-toothed cats and other ancient animals, as well as dozens of other megafauna (large animals over 100 lb [45 kg]) – such as giant sloths , horses , mastodons , and American lion – that dominated

23828-454: The state of Nuevo Leon militia forces to combat the Indians totaled more than 1,000 men. In 1852, an even larger force of 2,000 cavalry was assembled in Nuevo Leon and confronted the Comanche in ten engagements which, while not very successful in killing or capturing Comanche, disrupted the raiders. Periodic epidemics of smallpox and cholera which killed many Comanche also thinned the numbers of

23989-416: The states of New Mexico and Texas based on their respective amount of irrigable land. The project also accorded 60,000 acre-feet (74 million cubic meters ) of water annually to Mexico in response to the country's demands. This was meant to put an end to the many years of disagreement concerning rights to the river's flow and the construction of a dam and reservoir at various location on the river between

24150-530: The subdued forms of the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma , the westernmost member of the Ouachita system. The term "Western Plains" is used to describe the ecoregion of the Great Plains, or alternatively the western portion of the Great Plains. In general, the Great Plains have a wide range of weather, with very cold and harsh winters and very hot and humid summers. Wind speeds are often very high, especially in winter. The 100th meridian roughly corresponds with

24311-459: The surface of the plain, but in well graded, maturely opened valleys, several hundred feet below the general level. A significant exception to the rule of mature valleys occurs, however, in the case of the Missouri, the largest river, which is broken by several falls on hard sandstones about 50 mi (80 km) east of the mountains. This peculiar feature is explained as the result of displacement of

24472-572: The table-land, called the Edwards Plateau , is more dissected than the rest, and falls off to the south in a frayed-out fault scarp. This scarp overlooks the coastal plain of the Rio Grande embayment . The central denuded area, east of the Llano, resembles the east-central section of the plains in exposing older rocks. Between these two similar areas, in the space limited by the Canadian and Red Rivers, rise

24633-516: The voluminous consumption of water required to irrigate farmland (e.g. the Mesilla and Lower Rio Grande Valleys ) and to continually hydrate cities (e.g. Albuquerque); such water usages are additional to the reservoirs of water retained with diversion dams . 260 miles (418 km) of the river in New Mexico and Texas are designated as the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River . The Rio Grande rises in

24794-548: The water debt owed to Texas increased from 31,000 acre-feet to over 130,000 acre-feet since 2021, despite "very significant efforts that were done on the river this year to keep water flowing downstream." In response, New Mexico increased its program offering to subsidize farmers who fallow their fields rather than planting crops, which uses additional water; the city of Albuquerque shut off its domestic supply diversion and switched to full groundwater pumping in 2021. Additionally, in 2022, work began on El Vado Dam , during which it

24955-769: The western part of Rio Grande National Forest , in the U.S. state of Colorado , and is formed by the joining of several streams at the base of Canby Mountain , in the San Juan Mountains , due east of the Continental Divide of the Americas . From the Continental Divide, the Rio Grande flows through the San Luis Valley , then south into New Mexico , and passes through the Rio Grande Gorge , near Taos, then toward Española , afterwards collecting additional waters from

25116-576: The western part of the Interior Plains , which include the mixed grass prairie , the tallgrass prairie between the Great Lakes and Appalachian Plateau , and the Taiga Plains and Boreal Plains ecozones in Northern Canada . "Great Plains", or Western Plains , is also the ecoregion of the Great Plains or alternatively the western portion of the Great Plains. The Great Plains lie across both

25277-406: Was characterized by occasional periods of extreme drought, and the human inhabitants make extensive use of gridded gardens and check dams to stretch the uncertain water supply. In 1519, a Spanish naval expedition along the northeastern coast of Mexico charted the mouths of several rivers including the Rio Grande. In 1536, the Rio Grande appeared for the first time on a map of New Spain produced by

25438-412: Was created to account for variations in the water provided. The compact remains in effect today, though it has been amended twice. In 1944, the US and Mexico signed a treaty regarding the river. Due to drought conditions which have prevailed throughout much of the 21st century, calls for a reexamination of this treaty have been made by locals in New Mexico, Mexico, and Texas. Texas, being the state with

25599-676: Was initiated by legislation signed by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, and was completed in 1971. This diversion project transports water under the continental divide from tributaries of the San Juan River (the Navajo, the Little Navajo, and Blanco Rivers) to Heron Reservoir, which empties into the Rio Chama before this connects to the Rio Grande. Although it held rights to San Juan-Chama water for many years, it wasn't until 2008 that Albuquerque began using it as part of its municipal supply, with

25760-566: Was not generally used before the early 20th century. Nevin Fenneman's 1916 study Physiographic Subdivision of the United States brought the term Great Plains into more widespread usage. Before that the region was almost invariably called the High Plains, in contrast to the lower Prairie Plains of the Midwestern states . Today the term " High Plains " is used for a subregion of the Great Plains. The term still remains little-used in Canada compared to

25921-411: Was often the preferred option of ambitious young men striving to become rich in a pastoral society. Comanche raids for horses in Texas and along the Rio Grande in Mexico increased in 1831 and afterwards. A young, poor Comanche man could better his circumstances—albeit at risk to his life—by raiding for horses and human captives. The wealth he obtained would enable him to buy a Comanche wife—or he might find

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