The historical literature pertaining to New Mexico is vast, and beginning readers sometimes have difficulty finding an appropriate place to start. One good introduction to the state’s past is Edward P. Dozier’s The Pueblo Indians of North America (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970). A sympathetic treatment of the life of a modem Pueblo woman is found in Alice Marriot’s now classic María: The Potter of San Ildefonso (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1950). For information on two of New Mexico’s non-Pueblo tribes, the reader may consult C. L. Sonnichsen, The Mescalero Apaches (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958); and Frank McNitt, Navajo Wars (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1972).
Spanish exploration and settlement of New Mexico have received attention in scores of studies. For historical drama and authenticity, Herbert E. Bolton’s Coronado, Knight of Pueblos and Plains (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1949), remains unsurpassed. An interpretation of the early colonial period, showing a strong anti-Spanish bias, is Jack D. Forbes’s Apache, Navajo and Spaniard (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1960). Serious readers will wish to consult the writings of France V. Scholes, representative of which is Troublous Times in New Mexico, 1659–1670 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1942). A good source on the later colonial years is Alfred B. Thomas, Forgotten Frontiers (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1932).
On the Santa Fe Trail, Josiah Gregg’s matchless Commerce of the Prairie stands at the head of the list. Two splendid works offer a look at the fur trade and the life of the mountain men: David J. Weber, The Taos Trappers (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971); and David Lavender, Bent’s Fort (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co., 1954).
Among the many illuminating books on New Mexico’s territorial and modern periods, the following are of special merit: Howard Roberts Lamar, The Far Southwest, 1846–1912 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966); Robert W. Larson, New Mexico’s Quest for Statehood, 1846–1912 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1968); A. M. Gibson, The Life and Death of Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965); and Miguel Antonio Otero, My Life on the Frontier, 1864–1882 (New York: Press of the Pioneers, 1935).
Two novels speak with exceptional eloquence about New Mexico as it was. One is Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop (New York: Knopf, 1955), which serves up in fictional form a faithful portrait of Archbishop Jean B. Lamy. The other is Eugene Manlove Rhodes’s much-praised cowboy novelette, Pasó Por Aquí (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1973). Agnes Morley Cleaveland presents an Anglo woman’s view of New Mexico ranch life in No Life for a Lady (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1941). The Hispanic side of ranching is given by Fabiola Cabeza de Vaca in her picturesque chronicle, We Fed Them Cactus (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1954).