SANTA FE Special History Study

¹Jack Rittenhouse's fine The Santa Fe Trail: A Historical Bibliography (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1971) is entirely devoted to materials pertinent to the trail.

²William Patrick O'Brien reaches a similar conclusion after examining the economic activities of Missouri merchants, "Independence, Missouri's trade with Mexico, 1827-1860: A Study in International Consensus and Cooperation," unpublished dissertation, University of Colorado-Boulder, 1994.

³Thomas D. Hall in Social Change in the Southwest, 1350-1880 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1989), agrees that the ricos benefited from the trade, but attributes their economic gains to their dependence on American traders, 154-166.

⁴The terms New Mexican and hispano are used interchangeably to identify individuals with hispanic names living and working in New Mexico. It is not always possible to establish if individuals were born in the province, but for the purpose of this study, such distinctions are not always necessary.

⁵Few scholars have examined New Mexicans in the context of the Santa Fe Trail. David A. Sandoval has completed a dissertation, "Trade and the Manito Society in New Mexico, 1821-1848," unpublished dissertation, University of Utah, 1978, which addresses some of the issues raised in this study. He has also written a series of articles on New Mexican merchants, "Who is Riding the Burro Now? A Bibliographical Critique of Scholarship on the New Mexico Trader," in The Santa Fe Trail; New Perspectives, ed. by David Wetzel (Denver: Colorado Historical Society, 1987); "Montezuma's Merchants: Mexican Traders on the Santa Fe Trail, in Adventure on the Santa Fe Trail, ed. by Leo Oliva (Topeka: Kansas State Historical Society, 1988), 37-60, and "Gnat, Goods, and Greasers: Mexican Merchants on the Santa Fe Trail," Journal of the West 28 (April 1989): 22-31. Jere Krakow is another scholar who has examined New Mexican merchants, "Hispanic Influence on the Santa Fe Trail," Courier, October 1991, 21-23. Marc Simmons also made available to the author a copy of "The Mexican Side of the Santa Fe Trail," a paper he presented at "Rendezvous-1980," Santa Fe Trail Association Meeting, March 28, 1980. O'Brien, "Independence, Missouri's Trade with Mexico," stresses the importance of cooperation among merchants associated with the Santa Fe trade, 4-9, 169, 255-256.

⁶Mark Gardner, "Locomotives, Oxen, and Freight: The Last Decade of the Santa Fe Trail," summary of a paper that was to be presented at the Western History Association Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 1994.