History: Lincoln, by Ray John de Aragon

Title: Lincoln
Author: Ray John de Aragon
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Genre: Nonfiction - History

Price: $21.99

Author and historian Ray John de Aragon explores the story of Lincoln County by looking at the lives of people who lived, worked, raised hell and raised families during a tumultuous time in history.

Lincoln, the newest in the popular Images of America series published by Arcadia Publishing, features vintage photos with interesting facts about the people and places captured by the camera. Cattle rustling, fraudulent claims against landowners, murder and mayhem were the order of the day. As often as not, the bad guys prevailed leaving devastation and death in their wake. For a time Lincoln seemed to be at the center of more corruption than anywhere in the state. Members of the Santa Fe Ring – unscrupulous lawyers, lawmen, judges and landowners ­­– held sway over anyone unwilling to go along with their plans. Yet people continued moving into the territory bringing education, churches, and families.

The area teemed with colorful, and often violent characters. Aragon writes of Jose Chavez y Chavez: “(He) was Billy the Kid’s sidekick. He went back and forth from lawman to outlaw. Chavez joined the Alexander McSween faction (opponents of the Santa Fe Ring). He was sentenced to death for murder, but Gov. Miguel Antonio Otero commuted the sentence. Later, Gov. George Curry pardoned Chavez. He spent the rest of his life thrilling youngsters with stories of Billy the Kid as he sat on a park bench on the Old Town Plaza in Las Vegas, New Mexico.”

These factoids about people make for interesting reading and offer insight into what life was like in the Old West.

The town of Lincoln has been described as the most authentic Old West town remaining in America. It sits in the lush green valley of the Rio Bonito in southeastern New Mexico and has been a National Landmark since 1960. Spanish settlers arrived in the area during the 1840s. By the 1860s it served as a supply center for local ranches, mines and nearby Fort Stanton. Merchants vied for lucrative government contracts creating conflict and resulting in the Lincoln Country War. 

The small town boasts 17 historic buildings and four museums. Many notable characters crossed paths in Lincoln and rode into history. Among them Lew Wallace, Billy the Kid, Sherriff Pat Garrett and John Chisum. 

In Lincoln Aragon recreates the drama, intrigue and turbulence of the town, the county and the times, bringing to life an era that spawned a legend.

Aragon’s book is available in bookstores, independent and online retailers, and through Arcadia Publishing (888-313-2665)

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Q&A: Sherry Robinson

Careful Research Produces Well Told History of Lipan Apaches

Title: I Fought a Good Fight,
a History of the Lipan Apaches
Author: Sherry Robinson
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Price: $32.95

Sherry Robinson is a journalist who loves history. She has been a newspaper reporter, columnist and editor in New Mexico for more than 30 years. She credits her passion for history to three good high school teachers. Other history books she has written include “El Malpais, Mt. Taylor and the Zuni Mountains” and “Apache Voices.”

H: Writing history requires a lot of research. Where did you start in terms of collecting information for “I Fought a Good Fight, a History of the Lipan Apaches?”
SR: I began with local libraries and quickly moved on to UNM’s Special Collections and the State Archives in Santa Fe. Researchers learn quickly that librarians can be your best friends. By the time I finished, I’d visited more than a dozen libraries and archives in six states.
 
H: Your book has been described by one reviewer as the most thorough historiography of the Lipan Apache. Tell about what sets the book apart from other historical perspectives.
SR: When I started this project, I attended a history conference in Texas. Every time I mentioned what I was working on, some learned soul would recite in two minutes what he knew about Lipans and then tell me the Lipans were extinct. I was already interviewing Lipan descendents and knew the learned souls were misinformed. Because I figured it would be difficult to find information about the Lipans, I pursued every tiny thread of information, so my research was extensive.
 
H: In compiling this history, what was your greatest challenge?
SR: Information about Lipans appeared in little bits and pieces. Often the history I found was riddled with errors or warped by historical biases – old racist attitudes as well as new revisionist silliness. I kept on collecting my bits and pieces and every now and then was rewarded with a good, objective account. When I began stitching them together, I was surprised at what I had.
 
H: Where are the Lipan now?
SR: Several hundred Lipan survivors came in to the Mescalero Apache Reservation in southeastern New Mexico between 1875 and 1914. Others, who were in Mexico, began drifting back to their former homes in Texas during the 1880s, and because they feared the army and the Texas Rangers, they passed as Mexican Americans. Some ended up on reservations in Oklahoma. And some are still in Mexico.
 
H: How much of what you wrote came from the descendents of a people who managed against all odds to remain free when many other Native Americans were being sucked up into a system designed to alter who they were and how they lived?
SR: I was fortunate to interview two Lipan elders at Mescalero. One was the great-granddaughter of the last Lipan chief. They were wonderful ladies. And I spoke often to the leader of the Lipan Apache Band of Texas. He is also the descendent of a prominent Lipan chief and began years ago at his family’s urging to try to find the scattered Lipan descendents. I also had access to oral histories done from the 1930s through the 1960s, in three different archival collections.
 
H: Movies and books have portrayed Native Americans in less than heroic light and pretty much bunch all Apaches together. What sets the different tribes or bands apart and how are the Lipan different?
SR: People often think the Apaches were one big tribe, and they were all in Arizona and New Mexico in the desert. Not so. There were a number of bands, and within the bands there were groups. They were all autonomous, didn’t necessarily like each other, and each group spoke Apache a little differently. Lipans are Eastern Apaches, along with Mescaleros, Jicarillas and Kiowa Apaches (now called Naishan). Eastern Apaches lived in the mountains and plains east of the Rio Grande. Lipans are culturally Apache, but they absorbed habits of their friends and enemies. For example, Apaches don’t eat fish, but Lipans do. Apaches didn’t count coup, but Lipans did. 
 
H: This is one of several books you’ve written. Talk a little about the craft of writing. What is your discipline?
SR: Newspaper work has been a great blessing. You learn to report and write no matter what. Illness, fatigue, elusive sources, broken hearts, too little time, computer glitches, whatever – the newspaper must be published. It’s the reason I don’t believe in writers block. You sit, you write, and the writing may be crappy, but that’s what revisions are for. I’m a freelance writer, so I work on books alongside my assignments. In one day I may go from business writing to politics to high tech to history. The gear changes keep me sharp. I set aside time every day for book projects, and I’m pretty obsessive about it. 

H: You’ve worked as a journalist, columnist and editor. How do these roles differ from being an historical or travel writer?
SR: Each role serves the other. In journalism, you’re programmed to be objective, and I often thought historians should have been more objective. At the same time, the historian has to interpret the material for the reading public, and then the columnist is handy. You can’t just recite facts, you must create a place and time, which draws on a travel writer’s skills. My internal editor was most useful. After leaving the writing for a period of time, I could wade into it as if it were somebody else’s work, and slap it into shape.
 
H: What author events or speaking events do you have scheduled?
SR: I will be at Bookworks in Albuquerque on July 16, Collected Works in Santa Fe on Aug. 6, and in Alamogordo in September. I’m still in the process of setting up events.
 
H: Where can readers buy your book?
SR: Your local bookstore can order the book if they don’t have it. I like to support local book sellers. You can also order directly from the publisher, University of North Texas Press, at http://www.tamupress.com/product/I-Fought-a-Good-Fight,7451.aspx. 








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This article also appears in Happenstance Magazine. For more information go to www.vandermeerbooks.com.

Writers and Writing: Marcus Gottschalk

Writer’s Block airs every Tuesday, at 9 a.m. MST on KFUN/KLVF, streaming live at www.kfunonline.com

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Historian Gottschalk Updates Pioneer 

Merchants of Las Vegas 

Marcus Gottschalk is a deeply passionate historian who spent months on research and corroboration of the information he has collected for the current edition of Pioneer Merchants of Las Vegas, a book he says will continue to validate his belief that Las Vegas was the Southwest's most important commercial center for yearly 30 years in the late 19th century.

WB: Let’s begin by you telling our audience what you’ve been up to.

MG: Publishing my book, working on a Gottschalk family history, enjoying the activity around the Romero Reunion and researching Juan Jose Guadalupe Romero.

WB: Update us on the updates to your book, “pioneer Merchants of Las Vegas.”

MG: There is a new introduction and chapter one, and information about gold mining in New Mexico

WB: I understand it is one of the more popular books at Tome on the Range, especially among visitors.

MG: In addition to Tome, my book is available at UNIKAT, my wife’s jewelry store on Bridge Street.

WB: What are the elements of the book you think people will most benefit from?

MG: It’s a look at important individuals in early Las Vegas. 

WB: With Heritage Week coming up in August, do you have any special events planned to promote the book?

MG: I’m considering a booth at People’s Faire, but that hasn’t been determined. I encourage folks to go to either UNIKAT or Tome to pick up a copy.

WB: In doing your research in preparation for updating the book, what where some of your more surprising discoveries?

MG: Indexing is always a challenge. I was surprised to learn how much information you can get through Google Books. It was also surprising to learn there was a Comanche presence in this area.

WB:  What prompted you to write this book originally?

MG: I had created a series of essays about the early merchants and found there was a gap in American History having to do with the early years in the development of this area.

WB: If you could write on any particular subject—be it history-related or current—what would it be and why?

MG: If I had the luxury of time and a lot of money in the bank, I would write a complete history of pioneer merchants, and I would write a well-researched history on the banking system. There is a lot to be learned from a study of the system and how it has developed and evolved.

WB: What writers or historical influencers do you most admire and why?

MG: Dr. Lynn Perrigo, Twitchell, Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone.

WB: What do you want your book to be most remembered for?

MG: That Las Vegas—not Santa Fe—was the more important commercial center in the late 1800s, and that many Las Vegans were important in New Mexico as well as in American History.

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