ST. JONAH
ORTHODOX CHURCH
Come, See & Hear the Services
of Early Christianity
◊
Fr. Nicholas Roth
Sunday 10 am • Wednesday 6:30 pm
405 E. Gallego Avenue • Alpine, TX 79830
432-360-3209 • bigbendorthodox.org
2007 W. Hamlin Ave.
Alpine
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14
Now serving Presidio and Jeff Davis Counties
111 N 2ND STREET • ALPINE • 432.837.5156
Cenizo
MISSION SAN FRANCISCO DEL LOS JULIMES
MISSION DEL APOSTOL SANTIAGO
432-837-5860
paintings
ar ti s t
Presidio Area
Spanish Missions
“One of nine missions established in the Big Bend Country by Father Fray Nicolas Lopez, O.F.M.
and Don Juan Dominguez de Mendoza in 1683-1684. Maintained by Franciscan missionaries
for the civilizing and Christianizing of the Jumano, Julimes and other Indians of this area.” (1936)
T
exas historical markers
recognizing the app-
roximate sites of two
Spanish missions stand today
at Fort Leaton State
Historical Site near Presidio.
Both markers bear the same
message for the long-gone
missions. The exact locations
of the missions are lost to his-
tory.
After the Aztec Empire fell
to Hernan Cortez and his
conquistadors, Spain took
control of all of Mexico. As
the Spanish moved north-
ward, they found the north-
ern
portion
of
the
Chihuahuan Desert to be of
little interest. They called it
the despoblado (deserted or
uninhabited place), of no
value to them for agriculture
or mining. One Spaniard
wrote that the despoblado
“…cannot be inhabited nor
populated
by
rational
Christians.”
That changed after Alvar
Nunez Cabeza De Vaca and
three other survivors of a
Texas gulf coast shipwreck
made their way back to
Mexico. His account of their
seven-year journey and the
lands and people they
encountered sparked the
interest of the Spaniards in
the land to their north. Some
Fourth Quarter 2015
evidence indicates that
Cabeza De Vaca’s group
passed through the area
known as La Junta de los
Rios, the juncture of the Rio
Grande and the Rio
Conchos, in 1535. They
found the natives of the area
living in permanent villages in
houses made of poles plas-
tered with mud.
They were practicing agri-
culture.
Apparently two main tribes
occupied the area—the agri-
cultural Patarabueye and, at
least part of the year, the
nomadic Jumano who trav-
eled to the plains to hunt
bison and trade with other
groups. A number of tribes
also lived in the surrounding
areas, including Julimes,
Chizos, Tabosos, Puliques,
Conchos, Cibolos and others.
These were the names the
Spanish gave the groups who
no longer exist as distinct
tribes, having been absorbed
into other cultures. These
people were often the victims
of illegal slave raids for work-
ers in the Spanish mines.
These slave raids, along
with increasing pressure from
Apaches being pushed south-
ward by Comanches, caused
some of the groups to seek
help from the Spanish author-
ities. In 1639, a group of sev-
eral tribes visited the convent
of San Antonio at Isleta, New
Mexico. The Jumano leader
known as One Eye told the
priest a mysterious “Lady in
Blue” had appeared among
them and the Tejas tribe and
taught them about Christ-
ianity, commanding them to
seek missionaries.
Her
description matched that of a
Franciscan nun, later identi-
fied as Mother Maria de
Jesus, abbess of a convent in
Spain who was said to have
spiritually visited the tribes
over 500 times between 1621
and 1631. Missionaries were
sent into Texas, but not to La
Junta.
In 1683, another Jumano
leader, Juan Sabeata, told the
governor of New Mexico,
Capitan Domingo Jironza
Petris de Cruzate, and Fray
Nicolas Lopez, Custos and
Ecclesiastical Judge of New
Mexico, that a flaming cross
had appeared on a mountain-
side at La Junta.
Juan
Sabeata later admitted he fab-
ricated the story to gain
Spanish protection from his
enemies, but the ruse had
worked. The Indians were
instructed to go home and
build missions and quarters
for the priests. This they did