Blas de Hinojos was a military commander of

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

who was killed by a force of

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

warriors led by

Narbona Narbona or Hastiin Narbona (c. 1766 – August 31, 1849) was a Navajo chief who participated in the Navajo Wars. He was killed in a confrontation with U.S. soldiers on August 31, 1849. Narbona was one of the wealthiest Navajo of his time due ...

in 1835. Capitan Blas de Hinojos married Maria de Jesus Trujillo. His men were poorly paid. In 1834 he received a complaint from the detachment at San Miguel del Bado that they were not able to support themselves or their families. In 1834 he decided to commit his troops to supporting the centralist

Plan of Cuernavaca A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an objective to do something. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal. ...

, and received an effusive letter from José Antonio Laureano de Zubiría, Bishop of Durango, praising his decision. Hinojos led a slaving expedition into Navajo country between 13 October and 17 November 1834, killing sixteen warriors but taking only three captives. On 8 February 1835 Hinojos left Santa Fé on a second slaving expedition with a force of almost 1,000 armed men. Narbona heard news of the invasion and collected 250 of the best warriors, who made for the high Beesh Lichii'l Bigiizh, or Copper Pass, in the

Chuska Mountains '' The Chuska Mountains () are an elongate range on the southwest Colorado Plateau and within the Navajo Nation whose highest elevations approach 10,000 feet. The range is about 80 by 15 km (50 by 10 miles). It trends north-northwest and is c ...

on the route that the Mexicans were sure to take. The Mexican force, although large, was composed of poorly disciplined and inexperienced men who took no precautions. On 28 February 1835 they straggled into Copper Pass. Narbona held back his forces, who hiding on both sides of the pass. He told them that when the time was right and not before they would cut the long file of men into small pieces, like cutting a long tree trunk into firewood. When the signal was given, the Navajos poured arrows into the column, those who had guns fired, and some threw stones or rolled rocks into the gorge. Taken completely by surprise, both men and horses panicked and were routed. Hinojos and most of his force died. The survivors made their way beck to Santa Fe, returning on 13 March 1835. Hinojos was succeeded by Albino Pérez. The pass was later renamed Washington Pass, after Colonel John M. Washington, who killed Narbona in 1849. Today it is called

Narbona Pass Narbona Pass (formerly Washington Pass) is a pass through the natural break between the Tunicha and Chuska Mountains, an elongated range on the Colorado Plateau on the Navajo Nation. A paved road, New Mexico Highway 134, crosses the range through ...

References

Citations Sources * * * * *

References

Further reading