A lone rider was on his way to Cebolleta. His mission was an
urgent one so he decided to take a short cut over the rolling country.
As he took the fork to the right, he suddenly saw fifteen or twenty
horses standing unmounted in the road. They had been ridden
hard and were in poor condition. The rider, a short stocky man,
was on his guard. His name was Nathan Bibo. This was badman
country and he had been assaulted just a few days before. He felt
for his revolver. To feel it gave him added courage. Suddenly, he
saw a man sitting in a saddle move slowly from the rear of the horses.
The man's face was covered with a sarape. Nathan could faintly
see that the man was wearing a blue cavalry coat. The man was
unaware that anyone was near him. Nathan drew his revolver and
called out "Uncover your face." The command was obeyed. As
the man removed the sarape, a shudder ran through Nathan Bibo.
This was the same person who a few days earlier had "held him up."
He thought, "I must kill him or he will kill me." Quickly, Nathan
came to a decision. "Dismount!" he ordered. The man dismounted
expecting every moment that the gun Nathan was pointing at him
would discharge. In fear he kneeled down in the frozen snow and
begged Nathan to spare his life. Crying like a baby he pleaded
"Por la vida de su mamá, y de los que quiere más
préstame la vida." Nathan Bibo, in his "Reminiscences of
New Mexico," vividly Describes this episode
Who was this man Nathan Bibo? What was his place in New Mexico?
There is a town called Bibo,
2 New Mexico. Was Nathan Bibo a member of the same
family from which this town derived its name?
Nathan Bibo was not born in the United States. He had migrated
from Germany. Many years before his arrival, his grandfather,
Lucas Rosenstein, had come to America to avoid Napoleon Bonaparte's Army draft.
Furtively leaving Borgentreich, Westphalia,
Prussia, he and his neighbor, S. Kleeberg, surreptitiously crossed
the border to the Low Countries and at Antwerp they took passage
for the United States. After traveling in a sailing vessel for
seventy-five days they arrived in America in September, 1812.
Frequently, pioneers returned to their homeland for a wife and
Lucas Rosenstein was no exception. Embarking for Prussia in 1820
with plans to sail back to the United States, he was unable to
induce his bride to take the long, arduous journey across the Atlantic
and, perhaps more so, to leave her family. But eight years in America
left Lucas Rosenstein with many impressions. Nathan Bibo recalls that
whenever he would visit his grandfather during vacation periods, his
grandfather would muse about America. From their early childhood the
Bibos were exposed to the challenge and opportunities of America.
Enchanted by his father's anecdotes, Lucas Rosenstein's son, Joseph,
departed for the States in 1859 or 1860. Instead of lingering on the
eastern seaboard, he traveled overland to New Mexico. But, sadly, five
years after arriving in Santa Fé he died and he was buried in
the Odd Fellows' cemetery. We can only speculate what attracted Joseph
to come west. His father had not visited the western United States so
that he could not have influenced him. Maybe Joseph knew the prominent
Santa Fé merchants, the Spiegelberg Brothers. They were old
friends of his nephew Nathan.
Nathan's reminiscences relate that when Nathan came to Santa Fé
he was met at the old La Fonda Hotel by Willi Spiegelberg. It is possible
that Joseph Rosenstein was also acquainted with the
Spiegelbergs, or else he could have heard of their daring adventure
to America's undeveloped southwest. Immigrant success traveled
rapidly back to the homeland and the news of the economic progress
of the Speigelbergs could have motivated him to settle in Santa Fé.
Solomon Jacob Spiegelberg, who had fought with Colonel William A. Doniphan,
had been appointed
sutler3 of
the regiment under Doniphan. By 1868 Solomon's four brothers, Willi,
Emanuel, Levi and Lehman had joined Solomon in Santa Fé.
4
Perhaps Joseph dreamed of being a merchant prince much like the Spiegelbergs.
Soon after arriving in Santa Fé, Nathan Bibo found work with
the Spiegelberg Brothers. In business in Santa Fé along with the
Spiegelbergs were the Staab Brothers; Elsberg and Amberg; the
Ilfeld Brothers; Johnson and Koch; and Simon Seligman. These firms
controlled the market and their sales amounted daily to thousands of
dollars.
6
Lack of capital, plus a preponderance of wholesale dry goods firms,
discouraged Nathan from competing with the established businesses.
He was convinced that his opportunities must be found elsewhere in the
territory. An opportunity to leave Santa Fé came in the form
of an offer from the Zeckendorf
6a
firm, which had been doing business on the west side of the Plaza in old
Albuquerque. They, too, had discovered that there were too
many firms of their type concentrated in Santa Fé, and, in 1867
they moved to the new business center in Tucson. Nathan's employment with the Zeckendorf firm, however, was of brief duration.
When Willi Spiegelberg was appointed Post Trader at the new Fort Wingate,
7
Nathan eagerly accepted Willi's invitation to be the
Fort manager.
It was through Nathan's Fort Wingate position that he made
valuable connections with the military administration in the area.
Three years after he had rejoined the Spiegelbergs, Major DeWitt
Clinton, who was then acting as superintendent of Indian affairs,
requested him to act as his sub-agent with the Navajo Indians.
"Quite a number of the Navajo Indians and particularly those who
had served the government as guides and scouts during the Navajo
Indian wars from 1862 to their captivity, were allowed to take lands
on the east side of the confirmed
reservation."8
Nathan's responsibility was to take a census of these Navajos who
lived outside the reservation and to distribute to them, under
Major Clinton's direction, agricultural implements and articles such
as knives, hatchets, axes, and spades. Nathan was impressed with
this offer. Also, by 1870, his brother Simon was already established
in the region, at Cebolleta, and he was a witness to an impoverished
Indian population. Simon Bibo had been perceptive enough to recognize
a chance to help the Indians as well as to benefit himself. Because
the Indians were distant from a market where they could exchange or sell
their products Simon acted as their intermediary. Capitalizing on his
Navajo associations, Nathan joined Simon in the enterprise. Stimulated
by the needs of nearby Fort Wingate, the Indians began to plant larger
areas of land. Nathan recalls,
We raised the price to one dollar per barrel for corn or
cobs, and we gathered them as high as 5,000 barrels during the months
of October and November. From that time a new era opened for these
frontier towns as Solomon Barth,9 at Cubero
and the Bibo Brothers at Cebolleta occupied every ox team available to
freight the corn out from the Indian Pueblos.... Fort Defiance and Fort
Wingate, New Mexico were the first markets for all kinds of products,
grain, fruit, vegetables, also meat, thus encouraging farming and
stock-raising in that section.10
Nathan Bibo was ambitious and the military installations in the
area which required supplies were one of his targets. Furthermore,
he still retained his interest in the Bibo Brothers' store in Cebolleta.
In addition, his friend Lehman Spiegelberg, encouraged him to bid on a
corn order required by the First Cavalry. The First Cavalry and a number
of other companies were located in the White Mountains, in the Fort Apache
area, along the Arizona border. The bid which called for 100,000 pounds
of corn was won by Nathan. But
to win the order and to make delivery were two different matters.
The location was very difficult to reach and delivery was to be made
at the end of October or the first of November, a time when the
ground was miry. After many trials Nathan met his contract,
although he had to build a bridge to do so. In later years he
regretted that he had been so inexperienced, for he could have petitioned
the government to build a bridge for him over the boggy terrain.
There were many problems incidental to supplying the forts with provisions.
Some of these problems were created by nature, other pitfalls were the
result of human dishonesty. In 1871, Nathan Bibo sublet a contract from
the government to two men, Howard and Leonard, who were to supply a
hundred tons of hay to Fort Apache. His partners, however, were as
crooked as the roads which carried the hay. A special messenger from
Captain K. Upsham, the quartermaster at Camp Apache, warned him that
the two men were privately collecting for every pound of hay they had
delivered, without divulging in their transactions that Nathan Bibo was
also a partner. After a hurried investigation, Nathan learned that not
only were his partners in this contract not giving him what was due
him, they were also using his hay cutting machines to cut the hay.
By the time Nathan arrived at Fort Apache, Howard and Leonard
had already taken flight. Yet, Nathan was still responsible for
fulfilling the contract. At this juncture, with courage as his
primary asset, he borrowed money, bought four ox wagons and four
yoke of oxen and started all over again. To cut the hay and to deliver
it so late in the year was hazardous since snow was imminent.
Nonetheless, Nathan started out with his teams. It was not too long
after he started that he was caught in a mountain snow storm. It soon
became apparent to him that he was faced with the decision of saving
his life rather than protecting his investment in the wagons and the
teams of oxen. Luckily he was rescued by two young friendly Apaches
who were hunting and who were also impeded by the snow. They escorted
the half-frozen Bibo to the fort, where he related his predicament to
Thomas Ewing, who was then in charge of the post trading store. Nathan
was in a state of despair. He had not made delivery of the hay as he
had contracted to do. He also was in debt for $2,500 for the wagons
and oxen he had purchased. Ewing met the immediate problem by inviting
Bibo to his quarters to warm himself and to change his clothing.
Captain K. Upsham, the quartermaster, was concerned about the hay
that his fort would need for the winter months. He also desired to help
Nathan Bibo. Consequently, he made a sage suggestion which Nathan
accepted. He advised Nathan to purchase twelve to fifteen dozen knives
in Albuquerque. Within ten days, the distance being 280 miles plus the
necessity of a side trip to Santa Fé, the knives were delivered.
Nathan then engaged squaws to work for him, to cut and deliver the hay.
They took the knives and began a constant procession, cutting the hay
and returning it to the fort.
"They carried from sixty to one hundred pounds on their backs
bundled up with strings of soap weed strapped around their forehead and,
besides the heavy burden, carried their papooses on top of the hay.
11
While the hay was being gathered, Thomas Ewing, the post trader,
took Nathan into his confidence. He informed Nathan that he had
sold his store to a man in Cubero, but that this man was
unacceptable to the commanding officer. Noting that Nathan was
in strained circumstances, he suggested to Nathan that he attempt
to buy the store. (As a matter of interest, there is little doubt
that the man who was unacceptable to the commanding general at Fort
Apache was the notorious trader and freighter, Solomon Barth.)
Nathan ruminates:
Such is life. I had come into the post almost helpless.
I lost all
my investments by the cruel elements within twelve days after I
had to purchase the ox teams and had to draw on my friend Lehman
Spiegelberg, then president of the Second National Bank [Santa Fé]
for payment. I had sent him my note for $3,000 for sixty days,
which I could have met easily if I had succeeded in delivering [all] the hay ...
The transfer of the stock of merchandise by Mr. Thomas Ewing
was made at once. About October 10, 1871, I took charge of the
business for my account. It was under President Grant's administration
and all the officers of the fort signed my application for fort tradership
which was then forwarded to Secretary of War, Belknap.My appointment
came after two months ... The result was that I paid the total sum due
to my predecessor within sixty days amounting to $24,000 including
what he owed to the party in New Mexico.
12
Sometime in the fall of 1871, Nathan Bibo sold out to a Mr.
Cronley and decided to settle in Bernalillo. Francisco Perea,
one of Bernalillo's former delegates to Congress, prevailed upon
Nathan to build a store adjoining Perea's fine vineyard and home
in the middle of the town.13
Perea also gave him as an inducement the privilege of buying 120 yards of land
at a very reasonable price. Nathan seized upon the opportunity. He built
a home, a store, and across from his home he also built a government station
with large stables. These stables were leased to the mail contractor and the
owner of the stage coach line. He also became the Bernalillo postmaster.
Nathan's move to Bernalillo appeared to be an advantageous one.
The store, the stables, being postmaster, and the bargain land purchase
were sound investments. It is conceivable that Nathan had also been
given some inside information that the transcontinental railroad might
come through Bernalillo. If it did, Bernalillo would become the most
important city in the territory. This meant that the 120 yards of land
that he bought could be very valuable. Nathan was in the best economic
position of his career.
In the meantime, Nathan continued to have varied interests. He
owned a flock of sheep with his brother Solomon Bibo and he still
had old accounts to collect back in the Fort Apache country. Whenever
he bad to leave Bernalillo on a business matter, his sister Lina, the
widow of I. Weiss of Martinez, took charge.
On April 29, 1876, Nathan was notified by his brother Solomon
that during a snow storm their sheep herd had been scattered and
that the Navajo Indians had driven them down the mountain of San
Mateo to where they had been tracked. On the first day of May,
Nathan and another man, mounted on horseback, started down the trail
from Bernalillo to follow the sheep trails.
Near Las Tusas13a
they found a trail and within a few hours they came to a Navajo settlement.
14 When they
observed eight or ten Navajo squaws busily cutting the earmarks of a
small flock of sheep, Nathan asked the squaws: "Why are you a
disfiguring the earmarks?" Receiving an evasive answer he threatened
to report them to the commanding officer at Fort Wingate. Only then
was he able to recover 350 of the stolen sheep. When he returned to
Bernalillo he made claim to the Indian Agent at Fort Wingate for the
rest of his flock. Nine years later, after forwarding his claim to
Washington, he received $1,029 for his loss of
property.14a
Nathan Bibo was a restless, venturesome person, but he possessed
a sense of history as well. In a handwritten statement written on
the back of an old stove catalogue he describes an important event
that took place in Bernalillo. It concerned the route of the rail
road.15
Proximity to a railroad in the 1800's could catapult a
community into prominence. To be distant from the railroad could
make a once-prominent community on obscure one. In February,1878,
a Concord coach stopped in front of Nathan Bibo's store and about
five gentlemen representing the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé
railroad alighted from the coach. Accompanied by Don Francisco
Perea, Nathan's friend, these five gentlemen went to visit
Don José Uandro Perea. Nathan Bibo was later instructed
that Bernalillo had been designated as the main division point on the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé railroad line. Construction of
a transcontinental line due west from Bernalillo had been contemplated.
Francisco Perea related to Nathan Bibo that his uncle José
Leandro had placed an impossible price on the land required by the
chief engineer. As a consequence of the railroad's inability to
purchase the land that it required in Bernalillo, the representatives
looked elsewhere. "What happened that memorable Friday afternoon
was the setback for the town of Bernalillo and the making of the new
town of Albuquerque.16
The decision of Don José also prevented
Don Francisco and Nathan Bibo from amassing a fortune had Bernalillo
become what Albuquerque is
today.16a
In 1884 Nathan Bibo had concluded that Bernalillo, being
by-passed by the railroad, no longer had a potential growth.
He decided to leave the territory. A scrap of paper written in his own
hand in German type script reports that he left for California. He
had spent twelve years in Bernalillo and he was now going to seek his
fortune along the west coast. He went to California with considerable
capital. His brother, Joseph Bibo, and two sisters remained in Bernalillo.
As in his past ventures, Nathan still retained interests in Bernalillo.
He never burned his bridges behind him, except in San Francisco where
they were burned for him.
The available records are silent in connection with Nathan's
marital status. A fair conclusion would be that be did not marry
until he came to the west coast. We do know that in San Francisco
he married Flora Abrams and had two children, Ruth Bibo, now Mrs.
Jesse Amshel of Pittsburgh, and Irving Bibo, now residing in
Southern California. Irving Bibo reports:
I regret to tell you that all of the documentary
letters, clippings, citations, etc., that were left to me were
sold with an old desk, by my mother, when my mother and sister
sold the household in San Francisco to join me in Chicago. As
I recall this happened in 1914. In this desk were chunks of ore
containing gold and others, silver, very old and fine Indian rings,
bracelets, etc., many of them given to my father by chiefs as an
expression of gratitude on their part. Most important were letters
from Kit Carson, Gen. Sherman, President Grant, the bandit Geronimo and
many others.17
Even though Nathan Bibo had left the frontier for the more
sophisticated San Francisco, he could not forget his old ways. The
correspondence with his son exposes his father's frontier personality.
My father was an inveterate gambler and I have been told
lost or won as high as $5,000 a night in poker. He came to San Francisco
in 1889. The first potent memories I have of my Dad's persistent
connection with his Indians was going to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco
to visit the Indians who were at that time incarcerated in the government
prison on the Island. My father acted as interpreter and as I recall he
spoke Apache, Navajo, Zuni.... I do know that he was responsible for the
release of many Indians who by talking
with him were able to prove their innocence or perhaps convince the
authorities that they would be good boys from then on.
18
Irving Bibo in his communication alludes to a legend concerning
his father that has had currency in the Southwest for the past
ten years.
I assume that you know my father went back to New Mexico
after the quake in San Francisco [1906] and stayed there, always prospecting
for gold until the day he died. There are other certain very interesting
developments that happened in his later years that I cannot put on paper;
perhaps you may come this way some day and if you do, I should like to tell
you in confidence a certain thing, that could really, if we could verify it
make the saga of the Bibos one of the most fantastic written.
19
What Irving Bibo is alluding to is part of the southwest folklore.
In 1906, according to this tale, Nathan, Bibo was wiped out by the
earthquake-fire in San Francisco20
His penchant for gambling, the lure of his old haunts in
New Mexico, and his financial losses all combined to destroy his marriage
to Flora Abrams Bibo. He left San Francisco to venture again in New Mexico.
There the folklore teller spins his yaxn and weaves the story that Nathan
married a native woman. They had a son. The son, now a mature person, is
reputed to have been one of the highest officials in the federal
administration of Old Mexico. He is today a millionaire, living in Old Mexico.
Attempts have been made to verify or repudiate this information for ten years.
Only blind alleys and smiles have been the result of inquiry. Yet the legend
still persists.
We next find Nathan Bibo's historical tracks when he commences to speak
out and to write letters in behalf of the deprived and disease-ridden Indian.
The letters that are extant report the problems of sanitation in the Pueblos
and the need to ameliorate the
dreaded eye disease, trachoma. He also makes references to the internecine
conflicts of the Indians. He claims that the internal Indian government is
not popularly elected and that the young educated Indians are in the minority.
He emphasizes that the Indian agents listen only to the old majority.
Consequently, the young Indians who received their education outside the
Pueblos cannot and axe not permitted to introduce improvements in the Pueblos.
He asserts that the young, when they are progressive, are persecuted by
the older uneducated Indians in a fanatic manner. He affirms that the
only exception to this practice is in the Laguna and Acoma Pueblos.
21
Isaac Bibo and Blumenschen Rosenstein were the parents of ten children.
Besides Nathan, there were Simon, Solomon [Salomon], Joseph, Samuel,
Benjamin, and Emil. There were also three daughters, Lina, Clara, and Rica.
22
The careers of Emil, Simon, and Solomon were equally as colorful
as that of Nathan. They, too, particularly Emil and Solomon, were
involved with and devoted to the Indians. Nathan Bibo describes
the character of his brother: "[Emil's] life and soul were to a
great extent devoted to the emancipation of the Acoma Indians, who
regarded him as their honest advisor and best friend.
23 Yet, it is
the life of Solomon that further portrays the hazards and problems
which confronted a pioneer living in the midst of an American
Indian civilization in the southwest during the last half of the
nineteenth century. There were many more risks of life, and danger
to one's character, living among the Indian natives than there were
as a resident in the relative civilization of the community of old
Santa Fé.
Solomon Bibo married a woman who was a member of the Acoma Tribe.
Like his brother Simon, who also married out of his faith, he
was faced with the obstacles that any person of the Jewish faith
would meet were he to make the southwest his permanent home
during this period. To find a girl of his religion it was necessary
to go wife-hunting on the east or west coast, or to go back to Germany
and bring back a childhood love, if this was possible. His maternal
uncle, Joseph Rosenstein, attempted the latter approach, but his new
wife refused to return to America with him., The Spiegelbergs, one by
one, after achieving their fortune, retired to the east coast to manage
their New Mexico interests remotely.
23a The Lesinsky
family of southern New Mexico and El Paso fame did the same. Even if a
Jewish wife was attainable, as in the case of Michel
Goldwater,23b
the likelihood of the couple's children marrying within the faith of
their parents was remote. Although the Goldwaters are proud of their
Jewish heritage, such families are for the most part, lost to Judaism.
The town of Mora, New Mexico, is a forceful example of such
intermarriage and acculturation. Henry Ballon of Clayton, New Mexico,
regretfully relates:
Mora had about thirty Jewish people before the Santa Fé
railroad came this far west. Then Mora was a trading point for goods which
were shipped by ox-cart and wagon train from Kansas, which was then the
western terminus of the road ... some of these men settled there.... But
due to the fact that there was no Jewish community there, they married
native women with few exceptions, and their children grew up in the Catholic
faith and today their descendants carry their German-Jewish names, but
that is about all .... 24
Solomon was just as courageous as his brother Nathan. Besides
being a Post Trader, Solomon had, previous to his 1883 applications
for renewal of his license, embarked on a business deal that involved the
Acoma reservation. This side venture precipitated
problems with the Indian Agent, Pedro Sanchez. Sanchez was of
the opinion that Solomon Bibo was violating his Trader's License
by engaging in an arrangement with the tribe. In Sanchez' mind
this was illegal. A letter written by Pedro Sanchez to the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs on June 4, 1884, expressed his opinion:
I have been informed that Solomon Bibo, U. S. Ind Trader at
Acoma, availing himself of the influence that by his sagacity he has
acquired in that Pueblo - has induced the Governor, thereof (it is said
at least) to enter into and sign for him (Bibo) a lease of all the Acoma
grant with all its grazing land, water, etc., as you will readily find
by perusal of enclosed copy of lease ... to which . . . Bibo pretends
to have obtained the common consent of said Pueblo. Until
convinced to the contrary I hold that the will of the Pueblo in common
is not expressed in the said pretended lease ... I do not consider
apropos to their welfare as it opens a broad field to speculation who
come among them and seeing their blindness make them a prey to their
sagacity ... Therefore with a view to stop a calamity or rather
prevent it timely so immanent [sic] on this Pueblo, caused by this
prejudiced lease, I ask very respectfully, to be advised on this matter,
as to the manner in which I should proceed. 27
Solomon Bibo's application which originated as an almost routine
matter finally was adjudicated in a Federal Court. The United
States attorney was of the opinion that since the suit was not
initiated by the Indians themselves concerning the lease, but
introduced by the government, the suit had no validity. Joseph Bell,
the United States attorney, stated his opinion:
The government concluded in their case that the lease with Solomon
Bibo was drawn up with the common consent of the Acoma Pueblo.
By the time the case was adjudicated in 1888, a new United
States Indian Agent had been designated for the Pueblos. To give
additional authority to the United States attorney's conclusion and
in an effort to terminate the matter, the Indian Agent sent a general
letter to the Acoma Pueblo:
To the people of Acoma, having confidence in the
ability, integrity and fidelity of Solomon Bibo and by virtue of the
authority invested
in me, as Indian Agent, by the United States, I hereby appoint
Solomon Bibo, Governor of said Pueblo to take the place of Napoleon
Pancho, the former Governor and I also appoint the said Napoleon
lieutenant governor and Yanie [?] assistant lieutenant governor to
take the place of Manuel Concho who is dismissed by order. And
I also appoint Junice [?] Sanches, Kasique in place of Antonio
dmissed. 29
Solomon Bibo, elected by the Acoma Pueblo as Governor with the
imprimatur of the Indian Agent, now had the authority in civil
matters to lease or sub-lease the Acoma land. His name was now
cleared. The accusation that he was acting to the detriment of the
Pueblo, having been brought to the attention of Federal authorities,
had no legality.
In an effort to evaluate Solomon Bibo's position in this situation,
it is necessary to take into consideration not only the final legal
dispensation of the case, but to consider the case in the light of
frontier ethics and Acoma practices.
First of all, if Solomon Bibo was guilty of sharp practices, which
we have already shown he was not, he was not a lone violator. C. C.
Rister in his article, "Harmful Practices of Indian Traders in
the Southwest, 1865-1876," describes the prevailing conditions:
A perusal of the reports from the Bureau of Ethnology substantiates by
inference that Solomon Bibo could not have persuaded the Acomas to do what
they did not desire to do. 31
Solomon Bibo was accepted by the Acomas and was trusted by them. If we
accept the authority of Leslie A. White, to be trusted by the Acomas was
not an easy accomplishment.
Acoma's early reputation for vigorous unfriendliness to
the whites has been maintained to this day [1929] ... Government officials
and employees, representatives of religious organizations, and tourists
well know the difficulties which confront a white man or woman at Acoma. The
Acoma people are suspicious, distrustful and unfriendly. In addition to their
constant fears that they may have their land taken away from them ... they are
even on guard to prevent any information concerning their ceremonies from
becoming known lest they be suppressed (or ridiculed) by the
whites. 32
Neither was Solomon Bibo's marriage a fraud. There are documents available
that attest to the validity of his
marriage. 33 The documents
verify that he married his wife twice: once in the presence of the Pueblo
on May 1, 1885, and a second time by a Justice of the Peace on August 30,
1885. This marriage in the light of our information about the Acomas would
establish that Solomon Bibo held an unusual position in the Pueblo.
Concerning marriage, White succinctly states:
As one examines the Acoma religious practices, one comes to the
conclusion that it was not necessary for Solomon Bibo to undergo
marriage rites. "Frequently a man and a woman live together as
man and wife and without any formal
ceremony...." 35
Leaving the Acoma tradition, Arthur Bibo of Albuquerque offers
additional information indicating that there were many facets to
the problem at hand:
His [Solomon's] thirty year lease with the tribe in 1884 was
drawn up by one of the foremost attorneys here in Albuquerque at that
time, Bernard Rodey. Solomon really made this lease for the Acoma Land
and Cattle Company who made immediate use of it. The reason they wanted
a lease from the Acoma Tribe was that they were running Cattle on a
range that adjoined the Acoma Grant and could not easily prevent their
stock from grazing on a portion of the Grant. The contract agreed to protect
the Acomas in the way of assuming responsibility to keep other stray stock
from grazing on the Acoma land. The individuals representing the Acoma
Land and Cattle Co. were from Albuquerque.... The foreman in the field was
a Mr. Wilson and he immediately notified the Laguna Indians to remove their
livestock from trespassing on the Acomas. This of course brought Mr. R. G.
Marmon, who had married in the Laguna Tribe, into the picture to defend the
Lagunas. At that particular time there was quite a land controversy
between the Lagunas and the Acomas as the Interior Department had allowed
the Lagunas to use land that the Acomas had claimed as theirs aboriginally.
Pedro Sanchez, being an employee of the Department of the Interior, sided in
with Mr. Marmon and the Lagunas to the detriment of the Acomas. Uncle Sol,
Uncle Simon, and Dad [Emil] all were trying to help the Acomas in what they
saw as unjust decisions against the Acomas ... though I do not know how
long the Acoma Land and Cattle Co. continued use of the area, Uncle himself
made use of the lease until it expired. 36
The saga of Solomon, the Acomas, the Lagunas, and the Indian department
was a complicated one. There are many strands to the episode. Not only the
decision of the court, but all the peripheral
evidence that Solomon was not guilty of fraud, compel us to commend him for
his interest in the welfare of the Acoma tribe.
Living in the midst of Indians that were hostile to one another
like the Acomas and the Lagunas, and harassed by an Indian Agent
who was prejudicial, made life in the grazing lands of New Mexico
a precarious one for a pioneer. There was also a Mexican population
that had to be considered as well. Land distribution and ownership
were fundamental factors in the unfenced southwest. It was not
only a dispute between Indian and Indian, as in the case of Acomas
and Lagunas, but a controversy between the aboriginal claims of
the Indians on the one hand and the holders of Spanish grants on
the other. This was enmeshed more deeply by subleasing.
In 1869, Solomon and Simon Bibo were caught between the rock
of the Indian and the hardplace of the Mexican. At Cebolleta
(Seboyeta or Ceboyeta) the Mexican population was to be dispossessed
of land that they felt was rightfully their land. They
appealed to a priest, who took it upon himself to defend the Mexican
population from losing what they already held. He attempted to
halt the projected redistribution. Unfortunately, the priest Juillard made
uncomplimentary references about the religion of some of the people involved.
Solomon Bibo was not only an Indian Governor, but be was also classified as
a Jew. In this contention, this made him doubly vulnerable. A circular
printed in Spanish was distributed by the Body of Commissioners of the
District (or Grant) of Cebolleta. It is entitled "Protest" and, in part,
reads:
Suppose they divide the district. Let us see what will happen.
The district consists of two hundred and twenty thousand acres. The
illegal injunction claims one hundred seventy thousand. In addition
a rich Jew wants to defraud us of twenty-five thousand of what will be
left....37
Simon Bibo, who was in business with his brother Solomon at
Laguna, New Mexico, was alarmed by both the circular and the
accusation of the priest. Once again the Bibos appealed to the
Spiegelbergs. To Willi Spiegelberg he reports:
It is probable that Solomon Bibo and Willi Spiegelberg owned land
jointly in this area; it is also probable that Solomon was a "sheepdog" for
Willi Spiegelberg, and it is conceivable that Solomon sensed trouble so that
he desired to stop it before it became rampant. It was Simon's opinion that
the best method of neutralizing the antagonism was for Willi Spiegelberg to
write the Archbishop in Santa Fé.
The Spiegelbergs, as did other Jewish merchants of Santa Fé, had
an open-door relationship with the Archbishops of Santa Fé.
39a During the tenure of
Archbishop John B. Lamy, there were also a number of priests who acted
unilaterally and arbitrarily. They were disciplined by Lamy. Juillard
might have been such a priest who had evaded the discipline by Lamy's
successor. At any rate, an outbreak such as this alerted the Bibos.
They knew how and
where to seek help.
Apparently nothing that was consequential came of this episode.
The sources are mute. There is no further correspondence on this
subject available. The problem, nevertheless, still persists. The
contention over land-ownership in the southwest is under scrutiny
to this day.
Twitchell's history of New Mexico in five volumes refers generously
to people of the Jewish faith who were closely identified with the
development of New Mexico. But Twitchell makes no reference to
the Bibo family. There is only obscure mention made of the Bibos
in other published southwest studies. Perhaps the reason that the
sources are scanty is that the Bibos were not located in the central
centers of activity. They were not active in Mesilla, Santa Fé,
or Las Vegas. They were located primarily in remote areas. It is difficult
to evaluate the Bibos' contribution to the southwest. Their contributions
escape any of the customary classification. There are no banking or
giant mercantile institutions which they created or inspired. But
this we can conclude: they came to the southwest and grappled with
conditions which at times were overwhelming and would have discouraged
people with lesser grit. They married within the faith of their fathers
where conditions were friendly to such a marriage. When conditions were
not conducive to such a union, they married out of their faith.
The chromosomes of the Bibos can be found among groups designated as Indian,
Roman Catholic, those of Mexican descent, and in their descendants who
still adhere to Judaism. Seven brothers and three sisters have left
their lasting impression on the southwest, not in enduring institutions,
but in people and in legend.40
