dwellings, but the Laguna tribe, numbering, 1077 in 1900 and
1384 in 1905, now live mostly in their former summer villages
on the plain. The other Indians live on reservations, of which
there are three: the Mescalero Apache reservation, in Otero
county, containing 554 Indians in 1900; the Jicarilla Apache
reservation, in Rio Arriba county, with a population of 829;
and the Navaho reservation, in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico,
which contains in that part of it situated in New Mexico a
population of 2480.
The inhabitants of Spanish descent have been only slightly assimilated and cling tenaciously to their racial peculiarities. As a rule, they live in low adobe houses built around a court, and are poor and ignorant, but hospitable. They are more Americanized in the Rio Grande Valley than among the mountains, where English is rarely spoken. Many of them have intermarried with the Indians, creating the class of half-breeds known as “Mestizos.” Although the proportion of Spanish-American and Indian inhabitants is steadily decreasing with the arrival of immigrants from other parts of the United States, it was nevertheless computed by the New Mexican authorities to be about 63% in 1904. About one-tenth of the Spanish-American and Indian population habitually use the English language.
The total population of New Mexico in 1870 was 91,874; in 1880, 119,565; in 1890, 153,593; in 1900, 195,310, and in 1910, according to the U.S. census, the figure was 327,301. Of the native white population in 1900, 17,917 were of foreign parentage. Of the foreign-born element 6649, or about one-half, were Mexicans, 1360 were Germans and the rest chiefly English, Irish, Canadians, Italians, Scotch and Austrians. The chief cities were Albuquerque (6238), Santa Fé (5603), Las Vegas (3552) and Raton (3540). Far the greater portion of the population (in 1906, 56·2% of the estimated population) are communicants of the Roman Catholic Church, which had in 1906 121,558 members, the total communicants of all denominations in that year numbering 137,009. Among Protestants there were 6560 Methodists, 2935 Presbyterians and 2331 Baptists.
Administration.—The executive officers until 1911 were a governor and a Territorial secretary appointed by the President of the United States, and a treasurer, auditor, superintendent of public instruction, adjutant-general, commissioner of public lands and other administrative officials appointed by the governor. The legislative department included a council of 12 members and a House of Representatives of 24 members, chosen by popular vote. The sessions were biennial and limited to 60 days. All laws passed by the Assembly and approved by the governor had to be submitted to the Federal Congress for its approval. The Territory was represented in Congress by a delegate, chosen by popular vote, with the right to speak in the national legislature but not to vote. The judicial department included a supreme court, district courts, probate courts and local justices of the peace. The supreme court consisted of a chief justice and six associate justices appointed by the President. There were seven judicial districts, each with a court presided over by a justice of the supreme court. Each county had a probate court, and each precinct a justice of the peace.
For the purposes of local government New Mexico is divided into 26 counties, each being governed by a board of county commissioners, chosen by the people. Each county is divided by the commissioners into precincts. Municipal corporations with a population of 3000 and over are cities, and are governed through a mayor and board of aldermen; those with a population of between 1500 and 3000 are towns, and are governed through a mayor and trustees.
A rather unusual institution within New Mexico is the mounted police, who numbered 11 in 1907, whose work was almost entirely in the cattle country, and who had authority to patrol the entire Territory and to make arrests or to preserve order wherever their presence was needed, unhampered by the restrictions limiting the jurisdiction of local police.
A homestead not exceeding $1000 in value, and held by a husband and wife or by a widow or widower with an unmarried daughter or an unmarried minor son, may be held exempt from seizure and sale by legal process. The exemption may be claimed by either the husband or the wife, but may not be granted if each owns a homestead; and it does not extend to judgments rendered against the debtor on account of a mortgage, non-payment of the purchase money or supplies and labour for building and repairs.
In 1907 the legislature passed a radical measure, making the penalty for operating games of chance six months’ imprisonment in the county-jail, and, at the discretion of the court, a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $500; this law went into effect on the 1st of January 1908. Gambling had formerly been licensed—the gambling-house keeper paying $200 per annum for each gaming table or apparatus, this sum going to the district and county school funds.
Revenues for the support of the government are derived chiefly from the general property tax. There are also special corporation taxes on car companies, express companies and foreign corporations producing, refining or selling petroleum or coal oil: and a system of licence-charges or business taxes. A poll tax is levied by the state for school purposes and may also be levied by municipalities. The county and the municipal tax rates are limited respectively to 5 and 10 mills on the dollar. A special tax not exceeding 3 mills on the dollar may be levied on all taxable property for school purposes, and the proceeds apportioned among the school districts according to the number of school children. The proceeds of the poll tax are distributed in the counties in which the tax is collected. Each school district may supplement the aid from the state by laying special taxes, and the Federal government has granted to each township 4 sq. m. of public land to aid in the support of the schools. Land-grants amounting in 1907 to 1,343,080 acres had also been made for the benefit of various educational, charitable and correctional institutions, and for irrigation purposes. At the close of the fiscal year ending on the 31st of May 1908, New Mexico showed expenditures of $721,272·81, receipts of $754,080·94 and a balance in the treasury of $378,653·63. The bonded debt, amounting on the 31st of May 1908 to $788,000, was incurred partly in meeting temporary deficits in the treasury and partly in the construction of public buildings.
Education.—At the head of the public school system is a Board of Education of seven members, including the governor and the superintendent of public instruction; this Board apportions the school fund among the counties, selects the text-books and prepares the examinations for teachers. The superintendent of public instruction exercises a general supervision over the schools of New Mexico. There is also a superintendent of schools for each county, and the counties are divided into school districts, each having three directors, who disburse the school funds and have the care of the school property. In incorporated cities and towns these functions are discharged by local boards of education. The school age is from five to twenty-one years, and for children between the ages of seven and fourteen school attendance for three months in each year is compulsory. The total enrollment for the year ending the 1st of August 1906 was 39,377, with an average daily attendance of 25,174; the average length of the school year was 5 months and 19 days. The use of English in the schoolroom is required by law; New Mexico has adopted a uniform system of text-books.
The state supports the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque; a College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts[1] (established 1889, opened 1890) at Mesilla Park, 40 m. from El Paso; a Normal School at Silver City (pop. 1900, 2735; county-seat of Grant county); a Normal University at Las Vegas; a School of Mines (at Socorro; pop. 1900, 1512; county-seat of Socorro county), which was founded in 1889, was organized and opened in 1895 when it received from Congress 50,000 acres of land, has in its library the private library of John W. Powell, formerly director of the U.S. Geological Survey, and owns the Torrance Mine at the foot of Socorro Mountain, 2 m. from the college campus; and a Military Institute at Roswell (pop. 1900, 2006; county-seat of Chaves county). Indian day schools are maintained by the Federal government at Albuquerque, Jicarilla, Santa Fé and Zuñi.
The state maintains an insane asylum at Las Vegas, a deaf and dumb asylum and penitentiary at Santa Fé, an institute for the blind at Almagordo, a reform school at El Rito and a miners’ hospital at Raton. For many years the legislature has also contributed to the support of a number of private hospitals and charitable institutions.
History.—To the existence of an Old-World myth New Mexico owes its early exploration by the Spaniards. Early in the 16th century it was believed that in the New World would be found the fabled cities and creatures of which Europeans had heard for centuries. There was a story that in the 8th century a bishop of Lisbon, to escape from the Arabs, had fled to islands in the West, where he and his followers had founded seven cities; and when the Indians in Mexico related to the Spanish explorers a bit of their folk-lore, to the effect that they had issued from seven caves, the imaginative white men soon identified these caves with the famous Seven Cities. In 1536 came Cabeza
- ↑ This college also receives Federal aid: 100,000 acres of public land were voted to it in 1898.
