Frontier Fighters Frontier Fighters Frontier Fighters Valiant guardians of trails old and new, which stand today as a great nation's frontiers of destiny. Shortly after the United States in the interests of peace and progress annexed New Mexico, renegades, outlaws, and drink-crazed Indians staged a rebellion against the sovereign federal authority. In the summer of 1847, the first American governor, Charles Bent, appointed by General Kearney, was at Taos, home on a short visit. He refused a military escort because he believed himself immune from any attack because he had treated all fairly. With him were a few servants, his children, a girl aged five and a boy, Alfredo, aged ten, and Josefa, the wife of Kit Carson. At sundown of the day of the massacre, a neighbor said to Governor Bent, Governor, there are times even in the life of a soldier when discretion is the better part of valor. What are you going to do if a mob surrounds you? I'm not afraid of any mob. I've treated all with fairness and honesty. That's my record and I stand on it. I've been ugly rumors for the past week. I'm moving my family out of Taos. You have a duty too, sir, to the women of your house. I'll do my duty, but the head of the new civil authority in New Mexico does not run away. I wasn't very wise of you, sir, in these troubled times to refuse an armed escort to Taos. It's inconceivable to me that anyone in New Mexico, Mexican, Indian, or renegade could wish harm to me or mine. Well, God be with you all. As for myself, I'm leaving and taking my family with me. Oh, oh, my dear. I'm sorry. I wasn't really eavesdropping, but I heard. These ranches have the most idiotic fears. Now who in the world would dare assail the authority of the United States government? If there should be an attack, there are only two old muskets in the house. Señora Carson said we should send for her husband, Kit Carson, at once. We'll send for no one, my dear. We'll have dinner and at our usual hour, retire. And don't you worry. When morning comes, the stars and stripes will still be flying over our house in Taos. The crowd, hundreds of Indians and renegades. Outlaws have torn down the flag. They are going to storm the house. Impossible. They wouldn't dare. Oh, we must flee for our lives, child. Oh, warn, rouse the children, Señora Carson. Get them all in the living room. See, see, Señora, at once. Oh, we must do something at once, child. We'll all be murdered in our bid. Just a minute I'm dressed, I will do something. I'll go out there and face that mob down. That's how a gentleman always deals with cowardly Indians and horse thieves. Oh, my child, they've killed him. They've killed him. Oh, Señora. We must be brave now. Think and act quickly, Kito, we say. Alfredo, you and Sister with the spoon and poker start digging a hole in that adobe wall. Oh, we'll never leave, you know. Everybody's being messaged on the side. Quickly, quickly, Alfredo. The mob has monsterized the wall. They tried to break through the door. Shoot them, Mother. This adobe wall connects with the wall of the next house. He need be pay on who can be trusted. God bless your poor husband. So, Señora, but now is not the time for you. I'll take this other poker. You take that sword. Every minute counts. We must break through this wall. The adobe, it is coming away now. The wall is getting bigger and bigger. Quickly, quickly, Señora, please. Oh, my child, so recklessly brave. He said they'd never dare pull down the stars this time. Quick, the wall is getting bigger and bigger. See, it is big enough for the children to go through. Quickly, children, quickly. What's the matter? Alfredo, when you get through, get all the old holes you can find, so we may dress ourselves and stay on the north-side of this cave. My girl, not one should prefer me. Oh, crawl through quickly, my darling, quickly. A little more and then the hole will be large enough for us. Now we can get through this hole into the next house. Oh, who would have thought that there would ever have been a rebellion in the New Mexico City? This is not a rebellion, Señora, this is a massacre. The miraculous escape of the governor's wife, the children, and Mrs. Carson from the massacre at Taos is the prelude to the years between 1847 and 1852. A truce was declared between the forces of those who stood for progress and the development of New Mexico and those who made this new frontier a land of terror. When Bishop Lomme came to Santa Fe to bring learning, religion, and civilization, immigration into the new territory was practically at a standstill. True, there were no wild outbreaks such as in 1847, but even the good father saw that he would have a fight on his hands to even establish one little adobe church. Said a priest to his bishop, you are my superior and in all things will I obey you, but I am utterly without hope that you will fulfill your dream. My dream will be fulfilled, my son. Civilization must and will come to New Mexico. There will be churches, schools, seminaries, hospitals, gardens. And who will frequent these institutions you speak of until law and order is restored to the territory? Who will enter it? Law and order will be restored. God will show me the way. I will have faith and work. Good bishop, good father, half-breed, renegades, fifty of them just swept through the town, robbed in pillage, and outraged. God, their mercy. Was the leader recognized by any? Yes, he was the master brigand Jose Maria Martin. Our little adobe church, was that left unscathed? It's totally serviced, it challenged the altar cloth. My good bishop, were it not better for us to abandon such a land as this to the savages and bandits, there will be work for us in other fields. I will never give up Santa Fe to the devil. I have the plan. I will go to the Taos and beg to come from retirement, Senor Kit Carson. Senora Carson, I trust that my plea will not fall on deaf ears. We who have gone through the massacre of 1847 know only too well that unless law and order comes to New Mexico to stay, there is no future in the Southwest. Welcome, good bishop Lamy. Welcome to Taos. God be with you, my son. I will leave you two alone. Father Lamy, you will find that Keith stands just as much today with God as he always did. She spoke true, bishop. I stand with God against lawlessness, injustice, and intolerance. I came to Santa Fe hoping to serve God by serving man. Three days ago, fifty brigands swept through the town like a plague. They pillaged and stole and terrorized. That must not go on. Must unite and stamp out them that defy the laws of both God and man. Must be done now, bishop Lamy, or else we'll have another 1847 on our hands. I knew that my plea would not fall on deaf ears. I would make of New Mexico a haven for all who would know of this fruitful land. I would bring God to the godless, learning to the ignorant, mercy to the sinners, and healing to the sick. It will take a well-laid campaign to do all that. But I'm with you. We'll fight together, tooth and toenail. I ain't much on talking, as you know. I see gathered here tonight men of a stamp that would die fighting for what they believe to be right. I also see faces peering up into mind that think just because a man's a priest, he ain't a man. That's a bald lie. But priests ain't gonna take up arms against brigands and cattle thieves. That ain't what God called them to do. But they are here to put up schools and churches and hospitals, to plant gardens, orchards, and to make this territory of New Mexico a decent place for ladies and gentlemen to live in. Before I get through, maybe what I'm saying will be a speech. But Batman and Santa Fe and all of New Mexico, for that matter, has got to go. Pronto. Horse thieves, renegades, marauding hellions, and killers. I've been in this country long enough to know them all. And from today on, they ain't gonna answer just to the church or the state, but to Kit Carson personally. I'm giving every bad man in Santa Fe just 24 hours to get out. If he's here after that time, I'm gonna shoot him on sight. Kit Carson stayed in Santa Fe until he saw the good work of the bishop begin to bear fruit. The bad men became good men, some of them. Others left the country. Peace began to descend on New Mexico. And with it, hand in hand, progress came marching down the Santa Fe trail. New Mexico is safe. Replace the fearful cry, keep out of New Mexico. It's a land of outlaws and renegades and killers. The desert began to bloom, and the dream of Bishop Lommy came to be realized. In 1867, when Kit Carson came back to Santa Fe, both he and Bishop Lommy looked out over cultivated fields, orchards. And behind them were schools, churches, seminaries, a hospital. My son, this is all your handiwork as much as mine. It's your work, Father. I only made it clear to everybody that there ain't no room for a bad man in any part of this land over which lies the stars and stripes. God bless you, Signor Kit. Looking out with eyes other than the two in my head, I see a Santa Fe trail that's opened year round. From one season to the other, one year to the other, one century to the other. Heroes of the West, soldier and churchman alike, long will they live in our memories. Kit Carson and Bishop Lommy, truly great frontier fighters. Mother of God to toda' Mother of God to toda...
