to protect settlers in new mexico the spanish paid comanche and navajo allies to attack the

Chihuahua, Sonora, and Coahuila were more populated and richer than the Spanish colonies in New Mexico, and Apache raiding soon became a serious problem.

They soon were also visiting Sonora and Coahuila and seem to have absorbed several other Indian peoples native to the future U.S.-Mexico border area, the Suma, Manso, Jano, and Jocome. By 1692, they were present in the present-day state of Chihuahua, Mexico.

Being pushed off the buffalo-rich Great Plains into the more austere desert and mountains of the Southwest probably caused the Apache to become more dependent upon raiding for a livelihood. The Apache migrated south and west, under pressure from the Comanche who were also expanding southward. The early contacts were friendly, but in the 17th century, the relationship between Spaniard and Apache deteriorated because of slave raids by the Spaniards and Apache attacks on the Spanish and Pueblo settlements in New Mexico. At the time the Apache were buffalo hunting nomads and semi-nomads who had trading relationships with the Pueblos of the Rio Grande valley. The Spanish first encountered the Apache, whom they called Querechos, in 1541 in the Texas panhandle. Mexico continued to operate against hostile Apache bands as late as 1915. Thereafter, Mexican operations against the Apache coincided with the Apache Wars of the United States, such as during the Victorio Campaign. War between the Mexicans and the Apache was especially intense from 1831 into the 1850s. The wars began in the 1600s with the arrival of Spanish colonists in present-day New Mexico. The Apache–Mexico Wars, or the Mexican Apache Wars, refer to the conflicts between Spanish or Mexican forces and the Apache peoples.

To protect settlers in new mexico the spanish paid comanche and navajo allies to attack the