wing the example set by King Charles V. He followed this symbol with patents. Thus making the Pueblos the only Indians to hold title to their own land. Since Texas was part of the Confederacy the Tiguas and Ysleta del Sur were left out of this gesture. The exclusion left the Tigua in the Jurisdiction of the state rather than federal government. Senator Albert Fountain returned to El Paso in 1866 to make a new start. He was recuperating from wounds he had received fighting Indians as a captain in a volunteer cavalry. This was after he had been discharged by the U.S. Army in 1864. During Reconstruction, El Paso became a haven for carpetbagger lawyers. Attorneys were needed since judges appointed by Reconstructionists seldom allowed ex-Confederates to practice law in their courts. There were a great number of cases, especially involving ownership in land. W.W. Mills, a strong political power in El Paso, had been urging the government to confiscate the property of those who had supported the Confederate cause.Albert H. French was elected county judge in 1866. William Bacon was elected district judge, and James Zabriskie was chosen district attorney. Fountain’s law practice began as a result of contacts he made at Ben Dowell’s salon. Ben Dowell, a friend of Mills, would also become Important to the scheme to defraud the Tigua and the government for personal gain. Dowell was married to Juana Marquez, a full-blooded Tigua whose family included tribal Caciques, or Chiefs. They did not speak English. Nor did they read or write. It was in Dowell’s bar that Fountain met the commissioners in charge of dispersing rebel property and was “assigned to the staff to investigate titles for ranches, mills, business, private residences, and other properties of former Confederates in the El Paso district. Fountain appreciate the work no doubt, as by this point his family was nearly penniless. One of the properties confiscated was the...
