The first known inhabitants of New Mexico were members of the Clovis culture of Paleo-Indians. Later inhabitants include Native Americans of the Mogollon and the Anasazi cultures. By the time of Eurpean contact in the 1500's, the region was settled by the villages of the Pueblo peoples and groups of Navajo, Apache, and Ute.

 Following the Mexican-American War, from 1846-1848 and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Mexico ceded its mostly unsettled northern holdings, today known as the American Southwest and California to the United States of America. In the compromise of 1850 Texas ceded its claims to the area lying east of the Rio Grand in exchange for ten million dollars. The United States acquired the southwestern boot heel of the state and southern Arizona below the Gila River in the mostly desert Gadsden Purchase of 1853.

Congress admitted New Mexico as the 47th state in the Union on January 6, 1912.

Rocky Mountain District

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