Mexico who manipulated the communal land grant system in order to accumulate land. Although Baca hadYur predicted that the Mexicans would lose control over the parishes in southern New Mexico with the election of a Democrat, the loss of land occurred anyway due to the immense amount of power that the Santa Fe Ring held. The Mexican Americans who held control over the southern New Mexico parishes gradually began to lose power to the Euro-Americans. This time period proved to be a time of intense conflict between the Mexican Americans and the Euro-Americans. The Mexican Americans living in this area dealt with extreme difficulties as a result of their faith. The attempts by the Euro-Americans to assimilate the Mexican Americans created discord between the two and led to the continued silencing of Mexican American populations in the United States. Establishment of the Archdiocese with Jean Lamy Following the Mexican–American War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave the United States authority over a large territory that was previously under Mexican control, including New Mexico. The area that now encompasses the archdiocese of Santa Fe was originally part of the archdiocese of Durango in Mexico, under the authority of bishop José Antonio Laureano de Zubiría. Following this annexation, the territory fell under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in the United States. In 1851, Pope Pius IX created the Apostolic Vicariate of New Mexico, and appointed Jean-Baptiste Lamy as its first Bishop. Before his appointment in Santa Fe, Lamy had been assigned to Danville, Ohio in 1839 after accompanying John Baptist Purcell to the United States from southern France. Jean Lamy played a crucial role in the establishment of the Archdiocese Santa Fe. Named its bishop, Jean Lamy had traveled and eventually arrived in Santa Fe in the summer of 1851. Once there, Lamy was informed that the clergy did not yet recognize him as bishop because the previous bishop, Zubiría, had not yet confirmed the change. Lamy took it upon himself to visit Zubiría in Durango to confirm this switch. Even after this visit, the conflict between Lamy and Zubiría continued. Zubiría remained the bishop of Durango, although the territory was much smaller after the Treaty of Guadalupe. The main conflict between Zubiría and Lamy was over who would administer southern New Mexico. Once Lamy returned to Santa Fe in 1852, it became apparent that his woes had just begun. With