From the time the first Spanish colony, San Juan de los Caballeros,
was established at the San Juan Pueblo (now called Ohkay Owingeh)
in 1598, New Mexico became a Franciscan enclave dedicated to converting
the region's Native Americans to Christianity. Conquistador Juan
de Onate named the pueblo San Juan de los Caballeros after his patron
saint, John the Baptist.
Juan de Onate and his men forced the Native Americans from their
homes and soon established the capitol of the new Spanish colony
of New Mexico across the river at another pueblo called Yunque,
naming it San Gabriel de Yunque. Onate then became the governor
of the new province. The Spaniards cut windows and doors into the
blank adobe walls of the first-floor rooms and changed the pueblo
to fit their European standards. Almost immediately, the soldiers
also began to raid area pueblos taking anything of value.
Oñate's main purpose in colonizing New Mexico was to discover
gold and silver, but the missionaries who traveled with him were
determined to Christianize the Native Americans. In the decades
that followed the Pueblo Indians suffered under an oppressive Spanish
rule in which they were forced to labor, required to pay demanding
taxes in goods, and their religious activities were suppressed.
The first to rebel was the Acoma tribe. In December 1598, a party
of Spanish soldiers seeking food arrived at Acoma. Initially, they
were welcomed and treated in a friendly manner until the soldiers
turned aggressive and began to demand grain from the Acoma storehouses,
which was needed for the tribe to survive the winter. Provoking
a furious reaction, the Acoma attacked the soldiers, killing 13
of them, including their commander, Juan de Zaldivar, who was a
nephew of Juan de Oñate.
In response, Oñate resolved to make an example of Acoma,
and dispatched 70 of his best men, under the command of Vicente
de Zaldivar, to attack the Acoma Pueblo. On January 21, 1599, the
Spanish troops came into view of the pueblo and the tribe fanned
out from their village to guard the edge of the mesa. As the Spaniards
drew closer, the defenders unleashed a barrage of rocks and arrows
down on them. Despite the defensive barrage coming from atop the
mesa, the soldiers fought their way to the top over the next three
days. During the battle, the Spaniards brought a small cannon up
the back of the mesa and began firing into the village. The battle
then became a massacre and when it was over, as many as 800 Acoma
people were dead and their pueblo in ruins. Oñate was later
tried, convicted of cruelty to Indians and colonists, and was banished
from New Mexico. However, he appealed the ruling and was later cleared
of all charges. He lived out the rest of his life in Spain. A later
governor, Pedro de Peralta, established the settlement of Santa
Fe in 1609 as the seat of government. Peralta built the Palace of
the Governors in 1610.
The Acoma rebellion was not forgotten and tensions increased between
the Spanish and the Pueblo Indians as the Spanish continued to demand
food, clothing, and labor. Additionally, the Spanish attempted to
prohibit their traditional religion and disrupted their economy.
The Franciscans also found the pueblo people increasingly unwilling
to consent to baptism, despite the number of missions that they
founded.
For the next several decades, most of the Puebloans lived in relative
peace with the Spanish, primarily due to the protection the Spanish
provided against Navajo and Apache raiding parties. However, some
repeatedly rebelled against the better-armed and better-organized
Spaniards, but, these uprisings were quickly suppressed.
In the 1670s, drought swept the region, which caused famine among
the pueblos and provoked increased attacks from neighboring nomadic
tribes. Due to the number of attacks, the Spanish soldiers were
not always able to defend the pueblos. At about the same time, European-introduced
diseases were ravaging the pueblos and greatly decreasing their
numbers. Becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the Spanish, the
Puebloans turned to their old religions, provoking a wave of repression
from the Franciscan missionaries. While the missionaries had previously
tended to ignore the occasional pueblo ceremonies as long as the
people made some effort to attend mass, the Puebloans renewed vigor
towards their religions caused the Fray Alonso de Posada to forbid
Kachina dances by the Pueblo Indians and ordered the missionaries
to seize every mask, prayer stick, and effigy they could lay their
hands on and burn them.
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Tewa Dancers, Edward S. Curtis, 1905
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Furthermore, the Indians were forbidden, on pain of death, to practice
their native religions. When some Spanish officials tried to curb
the power of the Franciscans, they were charged with heresy and
tried before the Inquisition.
In 1675, the tension came to a head when Governor Juan Francisco
Treviño ordered the arrest of 47 medicine men and accused
them of practicing witchcraft. Four of the men were sentenced to
be hanged three of those sentences were carried out, while
the fourth prisoner committed suicide. The remaining men were publicly
whipped and sentenced to prison.
When this news reached the Pueblo leaders, they moved in force
to Santa Fe, where the prisoners were held. Because a large number
of Spanish soldiers were away fighting the Apache, Governor Treviño
released the prisoners. Among those who were released was a medicine
man from the San Juan Pueblo (now known as Ohkay Owingeh), named
Popé, who would soon become the leader of the Pueblo Rebellion.
Popé then moved to Taos Pueblo and began plotting with men
from other pueblos to drive out the Spaniards.
Before long, a well-coordinated effort of several pueblo villages
was established in August 1680. Throughout the upper Rio Grande
basin north of El Paso to Taos, the Tewa, Tiwa, Hopi, Zuni and other
Keresan-speaking pueblos, and even the non-pueblo Apache planned
to simultaneously rise up against the Spanish.
The attack was planned for August 11, 1680, but, the Spaniards
learned of the revolt after capturing two Tesuque Pueblo youths
who were carrying messages to the pueblos. Popé then ordered
the execution of the plot on August 10, before the uprising could
be put down. The intent was to kill the missionaries, destroy the
pueblo churches, and to kill any settlers who refused to leave their
lands.
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Tewa warrior guarding the pueblo, Edward
S. Curtis, 1905.
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On August 10, 1680, the attack was commenced by the Taos, Picuri,
and Tewa Indians in their respective pueblos. The warriors killed
21 of the province's 40 Franciscans, and another 380 Spaniards,
including men, women, and children. The Spaniards who were able
to escape fled to Santa Fe and to the Isleta Pueblo, one of the
few pueblos that did not participate in the rebellion. Popé's
warriors, armed with Spanish weapons, then besieged Santa Fe, surrounding
the city and cutting off its water supply. New Mexico Governor Antonio
de Otermín, barricaded in the Governor's Palace, soon called
for a general retreat and on August 21st, the remaining 3,000 Spanish
settlers streamed out of the capital city and headed for El Paso,
Texas. Believing themselves the only survivors, the refugees at
the Isleta Pueblo, also left for El Paso in September. In the meantime,
the Pueblo people destroyed most of the homes and buildings of the
Spanish.
The Pueblo Revolt effectively ended Spanish rule in New Mexico
for the next 12 years. However, all was not as the Puebloans had
hoped. The expulsion of the Spanish did not bring peace and prosperity
to the pueblos. Returning to their traditional religion did not
bring rain to ease the drought. With the Spaniards gone, the Apache
and Navajo stepped up their raids. Additionally, the retreat of
the Spaniards left New Mexico in the power of the pueblos, but the
diverse pueblo tribes, separated by hundreds of miles and eight
different languages, quarreled as to who would occupy Santa Fe and
rule over the country.
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A portrait of Diego de Vargas from the New
Mexico History Museum collection. This is a reproduction of
the only known portrait of De Vargas that was commissioned
during his lifetime.
Courtesy of the Palace
of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), No. 011409.
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Popé, who had succeeded in leading the rebellion, set himself
up as the leader, but, was not as effective in that role. He attempted
to destroy every trace of the Spanish presence in New Mexico. "The
God of the Christians is dead," he proclaimed. "He was made of rotten
wood." The pueblo villages were divided and many resented Popé,
considering him a tyrant. Many, who had converted to Christianity
opposed the destruction of Christian relics. Opposition to Spanish
rule had given the pueblos the incentive to unite, but not the means
to remain united once their common enemy was vanquished. These power
struggles, combined with raids from nomadic tribes, Spanish attempts
to re-conquer and a seven-year drought, weakened the Pueblo resolve
and set the stage for a Spanish re-conquest.
A Spanish force of 300 men attempted to regain a foothold in New
Mexico in 1681 but was repelled by Popé's warrior army. Another
Spanish effort in 1687 also failed. The next year Popé died,
with the pueblos divided and weak.
In July 1692, Governor Diego de Vargas, with an army of 150 Spanish
soldiers and pro-Spanish Pueblo warriors, began a successful military
and political reconquest. Indian leaders gathered in Santa Fe to
meet with Vargas and agreed to peace. On September 14, 1692, Vargas
proclaimed a formal act of repossession. Vargas wisely promised
pardon rather than punishment and most of the pueblos gradually
acceded to Spanish rule. Only the Hopi, living in distant Arizona
retained their independence.
Though the 1692 peace agreement was bloodless, in the years that
followed Vargas maintained increasingly severe control over the
Puebloans and during his absence from Santa Fe in 1693, the Puebloans
retook the city. Vargas and his forces staged a quick and bloody
recapture that concluded with 70 executions and 400 Puebloan sentenced
to ten years' servitude.
In 1696, warriors of 14 pueblos attempted a second organized revolt,
killing five missionaries and 34 settlers. Vargas' retribution was
unmerciful, thorough and prolonged. By the end of the century, the
Spanish re-conquest was essentially complete.
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