Everything about Pueblo Revolt totally explained
The
Pueblo Revolt of 1680 or
Popé's Rebellion was an uprising of many
pueblos of the
Pueblo people against Spanish colonization of the Americas in the
New Spain province of
New Mexico.
Background
Many of the Pueblo people harbored a latent hostility toward the Spanish, primarily due to their denigration and prohibition of the traditional
religion. The traditional economies of the pueblos were likewise disrupted, the people having been forced to labor on the
encomiendas of the colonists. Some Pueblo people may have been forced to labor in the mines of
Chihuahua. However, the Spanish had introduced new farming implements and provided some measure of security against
Navajo and
Apache raiding parties. As a result, they'd lived in relative peace with the Spanish since the founding of the Northern New Mexican colony in
1598.
In the
1670s,
drought swept the region, which not only caused famine among the Pueblo, but also provoked increased attacks from neighboring nomadic tribes—attacks against which Spanish soldiers were unable to defend them. At the same time, European-introduced diseases were ravaging the natives, greatly decreasing their numbers. Unsatisfied with the protective powers of the
Spanish crown and disenchanted with the
Roman Catholic relig it had brought along, the people turned to their old religions. This provoked a wave of repression on the part of
Franciscan missionaries. For example, in
1675 Governor Juan Francisco Treviño ordered the arrest of forty-seven Pueblo
medicine men and accused them of practicing
witchcraft. Four medicine men were sentenced to death by hanging; three of those sentences were carried out, while the fourth prisoner committed suicide. The remaining men were publicly whipped and sentenced to prison. When the 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 released was a
San Juan Indian named "
Popé" (also spelled Po'Pay).
Popé
Following his release,
Popé planned and orchestrated the Pueblo Revolt. While a fugitive from the
Spanish authorities for complicity in several murders, Popé sought refuge at
Taos Pueblo. From Taos he plotted the revolt. Popé dispatched runners to all the Pueblos carrying knotted cords, the knots signifying the number of days remaining until the appointed day. Each morning the Pueblo leadership was to untie one knot from the cord, and when the last knot was untied, that would be the signal for them to rise against the Spaniards in unison.
The day for the attack had been fixed for
August 11 1680, but the Spaniards learned of the revolt after capturing two
Tesuque Pueblo youths entrusted with carrying the message to the pueblos. Popé then ordered the execution of the plot on
August 10, before the uprising could be put down.
The attack was commenced by the Taos,
Picuris, and
Tewa Indians in their respective pueblos. Twenty-one of the province's forty Franciscans, and three hundred and eighty Spaniards, counting men, women and children, were killed. Spanish settlers fled to
Santa Fe, the only Spanish city, and
Isleta Pueblo, one of the few Pueblos that didn't participate in the rebellion. Believing themselves the only survivors, the refugees at Isleta left for
El Paso del Norte on
September 15. Meanwhile Popé's insurgents besieged Santa Fe, surrounding the city and cutting off its water supply. New Mexico Governor
Antonio de Otermín, barricaded in the
Governor’s Palace, called for a general retreat, and on
August 21 the Spanish settlers streamed out of the capital city headed for the El Paso del Norte.
Popé's world
The retreat of the Spaniards left New Mexico in the power of the Indians. Popé ordered the Indians, under penalty of death, to burn or destroy crosses and other religious imagery, as well as any other vestige of the Roman Catholic religion and Spanish culture, including Spanish
livestock and fruit trees. He also forbade the planting of wheat and barley. Popé went so far as to command those Indians who had been married according to the rites of the Catholic Church to dismiss their wives and to take others after the old native tradition. He died in
1688
Following their success, the different Pueblo tribes, separated by hundreds of miles and six different languages, quarreled as to who would occupy Santa Fe and rule over the country. These power struggles, combined with raids from nomadic tribes and a seven year drought, weakened the Pueblo resolve and set the stage for a Spanish reconquest.
"Bloodless" reconquest
In July
1692,
Diego de Vargas returned to Santa Fe. De Vargas surrounded the city before dawn and called on the Indians to surrender, promising clemency if they'd swear allegiance to the
King of Spain and return to the Christian faith. The Indian leaders gathered in Santa Fe, met with de Vargas, and agreed to peace. On
September 14,
1692, de Vargas proclaimed a formal act of repossession.
De Vargas repossession of New Mexico is often called a "bloodless reconquest". However, de Vargas mounted several military campaigns against the Pueblo peoples in the years that followed in an attempt to maintain the peace. For instance, a Second Pueblo Revolt was attempted in
1696, resulting in the death of five missionaries and twenty-one Spaniards, but was effectively thwarted. By the end of the
century, the Spanish reconquest was essentially complete.
While their independence from the Spaniards was short-lived, the Pueblo Revolt granted the Pueblo Indians a measure of freedom from future Spanish efforts to eradicate their culture and religion following the reconquest. Moreover, the Spanish issued substantial land grants to each Pueblo and appointed a public defender to protect the rights of the Indians and argue their legal cases in the Spanish courts.
In the arts
In
1995, in Albuquerque, La Compania de Teatro de Albuquerque produced the
bilingual play
Casi Hermanos, written by
Ramon Flores and
James Lujan, which depicted events leading up to the Pueblo Revolt, inspired by accounts of two half-brothers who met on opposite sides of the battlefield. In
2005, in Los Angeles, Native Voices at the Autry produced
Kino and Teresa, an adaptation of
Romeo and Juliet written by Taos Pueblo playwright James Lujan, which is set five years after the Spanish Reconquest of 1692 and matches actual historical figures with their literary counterparts to assay how both sides learned how to live together and form the culture that's present day New Mexico.
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