THE PUEBLO REVOLT
August 10-21, 1680
THE PUEBLOS
Location: Arizona & New Mexico
 Accommodation: settled down on the top of cliffs
in terraced buildings made of abode (mud &
straw)
 Food: grew crops of maize and beans (farmers)
 Success: irrigation

ANTECEDENTS
•
1st exploration by Francisco Vásquez de
Coronado in 1540 (from Mexico to North)
ANTECEDENTS
Colonization by Don Juan de Onate in 1598
 Rumors of mines that Coronado had missed
 Need to secure the northern border of New Spain
„Your main purpose,” the viceroy’s instruction to
Onate read, „ shall be the service of God our
Lord, the spreading of His holy Catholic faith,
and the reduction and pacification of the natives
of the said provinces.”
 Successful settlement by Spanish
CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER SPANISH
Prohibition of traditional religion
 New economic system: encomienda (trusteeship
labor system)
 New farming implements (i.e.: plough)
 New security against neighbor Indians (Apache
& Navajo raiding)
 They (Pueblos & Spaniards) lived in peace
together

WHY DID THE REBELLION DEVELOP?
Drought swept the region in 1670
 Famine among the Pueblos
 Diseases appeared by the Europeans (great
reduce of number of the Indians)
 Disappointment of the Catholic Religion
 The people turned back to their old religion

ARRESTING IN 1675
Governor Juan Fransisco Trevino ordered the
arrest of 47 Pueblo medicine men (reason:
witchcraft)
 Pueblo leaders went to Santa Fe (where the
prisoners were held)
 The lack of the Spanish soldiers (they were in
fighting with Apaches) made Trevino to release
the prisoners
 Among those medicine men was Popé (a San
Juan Indian)

POPÉ (1631-1688)
„Ripe Squash”
 The leader of the Revolt
 Refuge at Taos Pueblo
 Planned the revolt and & congregated most of the
Pueblo Tribes Leaders
 Pueblos spoke different languages
 How could they communicate and keep the revolt
in secret?

SIGNS
Use of drawings on deerskin representing the
method of attack
 Use of knotted cords representing the number of
the day left before the revolt

THE LAST DAYS
The day of the attack had been fixed on 11th of
August
 Two dispatched runners were captured (with a
message) by the Spaniard who found out about
the revolt
 The revolt started one day earlier

THE ATTACK
The 1st offensive: Taos, Picuris & Tewa
 380 Spaniards were killed (men, women &
children)
 The settlers fled to Santa Fe (the only Spanish
city)
 Popé’s warriors cut off Santa Fe’s water supply
 Antonio de Otermín (Governor of New Mexico)
called for a general retreat
 21st of August 3,000 Spanish settler streamed
out the capital to south

WAR STORES
Pueblos
Bows
 Arrows
 Small shields
 Lances
 Rocks

Spaniards
Arquebuses
 Swords
 Daggers
 Shields

THE GREAT VICTORY & PEACE
New Mexico was left to Indians
 Was it really a great victory and peace?
 Yes, it was a great victory!
 The most successful Indian uprising in the
history of West
 How about peace?

PEACE?
Popé made himself a governor of Pueblos
 He was very demanding of them
 Indians had to destroy all the religious imageries
of Catholic Church
 He forbade the planting of wheat, barley, fruit
trees and the use of the new farming implements
 He 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

PEACE?
New generations grew up under Spanish rules
 Popé’s ideas were not maintainable
 Moreover he died in 1688.
 The existence of the diversity of Pueblo Tribes
(separated by hundreds of miles and 8 different
languages) made them to quarreled about who
would occupy Santa Fe (the capital) and rule over
the country.

POSSIBILITY OF SPANISH‘S RETURN?
Yes!
 Spaniards reconquered the province in 1692
