Pueblo Revolt

One of the bloodiest uprisings in early America occurred in 1680 when the Pueblo Indians killed 400 Spanish colonists, destroyed scores of Catholic churches, and captured Sante Fe, New Mexico, from European colonizers. What precipitated the revolt was a complex mixture of ethnic, religious, and economic grievances engendered by the Pueblo Indians' resentment of Spanish rule. When Spanish colonizers and Franciscan missionaries founded New Mexico in 1598, they seized Indian land, curtailed Indian religious practices, and forced Indians to labor in Spanish fields and shops under the encomienda system. Years of drought and famine in the 1660s led to a reemergence of native religion, but tensions escalated in 1675 when Spanish soldiers brutally suppressed a popular native religious ceremony by ransacking Pueblo houses of worship, hanging four religious leaders, and arresting 47 others. Among the arrested men was Popé, a medicine man from San Juan Pueblo, who escaped to nearby Taos Pueblo and immediately organized an armed resistance among neighboring tribes that would drive the Spanish from New Mexico.

Because the pueblos were independent villages with many dialects and languages, Popé recruited leaders by using multilingual Indian traders. Taos leaders were especially eager to join the resistance, since the Spanish demand for corn had disrupted their trade with the Apaches to the north, which had crippled their economy and diminished their food supply.

Other pueblos agreed to fight because they grew increasingly weary of Spanish intolerance toward their religious practices.

The revolt occurred on August 10, 1680. The Pueblos had staged a surprise attack, killing men, women, and children. By September 21 of that same year, they forced the Spanish governor Antonio de Otermín and his followers to flee to El Paso, Mexico, but their victory was short-lived. Unable to maintain their alliance, the Indians could not defeat the Spanish when the Spanish military, under the command of Diego de Vargas, returned in 1692. By 1694, Vargas's men captured all the Pueblo towns, and the Spanish once again asserted their authority over the Indians. Despite this loss, however, the Pueblos enjoyed a number of diplomatic gains that would have long-term effects. Through negotiation and compromise with Spanish leaders, the encomienda system ended; missionaries became more accepting of Indian religious practices and rituals; a public defender was appointed by the Crown to protect Indian liberties; and Pueblo villages were awarded royal land grants in a move to pacify Pueblo chieftains.