Almost 100 years before the American Revolution, another war of independence took place on American soil, against the Spanish colonizers. Coordinated by Chief Tewa Po’Pay, the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 saved indigenous cultures from destruction under a feudal system that enslaved the inhabitants of the region and forced them to convert to Christianity.
The rebellion, fought in what is now New Mexico, resulted in a rare victory for tribal nations over European colonizers. Although he only managed to fend off the Spaniards for 12 years, it was long enough to protect the ancient traditions, languages and homelands of the Pueblo people to this day.
“If they had lost, we wouldn’t be here. That’s what was at stake in 1680. I wouldn’t be here, and the languages of our ancestors wouldn’t be here, ”says Jon Ghahate, cultural educator at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and member of the Laguna and Zuni Pueblos. Ghahate uses historical documents compiled by the Spaniards, as well as the own oral accounts of his peoples, to tell the story of the revolt.
Conquistadors: “We will do you all the harm and harm we can”
Since the arrival of the conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado in 1540, the indigenous agrarian peoples of the desert of the Southwest have resisted the incursions of the Spaniards. The most famous of the resistance fighters, Po’pay (whose name means “Ripe squash”), was born around 1630 in the community of Ohkay Owingeh, or San Juan Pueblo, near present-day Española. He became a prominent leader and member of a medical society, but lived in hardship Requerimiento (Where “conditions”) brought by the Spaniards to the region.
This quasi-religious doctrine, established in 1513, authorized the Spaniards to subdue Native Americans and force them to give up their own faith. According to the document, intended to be read by the conquistadors to the local Indian population, failure to submit would have dire consequences: dispose of you … and do you all the harm and harm we can.
“It was their traditions, their cultures, their spirituality, their languages, and therefore their very existence, which were now under attack,” Ghahate said. Contrary to the dogmatic doctrines and scriptural doctrines of the Spanish, the Pueblo peoples believed that “all living and inanimate things are connected, part of a great cosmic cyclic construction that has no beginning and no end. As human beings, we are only part of it.
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The revolt required extraordinary coordination and knotted ropes
Taos Pueblo village, where Po’Pay hid to plan the revolt against the Spaniards.
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In 1675, Po’pay and his followers gathered in Jemez Pueblo to discuss Spanish encroachments on their lands, raids by their enemies Apache and Navajo, and a drought, which people believed they could end with a return to the traditional ceremonies and practices.
“In Pueblo thought and culture, when religion is suppressed, the natural order of life is disrupted,” wrote Matthew Martinez, member of Ohkay Owingeh, meaning “a threat to the livelihoods of the people “.
Yet the Spaniards banned traditional practices. Po’pay and 46 other pueblo leaders were convicted of witchcraft for prosecuting them; three were hanged in public, one leader hanged himself in prison rather than suffer the same fate. Po’Pay was among those publicly flogged.
Upon his release, Po’pay went into hiding in Taos Pueblo, far north. From there, he spent four years organizing a rebellion that would involve nearly all of the dozens of Pueblo communities scattered throughout the region. Secrecy was paramount. Po’Pay reportedly killed his own son-in-law, whom he suspected of treason, to keep the plan a secret.
“It took a single individual to orchestrate the revolt in two dozen communities that spoke six different languages and spanned a distance of nearly 400 miles, from Taos on one side to the Hopi villages on the other,” he said. writes Pueblo scholar Joe Sando, who taught the history of his people at the University of New Mexico. And Po’Pay, he added, overcame other strategic drawbacks: “The Pueblo were prohibited from using horses. In addition, during the Spanish rule, they were not allowed to use firearms of any kind. “
To coordinate the timing of the uprising, Po’pay dispatched runners to deliver knotted ropes to local leaders who, despite divergent languages and dialects, could “read” the scheduled date by undoing a knot per day until ‘they are all undone. But because two young messengers were captured by spies, tortured and killed, the revolt was moved to the last minute of its original date of August 13 to August 10, when the Pueblos rose in unison against their overlords. .
Po’Pay had ordered his followers to take the Spanish horses to prevent them from fleeing. They ransacked haciendas, blocked roads and cut off Santa Fe’s water supply. In retaliation for their religious oppression, they vandalized and burned down Catholic churches. During the revolt, nearly 400 Spaniards were killed, including several dozen priests, as well as settlers and Pueblos.
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Under siege, the Spanish retreat
After about a week, the Spaniards left Santa Fe, about 2,000 people in total, including many Pueblos who were either hostages or had converted to Catholicism and had chosen to stay with the Spaniards. The refugees were allowed to march south without being disturbed by the revolutionaries of Pueblo. Many have settled in El Paso.
Po’pay had promised that if the Spaniards were driven out, the Pueblo communities would find peace and prosperity. Although his vision of a united Pueblo culture did not materialize as he hoped, for 12 years the Spaniards were kept away from the region. During this time, relations between the Pueblos and the Spaniards changed. The dreaded forced labor system of the encomienda settlers was abandoned and the Pueblo revolutionaries fighting under Po’pay were pardoned.
According to Ghahate, Po’Pay had been one of the “true traditionalists” who rejected everything the Spaniards brought, even horses, herding practices and tools that made life easier. But not all Puebloans agreed. Over time, Po’Pay lost popular support.
The legacy of Po’Pay
After the Spaniards returned to Santa Fe, Ghahate says, they began to show more tolerance for a mixture of indigenous and Catholic traditions; such a mixture is practiced in many Pueblos today.
In 2005, a statue of Po’Pay was unveiled in the National Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol in Washington DC.
“For the Pueblo people here, Po’pay is our hero,” said Herman Agoyo, member of Ohkay Owingeh. “The tribes were on the verge of losing their cultural identity when the Pueblo uprising put everything back on track for our people. “
