USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume I > Part 6
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The Toas nation (possibly the Tegua), eight towns, was located be- tween Santa Fé and the Rio Grande, and contained six thousand people. Benavides reported that this was the first nation to embrace the Christian Vol. I. 2
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HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
faith. It had churches and three convents, the church at San Ildefonso being particularly attractive. Benavides states that one of the friars taught the San Ildefonso Indians to irrigate their lands with the river water by means of dams and ditches.
The Hemes (Jemez) nation, west of the Toas about seven leagues, had two towns, St. Joseph and San Diego, with three thousand popula- tion.
The Picuries nation, located about ten leagues up the river from the Toas, had a population of about two thousand, residing in one village. They properly belonged to the nation of the Toas, but were considered as an- other race, having lived by themselves for a long time.
The Toas nation, located seven leagues north of the Picuries, had a population of twenty-five hundred, baptized, and, though of the same nation as the Picuries originally, they spoke a somewhat different lan- guage.
The Rock of Acoma, twelve leagues west from the town of Santa Ana, in the Queres province, did not consent to receive the missionaries until 1629.
The province of Zuñi, thirty leagues west of Acoma, consisted of eleven or twelve villages, with a population of ten thousand, having two convents and two churches.
The Moqui nation, thirty leagues west of the Zuñis, had a population of ten thousand, the people distributed among several villages.
The Navajos, who at first resisted the efforts of the missionaries, finally consented to attend services at the mission of Santa Clara, in the Toa na- tion, which was built in 1629.
The eighty years succeeding the revolt of Acoma are barren of im- portant chronicles. After Oñate various governors succeeded each other, and while the work of exploration and the extension of Spanish control was continued, there is a dearth of the conspicuous in the scanty annals of the period. One source of trouble early manifested itself among the colonists. There were three elements among them, each with different ideals and purposes. The governor was bent on enlarging the realms of his conquest, bringing the natives in subjection and collecting tribute for further expe- ditions, and, of course, he had the support of all who preferred active service to settled occupation. Opposed, on general terms, to these designs were the colonists, who had brought their families into the country and who favored the encouragement of agriculture as a means to permanent resi- dence. The friars, on their part, regarded the conversion of the natives as the prime object of the conquest, and entered with zeal only into those movements which tended to bring about the growth of their spiritual king- dom. Thus, being often at cross purposes, the Spanish occupation during this period was marked by little real progress.
But the rapidity with which the native tribes became Christianized, nominally at least, shows that the padres were exceedingly diligent in carrying out their part of the conquest. Accompanying Oñate on his expedi- tion in 1598 were eight priests and two lay brothers, all of the Franciscan order-Fr. Alonzo Martinez, Fr. Francisco de San Miguel, Fr. Fran- cisco de Zamora. Fr. Juan de Rosas, Fr. Alonzo de Lugo, Fr. Andres Corchado, Fr. Juan Claros, Fr. Cristobal de Salazar, and Juan de Busta- mante and Pedro de Vergara. According to the Benavides report, made
19
SPANISH CONQUEST UNDER ONATE
in 1630, there were in New Mexico fifty friars engaged in the work of the missions, serving over sixty thousand Christian natives in over ninety pueblos, grouped in twenty-five missions. As the bulwark and defense of these missionary enterprises there was a garrison of about two hundred and fifty soldiers at Santa Fé. The complete submissiveness of the Indians is the factor by which we must account for such an extensive system being made possible, and, in fact, the natives in the surrounding pueblos were easily controlled, while the wild Apaches and other outlying tribes did not begin their depredations until after 1670.
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HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
THE REVOLT OF 1680
The dominion of Spain in the pueblos was rudely shattered in 1680. The ease with which the revolution was accomplished shows how super- ficial was the civilization imposed by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities from Mexico and how imperfectly the European and the native populations had been welded. Also it indicates how small and inefficient as an army of occupation was the Spanish force in New Mexico at the time. The natives had hitherto been tractable and submitted themselves easily to the Spanish overlords and the padres of the missions.
The relations between the Spaniards and the natives, while naturally not grateful to the latter as the class in subjection, were not characterized by the severity and harsh mastery which has sometimes been alleged. A saner historical view of Spanish dominion in the new world has shorn it of many barbarous and inhuman aspects which formerly colored with passion and prejudice the narratives of historians. The pueblos were re- quired to contribute a burdensome share of their products in grain and labor to the secular and religious establishments. It has been asserted that the uprising of 1680 was due to the hard labor to which the Indians were subjected in the mines. But there was no mining in New Mexico till after 1725, which completely refutes any such theory. The compulsory labor on the part of the Indians was limited to service in the missions. But in return the mission garrisons afforded them protection from hostile tribes, and shared their provisions in times of famine, and lent their per- sonal ministrations at all times for the physical and spiritual welfare of the Indians.
The zeal of the padres in stamping out the native witchcraft and re- ligious practices was, indeed, no small factor in producing the uprising. The spirit of the Inquisition and the bigotry of the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries animated the Spanish conquerors in the new world, even though its practices seldom reached the refinement of cruelty known in the old world. The Indian religious arts and superstitions, therefore, were everywhere repressed with conscientious rigor, and the native priests were ready to foment and aid rebellion whenever opportunity offered.
One of the Indian chiefs, Popè bv name, a San Juan Indian, had taken part in an outbreak in 1675, and until the Spanish were driven from the country was foremost in agitating the Indians and endeavoring to combine the Apaches and the pueblo tribes against the Spanish. It was to the wild tribes under the general name of Apaches that the disturbances preceding 1680 were attributed. The missions were in constant danger from their attacks, and the natives suffered also from the raids. This con- dition of affairs and the insufficient state of defense and lack of arms were reported to the royal authorities, and after long delay a relief force was started north in the fall of 1679, but arrived only in time to succor the fugitives hurrying south from the ruined missions.
21
THE REVOLT OF 1680
August 10, 1680, was the fatal day marking the close of the first epoch in the history of civilization in New Mexico. The outbreak, whose moving spirit was Popè, had been planned with greatest secrecy and among all the pueblos except the Piros in the south, who continued loyal to the Spaniards. The leaders showed unusual skill in organizing the revolt and in keeping their plans secret. The difficulties of preconcerting the move- ment over such a wide territory cause the narrow margin of failure from complete success to detract little from the ingenuity and skill of the cam- paign. The plot was revealed in several missions, in spite of the most rigorous precautions. This hastened the decisive action, which had been set for a later date, and on the morning of the Ioth the missions among the northern pueblos were given to destruction by sword and fire. It was a war of extermination, and none were spared who fell into the hands of the rebels.
The revolt was most successful among the Tehuas, Taos and Picuries, in the northern and frontier districts. The governor at Santa Fe had been apprised of the threatened attack, and had sent warnings to the neighboring missions and instructing the colonists to gather for defense at the capital or at Isleta. South of Santa Fé the alarm had been given in time to save the settlers from death, but north of the capital only the priest at Cochiti and the one at Zuñi escaped. Popular references to the massacre have usually exaggerated the number of those who perished into the thousands, although the actual number was between 400 and 500, including twenty- one missionaries.
Governor Otermin, with his garrison and the refugees assembled at Santa Fé, was now in a most serious position. He lacked most of all arms and ammunition, without which no effective attack could be made on the enemy, nor could a state of siege be long endured. When a force of Indians from the Pecos region arrived before the city on August 14, he at first tried to treat with them, but found them determined that the Spaniards should either abandon the country entirely or accept the fortunes of merci- less war. A whole day's battle before the city was indecisive, and the arrival of fresh Indian forces from the north compelled the governor to withdraw his troops within the walls. The siege was protracted for several days, a garrison of 150 withstanding 3,000 of the enemy and with only few fatalities. But the lack of ammunition made it impossible long to continue the conflict, and finally after a sortie which drove back the Indians, it was decided to abandon the capital and retreat to Isleta .*
The Indians did not attempt to restrain them in their progress nor harass them, and the army of soldiers, settlers, padres, women and children
*NOTE .- A. F. Bandelier, in his accounts of the "Siege of Santa Fé, 1680," jus- tifies the abandonment of the capital by Otermin, after he had succeeded in main- taining his position from the 10th to the 20th of August. "Otermin," he says, "did conquer the Indians that came to Santa Fé; he whipped the people of Galisteo, Pecos, Tezuque and other neighboring pueblos, but he had no provisions. The families who needed his protection were many. It is generally computed that they were about 1,500 persons, including his 150 soldiers. Still, with those 150 soldiers he could have reconquered the whole of New Mexico. The Indians were afraid of their guns; but alas! ammunition was wanting, as well as provisions, and the country was hostile. Otermin took the only chance he had, and started with his numerous escort. The soldiers had empty guns, but it was enough to keep the Indians at a distance."
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HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
marched south, through the devastated missions of San Felipe and Sandia, to Isleta, whence the force of refugees had departed under Captain Garcia, contrary to the governor's orders, and thence down the Rio Grande as far as Fra Cristobal. Here the supply train sent up from the City of Mexico the previous vear met the exiles. Nevertheless it was decided imprac- ticable to attempt to recover New Mexico at this time, and the entire sur- viving population of New Mexico was soon encamped about El Paso, which dates its founding as a military station and center of population from the concentration of the refugees from New Mexico at this point until the campaign of reconquest could be undertaken.
In the extensive study of the Zunis in the Twenty-third Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, the writer ( Matilda Coxe Stevenson) gives the fol- lowing narrative accounts of the revolt of 1680, as related by some of the priests of the tribe :
"When the Pueblo Indians as a body planned to revolt, the Zunis went to the mesa called by them Towa yallanne (Corn mountain) and prepared for defense On their way they poisoned a number of springs. They also deposited stones near the brink of the mesa, for use as missiles. The Spanish priest who was with them at the time accompanied them to the mesa. When the Spaniards came to avenge the supposed death of the priest, who had long since adopted the dress of the Zuñis, having none other to wear, they were met with missiles hurled from the mesa and with small shells filled with magic medicine, that could not fail in its purpose, ejected from the mouths of the keeper of the tsu thlanna (great shell) and his deputy. Finally, the rain priests scraped a buckskin and requested the foreign priest to write upon it telling the Spaniards that he was safe and greatly beloved by the Zunis. This he did, and learning of the safety of the priest, the Spaniards departed."
Another narrative runs:
"After the old church was built in Stawanna a Spanish priest resided perma- nently at the village. After a time the Zuñis came to believe that they were to be destroyed by the Spaniards, and they planned a revolt. They told all their women and children to refrain from attending services on a certain day, and the men, providing themselves with bows and arrows, which they had under their blankets, started for the church. The Indians found only a few Spaniards in the church. They locked their doors and killed all but the priest and one other, who escaped through the roof."
In Fr. Defouri's "Martyrs of New Mexico" he says :
"The Indians gave a strange account of the reason why they rose up in anger against the venerable men, whom they knew were their friends, who never had done them harm, but on the contrary had constantly done them good, and whose virtues were well known to them. They related that the devil had appeared to them in the form of a giant, and told them he was their ancient master; ordering them to meet together and put to death all the Spaniards, without distinction, and in particular, they should not spare the religious; that he would help them, and in doing so their lost independence would be restored to them, and they would throw off all subjection."
The rebellion of 1680 secured to the pueblo Indians a period of inde- pendence lasting twelve years. During these years their members decreased by half or more. due to internal warfare. The success of the uprising of 1680 had been due to the weakness of the Spaniards and the suddenness with which the blow fell. But the lack of social, political and military organization among these Indians more than counterbalanced their strength
-
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THE REVOLT OF 1680
of numbers. At that time, nowhere on the American continent had concep- tions of government risen above tribes or confederacies of tribes, such as the organization of the Six Nations of New York state, more commonly known as the Iroquois. The pueblo Indians had not even adopted this primitive idea of confederacy. On the contrary, each tribe maintained its isolated, independent position, excepting that occasional alliances were formed temporarily, to be dissolved the moment the object for which they had been formed was attained. So long as the Spanish conquerors ruled, peaceful relations among the various pueblos obtained. But when the temporary union seemed no longer indispensable, the victorious Indians, as tribes, were rent by dissensions.
There had been no common leader, and no definite plan of action aside from the fixing of a day for an outbreak. Through the influence of Popè concerted action had been effected for the time being, but he could not command the various pueblos after the exigency had passed. While he visited most of the pueblos after the Spaniards had abandoned the country, his visits were more of a religious than political or military character. In most instances it is known that they terminated in drunken orgies. For this reason he soon grew unpopular, even at Taos, where his influence, so far as outside tribes were concerned, had always been strongest. He finally abandoned all efforts to bring about any definite union of the tribes, and retired to his own pueblo, that of the Tehuas, where he died about 1688 or 1689.
Serious trouble soon arose among the Indians over the division of the spoils of war. Within less than two years after Otermin's retreat, the Taos and Picuries were engaged in war with each other. Soon afterward a similar state of affairs arose between the Tignas and the Queres. The fate of the Piros was their extermination as a tribe. Most of them had followed the Spaniards on their retreat; those who remained in their pueblo were either killed or compelled to enter other tribes.
During the period of twelve years during which the pueblos maintained their freedom this state of affairs continued almost uninterruptedly, though at times there was peace between two or more tribes at a time. While two of the pueblos were the scene of internecine struggle, the remainder might be at peace. These alternate periods of hostility and warfare and of friend- ship and peace. so thoroughly characteristic of the ever-inconstant savage or barbarian, with the bloodshed resulting, combined with periods of famine and disease, entailed great loss of life. By 1683 the cattle they had stolen had been killed for meat; their horses were nearly all gone; the farming and other implements which they had obtained from the Spaniards and the missionaries were worn out; sickness fell upon them and there were no more missionaries to relieve their physical distress. The truth is that they had learned to depend upon the Spaniards, settlers and missionaries, in large measures for practical assistance and initiative and encouragement in the offices of everyday life.
To add to their miserable condition they were constantly compelled to face the danger of attack and depredation on the part of the unfriendly nomadic tribes. As soon as the whites had been driven from the country by the pueblos, the Apaches, the Utes and the Navajos began a systematic campaign of depredation against the various villages. They were absolutely without mercy. Knowing that the pueblo Indians could look no longer to
24
HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
the whites for succor and defense against their hereditary foes, the latter began a war of extermination on the various semi-civilized tribes. The Taos and Picuries, owing to their geographical location, were compara- tively easy prey for the Utes; the Pecos and Tehnas to the Apaches ; the western pueblos to the Navajos. No longer did the pueblo Indians find a military post to which they could flock for protection. Under Spanish rule even one or two of the whites formed a nucleus for effective defense. But now the latter found themselves alone, without moral support or guidance, in the presence of a constantly active savage foe who remembered the past, and had learned much of the science of warfare from the white intruders.
Notwithstanding the very apparent advantages of the period of sub- jection and the disadvantages of their isolated position, the town tribes seemed to have no desire for the return to the old conditions. The excite- ment induced by sanguinary conflict had a stronge hold upon them and their rancorous passions still dominated them. Not only was the savage instinct rapidly on the ascendant so far as lust for revenge was concerned, but the fredom gained renewed their devotion to their strange pagan religion.
25
RECONQUEST BY DE VARGAS
RE CONQUEST BY DE VARGAS
During the twelve years of pueblo freedom, from 1680 to 1692, it must not be supposed that the authorities entirely abandoned this field of colonial and missionary exploitation. It has been said that Spain's failure in colonizing the world was largely due to the fact that she endeavored to grasp too much, and not that her ability was weak or her administration faulty. The vigor of the main trunk was not always sufficient to penetrate and vitalize the many extremities. Hence when a sudden and violent blow was struck by the enemy, as in the case of the New Mexico colony, it was no slight task to concentrate the means and forces and direct them to the endangered point. Recuperation was therefore slow. It was difficult to assemble and equip even the small military expedition which finally effected the reconquest.
Governor Otermin, acting under the orders of the viceroy, had first tried to recapture the territory in 1861. With a fighting force of hardly more than 200 men he marched from El Paso through the deserted and devastated southern pueblos, completing the work of destruction wherever the enemy had failed to do so, and finding the first inhabited pueblo at Isleta, among the Tiguas, captured that town and again reduced the people to Christian allegiance. A side expedition went as far north as Cochiti. Though the Spaniards encountered no decided opposition on these marches, they discovered that the Indians were still bitterly hostile to them and evinced no desire to return peaceably to their former relations. There were also threats to massacre the small force of Otermin, so that early in 1682 the expedition returned to El Paso, fruitless so far as practical progress toward reconquest of the lost territory was concerned.
El Paso remained the northernmost presidio for several years there- after. Several unimportant expeditions were made against the pueblo tribes during the decade, and the zeal and energy of Governor Jironza de Cruzat had much to commend it. Early in 1691, however, he was succeeded by Diego de Vargas, during whose official term and under whose direction the reconquest of New Mexico took place, so that the name De Vargas denotes the beginning of an epoch in the history.
De Vargas was unable to complete his preparations for an invasion of New Mexico during the first year of his governorship. But in August, 1692, he set out from El Paso with a small force of sixty soldiers, besides Indian allies. The expedition was too small for occupation, and nothing more was attempted to gain the formal submission of the pueblos and to investigate the conditions of the tribes and the country.
As the expedition advanced up the valley of the Rio Grande the results of the revolution of 1680 and the following years of invasion by the Spaniards and inter-tribal dissension and attacks by the wild Apaches and Navajos were seen on all sides in the complete devastation of a once settled country, in the ruins of villages and mission houses, and in the depopulation
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HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
of such pueblos as Isleta, Sandia, Santo Domingo and Cochiti. A strong force of the Tanos were found in possession of Santa Fé, and at first in a defiantly hostile attitude toward the invaders. But finally they were won over without resort to arms and yielded to Spanish authority and the Christian faith, allowing their children to be baptized and themselves to be pardoned for their apostasy.
After the recovery of Santa Fe there followed expeditions to all the surrounding pueblos, to which promises of peace and pardon were given, and with few exceptions all returned to allegiance. On October 15 De Vargas reported to the viceroy that he had conquered all the pueblos for thirty-six leagues and had baptized a thousand children who had been born during the rebellion. In the remainder of the year he extended his authority to the Pecos on the east and to Acoma, the Zuni and the Moqui villages on the west, and returned to El Paso late in December, after having reconquered, nominally at least, all the territory that had been lost by the sudden revolt of 1680. This was accomplished without the loss of a single life or any serious act of hostility on the part of the Indians, which indicates how much they had lost in the spirit which drove them to action under the command of Popè and the hatred which for several years after the rebellion had incensed them against all civilized practices and institutions.
But the campaign of 1692 was not final. The native population did not fully acquiesce in the Spanish system until their strength was quite broken, when many pueblos had been destroyed and their inhabitants dis- sipated among the sierras or had joined the wild tribes. Gradually the invaders established themselves too strong to be dispossessed, and since the trihes no longer had the ability nor a leader for such a revolt as that of 1680, their outbreaks became continually more sporadic and ineffectual.
It was not until the fall of 1693 that Governor Vargas was ready to proceed north and undertake the actual occupation of New Mexico. His fighting force consisted of about 100 soldiers, and with the settlers and followers the expedition aggregated over 800 persons.
In a letter written by De Vargas to the Count de Galve, then viceroy of New Spain, on October 13, 1693, the day the former started on his reconquest of New Mexico, the governor says :
* *
"Having arrived at this town of El Paso on the 17th day of September, 1693,
* I issued a proclamation to the residents of that town, calling on them to hold themselves in readiness to start. I furnished supplies to all of the seventy families, besides to many bachelors and unmarried women, the whole expedition numbering about eight hundred souls in all. besides a few Indians, who, by reason of the love they had for their homes and relatives, accompanied us. * I * * have decided that myself and those soldiers shall bring those settlers into the country, and thereof I inform your excellency that it is also my intention to re-establish the City of Santa Fe, and there to place again our protectrix, Our Lady of the Conquest, on her throne of the greater glory of her divine majesty. With such a star as a guade, I shall, in conformity with it, govern my actions, so that they may result not only in extending our holy faith, but also the power of our king."
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