Primary Source Documents on the Pueblo Revolt
Overview
In summary, Primary Source Documents on the Pueblo Revolt, 1680 includes indigenous testimonies about the historic 1680 Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico, which was then under Spanish rule.
Overview
This document titled "Primary Source Documents on the Pueblo Revolt, 1680" provides valuable insights into the historic Pueblo Revolt that took place in 1680 in New Mexico, a region then under Spanish colonial rule. Led by the Pueblo holy man Popay, this uprising marked a significant turning point in Spanish imperial authority in North America. The document consists of testimonies from various indigenous individuals who were either willing participants or prisoners during the revolt. These testimonies shed light on the reasons for the rebellion, the role of Popay, the cultural and religious aspects of Pueblo life in the 17th century, and the Puebloans' vision for a world free of Spanish influence. These primary sources provide a unique window into the indigenous perspective of the events surrounding the Pueblo Revolt and offer valuable historical context for understanding this pivotal moment in North American history.
Primary Source Documents on the Pueblo Revolt, 1680
Primary Source Documents on the Pueblo Revolt, 1680
Introduction: In 1680 Spanish imperial authority in North America was shaken to its core by an uprising among Pueblo Indians in New Mexico, one of the northernmost provinces of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The leader of the revolt was a Pueblo holy man named Popay (spelled “Popé” in the following excerpts from the historical interviews) who managed to convince nearly all of the pueblos in New Mexico to participate in a coordinated uprising to expel the Spanish from their land.
The revolt came at the tail end of a tumultuous decade for Spanish New Mexico. In the 1670’s the province found itself afflicted by severe drought, accompanied by famine, and escalating raids by bands of hostile Apache warriors who carried off crops, livestock, and captives, which the Spanish authorities were seemingly powerless to stop. As living conditions in New Mexico deteriorated, popular unrest with Spanish administration seemed to escalate. Many Pueblos, though nominal Catholics, began seeking solace in traditional religious practices. These included participating in Kachina dances, which were rituals designed to summon the assistance of “Kachinas” (spirit beings to whom worshipers can turn for assistance with worldly problems like sickness, drought, etc.), even though these had long been banned by New Mexico’s Catholic (mainly Franciscan) authorities.
In 1675, then governor Juan Francisco Treviño had forty-seven Pueblo medicine men arrested on charges of “sorcery” and stirring up trouble for the Spanish government. Four were sentenced to death, while the rest were whipped and released with a warning. One of the holy men who was whipped was Popay, who then relocated to Taos Pueblo and began laying plans for a revolt to drive out the hated Spaniards.
The uprising commenced in August of 1680, and within a few days hundreds of Spaniards, including roughly two thirds of the province’s Franciscan missionaries, were dead. New Mexico’s governor, Antonio de Otermín, found himself besieged at his residence in the provincial capital of Santa Fe, and had to order a hasty retreat out of the province with about two thousand followers, most of whom ended up gathering at El Paso del Norte (modern Juarez) in Mexico.
The following year, in November, 1681, Otermín would make a belated (and ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to invade and reconquer New Mexico. Most of the Puebloans adopted scorched earth tactics, abandoning their pueblos and fields and withdrawing northward rather than give battle or surrender. In January, 1682, aware that a large Puebloan force was gathering to attack him, Otermín once again retreated out of New Mexico, which remained free of Spanish control for more than a decade thereafter.
Instructions: During his 1691-82 expedition, Otermín took sworn testimony from various Pueblo people who came into his custody -- some willingly, and some captured -- which were compiled as part of regular dispatches to his superior, the Count of Paredes, Viceroy of New Spain. These testimonies represent some of the best written sources we have on the indigenous perspective of the Pueblo Revolt, including how it was carried out and their reasons for rebelling. As you read the following excerpts from their testimony, remember to ask yourself certain questions: What does the testimony of these witnesses reveal about the culture and values of the Pueblo peoples of the 17th century? What concerns did they have that led them to revolt against Spanish authority? Did effective leadership (from Popay and others) make a difference? What did their actions show about the type of world they wanted to create?
Historical Note: In the following deposition, the deponent, Juan, is described as a friendly native who had previously worked as a servant to one of the Spanish officers who accompanied Governor Antonio de Otermín on his expedition to attempt the reconquest of New Mexico in 1681. According to this deposition, Juan came to the Spanish camp willingly to provide them with intelligence.
Declaration [of the Indian, Juan. Place on the Rio del Norte, December 18, 1681][1]
“Having been questioned according to the tenor of the case, and asked for what reasons and causes all the Indians of the kingdom in general rebelled, returning to idolatry, forsaking the law of God and obedience to his Majesty … [Juan] said that what he knows concerning this question is that not all of them joined the said rebellion willingly; that the chief mover of it is an Indian who is a native of the pueblo of San Juan, named El Popé, and that from fear of this Indian all of them joined in the plot that he made. …”
“Asked why they held the said Popé in such fear and obeyed him … he said that the common report that circulated and still is current among all the natives is that the said Indian Popé talks with the devil, and for this reason all held him in terror, obeying his commands although they were contrary to the orders of the [Spanish authorities], he giving them to understand that the word he spoke was better than that of all the rest; and he states that it was a matter of common knowledge that the Indian Popé, talking with the devil, killed in his own house a son-in-law of his named Nicolás Bua, the governor of the pueblo of San Juan. On being asked why he killed him, he said that it was so that he might not warn the Spaniards of the rebellion, as he intended to do. …”
“Asked how the said Indian, Popé, convoked all the people of the kingdom so that they obeyed him in the treason, he said that he took a cord made of maguey fiber[2] and tied some knots in it which indicated the number of days until the perpetration of the treason. He sent it through all the pueblos as far as that of La Isleta, there remaining in the whole kingdom only the nation of the Piros who did not receive it; and the order which the said Popé gave when he sent the said cord was under strict charge of secrecy, commanding that the war captains take it from pueblo to pueblo. …”
“Asked to state and declare what things occurred after they found themselves without religious or Spaniards, he said ... following the departure of the señor governor and captain general, the religious[3], and the Spaniards ... the said Indian, Popé, came down in person ... proclaiming through the pueblos that the devil was very strong and much better than God, and that they should burn all the images and temples, rosaries and crosses, and that all the people should discard the names given them in holy baptism and call themselves whatever they liked. They should leave the wives whom they had taken in holy matrimony and take any one whom they might wish, and that they were not to mention in any manner the name of God, of the most holy Virgin, or of the Saints, on pain of severe punishment ... They were ordered likewise not to teach the Castilian language in any pueblo and to burn the seeds which the Spaniards sowed and to plant only maize and beans, which were the crops of their ancestors. ...”
“Asked whether they thought that perhaps the Spaniards would never return to this kingdom at any time, or that they would have to return as their ancestors did, and in this case what plans or dispositions they would make ... he said that they were of different minds regarding it, because some said that if the Spaniards should come they would have to fight to the death, and others said that in the end they must come and gain the kingdom because they were sons of the land and had grown up with the natives. ...”
Historical Note: In the following deposition, the deponent, Josephe, is described as an Indian prisoner, roughly 20 years of age, who had recently been captured by Otermín and his men. He was a servant of one of the Spanish officers who accompanied Governor Antonio de Otermín on his expedition to attempt the reconquest of New Mexico in 1681. He could also speak Spanish, and thus did not need the aid of an interpreter.
Declaration of Josephe, Spanish-Speaking Indian. [Place of the Rio del Norte, December 19, 1681.]
“Being asked why he fled from his master, the said Sargento Mayor Sebastían de Herrera, and went to live with the treacherous Indian apostates of New Mexico ... he said that the reason why he left was that he was suffering hunger in the plaza de armas of La Toma [del Rio del Norte], and a companion of his named Domingo urged this declarant to go to New Mexico for a while, so as to find out how matters stood with the Indians and to give warning to the Spaniard of any treason. ...”
“Asked what causes or motives the said Indian rebels had for renouncing the law of God and obedience to his Majestoy, and for committing so many kinds of crimes ... he said that the prime movers of the rebellion were two Indians of San Juan, one named El Popé and the other El Taqu, and another from Taos named Saca, and another from San Ildefonso named Francisco. He knows that these were the principals, and the causes they gave were alleged ill treatment and injuries received from the present secretary, Francisco Xavier, and the maestre de campo, Alonso García, and from the sargentos mayores, Luis de Quintana and Diego López, because they beat them, took away what they had, and made them work without pay. ...”
“Asked if he has learned ... why the apostates burned the images, churches, and things pertaining to divine worship, making a mockery and a trophy of them, killing the priests and doing the other things they did, he said ... while they were besieging the villa the rebellious traitors burned the church and shouted in loud voices, ‘Now the God of the Spaniards, who was their father, is dead, and Santa María, who was their mother, and the saints, were rotten pieces of wood,’ saying that only their own god lived. Thus they ordered all the temples and images, crosses and rosaries burned, and this function being over, they all went to bathe in the rivers, saying that they thereby washed away the water of baptism. For their churches, they placed on the four sides and in the center of the plaza some small circular enclosures of stone where they went to offer flour, feathers, and the seed of maguey, maize, and tobacco, and performed other superstitious rites, giving the children to understand that they must all do this in the future. The captains and chiefs ordered that the names of Jesus and Mary should nowhere be uttered, and that they should discard their baptismal names, and abandon the wives whom God had given them in matrimony ... they ordered that all the estufas erected, which are their houses of idolatry, and danced throughout the kingdam the dance of the cazina[4], making man masks for it in the image of the devil.”
“Asked what plans or information the said apostates communicated with regard to the possible return of the Spaniards ... he said that it is true that there were various opinions among them, most of them believing that they would have to fight to the death with the said Spaniards, keeping them out. Ohers, who were not so guilty, said, ‘We are not to blame, and we must await them [the Spaniards] in our pueblos.’ And he said that when the hostile Apaches came they denounced the leaders of the rebellion, saying that when the Spaniards were among they they lived in security and quiet, and afterwards with much uneasiness.”
[Josephe goes on to describe a plot by one of the ringleaders of the revolt to use their young women to catch the Spanish with their guard down, should they return to New Mexico.]
“[A]nother Indian named Alonso Catití, a leader of the uprising ... sent to notify the people that he had already planned to deceive the Spaniards with feigned peace. He had arranged to send to the pueblo of Cochití all the prettiest, most pleasing, and neatest Indian women so that, under pretense of coming down to prepare food for the Spaniards, they could provoke them to lewdness, and that night while they were with the, the said coyote Catití would come down with all the men of the Queres and Jemez nations, only the said Catití attempting to speak with the said Spaniards, and at a shout from him they would all rush down to kill the said Spaniards; and he gave orders that all the rest who were in the other junta ... whould at the same time attack the horse drove, so as to finish that too. ...”
Historical Note: In the following deposition, the deponent, Lucas, is described as an Indian prisoner of the Piro nation, around twenty years of age, and a native of the pueblo of Socorro.
Declaration [of Lucas, Piro Indian. Place of the Rio del Norte, December 19, 1681].
“Asked whether he knows ... the reason why the Indians of this kingdom in general rebelled, forsaking the law of God and renouncing obedience to his Majesty ... he said that of everything contained in the question he knows only that the temples and images, crosses, and rosaries were burned generally by all the Indians of the districts, and he also heard it said that each one was to live according to such law as he wished, forsaking that of the Spaniards, which was not good, and that these commands came from the jurisdictions above here; he does not know who gave them ...”
“Asked if he knows ... that the said apostates have erected houses of idolatry which they call estufas in the pueblos, and have practiced dances and superstitions, he said there is a general report throughout the kingdom that they have done so and he has seen many houses of idolatry which they have built, dancing the dance of the cachina, which this declarant has also danced. ...”
“Asked for what reason the Indian natives have abandoned the pueblos, gathering in the sierras, and what it is that the chiefs and the rest of the people alike are discussing, he said ... he knows only that they say all must fight with the Spaniards to the death ...”
Historical Note: In the following deposition, the deponent, Pedro Naranjo, is described as an Indian prisoner of the Queres nation, around eighty years of age, and a native of the pueblo of San Felipe, who had recently been captured by the Spanish. He could speak Spanish, and thus did not require the help of an interpreter.
Declaration of Pedro Naranjo of the Queres Nation. [Place of the Rio del Norte, December 19, 1681.]
“Asked whether he knows the reason or motives which the Indians of this kingdom had for rebelling, forsaking the law of God and obedience to his Majesty, and committing such grave and atrocious crimes ... he said that since the government of Señor General Hernando Ugarte y la Concha they have planned to rebel on various occasions through the conspiracies of Indian sorcerers, and that although in some pueblos the messages were accepted, in other parts they would not agree to it … but they always kept in their hearts the desire to carry it out, so as to live as they are living today. Finally, in the past years, at the summons of an Indian named Popé who is said to have communication with the devil, it happened that in an estufa of the pueblo of Los Taos there appeared to the said Popé three figures of Indians who never came out of the estufa. … He saw these figures emit fire from all the extremities of their bodies, and that one of them was called Caudi, another Tilini, and the other Tleume; and these three beings … told him to make a cord of maguey fiber and tie some knots in it which would signify the number of days they must wait before the rebellion. He said that the cord was passed through all the pueblos of the kingdom so that the ones which agreed to it [the rebellion] might untie one knot in sign of obedience, and by the other knots they would know the days which were lacking …”
“Everything being thus arranged, two days before the time set of its execution, because his lordship had learned of it and had imprisoned two Indian accomplices from the pueblo of Tesuque, it was carried out prematurely that night … and they killed religious, Spaniards, women, and children. …”
“Finally, the Señor governor and those who were with him escaped from the siege, and later this declarant saw that as soon as the Spaniards had left the kingdom an order came from the said Indian, Popé, in which he commanded all the Indians to break the lands and enlarge their cultivated fields, saying that now they were as they had been in ancient times, free from the labor they had performed for the religious and the Spaniards, who could not now be alive. He said that this is the legitimate cause and the reason they had for rebelling, because they had always desired to live as they had when they came out of the lake of Copola.[5] …”
“Asked for what reason they so blindly burned the images, temples, crosses, and other things of divine worship, he stated that the said Indian, Popé, came down in person, and with him El Saca and El Chato from the pueblo of Los Taos… and he ordered in all the pueblos through which he passed that they instantly break up and burn the images of the holy Christ, the Virgin Mary and the other saints, the crosses, and everything pertaining to Christianity, and that they burn the temples, break up the bells, and separate from the wives whom God had given them in marriage and take those whom they desired. In order to take away their baptismal names, the water, and the holy oils, they were to plunge into the rivers and wash themselves with amole, which is a root native to the country … with the understanding that there would thus be taken from them the character of the holy sacraments. …”
“These things were observed and obeyed by all except some who, moved by the zeal of Christians, opposed it, and such persons the said Popé caused to be killed immediately. He saw to it that they at once erected and rebuilt their houses of idolatry which they call estufas, and made very ugly masks in immigration of the devil in order to dance the dance of the cacina ...”
“Asked what arrangements and plans they had made for the contingency of the Spaniards return, he said that what he knows concerning the question is that they were always saying they would have to fight to the death, for they do not wish to live in any other way than they are living at present; and the demons in the estufa of Taos had given them to understand that as soon as the Spaniards began to move toward this kingdom they would warn them so that they might unite and none of them would be caught.”
Historical Note: In the following deposition, the deponent, who gives his name as Alonso Attuzayo, is described as an “old Indian,” a widower of around sixty years of age, and a native of the pueblo Almeda. During Governor Otermín’s unsuccessful expedition to reconquer New Mexico in 1681, Alonso apparently came to the Spanish camp willingly, in the company of his two grandsons whom he was taking care of, only to flee a few days later. When captured, he admitted his intention of going with his grandsons to live among the “apostate Indians of the kingdom.”
Declaration of an Indian. [House of Captain Francisco de Ortega, December 27, 1681.]
“His lordship asked him why, being restored to the church, absolved, and free, he had committed ... such a serious crime as returning to apostasy, taking wth him his said grandchildren and delivering them over to the apostates so that their souls and his own would be lost. He replied that he knows now that he did wrong, but that the devil deceived him and turned his heard and therefore he committed that folly. Being asked to say truly, before God, what cause of motive he had for forsaking the law of God and returning to apostasy, he said that it is true that he though the lfie the apostates led, living as they liked, was better than life among the Spaniards ...”
Historical Note: The following deposition, the deponent, who gives his name as Juan, is described as a very elderly widower from the pueblo of Alameda. The deposition implausibly suggests he was over a hundred years old because he said he remembered when the Spanish first arrived in New Mexico.
Declaration of an Indian. [House of Captain Francisco de Ortega, December 27, 1681.]
“Asked to state and declare truthfully what reasons or motives the natives of this kingdom had for rebelling, he said that he does not know, nor has he heard an reason given. Asked why they killed religious and Spaniards and burned the church and all the houses ... he said that to him, he being so old, they never communicated anything; that the most he knew ... was that when they committed this destruction it was by order of an Indian from San Juan [Popé] whom he does not know, who [ordered] them to burn the churches, convents, holy crosses, and every object pertaining to Christianity; and that they separate from the wives the religious had given them in marriage and take those whom they wished. ...”
“He said that this Indian of San Juan told and gave all the people to understand in the pueblos where he went that they should do as he said because they would thereby be assured of harvesing much maize, cotton, and an abundance of all crops, and better ones than every, and that they would live with great ease. The people have remained very well content and pleased with all this until now, when they have experieced the contrary, and have seen that the deceived them, for as a matter of fact they have had very small harvests, there has been no rain, and everyone is perishing. ...”
Historical Note: The following deposition, the deponent, Jerónimo, is described as a Tigua Indian of about sixty years of age from the pueblo of Puaray, and a gardener by profession. According to the deposition, he professed to be a Christian and came to the Spanish camp willingly because he said he was “weary of the bad life that he had led among the said apostates.”[6] He also claims that he made his way to the Spanish camp to warn Otermín’s forces of rebel intentions to attack their camp and drive away their horses.
Declaration [of Jerónimo, a Tigua Indian. Place opposite La Isleta, January 1, 1682].
“Asked to state and declare what else he know about the apostate traitors, and why they rebelled ... he said that what has come to his notice is that the said rebellion was motivated by the Taos Indians and another from San Juan, named Popé, whom they regarded as a great sorcerer, and that all the pueblos were summoned to take part ...”
“[Popé] was the one who made them kill priests and Spaniards, together with their women and children, and burn images and churches, and cease living with the wives to whom they were married, leaving them and taking others, and he caused them to wash their heads in order to take away the water of baptism, so that they might be as they had been in ancient times; and he told them that they would gather large crops of grain, maize with large and thick ears, many bundles of cotton, many calabashes and watermelons, and everything else in proportion. Today they are happy without religious or Spaniards ...”
[1] This excerpt, like all of the following excerpts, come from original Spanish archival documents compiled by historian Charles Wilson Hackett in Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Otermín’s Attempted Reconquest, 1680-82 (Albuquerque, NM: New Mexico University of New Mexico Press, 1942). The translations were done by Hackett’s collaborator Charmion Clair Shelby.
[2] Fiber from the leaves of agave plants.
[3] The term “religious” is here used as a shorthand for Catholic clerics, almost exclusively Franciscan missionaries, who ran the religious life of New Mexico under Spanish authority.
[4] Probably a reference to “Kachinas,” which are spirit beings venerated in the religious traditions of Pueblo peoples of the Southwestern United States. Various spellings of this word appear in these readings.
[5] Probably a reference to a religious belief, current among many Pueblo peoples, that their ancestors emerged from a series of caves near a great body of water, which some scholars identify as Utah Lake near modern day Provo. See, this article from the Utah Historical Quarterly: https://issuu.com/utah10/docs/volume_20_1952/s/91249
[6] An “apostate” is one who rejects or renounces her/her religious beliefs or principles in favor of another or (in some cases) none at all.