Popé, marble statue by Cliff
Fragua, 2005; in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, Washington, D.C.
Santa Fe
de Nuevo México (New Mexico, US), August 10, 1680 ― The Spanish colonizers were
as greedy and predatory as any conquerors in history. As they expanded their
reach into the Americas, they developed a code for the indigenous people called
the Requerimiento (or “requirements”) for the lands they took possession of.
According
to the requirements, intended to be read by conquistadors to the indigenous
people, failing to submit would have dreadful consequences: “We will take you
and your wives and children and make them slaves, and as such we will sell
them, and will dispose of you...and will do to you all the harm and evil we can,”
it read.
This
doctrine, heavily based on the Catholic teachings and orthodoxy of the Spanish
Inquisition, was strategic dogma to destroy the culture of the native people
and replace it with the commitment to the Church's power and the Spanish monarchy's
control. This was used wherever the empire developed colonies but was
especially bad in the region of the Pueblo people. From 1540 when they first
made contact in what is now Santa Fe until complete conquest in 1599 the
Spanish waged war on the various Pueblo people, including genocide against the
Acoma people. They enslaved 40,000 Puebloan people in their domain attempting
to destroy the language and culture.
There is
little historical record of the medicine man Popé before 1675. He was
apparently from the San Juan Pueblo and was of the Tewa people. He rose to a
position of prominence during the 1670s during a time of famine for his people.
A drought in the southwest of what is now the United States made raising food
difficult. The Spanish took most of the food for themselves.
Popé had
a sense of purpose and felt a calling to keep to his people’s traditions. He
was arrested and tried in 1675 for sorcery. While convicted he did avoid the
death penalty and was publicly flogged. He then left Santa Fe and secretly made
his way to Taos Pueblo far to the north. From there he organized using runners
and interpreters. The region had six different languages and dialects including
the Apache, Navajo and Hopi. It was difficult to do this organizing as the
Pueblo people were not allowed to use horses. Popé did travel, often at night.
The
rebellion began when Popé sent runners with chunks of rope to the chiefs and
medicine men of the other tribes and pueblos. The native rose up in revolt as
one on the night of August 10. They began by taking the horses securing them
for their own future use. Then they set fire to all the churches and stripping
missions of supplies and melting down the ornamentation. In Sante Fe they
killed 43 priests and Franciscan friars. They sacked haciendas and drove 2,000 Spaniards
from the region most went to El Paso.
Popé for
all his great organizational skill wasn’t able to keep the unity. Over the next
12 years his role was reduced and the alliance collapsed. Regardless the revolt
shook the Spanish who were already having problems elsewhere. When the Spanish
came to reclaim the land the “requirements” were not as strictly followed, The
relations had changed, forced labor and conversion were no longer the standard.
No matter how it ended the fact is Popé led the revolt that saved the culture
of the Pueblo.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/articles/pueblo-revolt-1680-popay
https://www.britannica.com/event/Pueblo-Rebellion
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