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In 1595, the contract for this ambitious undertaking
was awarded to Juan de Oñate, whose father, Don Cristobal,
had helped Cortes conquer Mexico earlier that century. While
Oñate's family connections were undoubtedly a factor
in being awarded the contract, their wealth was equally
important. The colonization of New Mexico was to be a privately
financed venture, and establishing a colony hundreds of
miles from the nearest Spanish settlement was a costly undertaking.
Oñate's contract with the Spanish government
specified in great detail the number of settlers, livestock
and other provisions and equipment he was to provide. In
return, he was awarded titles which gave him civil and military
authority over the colony. He was also to be the primary
beneficiary of any riches they may discover.
After numerous delays, an enormous caravan assembled
at Compostela, Mexico, in January, 1598. The expedition,
which consisted of nearly two hundred soldier-colonists,
many with wives and families, nine Franciscan priests, several
hundred Indian servants and allies, as well as thousands
of head of livestock, advanced slowly towards the Rio Grande.
In April, 1598, they paused near present-day Ciudad Juarez,
where Oñate took formal possession of the province
in the name of King Felipe of Spain. As they traveled north
along the Rio Grande Valley, Oñate paused at each
Indian settlement and obtained the inhabitants' formal allegiance
to their new king and a new God.
On July 11, 1598, an advance party of the expedition
arrived at the northern New Mexico Tewa village of Ohkay
Owingeh, located near the confluence of the Rio Grande and
the Rio Chama. Here the Spanish decided to stop, renamed
the village San Juan de Los Caballeros and established the
first Spanish capital of New Mexico. It is this event which
New Mexico examines and commemorates during its Cuarto Centennial
in 1998.
A few months later, the Spanish relocated their
settlement to the west bank of the Rio Grande at the village
of Yunque, which they renamed San Gabriel. San Gabriel served
as the capital of New Mexico until the new villa of Santa
Fe was established and the seat of government moved there
in 1610. During the next several decades, a thin string
of Spanish settlements was established along the Rio Grande,
from Socorro in the south to the Taos Valley in the north.
But New Mexico grew slowly, and by 1680, nearly a century
after the colony was established, there were fewer than
3000 Spanish inhabitants in the entire province.
The seventeenth century presented a series of challenges
to Spanish rule in New Mexico. Spanish intolerance of Pueblo
religious practices and a persistent abuse of Indian labor
prompted several unsuccessful revolts against the Spanish
during this period. Systematic destruction of Pueblo kivas
and the suppression of dances and other ceremonial practices
important to the Pueblo's belief system reached a critical
point in the 1670's. Their crops devastated by a persistent
drought and harried by Apache raids, the Pueblos placed
the blame for their plight on the Spanish disruption of
their religious practices.
The crisis reached its peak in 1675, when forty-seven
Pueblo caciques, or priests, were arrested and charged with
practicing sorcery and plotting to rebel against the Spanish.
Four of these religious leaders were hanged, and the others
whipped, reprimanded, and released. Among the caciques who
felt the sting of the lash was Popay (also known as Popé),
from San Juan Pueblo. Popay is generally believed to have
spent the years following his release traveling among the
pueblos and organizing an uprising which eventually expelled
the Spanish from New Mexico.
From a base of operations at Taos, Popay and his
confederates laid out a plan which demanded the unprecedented
cooperation and participation of all of New Mexico's Pueblos.
At a prearranged signal, each Pueblo was to raze its mission
church, then kill the resident priest and neighboring Spanish
settlers. Once the outlying Spanish settlements were destroyed,
the Pueblo forces would converge on the isolated capital
of Santa Fe.
August 11, 1680 was set as the date for the uprising.
Runners were dispatched to all the Pueblos carrying cords
with knots which signified the number of days remaining
until the appointed day. Each morning the Pueblo leadership
untied one knot from the cord, and when the last knot was
untied, it was the signal for them to rise in unison. A
few days before the scheduled day, however, two runners
were captured. Concerned that their plan had been compromised,
the Pueblo leadership decided to begin the revolt one day
earlier than originally planned. Runners were sent out with
new instructions to begin the revolt on August 10.
That morning, from the northern Tiwa Pueblo of
Taos to the Tewa villages north of Santa Fe, the attacks
began. It quickly became apparent, however, that the capture
of the runners at Tesuque had disrupted the carefully crafted
plan for a coordinated uprising. Some outlying Pueblos apparently
received word of the change in plans too late, and a few
not at all. Consequently, most Spanish settlers were able
to escape the initial onslaught.
Throughout the province, groups of survivors gathered
for protection and prayed for help. In Santa Fe, Governor
Antonio de Otermin marshaled the city's resources for a
defense of the capital and sent out heavily armed relief
parties which escorted several hundred survivors to the
relative safety of Santa Fe's fortified casas reales. In
the meantime, more than a thousand additional survivors
from the Rio Abajo, under the command of Lt. Governor Alonso
Garcia, managed to gather and fortify themselves at Isleta,
seventy miles south of Santa Fe. Neither group, however,
was aware of the other.
By August 15, thousands of Pueblo warriors converged
on Santa Fe and laid siege on the fortified city. Unable
to dislodge the Spanish from the palace grounds, the Pueblos
cut off their water supply, a ditch which ran through the
sprawling compound. After two days without water, their
food supplies dwindling, and unaware anyone else had survived,
Governor Otermin decided it was time to abandon New Mexico.
On August 21, a column of nearly one thousand refugees cautiously
withdrew from the capital. As they made their way south,
columns of smoke could be seen rising from the ruins of
destroyed churches and Spanish settlements. Twenty one Franciscans
and more than 400 colonists lay dead.
In the meantime, Lt. Governor Garcia and the group
at Isleta had reached their own decision to abandon New
Mexico. When news from Santa Fe finally reached Garcia,
he halted his retreat and waited for Otermin and the refugees
from Santa Fe to catch up. Together, they slowly retreated
to El Paso del Norte, the southernmost settlement in the
province.
Governor Otermin and approximately 2000 Spanish
refugees, including a significant number of widows and orphans,
spent the winter following their expulsion from New Mexico
at what was supposed to be a temporary camp near El Paso
de Norte, present-day Ciudad Juarez. Here Otermin made plans
for an early reconquest of the rebellious province.
But Otermin approached the task badly prepared
and under the impression the Pueblos would be penitent for
having revolted, and tired of Apache raids, would welcome
the Spanish back. Instead, he discovered the Pueblos would
not easily give up their newfound freedom. As Otermin's
expedition retreated, the Spanish burned the Pueblo of Isleta
and took with them nearly four hundred of its inhabitants,
who were resettled at what is today known as Isleta del
Sur, near El Paso. The Spanish settled down, planted crops,
and took steps to maintain themselves indefinitely.
By all appearances the revolt had apparently succeeded.
Popay and the other Pueblo leaders began a systematic eradication
of all signs of Christianity and Spanish material culture.
But it was easier to order the eradication of all vestiges
of Spanish presence than to accomplish it. Many items of
material culture which had been introduced by the Spanish
such as iron tools, sheep, cattle, and fruit trees, had
become an integral part of Pueblo life.
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