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Spanish Missions, Cultural Conflict and the Pueblo Revolt of 1680

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Henry Warner Bowden
Affiliation:
Mr. Bowden is professor of religion in Douglass College, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
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Historians who try to understand encounters between red men and white men in the seventeenth century are immediately confronted with a problem: Indians were not literate, and they left no records of the sort we are accustomed to studying. For centuries the only information about aboriginal populations in the Americas was derived from European narratives, conditioned by viewpoints that harbored an outsider's values. Archaeology added some indigenous references, but the evidence has usually been too meager for adequate generalization. Historians have pursued the goal of avoiding white men's biases and viewing Indian cultures as having an integrity all their own, but that goal has remained an ideal, causing more despair than hope of eventual success. As far as the history of early New Mexico is concerned, the situation is worsened by the fact that most church and government archives were burned during the fighting of 1680–1696.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1975

References

1. The main strength of the contribution made by certain anthropologists is in the way religion can be viewed not as abstract rationalization of ideas and symbols but rather as an effective element in the culture where it flourishes. One of the best statements of this useful viewpoint is the following:

In anthropology, it has become customary to refer to the collection of notions a people has of how reality is at base put together as their world view. Their general style of life, the way they do things and like to see things done, we usually call their ethos. It is the office of religious symbols … to link these in such a way that they mutually confirm one another. Such symbols render the world view believable and the ethos justifiable, and they do it by invoking each in support of the other. The world view is believable because the ethos, which grows out of it, is felt to be authoritative; the ethos is justifiable because the world view, upon which it rests, is held to be true.

See Geertz, Clifford, Isiam Observed: Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963), p. 97.Google Scholar For other instructive discussions see Durkheim, Emile, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (New York: Free Press, 1965, fifth printing), pp. 463464;Google ScholarRcdfield, Robert, The Primitive World and Its Transformations (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1953), p. 14;Google ScholarBellah, Robert N., Tokugawa Religion: The Values of Pre-Industrial Japan (Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press, 1957), pp. 5960;Google ScholarBellah, Robert N., “Religious Systems,” in Vogt, E. Z. and Albert, E. M., eds., People of Rimrock: A Study of Values in Five Cultures (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1967), p. 227;Google ScholarGeertz, Clifford, “Ethos, World-View and the Analysis of Sacred Symbols,” Antioch Review 19 (12 1957): 424425;Google ScholarGeertz, Clifford, “Religion as a Cultural System,” in Banton, M., ed., Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion (London: Tavistoek Publications, 1966), pp. 34, 4041;Google Scholar and Ortiz, Alfonso, “Ritual Drama and tile Pueblo World View,” in Ortiz, A., ed., New Perspectives on the Pueblos (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1972), p. 136.Google Scholar

2. This is one possible methodological problem which the student must face. It does not however, present insuperable difficulties when he studies peoples who place(d) strong emphasis on the cohesion and continuity of their culture's values. Many groups of Indians of the American Southwest are striking in this regard and therefore are not likely to have changed substantially between the sixteenth century and our own. For discussions of the problem, see Fenton, William N., American Indian and White Relations to 1830: Needs and Opportunities for Study (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1957; reprint New York, 1971)Google Scholar and Dozier, Edward P., “Making Inferences from the Present to the Past,” in Longaere, W. A., ed., Reconstructing Prehistoric Pueblo Societies (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1970), pp. 202213.Google Scholar

3. It is wise to remind ourselves that we are involved in studying vigorous, living cultures in a specific context. We are not trying to move from this data to generalizations about the processes of acculturation, alienation or compartmentalization. The aims of this essay are not to produce theory in either sociology or theology. This self-conscious limitation has the value of following the concrete orientation of historical studies.

4. This is always a problem for historians in every field, but as long as modern evidence and new insights correspond to the activities and statements of people at the time, one can use more recent categories to advantage and not distort the factual identity of past events.

5. For the best estimates on population distribution, see Spicer, Edward H., Cycles of Conquest: The Impact of Spain, Mexico and the United States on the Indians of the Southwest, 1533–1960 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1962), pp. 153155Google Scholar; Dozier, Edward P., “Rio Grande Pueblos,” in Spicer, E. H., ed., Perspectives in American Indian Culture Change (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), pp. 99, 136;Google Scholar and Schroeder, Albert H., “Rio Grande Ethnohistory,” in Ortiz, A., ed., New Perspectives on the Pueblos, p. 48.Google Scholar

For the fascinating and still puzzling story of attempts to abandon the mission and then to secure royal support, see Hammond, George P., “Don Juan de Oñate and the Founding of New Mexico,” New Mexico Historical Review (hereafter cited as NMHR) 2 (04 1927): 139141, 175177;Google Scholar issued as a single volume, Santa Fe, 1927. See also Scholes, France V. and Bloom, Lansing B., “Friar Personnel and Mission Chronology, 1598–1629,” NMHR 19 (10 1944): 329330;Google ScholarReeve, Frank D., History of New Mexico (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1961), 1: 137139;Google ScholarHewett, Edgard L. and Fisher, Reginald, Mission Monuments of New Mexico, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1943), p. 74;Google Scholar and Bloom, Lansing B., “Fray Estevan de Perea's Relacion,” NMHR 8 (07 1933): 221222.Google Scholar The last mentioned author summarized the government's activities in the following manner:

…it must be acknowledged that they poured out, during the seventeenth century hundreds of thousands of pesos from which they could expect no commensurate material returns. Perhaps it was not pure altruism …, and doubtless the Spanish monarchs counted on rich stores of spiritual treasures being laid up to their credit from the work of the church. But the point is that missionary work in New Mexico could not have been carried on without the financial support of the king, and that support was given in astonishing measure.

6. Bancroft, Hubert H., History of Arizona and New Mexico (San Francisco: The History Company, 1889), pp. 133134;Google ScholarHammond, , “Oñate and the Founding of New Mexico,” pp. 9899;Google Scholar and Spicer, Edward H., “Political Incorporation and Cultural Change in New Spain: A Study in Spanish-Indian Relations,” in Peckham, H. and Gibson, C., eds., Attitudes of Colonial Powers Toward the American Indian (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1969), p. 124.Google Scholar This last reference points out that much more than Christianity confronted the Indians. While the friars were preaching, the times were also characterized by “the introduction of the standard institutions of Spanish dominance, namely, encomienda, repartimiento and tribute, corregimiento, missions and ecclesiastical tribunals, the Spanish town, and the Spanish blueprint for reorganization of Indian communities.”

7. For highly inflated figures, see the report in Hodge, F. W., Hammond, G. P. and Rey, A., eds., Fray Alonso de Bnevides' Revised Memorial of 1654 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1945), pp. 35, 99.Google Scholar More sensible estimations can be found in Seholes and Bloom, , “Friar Personnel,” p. 330;Google ScholarReeve, , History of New Mexico, 1:146147:Google ScholarScholes, France V., “Documents for the History of the New Mexico Missions in the Seventeenth Century,” NMHR 4 (01 1929): 4650, 5158;Google ScholarSpicer, , Cycles of Conquest, pp. 157–58;Google ScholarDozier, Edward P., The Pueblo Indians of North America (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1970), p. 49Google Scholar and Baucroft, , Arizona and New Mexico, pp. 160161.Google Scholar

8. For the best discussion of this particular aspect, see two essays: Scholes, France V., “Church and State in New Mexico, 1610–1650,” NMHR 11 and 12 (01 1936 to 01 1937)Google Scholar and Scholes, France V., “Troublous Times in New Mexico, 1659–1670,” NMHR 12 through 16 (04 1937 to 07 1941Google Scholar but not appearing in regular installments; issued as a single volume, Albuquerque, 1942). Reeve, , History of New Mexico, 1:196,Google Scholar also has a measured analysis.

9. Scholes, France V., “The Supply Service of th New Mexican Missions in the Seventeenth Century,” NMHR 5 (01 1930): 114Google Scholar discusses all the ramifications of keeping in touch with a farflung outpost that never became self-sufficient. There is a sample packing list for one of the three-year wagon train expeditions in Benavides', Revised Memorial of 1634, pp. 111122.Google Scholar

10. For some specific examples of personal conflict gleamed from the sketchy records, see Scholes, , “Troublous Time,” (04 1937): 144 and (10 1937): 408412.Google Scholar

11. References to earlier, less unified, indications of violence can be found in Bancroft, , Arizona and New Mexico, pp. 167168;Google ScholarTwitehell, Ralph E., The Leading Facts of New Mexican History (Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Torch Press, 1911), 1:346–47;Google ScholarReeve, , History of New Mexico, 1:144146;Google ScholarSchroeder, , “Ethnohistory,” p. 55;Google Scholar and the translated documents themselves in Hackett, C. W. and Shelby, C. C., eds., Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Otermin's Attempted Reconquest, 1630–1683 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1942), 2:299.Google Scholar

12. The primary documents are to be found in Hackett, and Shelby, , Revolt, 1: xxii and 2:298301.Google Scholar A dated but still useful narrative based on them is Bancroft, , Arizona and New Mexico, p. 170.Google Scholar

13. Standard accounts of the main events can be found in Hackett, Charles W., “The Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico in 1680,” The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 15 (10 1911): 99100, 130131;Google ScholarTwitchell, , Leading Facts, 1:361;Google ScholarSpicer, , Cycles of Conquest, p. 163;Google Scholar and Dozier, , Pueblos of North America, p. 59.Google Scholar While these deaths of white people are usually called a massacre, the Spaniards' conquest of a single pueblo was often more ruthless in loss of life and property. The reduction of Acoma in 1599 brought death to between 600 and 800 Indians, caused the enslavement of 500 others and the utter destruction of the pueblo; see Reeve, , History of New Mexico, 1:124125.Google Scholar Another example taken from many is the reconquest of Sia in 1689 which cost another 600 native lives, many of whom “were burned to death in the flames which destroyed a portion of the pueblo rather than submit to captivity at the hands of the Spaniards.” Twitehell, , Leading Facts, 1:380.Google Scholar

14. Hackett, and Shelby, , Revolt, 1:13 and 2:247–241, 251;Google ScholarTwitchell, , Leading Facts, 1:368;Google ScholarBancroft, , Arizona and New Mexico, p. 184.Google Scholar Some authors like Silverberg, Robert, The Pueblo Revolt (New York: Weybright and Talley, 1970), p. 132Google Scholar, go so far as to say that the Pueblos even refused to continue using melons, fruit trees, wheat, horses and cattle because of their alien origin. There might have been some sentiment expressed along that line, but I doubt that an eminently practical people would destroy easily assimilable aspects of material culture which could benefit their economy and diet. Until such an overreaching assertion can be substantiated further, it seems more reasonable to place the anger of nativist reaction on human presence, not on objects of the natural order.

15. Schroeder, , “Ethnohistory,” p. 51;Google ScholarWhite, Leslie A., “The Pueblo of Santa Ana, New Mexico,” American Anthropologist, n.s., 44 (1012 1942): 66Google Scholar; Clews, ElsieParsons, , Pueblo Indian Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939), 1:453455, 2:1075.Google Scholar

16. For examples in which Christian doctrines were actually applied to physical needs like rain making, toothache and pregnancy. see Benavides' Revised Memorial of 1634, pp. 53, 58; see also Bloom, , “Perea's Relacion,” p. 233.Google Scholar

17. Sylvest, Edwin E. Jr., “Motifs of Franciscan Mission Theory in Sixteenth Century New Spain Province of the Holy Gospel’, (Ph. D. diss., Southern Methodist University, 1970), pp. 114117, 124, 228229, 253254.Google Scholar

18. Spicer, , Cycles of Conquest, p. 282;Google ScholarDozier, Edward P., “The American Southwest,” in Leacock, E. B. and Lurie,, N. O., eds., North American Indians in Hitorical Perspective (New York: Random House, 1971), pp. 246248;Google ScholarDozier, , “Rio Grande Pueblos,” p. 126;Google ScholarFisher, Reginald G., “An Outline of Pueblo Indian Religion,“ El Palacio 44 (1938): 172173.Google Scholar

19. Some nations, for example the Tewa, have emergence tales where the people first appear by coming from under a lake; others, such as the Keres, mention no lake. Bat the basic concurrence is an underground origin and ultimate return. For variations of the emergence myth, see Ortiz, Alfonso, The Tewa World: Bpace, Time and Becoming in a Pueblo Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969), p. 122;Google ScholarWhite, Leslie A., The Pueblo of Sia, New Mexico (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1962), pp. 115131;Google ScholarDozier, , Pueblos of North America, pp. 203204;Google Scholar and Parsons, , Pueblo Indian Religion, 1:182.Google Scholar

20. White, , “Santa Ana,“ p. 88.Google Scholar See also White, , Sia, p. 236.Google Scholar

21. Ortiz, , Tewa World, p. 23;Google ScholarFisher, , “Outline of Pueblo Religion,” p. 171.Google Scholar For a striking example of the contrast between these two orientations, see the sermon recorded in Bloom, “Perea's Relacion,” pp. 229–230,

22. Some of the main sources for these two paragraphs are White, , Sia, p. 320;Google ScholarOrtiz, , “Ritual Drama and Pueblo World View,“ pp. 142143;Google Scholar and Parsons, Elsie Clews, The Pueblo of Jemez (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1925), pp. 124125.Google Scholar

23. The best discussions of this significant aspect of Pueblo psychology can be found in Ortiz, , “Ritual Drama and Pueblo World View,“ pp. 153154;Google ScholarMoreno, Wigberto J., “The Indians of America and Christianity,“ The Americas 14 (04 1958): 413414;CrossRefGoogle ScholarEllis, Florence H., “Authoriative Control and the Society System in Jemez Pueblo,“ Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 9 (Winter 1953): 392;Google ScholarWhite, Leslie A., “The Pueblo of San Felipe,“ Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association 38 (1932): 11, 43;Google Scholar and Parsons, , Pueblo Indian Religion. 1:107108.Google Scholar

24. Ortiz, , “Ritual Drama and Pueblo World View,“ p. 145.Google Scholar See also Ortiz, , Tewa World, pp. 5056, 123124;Google Scholar and Parsons, , Pueblo Indian Religion, 1:6364.Google Scholar

25. Parsons, , Pueblo Indian Religion, 1:216; 2:1102.Google Scholar

26. For a concrete example of the strain placed on existing ties in Pueblo communities, see Benavides' Revised Memorial of 1634, p. 78.

27. Dozier, , Pueblos of North America, pp. 151, 200.Google Scholar

28. The best discussion of this essential aspect of Pueblo life is Ortiz, , Tewa World, pp. 8081, 98, 103, 127.Google Scholar Other important ones are Dozier, , “Rio Grande Pueblos,” pp. 112113;Google ScholarFisher, , “Outline of Pueblo Religion,“ pp. 176177Google Scholar and Parsons, . Jemez, p. 58.Google Scholar

29. This is the heart of the Pueblo value system in a concrete manifestation, and a great deal of information can be found in Ortiz, , Tewa World, pp. 98, 104, 116;Google ScholarWhitman, William, The Pueblo Indians of San Ildefonso (New York: AMS Press, 1969), p. 118;Google ScholarKrickeberg, W., Trhnborn, H., Müller, W. and Zerries, O., Pre-Columbian American Religions (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968), p. 206;Google Scholar and Parsons, , Jemez, pp. 7475.Google Scholar

30. Hackett, and Shelby, , Revolt, 1:6061:Google ScholarBancroft, , Arizona and New Mexico, p. 14;Google ScholarTwitchell, , Leading Facts, 1:354357;Google ScholarReeve, , History of New Mexico, 1: 249253;Google ScholarDozier, , “American Southwest,“ pp. 248249;Google ScholarChavez, Fray Angelico, “Pohe-Yemo's Representative and the Pueblo Revolt of 1680,“ NMHR 42 (04 1967): 86.Google Scholar

31. Hackett, and Shelby, , Revolt, 1:xix.Google Scholar See also Spicer, , Cycles of Conquest, p. 162.Google Scholar

32. Twitchell, , Leading Facts, 1:348350;Google ScholarReeve, , History of New Mexico, 1:251252.Google Scholar

33. Scholes, , “Troublous Times,” (04 1937) 149, (07 1941): 321322.Google Scholar

34. Ortiz, “Ritual Drama and Pueblo World View,“ put it well when he wrote on page 136 that “as long as there is a reasonably good fit bel ween world view and religion, between reality as it is defined and as it is lived, world view can be defined as, in the main, expressive. When there is no longer this fit, we have reactions ranging from millennial dreams to violent revolution, all designed to establish a reasonably integrated life.“ For a modern example of the tensions between white dominance and Indian ways, with the disastrous results that often follow; see Parsons, , Jemez, pp. 9, 60.Google Scholar