• Tony Tekaroniake Evans

Nearly 100 years before the American Revolution, another war of independence took place on American soil—against Spanish colonizers. Coordinated by Tewa leader Po'Pay, the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 saved Indigenous cultures from destruction under a feudal system that enslaved inhabitants of the region and forced them to convert to Christianity.

The rebellion, fought in what is now New Mexico, resulted in a rare victory for tribal nations against European colonizers. Although it succeeded in repelling the Spanish for only 12 years, that was long enough to secure the ancient traditions, languages and homelands of Pueblo people to this day.

“If they had lost, we would not be here. That is what was at stake in 1680. I would not be here, and the languages of our ancestors would not be here,” says Jon Ghahate, cultural educator at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a member of the Laguna and Zuni Pueblos. Ghahate uses historical records compiled by the Spanish, as well as his peoples’ own oral narratives, to tell the story of the revolt.

Conquistadors: ‘We Will Do to You All the Harm and Evil We Can’

Ever since the arrival of conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado in 1540, Indigenous agrarian peoples of the desert Southwest had resisted incursions by the Spanish. The most famous resister, Po’pay (whose name means “Ripe Squash”), was born around 1630 into the Ohkay Owingeh, or San Juan Pueblo community near present-day Española. He became a prominent leader and member of a medicine society, but lived under the harsh Requerimiento (or “requirements”) brought by the Spanish to the region. 

This quasi-religious doctrine, established in 1513, authorized the Spanish to subjugate Native Americans and force them to abandon their own faiths. According to the document, meant to be read by conquistadors to the local Indian people, failing to submit would have dire 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 was their traditions, their cultures, the spirituality, their languages—thus their very existence—which were now under assault,” Ghahate said. Unlike the Spaniards’ dogmatic scriptural tenets and doctrines, Pueblo peoples believed that “all things living and inanimate are connected, are part of a big cosmic cyclical construct that has no beginning nor end. We as human beings are merely just a part of it.”

(photo-Statue of Po’pay at NSHC)

The Revolt Took Extraordinary Coordination—and Knotted Ropes

In 1675, Po’pay and his followers met at Jemez Pueblo to discuss the Spanish encroachments on their lands, raids by their Apache and Navajo enemies and a drought, which the people thought could be ended by a return to traditional ceremonies and practices.

“In Pueblo thought and culture, when religion is suppressed, the natural order of life is disrupted,” wrote Ohkay Owingeh member Matthew Martinez, meaning “a threat to the livelihood of the people.”

Yet the Spanish outlawed traditional practices. Po’pay and 46 other Pueblo leaders were convicted of sorcery for continuing them; three were hung in public, one leader hanged himself in jail rather than face the same fate. Po’Pay was among those publicly flogged.

On his release, Po’pay went into hiding at Taos Pueblo, far to the north. From there, he spent four years organizing a rebellion that would involve almost all of the dozens of Pueblo communities scattered around the region. Secrecy was paramount. By some accounts, Po'Pay was said to have killed his own son in-law, who he suspected of treachery, to keep the plan secret.