Burned the Crucifixes and Other Religious Objects That Had Been Scattered in and Around the Pueblo. Otermin's Army Repeated This
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burned the crucifixes and other religious objects not successful in reestablishing Spanish rule of that had been scattered in and around the the Pueblos, the interviews and explorations pueblo. Otermin's army repeated this ritual at Otermin and Mendoza conducted give the most Alamillo and Sevilleta. A short distance from complete picture of the effects of the revolt Sevilleta the army found deep pits where the among the pueblos. The Spanish presidio at El Indians had cached corn and protected it with a Paso sent two more punitive expeditions to New shrine of herbs. feathers and a clay vessel Mexico in 1688 and 1689 but it was not until the modeled with a human face and the body of a toad term of Governor Don Diego de Vargas (1690-1696) (Hackett and Shelby 1942:I:cxxix). On the march that New Mexico was reclaimed by Spain. from Socorro to Isleta. the army passed through the burned remains of four estancias. The The Aftermath of the Revolt estancia of Las Barrancas, located 23 leagues beyond Senecu and ten leagues downstream from Documentation of the 12-year period following the Isleta, was the only estancia that had not been Pueblo Revolt is scarce but speculation and greatly vandalized and burned (Hackett and Shelby conjecture abound. The more dramatic recon 1942:cxxx). structions of life among the Pueblos after the revolt show the Pueblos having destroyed every Otermin staged a surprise attack, taking Isleta vestige of Hispanic culture, including household Pueblo on December 6, 1681. About 500 Isleta and and religious objects, domesticated animals and Piro Indians were living in the village at the cereal crops. Shifts in the locations of Pueblo time of the attack (Hackett and Shelby settlements are known from the period preceding 1942:I:cxxxii). Father Ayeta, the religious and following the revolt. The Tompiro and Tiwa leader of Otermin's army, delivered mass to the retreat from the eastern flank of the Manzano village and burned all items associated with Mountains in the late 1670s opened new territory idolatry and sorcery. While this religious to the Apache and exposed the Rio Grande pueblos reconquest was taking place, Otermin sent a to predation (Schroeder 1968). The Rio Abajo. smaller party ahead under the direction of Juan Isleta, and Piro villages were abandoned during Dominguez de Mendoza to prepare the northern the revolt and Otermin's reconquest. Elsewhere pueblos to receive the conquerors. Otermin in the Rio Grande, the Pueblos seem to have moved stayed at Isleta to gather provisions from the their villages to more defensible locations. depleted pueblo stores. The residents of Isleta could give only 15 bushels of shelled corn, and Schroeder (1972:56) believes that the Pueblos told Otermin of the drought and famine that retained the domesticated animals, crops, and followed the revolt (Hackett and Shelby metal tools introduced by the colonists, and 1942:1:cxxxvii) . In fact, the Isletans believed continued to use Spanish as a lingua franca. He that their village would soon be raided by also suggests that this period may have seen northern Pueblos who sorely needed food supplies. considerable change in pueblo socio-religious organizations as the remaining fragments of Mendoza's party reached Alameda, Puaray. Sandia, Pueblo groups aggregated and readjusted their San Felipe, Santo Domingo, and Cochiti. In all ritual and cultural patterns. Fray Angelico cases, the pueblos were largely deserted; the Chavez (1967) argues that not only were items of few elderly and infirm Indians met by the troops material culture retained by the Pueblos, but told how they had been left by their people who many mestizos remained among the Pueblos after scattered to the hills when they learned of the the revolt. The arguments of Schroeder and reconquest attempt. Throughout .the villages Chavez are supported to a great extent by the Mendoza found the Christian symbols smashed and documents included in Hackett and Shelby's study signs of traditional religious practices re of the Revolt. Tools, objects of metal, newed. Mendoza sent messages to those pueblos he livestock, and crops mentioned in the documents did not visit, but in the end the attempted clearly indicate that not all traces of the reconquest failed. colonial experience were obliterated during the revolt. Otermin reported that mestizos, On January 2. 1682. Otermin led the second mulattos, and people who spoke Spanish were retreat from New Mexico taking 385 Isletans to El living in the pueblos that he and Mendoza contacted (Hackett and Shelby 1942:1:355). Paso. The Pueblo of Isleta del Sur was established near the two Piro villages and the growing Hispanic settlement of El Paso. While The unity that allowed the Pueblo Revolt to take 92 place would not last. Inter- and intra-village by the Piros, who are few and who live in the factionalism, the scarcity of food, and unre pueblo of Senecu in this district, for it is lenting Apache raids weakened the defenses of the a vast and fertile land; it has its irriga pueblos and gave Don Diego de Vargas the oppor tion ditches, and some of the walls of the tunity to reclaim New Mexico. convent are in good condition. Senecu. which the Piros occupied previously, a distance of The Reconquest ten leagues away, should not be settled be cause the river has damaged the land, and Spanish nobleman Don Diego de Vargas made his furthermore it is on a frontier infested with first expedition to New Mexico in 1692. Through many Apaches. If it is the wish of some to artful diplomacy and keen insight, Vargas was settle the abandoned haciendas, it will also able to win the allegiance of 10 of the 23 prepare the way for the filling in and occupied pueblos (Espinosa 1940:31). This vic occupying of the land (Espinosa 1940: tory won Vargas the right to reestablish the 286-287). Hispanic colony. This task was not easily accomplished. Vargas left El Paso on August 21, Settlement would not come so fast. Vargas spent 1692 with a force of Hispanic soldiers and allied more than a year fighting endless skirmishes in Pueblo warriors. attempting to resettle the colony. By summer 1694, the pueblos had been subdued and were On August 31 the army arrived at Senecu. Vargas placed once again under Spanish rule. Vargas spent little more than one week in the former quelled an uprising among the northern pueblos in territory of the Piro. His campaign journal is 1696. and many dissatisfied villagers fled to brief, saying only that he stopped at Senecu, the western pueblos or took refuge among nomadic ruins of Socorro, the Pueblo of Alamillo, the groups (Simmons 1979:186-187). In effect, uninhabited farm of Felipe Romero, and the former pacification was completed. As the 17th century haciendas of Francisco Gomez and Thome Dominguez came to a close the Rio Abajo and Salinas (Espinosa 1940:64-67). He reports that the road Province were virtually tenantless. Fertile farm was almost impassable, necessitating the use of lands would not lie fallow too long before pack animals to transport supplies. In official Hispanic settlers would claim the productive Rio correspondence dated January 12, 1693, Vargas Abajo, but it would be many years before settlers makes recommendations concerning the possibility came to the steppe-like plains of the Salinas of reestablishing settlement in the Rio Abajo. Province. Of the lands between Isleta and Senecu, Vargas says: EXPANDING FRONTIERS, 1696 - 1846 The natives of the said tribes (Isleta) now Raiders, Traders, and Settlers on the live in some miserable huts in the pueblo of Northern Frontier of New Spain Isleta, in this district of El Paso, and so it will be desirable to restore them to their Significant social, political and economic ad pueblo. They will be assured success in justments were made in the New Mexico colony cultivating the fields which they plant at following reconquest. The struggle between the the pueblo, because the lands are extensive, encomenderos and priests was over, with both in a good climate, and can be easily irri groups having lost their privileges, their lands, gated, and they will be protected if the said and their influence over the Pueblos. The intervening haciendas called "Las Huertas" encomienda was not reestablished in the colony, are settled along with those extending from but was replaced by a system of granting lands to Las Barrancas, and those toward the abandoned worthy settlers. The Franciscans were more pueblos of Alamillo and Sevilleta, whose tolerant of native religious and cultural natives are scattered and restless, and with practices, and the missions were no longer the the settlement of the said haciendas and the far-reaching socializing institutions that they pueblo referred to, it will be possible to had been in early colonial times. The number of restore them to their pueblos. Continuing a missions was greatly reduced, and accounts of distance of ten leagues. Socorro is found, priests and bishops who visited New Mexico in the which may be settled with the Indians who at 18th century observe that native ceremonials were present occupy this one of Socorro in this more expertly performed than the sacraments of district of El Paso, and they may be joined the Catholic church (Adams 1953-54:(29); Adams 93 Map 14. Indian Pressures and Shifts of the Late Spanish Period (1706 - 1820) [after Schroeder 1968: Fig. 5J, Reproduced by permission of New Mexico Historical Review. and Chavez 1956:254-258). Pueblo and colonial knives and awls at the pueblos. The Pueblos governments were drawn together by their need for obtained the horses, knives, and awls by trading defense against increasing attacks by nomadic with the colonists.