W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2003 Feast of souls: Indians and Spaniards in the seventeenth-century missions of Florida and New Mexico Robert C. Galgano College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Latin American History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Galgano, Robert C., "Feast of souls: Indians and Spaniards in the seventeenth-century missions of Florida and New Mexico" (2003). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623416. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-pym2-hv91 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FEAST OF SOULS INDIANS AND SPANIARDS IN THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY MISSIONS OF FLORIDA AND NEW MEXICO A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Robert C. Galgano 2003 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved, May 2003 James Axtell David WefVeber Southern Methodist University ames Whittenburg Paul Mapp Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. For K., always iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements V List of Illustrations vi Abstract vii Introduction. Frontiers and Missions 2 Chapter I. Different Paths 15 Chapter II. Conquering the Spirit 51 Chapter III. Braving the Storm 86 Chapter IV. The Imbalance of Power 126 Chapter V. Breaking Faith 167 Chapter VI. Reckoning 204 Appendix 217 Illustrations 219 Select Bibliography 221 Vita 243 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to the community of scholars gathered in Williamsburg, Virginia at the Lyon G. Tyler Department of History at the College of William and Mary, the Omohundro Institute of American History and Culture, and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. James Axtell, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Humanities at the College, has shown by example what it means to be a professional historian. His incisive editorial remarks guided this project from its inception. Fellow students John Coombs, Anthony DeStefanis, Elizabeth Kelly Gray, Phil Levy, Dan Matz, Paul Moyer, and Andy Schocket made graduate work an unforgettable adventure. Michael Guasco and Suzanne Cooper Guasco indulged my fanatical enthusiasm for soccer, provided intellectual support and professional advice, and opened their home to a boy and his dog during summer archaeological field school. I consider myself lucky to have their friendship. The archaeologists of Colonial Williamsburg’s Department of Archaeological Research tolerated my intrusion into their highly skilled world and even considered me one of their tribe for a time. Marley Brown III, David Muraca, Amy Muraca, Andrew Edwards, Karen Wehner, Kevin Bartoy, and Jenny Gates taught me to love soil and toil in hot, humid conditions. Researching and writing is a solitary task but the assistance of librarians and readers made crafting a dissertation less trying. I benefited from the patient guidance of Bruce Chappell, archivist and paleographer at the P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History at the University of Florida and the curators of the Anderson Room at the Zimmerman Library of the University of New Mexico. I wish to express deep appreciation to David Weber for his thorough critique. His comments and suggestions made this dissertation better. I also want to thank James Whittenburg and Paul Mapp for their careful criticism and evaluation of the manuscript. I have been blessed with numerous familial debts. I am grateful to my mother- in-law and fellow historian, Sally Meyers, who happily watched my daughter so I could dedicate at least one day a week to writing. I must also thank my father-in-law, Rick Meyers, who provided welcome diversions from work with a steady stream of tickets to UVa men’s basketball games. To my mother who instilled in me a passion for learning and a love of teaching; to my father who showed me, and continues to show me, that the historical pursuit is an honorable profession; to my brother who kept me from taking things too seriously; and to my sister who challenged my intellectual assumptions, I love you all. I am eternally grateful to Bogie who patiently waited until it was time to retrieve the Frisbee, to Isabel who helped daddy “play” on his computer and dispensed snuggles without discrimination, and to Kim for loving me. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Map of Florida Missions 1674-1675 219 2. Map of New Mexico Pueblos 220 vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT During the seventeenth century, Spanish conquerors established Franciscan missions among the native inhabitants of Florida and New Mexico. The missionaries in the northern frontierdoctrinas of Spain’s New World empire adapted methods tested in Iberia and Central and South America to conditions among the Guales, Timucuas, Apalaches, and the various Pueblo peoples. The mission Indians of Florida and New Mexico responded to conquest and conversion in myriad ways. They incorporated Spaniards using traditional practices, they attempted to repel the interlopers, they joined the newcomers and accepted novel modes of behavior, they discriminated between which foreign concepts to adopt and which to reject, and they avoided entangling relations with the Spaniards as best they could. By the end of the seventeenth century the frontier missions of Florida and New Mexico collapsed under the weight of violent struggles among Indians, Spanish officials, Franciscan missionaries, and outside invaders. This comparative study will reveal patterns in Spanish frontier colonization and Indian responses to Spanish conquest and missions. vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. FEAST OF SOULS INDIANS AND SPANIARDS IN THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY MISSIONS OF FLORIDA AND NEW MEXICO Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION FRONTIERS AND MISSIONS I would like to know what he felt in that moment of vertigo when past and present intermingled. - Jorge Luis Borges Without the presence of Indians, no Spaniard would have settled Florida or New Mexico. Explorers would have marched through empty lands in vain attempts to find sources of fortune. Their journeys would have been shorter without Indian guides and sustenance; their expeditions would not have taken slaves or killed inhabitants. No tantalizing tales of pearl-stocked rivers or cities of gold would have encouraged Spaniards to fund further explorations. Without Indians, Spanish strategies for settlement would have been problematic. There would have been no one to construct defensive palisades or municipal offices, no one to plant food for subsistence, tribute, and trade. No local military structure would have helped protect the colonies. Spanish colonizers would not have attached themselves to local populations or reached agreements with local chiefs. Native escorts would not have led curious Spaniards to new villages or neighboring trading partners; there would have been little hope of colonial economic profit. Without Indians, Franciscan missionaries would never have volunteered to preach on the frontiers. Spain’s colonial American enterprises - strategic, economic, political, and religious - required Indians. Where multiplying English settlers eventually expelled natives from their homelands, relatively few Spaniards (by 1700 approximately 1,400 in 2 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 Florida and 3,000 in New Mexico) purposely sought Indians as laborers, trading partners, military allies, guides, informants, and potential converts.1 Placing Indians at the center of the story is not an historian’s conceit or a device for explaining a forgotten, neglected, marginal part of America’s colonial past. Historical Spanish settlers would have understood the suggestion perfectly. Spaniards who conquered and colonized Florida and New Mexico in the seventeenth century knew that Indians were essential, especially in places removed from densely populated regions. Spaniards were attracted to the frontiers of their American colonies because sedentary Indians lived there. Village-dwelling natives had, by definition, established political, social, and economic systems recognizable to Spanish newcomers. Indigenous populations could provide necessary labor for Spanish economic enterprises and natives’ knowledge of the land could speed the development of agriculture, ranching, and craft production.