Question

In what ways did Native Americans and non-Native Americans (Las Casas) successfully protest Spanish treatment of natives in North America? Use both text and primary sources in your response.

Answer 1

Having found wealth in Mexico, the Spanish looked north to expand their empire into the land of the Pueblo people. The Spanish expected present-day New Mexico to yield gold and silver, but they were mistaken. Instead, they established a political base in Santa Fe in 1610, naming it the capital of the Kingdom of New Mexico. It became an outpost of the larger Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain, headquartered in Mexico City.
As they had in other Spanish colonies, missionaries built churches and forced the Pueblos to convert to Catholicism, requiring native people to discard their own religious practices entirely. They focused their conversion projects on young Pueblos, drawing them away from their parents and traditions.
The Spanish demanded corn and labor from the Pueblos, but a long period of drought impeded production, escalating tension in Santa Fe. The Pueblo also suffered increased attacks on their villages by rival native groups, which they attributed to the Spanish presence.
Popé, a Pueblo leader and medicine man led a response to the persecution and violence—a return to native customs. He popularized the idea that “when Jesus came, the Corn Mothers went away.” This was a succinct way of describing the displacement of native traditions by the culture and religion of the Spanish.

In 1680, the Pueblo launched a coordinated attack on the Spanish. Pueblos, Navajos, and Apaches from the region congregated and planned to strike Santa Fe when the Spaniards were low on supplies. They laid siege to the city for nine days and cut off the Spanish water supply. The uprising, also known as Popé’s Rebellion, killed over 400 Spaniards and drove the remaining 2,000 Spanish settlers south toward Mexico. Participants in the rebellion also destroyed many mission churches in an effort to diminish Catholic physical presence on Pueblo land. Pueblo historian Joe S. Sando calls the movement “the first American revolution.”
The Pueblo reestablished their religious institutions and a government of their own for the next 12 years of independence. However, as droughts and attacks by rival tribes continued, the Spanish sensed an opportunity to regain their foothold. In 1692, the Spanish military returned and reasserted their control of the area.