Tuesday Forgotten American Blogging--Popé

In 1598, the Spanish in their infinite wisdom and kindness, decided to come north to settle what became New Mexico. Certain that the region was loaded with cities made of gold and silver that they could use to fund their slaughter of Protestants in Holland and Britain, the Spanish found nothing. I know it is shocking to the modern observer, but the Indian pueblos at Zuni were not in fact made of gold. If adobe was currency, the Spanish could have fought the counterreformation forever but unfortunately for them, it's not.

They then settled for what was in New Mexico--Indian labor and heathen souls. Between 1598 and 1680 the Spanish engaged in an intensive exploitation of the region's people for their own purposes. Juan de Oñate and the other Spaniards who came to New Mexico were less than pleased that New Mexico offered them so little so they brutually used what was there. The Spaniards brought with them several Franciscan monks who used the gentle methods pioneered by their spiritual ancestor St. Francis of Assisi when he converted the birds to Christ to torture and murder Indians who refused the Christian god.

By the late 17th century, the Pueblo peoples had enough. In 1680, they revolted, murdering and mutilating the bodies of the Franciscans and driving the Spanish back to El Paso. This revolt was led by Popé. Popé, a member of the San Juan people, was named by the Spaniards who survived as the leader. They said that he coordinated the whole thing, sending a knotted rope between each of the Pueblos. Each Pueblo untied one knot and when the last one was untied, the revolt would commence.

It is impossible to know how accurate this portrayal of Popé is. Most Spanish documents were destroyed in the Revolt and even those who made it to El Paso had only a minimal idea of just what happened. But I discuss Popé for 2 reasons. He is representative of the Pueblo Revolt and the thousands of brave Puebloans who risked their lives to throw off the Spanish yoke. But I also mention Popé because of the way that some historians have denigrated him over the years. The worst is the early dean of New Mexico history, Angélico Chávez. Chávez, a Franciscan himself, claimed that there was no way Popé could have led the revolt and instead pointed to Dominigo Naranjo, a mestizo as the leader. His reason--that an Indian couldn't possibly lead such an action. Chávez is representative of the racism that people who claim pure Spanish heritage, a myth as richly hilarious as the myth of the Noble Confederacy, use against Indians even today. Those who claim Spanish heritage still see themselves as the elites of New Mexico and use their supposed pure blood to claim special status within society.

By the time the Spanish returned in 1692, Popé was dead. A zealot who believed that all vestiges of Spanish culture should be eliminated, including horses, Old World crops, and iron tools, he was likely assassinated by enemies who thought he went too far. Like the rest of the world, the Pueblo people liked stuff, even if it was Spanish.