ipl-logo

How Did Don Juan De Oñate Influence American Culture

583 Words3 Pages

In 1992 there was a proposal to the El Paso government for a twelve sculpture public art series featuring different historical figures important to that region, including one of Don Juan De Oñate. To many people he was a natural selection to be included in the series because of the many contributions he made to the region, but to others he was nothing but a monster. He brought new crops as well as horses and many other new things with him on his explorations. He was undoubtedly a key force in shaping that region into what it looks like today. He also slaughtered almost two thousand people,

Even when he had good intentions Oñate didn’t always make good choices. In 1598 Juan de Oñate and his men killed nearly two thousand Native Americans from the Acama Pueblo in retaliation for the death of eleven of his men. They then cut off one foot from every one of the men of fighting age in the two hundred men, women, and children that he spared. Some Spanish conquistadors had very little respect for the lives of the Natives. To many of them they were nothing but savages inhabiting land that they felt could be put to better use. While many Spanish explorers and priests came to the Americas with the intention of “helping” the Natives, whether or not the Natives ended up better worse off, some Spanish did truly have the mission that they wanted to make the Native’s lives better. …show more content…

He saw no reason that he shouldn’t use these people and the death of the eleven men that were killed by the Acama Pueblo Indians as an example to

Show More
Related
545 Words | 3 Pages

In his eyes, they are still teaching their ideology of colonization and oppressing the Native American people. This ideology also reflects in the words they use to dehumanize Native American people. He then states, “All across the United States, bronze statues, monuments, and murals celebrate conquests and commemorate the fulfillment of Manifest Destiny” (Teters 493). This statement reflects his main purpose and builds off it; it confirms the ignorance of the Native American people and their

Read More
558 Words | 3 Pages

From September 15th to October 15th, we celebrate the impact Hispanics have had on the United States. Miguel Antonio Otero was an important figure who contributed in the economic development of New Mexico. He had many successes in his field of work as a government official and businessman. Miguel Antonio Otero was born on June 21, 1829 in Valencia, Nuevo México (New Mexico). Don Vicente Otero and Doña Gertrudis Aragón de Otero, his father and mother, were natives of Spain who had come to New Mexico as colonists.

Read More
1036 Words | 5 Pages

By the same token, is of course the loss of life suffered by the Indians. They fought to keep their land, and perished without success. Overall, the Indians were the only side paying for the United States to expand westward, and the United States was forcing them to do so. Is it right to treat people this way, or should someone have stopped this before it

Read More
682 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the seventeenth century, conflict between Europeans and Native Americans was rampant and constant. As more and more Europeans migrated to America, violence became increasingly consistent. This seemingly institutionalized pattern of conflict begs a question: Was conflict between Europeans and Native Americans inevitable? Kevin Kenny and Cynthia J. Van Zandt take opposing sides on the issue. Kevin Kenny asserts that William Penn’s vision for cordial relations with local Native Americans was destined for failure due to European colonists’ demands for privately owned land.

Read More
583 Words | 3 Pages

During the time period of which Columbus first set foot on the new world, peoples views on slavery were much different than ours today. They made exceptions to it as everyone owned slaves back them (Document 2). However, physical abuse and torture are no exception. Columbus has been exposed for his torture on the Taino tribe. Every three months Columbus demanded a hawk's bell of gold or 25 pounds of spun cotton from everyone over the age of fourteen.

Read More
877 Words | 4 Pages

Colonial America laid the foundation for the complicated country we call the United States. Historians debate many questions about that critical time period before the thirteen colonies declared and won independence from Great Britain. One of the most interesting questions is: What was the most significant major event preceding the founding of the nation? There is no ‘correct’ answer to this question. There are many possible responses, but the facts show that some arguments are stronger than others.

Read More
622 Words | 3 Pages

The Spaniards were wrong for keeping the Indians as their slaves. The Spaniards also had no right to take away what religious believes the Indians had. Two documents, the first one was by Las Casas who was a Dominican priest, he documented how the Spaniards treated the Indians as slaves because the Indians did not want to convert to Christianity. The second document was by Josepha who was a Spanish-speaking Indian who documented the Native Americans taking away Christianity from the Spaniards. The Spaniard took away all the freedom from the Indians, because the Spaniards want the Indians to convert to Christianity, the Indians did not want to convert so the Spaniards took everything from the Indians, and used the Indians as slaves.

Read More
251 Words | 2 Pages

“Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress”, chapter one of “A People’s History of the United States”, written by professor and historian Howard Zinn, concentrates on a different perspective of major events in American history. It begins with the native Bahamian tribe of Arawaks welcoming the Spanish to their shores with gifts and kindness, only then for the reader to be disturbed by a log from Columbus himself – “They willingly traded everything they owned… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” (Zinn pg.1) In the work, Zinn continues explaining the unnecessary evils Columbus and his men committed unto the unsuspecting natives.

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

All the Spaniards had done was killing of innocent lives for personal greed and acquiring as much goods as they could for their Majesty, doing so for the money was their justifications for killing the natives. Then we have Cortes, who instead of killing off the Natives of Tenochtitlan, he opened their eyes to the horrors of their religious ways and gave them the revelation of Christianity. Cortes didn’t mention any genocide of the natives, he spoke about the geography and religious views of the natives. He stated, “I will simply say that the manner of living among the people is very similar to that of Spain, and considering that this is a barbarous nation shut off from a knowledge of true God or communication with enlightened nations, one may well marvel at the orderliness and good government which is everywhere mentioned” (SB, 8). Cortes is only praising the natives and their life style because he feels the people have everything figured out in terms of being dominant and true government but, lacked in religion which he left them

Read More
512 Words | 3 Pages

The Indian people of El Paso hated the idea of a statue of such a terrible man being displayed in their city, to them it was like celebrating Hitler, but the amount of money that had already gone into the project was so excessive there was no turning back. One American Indian artist in the community, Maurus Chino, was so disgusted with the idea he started to get the word out about who Oñate really was and the genocide he caused. Maurus Chino started sculpting feet to honor those who lost theirs in the past to Oñate and it also showed that the American Indians of El Paso, Texas were, “putting their foot down,” to the completion and erection of the statue. There were meetings and votes to decide what to do, they couldn’t have a statue paid for by the public’s money, that the public hated, but the amount of money put into the project outweighed the opinions of the public. The best solution to the problem with the statue I believe was renaming it so that it would not be known as The Equestrian instead of Don Juan de Oñate.

Read More
867 Words | 4 Pages

On these islands I estimate there are 2,100 leagues of land that have been ruined and depopulated, empty of people.” (Las Casas) Nothing positive came from the people of Spain setting foot on the land of the Indians. Depopulation was just one of many hazardous effects that the Spaniards

Read More
1187 Words | 5 Pages

In the 16th Century, Spain became one of the European forces to reckon with. To expand even further globally, Spanish conquistadors were sent abroad to discover lands, riches, and North America and its civilizations. When the Spanish and Native American groups met one another, they judged each other, as they were both unfamiliar with the people that stood before them. The Native American and Spanish views and opinions of one another are more similar than different because when meeting and getting to know each other, neither the Spaniards nor the Native Americans saw the other group of people as human. Both groups of people thought of one another as barbaric monsters and were confused and amazed by each other’s cultures.

Read More
1506 Words | 7 Pages

This power imbalance and these payments are key in the subjugation of the natives. Furthermore, the paternalism of the Spanish toward the Indigenous peoples is obvious: “Captain [Cortes] stared at him [Cuauhtemoc]…then patted him on the head” (p.117). Post-conquest, and still today, “difficult relations” between the descendants of the Indigenous peoples and the “others” (p.117) still exist. The European view of the natives “as idolatrous savages” or, on the contrary, as “models of natural virtue” (p.175) demonstrate the versatile and often contradictory views held. Similarly, the Aztecs at times saw the Spaniards as gods, and other times as gold-hungry savages who “fingered it like monkeys” (p.51).

Read More
711 Words | 3 Pages

“1491” Questions 1. Two scholars, Erikson and William Balée believe that almost all aspects of Native American life have been perceived wrong. Although some refuse to believe this, it has been proven to be the truth. Throughout Charles C. Mann’s article from The Atlantic, “1491”, he discusses three main points: how many things that are viewed as facts about the natives are actually not true, the dispute between the high and low counters, and the importance of the role disease played in the history of the Americas. When the term “Native American” is heard, the average person tends to often relate that to a savage hunter who tries to minimize their impact on their surrounding environment.

Read More
1290 Words | 6 Pages

Even though we have seen examples of the same behavior through world history, we will keep the focus on our own American history. Starting with the Native Americans, they suffered and sadly could not endure the cruelty and abuse from the Spaniards when they first arrived to the new world. To mention one example of the sort of treatment the native Indians encountered, according to Howard Zinn, “The Spaniards thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades” (Zinn, 2008). The fear of being taken was by the Spaniards was so overwhelming the Native Americans subjected themselves to mass suicides with cassava poison and they even killed their own infants to “save them from the Spaniards.

Read More

More about How Did Don Juan De Oñate Influence American Culture

Related Topics

Open Document