The Pueblo Revolt

The day of August 10 of 1680, a rebellion that made history took place in what is now known as the four corners of the United States of America. This uprising is known as the Pueblo Revolt. On this day the Pueblo Indians, composed of several tribes like the Hopi, Zuni, Jemez and Taos, upraised against the European colonizers; and without any special training, forced the Spaniards out of their lands obtaining the victory over the Spanish. The Puebloans tolerated the Spanish who invaded their land and oppressed their people for almost more than eight decades. But what oppressions, distresses and circumstances lead to this revolt?
After the discovery of America, the Spaniards continued their expeditions and explorations of the “New World” into

In addition to the displacement of the tribes, Spaniards forced the Natives to pay taxes in the form of clothing and maize. With this taxation the Spanish were inconsiderate and abusive because they forced and exploited the Indians to the point of leaving “the Indians with nothing but what they had on” (Lienbmann, 2012). Together with taxation the Europeans sought to ‘save the indigenous souls’ by converting the Natives into Christianism. They prohibited the Natives from practicing their religion by arresting priests, destroying ceremonial chambers, masks, and ritual paraphernalia and by making violent physical attacks on Indians in general. Many converted in order to live with less fear. However, many times the Pueblo Indians had to choose between serving God or the Crown causing affliction in the Natives. Another factor that contributed to the Puebloan’s tension was the diseases brought by the Europeans like the “smallpox, measles, typhus, and influenza” along with the famines, droughts, attacks of enemy’s tribes, like the Apaches, and the Spanish slaving of the Puebloans (Lienbmann, 2012 p.

According to Lienbmann (2012) natives attributed the revolt to “Satan”, credit of planning and making it happen is given to Po’pay and many of the leaders and planners of the rebellion who were ‘half-breeds’, like the mestizos and coyotes, and indios ladinos (p. 55). Because some tribes were strongly dominated by the Spanish and fear, these revolt leaders made promises of protection to the tribes and sometimes threatened and forced tribes to adhere to the rebellion. Once the had enough Native warriors to fight the Spanish, they attacked by surprise before the Spaniards had time to prepare for the attack. The Pueblo Indians who began were at north of Santa Fe, followed that same day by the others surrounding the capital. The revolt lasted over ten days. During that time the Puebloans killed more than four hundred Spaniards, burned many of their churches and forced the survivors to leave (Waldrep, & Bellesiles 2006). The killing wasn’t limited to the capital. It extended to the estancias and surrounding areas where Indians killed all Spaniards, woman, children or man, found. More than twenty-five hundred Indians participated in the revolt. Some of the Pueblo Indians mocked and smeared with excrement the Spaniards churches, religious painting and statutes, while others like the Zunis and the Kewa left the churches without damage and “respectfully preserved the ornaments of divine