The Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1696 and the Franciscan Missions in New Mexico

by J. Manuel Espinosa

Book Overview

The Franciscan letters and related documents, translated into English and published here for the first time, describe in detail the Pueblo Indian revolt of 1696 in New Mexico and the destruction of the Franciscan missions. The events are related by the missionaries themselves as they lived side by side with their Indian charges. The suppression of the revolt by the Spaniards, and the reestablishment of the missions, was a turning point in the history...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806123656
• ISBN13: 9780806123653
• Release Date: September 1991
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Length: 332 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

First-hand accounts of dangerous times in early New Mexico

Throughout the 1600s settlers from central Mexico migrated north into today's New Mexico, settling along the Rio Grande where the Pueblo Indians had long resided. With them came Franciscan friars whose chief goal was to convert the Pueblos to Christianity and establish missions. Two main practices leveled against the Indians that fostered resentment and eventual rebellion was the encomienda (forcing the Indians to pay tribute to the Spaniards, usually in maize or manual labor) and the friars' insistence on the Indians abandoning totally their native religious ceremonies (the kiva, for instance) and adopting Christian ways. Abuses developed in both practices until a unified uprising among the Indians against the settlers occurred in 1680, where hundreds of colonists and over 20 friars were killed, and thereby emptying the province of all Spanish settlers. Property and churches were destroyed by the Indians, and for 12 years the Pueblos were free from Spanish rule, even presence. In 1692, however, under the leadership of Diego de Vargas, the Spaniards returned, and over the next few years, using mainly diplomacy but also arms when necessary, re-established their authority. Churches and missions were rebuilt and Santa Fe (pretty much in ruins) was forcefully retaken from the Indians. Many of the Indians were still resentful, of course, and by 1696 another revolt was in the making. As time went on, the Friars became very much aware of this imminent rebellion and wrote letters to Vargas pleading for better military security and warning him of the dangers that were brewing. This book collects a number of those letters, and to read them is to feel the despair felt by the friars; some prepared themselves for martyrdom. Open rebellion erupted in June 1696 (some of the atrocities suffered by the friars are revealed in further letters collected here), but swift action by Vargas and a less-than-unified Indian action ended the revolt by late summer, with Spanish control assured. The book consists of a long and very useful historical introduction about life along the northern Rio Grande up to 1700, and sections of letters written mostly by the friars and missionaries concerning the re-establishment of the missions after 1692, the warnings and pleas to Vargas, and then first-hand accounts of the revolt of 1696 itself. Most of the letters and documents come from archival repositories in Mexico City and Spain. It's a fascinating account and the immediacy of the dangers felt by the writers, even to the point of assuming their own deaths as they performed their sacred duties, packs quite an emotional wallop. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the Spanish-Indian relationship in early New Mexico.