Spanish Interest in Rio Grande Valley
Spanish interest in the region continued, however, and in 1598 the first permanent settlement was established in the Rio Grande valley of northern New Mexico.
This settlement was established with two goals in mind:
(1) to Christianize the Indians, and
(2) to find gold.
When the latter did not happen, the Spaniards developed other means of support. The Spanish crown divided up the lands in the region, giving the tribes land grants, and giving rights to other lands to conquistadors and other settlers.
Two very unpopular policies were instituted:
(1)The ecomienda (tribute) and
(2)The repartimiento (forced labor).
Under the system of encomienda, conquistadors or other colonists were given rights over a specified number of Native Americans, from whom they could extract tribute (in the form of foodstuffs, craft products, etc). Under the system of repartimiento, Native Americans were required to work a certain number of days for the colonists tending their plantations, constructing their buildings, etc. These two policies resulted in severe hardships for the Indians, and created widespread subsistence stress and starvation among the indigenous people. Relations between the Rio Grande tribes and the Spaniards—while never good- worsened in 1598, when Spanish soldiers demanded tribute from the Native American village of Acoma, which was already reeling from food shortages caused by the encomienda and repartimiento systems. The villagers of Acoma refused and killed the soldiers. In retaliation, the Spaniards captured 500 Acoma men (all the men over 25 years of age) and sentenced them to the amputation of one foot and 20 years of servitude. All other Acoma Indians over the age of 12 were sentenced to 20 years of servitude as well.
Over the next century, relations with the Pueblo Indians worsened. Friars with the Roman Catholic Church reported that they had succeeded in converting all the Pueblo people to the Catholic religion; however, this was "accomplished" by rather brutal methods, including whipping anyone caught practicing their indigenous religion and then tarring the wounds with hot turpentine. In the late 1660s and 1670s, the friars raided kivas and destroyed Pueblo religious paraphernalia, and killed and whipped Indians accused of witchcraft. As a result, beginning in the 1670s, the Pueblo religious leaders began to discuss the possibility of a revolt. Popé, one of the Indians who had been flogged for sorcery, orchestrated the revolt and on August 10, 1680, the pueblos acted in concert to expel the Spaniards. The resulting battle ended with the death of more than 400 Spaniards, after which time the remaining 2,350 colonists fled the area. The Spaniards remained in exile for the next twelve years, until they retook the northern New Mexico in 1692.
Refer to "The People The West" video (select link, if the video doesn't appear below, asking you to log into UNLV Library.The video will be streaming through UNLV Library) to watch the portion on Pueblo Hardship vs. Dissent, segment 18 (1:34 minutes) and Pueblo Revolt and Spanish Return, segment 19 (3:06 minutes).
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