The Pueblo Revolt
The Secret Rebellion That Drove the Spaniards Out of the Southwest
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4.1 • 7 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The dramatic and tragic story of the only successful Native American uprising against the Spanish, the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
With the conquest of New Mexico in 1598, Spanish governors, soldiers, and missionaries began their brutal subjugation of the Pueblo Indians in what is today the Southwestern United States. This oppression continued for decades, until, in the summer of 1680, led by a visionary shaman named Pope, the Puebloans revolted. In total secrecy they coordinated an attack, killing 401 settlers and soldiers and routing the rulers in Santa Fe. Every Spaniard was driven from the Pueblo homeland, the only time in North American history that conquering Europeans were thoroughly expelled from Indian territory.
Yet today, more than three centuries later, crucial questions about the Pueblo Revolt remain unanswered. How did Pope succeed in his brilliant plot? And what happened in the Pueblo world between 1680 and 1692, when a new Spanish force reconquered the Pueblo peoples with relative ease?
David Roberts set out to try to answer these questions and to bring this remarkable historical episode to life. He visited Pueblo villages, talked with Native American and Anglo historians, combed through archives, discovered backcountry ruins, sought out the vivid rock art panels carved and painted by Puebloans contemporary with the events, and pondered the existence of centuries-old Spanish documents never seen by Anglos.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1598, Spain established a colony in what is today New Mexico; roughly 80 years later, more than 75% of the indigenous population was dead. A Pueblo shaman named Pop led survivors in a violent uprising in 1680 that resulted in a decade and a half of independence before the Spanish reasserted dominion over the territory. Delving into the few primary sources available, journalist Roberts (Four Against the Arctic, etc.) tries to set the record straight on this little-known, sometimes fancifully remembered event. Most notably, he corrects for the bias in surviving Spanish documents by adopting a more empathetic stance toward the Pueblo. Yet this project is hampered by the intense secrecy of modern Pueblo, which forces Roberts to incorporate into his account the struggle to find people willing to share their oral history with him. Gaining access to sacred sites and settlement ruins proves difficult, but vivid descriptions of the sites he did visit add a welcome immediacy to the tale. Roberts's enthusiastic descriptions of Pueblo art, which played a crucial role in the religious conflict behind the rebellion, would have benefited from the inclusion of photographs. For the most part, however, this chronicle admirably illuminates the historical record while highlighting the problems inherent in re-creating history from fragmentary evidence. Maps.
Customer Reviews
Well done
Fascinating glimpse into history