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14. The Picurís Nation
- University of New Mexico Press
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26 • Returning, then, to the Tewa country that we left to visit the Jémez, and going upriver ten leagues, we come to the pueblo of the Picurís people. Here there are two thousand souls, now baptized, and a rectory and church, where people are well taught and instructed in the faith. The Picurís people have been the most indomitable and treacherous in the entire kingdom, and some of the clerics have suffered a great deal because of this. The Picurís have struck them and otherwise treated them badly in their hatred of our Holy Catholic Faith. The friars enduring this deserve a great deal of credit. Several times, the Indians have wanted to kill the priest who is currently ministering to them, and it is only Our Lord who has delivered him from their hands. Once, going out to seize and kill him on the road, they broke out in a cold sweat in his presence and trembled with fear. And another time when they came in to grab him, he became invisible and they were greatly confounded. Today, God be praised, they are quite peaceful and well instructed in their catechisms. Although these Indians belong to the Tewa nation,1 they are on their own, as they are separated from the rest of the Tewa people. They have quite a fertile country, which produces fruit in great abundance in very little time. There is a great deal of water here in various streams, and trout in them, and mines with fine garnets in them, and no one around with a will to work them. 14. ThePicurísNation ...