The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke Volume 5: May 23, 1881--August 26, 1881

Background

113 Background I n this section, Bourke recounts a trip to the various pueblos between Santa Fe and Taos, then those to the south along the Rio Grande. Besides his ethnographical observations, he frequently mentions the Taos Revolt against the United States in 1847, and the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, which expelled Spaniards from New Mexico for twelve years. Although both these uprisings are generally known, a brief explanation is in order, particularly considering the complex issues of the 1680 revolt.1 When Juan de Oñate and his colonists asserted Castilian sovereignty over New Mexico in 1598, the task was all the more easily accomplished because the vast majority of native peoples already lived in permanent settlements. It was unnecessary for conquistadores to hunt them down, or for missionaries to round them up and congregate them. The Europeans had the added advantage of being an unknown, exotic, and somewhat intimidating quantity. Aside from the Coronado expedition some forty years earlier few, if any, of the local Indians had ever seen a white man. The trauma of an alien people with superior weaponry and, above all, greater mobility (the horse) negated any serious thoughts of violent resistance . The early missionaries, with their long experience in the 1. There are several good works on the Pueblo revolts. This summary drawn from Weber , What Caused the Pueblo Revolt of 1680?, Espinosa, The Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1696, and one of the most recent, Wilcox, The Pueblo Revolt and the Mythology of Conquest. 114 the new mexIco pueBloS field, exuded a certain charisma, and their gifts were an irresistible temptation. The Indians, openly and superficially at least, accepted the new order. By the second decade of the seventeenth century, however, the situation had entirely changed. The government began congregating the Indians, relocating them from their homes into larger, more easily controlled settlements. The encomienda, whereby a Spanish settler was granted Indian labor or tribute, was established, and the tribute to the encomendero, or grantee, severely reduced the natives’ ability to set aside food for lean periods. The number of natives available for labor or tribute was finite, and encomenderos, ecclesiastical authorities, and civil authorities disputed over labor. The encomienda had functioned in central Mexico, because it was little different from the tributary system of the native princes. On the frontier, however, the established system was trade rather than tribute, and the Indians resented having to give while receiving nothing in turn. By this time, the original band of missionaries had died off, and were replaced by younger, less experienced men with little patience for natives who had difficulties making the transition. The Indians were expected to abandon not only their ancient beliefs, but also every aspect of their culture, including language. If the Indians were to communicate with the priests, they had to learn Castilian, not vice versa; during the entire seventeenth century, only one Franciscan missionary to New Mexico learned the language of the people he was sent to serve.2 In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, four decades of evangelism had failed to make any significant improvement in the lives of the Indians. The missionaries were focused entirely on the afterlife, whereas the native Pueblo religions dwelt on maintaining a cosmic harmony between the world of spirits and the world of humans. The gods provided rain, caused crops to flourish, maintained peace, gave victory in war, healed the sick, and protected the people from malevolence. The old beliefs, never truly 2. Kamen, Empire, 268. Kamen contrasts the Franciscan effort with that of the Jesuits who attempted to learn the native languages. The Laws of the Indies required missionaries to instruct neophytes in their native languages. In defense of the Franciscans, it must be noted that just as Christian concepts were alien to the native culture, so did the native languages lack words to express Christian doctrine. Added to that was a myriad of distinct languages that the missionaries encountered as they moved farther north. (Bolton, “Mission as a Frontier Institution,” 16) This does not, however, excuse the various other abuses of which the priests were guilty in the New Mexico missions. Background 115 suppressed, seemed their only hope, and they began abandoning the new faith. As Bourke would later note: An outward compliance with the requirements of law is never a difficult matter to effect. The eradication of ideas rooted in the traditions of centuries and...