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71 4 The Aftermath of Revolution With the Spaniards gone and the weight of the colonial yoke lifted from their necks for the first time in more than eight decades, the Pueblos celebrated their newfound freedom. In plazas throughout the northern Rio Grande the kachinas danced again and people gathered in kivas without fear of reprisals. Pueblo men and women rushed to collect the spoils of war behind the fleeing Spaniards, swarming the estancias and mission facilities that remained standing. Tewas, Tiwas, and Tanos streamed into the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe and ransacked the casas reales, laying claim to the belongings that Otermín and his staff had left behind.1 Within two weeks, even the Pueblos that had been excluded from the organization and execution of the uprising were brought into the fold. While the people of Isleta opted not to attack the Spaniards on August 10, they were apparently in communication with the rest of the Pueblos during the uprising and joined the resistance by August 24. And although the Piro pueblos of Senecú, Socorro, Alamillo, and Sevilleta were initially left out of the planning of the rebellion, emissaries were sent to enlist their aid during the siege of Santa Fe, when many apparently took up the cause of their northern brethren.2 Po’pay reveled in his victory. When the leaves of the cottonwoods along the Rio Grande began to change from green to gold, he and his retinue made a tour of the newly liberated Pueblos. As they passed from village to village Po’pay instructed the people in the proper ways to complete the prophecy that had been revealed by the spirits. In addition to a general edict instructing the Pueblos to live “in accordance with the law of their ancestors,” Po’pay espoused a message of nativism and revivalism that included six core directives . He ordered the churches burned and the destruction of all Christian accoutrements, with rosaries, crucifixes, and statues of the saints set aflame. Kivas and shrines were to be constructed anew, with ritual reconsecrations and masked dances performed accordingly. Po’pay himself provided instruction Chapter 4 72 in the intricate steps of the old ceremonial dances, and required the people to spend long hours in traditional prayer and ritual activities. Furthermore, the waters of baptism were to be washed away from all Pueblo heads, with former converts ordered to wade into the Rio Grande and scrub themselves with yucca root. “He who might still keep in his heart a regard for the priests, the Governor, and the Spaniards,” Po’pay warned, “would be known from his unclean face and clothes.” As part of this ritual, the Tewa prophet also ordered the revocation of baptismal names, with indigenous monikers to be used exclusively thereafter. Banned as well was the use and teaching of the Castilian language—above all, any utterance of the names of Christ or Santa Maria. Finally, Po’pay proposed the dissolution of all Christian marriages, advocating a return to the traditional Puebloan practice of serial monogamy.3 But even as Po’pay and his entourage were advocating an agenda of strict nativism, they consciously perpetuated the memory of their Spanish overlords . At times, this was done for the personal aggrandizement of the leaders of the rebellion, who took to wearing the vestments of the priests as a conspicuous display of their own status. As they travelled throughout the northern Rio Grande, the leaders took possession of whatever ecclesiastical finery was left in the churches that hadn’t been destroyed already. Po’pay reportedly “took from the churches the ornaments and holy vessels which he wished, and divided the rest among the captains and inferior governors.” At Isleta, an “Indian captain” appeared a few weeks after the Revolt “dressed in alb and surplice with a scarlet band over it, and a maniple for a crown.” Alonso Catití’s house was said to be decorated with carpets and cushions looted from a mission church. He dressed “as if he were a priest vested for Mass,” sat on a cushioned seat, and drank from a chalice. As for Po’pay, he reportedly took to wearing a bull’s horn strapped to his forehead as a symbol of his status as the supreme leader of the Pueblos.4 At other times, the Revolt leaders’ appropriation of Spanish material culture was used to parody and ridicule their former colonial masters. When Po’pay’s victory tour reached Santa Ana, he and...

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