Feast of Souls: Indians and Spaniards in the Seventeenth-Century Missions of Florida and New Mexico

5: Breaking Faith

CHAPTER FIVE Breaking Faith If the jug goes too many times to the fountain, it finally is broken. — Fray Antonio Carbonel, guardian of Nambé Pueblo, March 31, 1696 T he end of the Spanish missions in Florida and New Mexico was as prolonged as the conquest had been. Decisive moments—such as the Pueblos’ successful revolt in —punctuated protracted episodes of retreat, resettlement, and eventual abandonment. From the s through the century’s close, Indians and Spaniards moved to an increasingly discordant rhythm. Whether intended or not, decades of Spanish conquest and colonization brought Indians previously unknown pathogens, insatiable labor demands, adverse dietary changes, and increased tensions among testy native neighbors. All combined to disrupt and destabilize Indian-Spanish relations. Mission conditions became desperate as enemy attacks became more frequent and climatic changes exacerbated cycles of drought, crop failure, and famine. Facing annihilation, Indians had to assess the social, political, and religious repercussions of submitting to Spanish colonization. Physical evidence was the most poignant indicator of the effects decades of conquest and missionization had. To be sure, native communities were not strangers to poor health or dire circumstances before the Spaniards arrived on the scene. Precontact peoples had altered their lives drastically around  BCE (Before Common Era), when sedentary groups embraced an intensive agricultural regime. Committing valuable time to prepare soil, plant seeds, care for plants, harvest crops, and store 119 produce restricted the days and weeks Indians had once dedicated to gathering , fishing, and hunting. Concern for their fields and homes limited native forays to less distant territories. Agricultural communities worked hard, but farming did not exact the same physical toll that the months of tracking game or reaping the fruits of frontier waters did. Supplementing native diets with gathered nuts and berries, animal protein , and seafood did not cease but declined, especially for the Apalachee and the land-locked Pueblo peoples. These complex agricultural communities relied more heavily on maize consumption. Corn’s high sugar content contributed to greater tooth decay, and its lack of iron increased Indians’ risk of anemia. Native nutrition became less balanced. Eating large amounts of maize was only one of several health concerns Indian communities faced before Spaniards arrived. Infant mortality was high, and it was common for children who survived birth to die before reaching their eighth birthday. The rasps of respiratory problems or the sharp stabs of gastrointestinal ailments were particularly ominous signs for young Indians. Those who reached maturity expected to live for a total of forty years, though native women were twice as likely to survive past forty-five. But surviving childhood did not mean that Indians were free from sickness. The most common afflictions came from parasites, particularly tapeworm, pinworm, nematodes, and fungi, which flourished in concentrated native communities that lived close to their dogs, food supply, and human waste. More deadly were the fevers, chills, fatigue and coughs of tuberculosis, and the lesions, ulcers, liver damage, and deterioration of the skeletal, cardiovascular, and nervous systems associated with venereal syphilis. Tuberculosis and syphilis scourged precontact peoples, but we know of no epidemic diseases that spread through Florida or New Mexico before Europeans landed on New World shores. The patterns precontact Indians had established for survival within their respective environments helped dictate how they reacted to Spanish colonists, animals, plants, and germs. Florida’s natives congregated in towns, but their settlements were not permanent.Villages moved periodically to allow depleted areas to restore exhausted flora and soil. Yet southeastern Indians’ mobility did not involve journeys far afield. Timucuas and Guales remained within relatively fixed boundaries, and so endured longer and more intensive contact with Spanish newcomers . Their contiguous settlements were more susceptible to disease than 120 Chapter Five the Apalachees, who had less direct contact with Spanish missions. Pueblo communities did not seem to suffer the demographic collapse their Florida counterparts did because their traditional strategies for survival in the unforgiving Southwest better prepared them for the cultural collision with Spaniards. Pueblos were accustomed to cycles of drought, depletion of agricultural soils, and warfare, and had mitigated these conditions by migrating to newer, more fertile lands, by aggregating with other clans, and by creating smaller settlements to reduce the strain on local resources. By residing in small towns, separated by substantial distances, the Pueblos were better prepared for the effects immigrant diseases and Spanish colonial policies would have on their diets, physiological development, and death...