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46 L ivestock-related grievances undoubtedly played a major role in the growing discontent among the Pueblo Indians, who finally did overthrow the Spanish yoke in August 1680 in what would turn out to be the most successful revolt ever by Native Americans in the New World. By that time, stock raising had become a major occupation in the province. Santa Fe alone had enclosures to hold five thousand sheep and goats, four hundred horses and mules, and three hundred beef cattle, as reported in a letter from the governor to the viceroy on October 20, 1680.1 When the Spaniards were forced to evacuate New Mexico, they left behind great numbers of livestock and a somewhat devastated countryside. The Puebloans no doubt killed many of the animals during the revolt, but they made off with plenty of horses, cattle, sheep, and goats, which they added to their existing herds, since by now they had acquired a taste for mutton and beef, and wool had largely replaced cotton for weaving rugs and garments. In fact, more Spaniards might have met their deaths in Santa Fe and points south had the Puebloans not been more eager to capture and herd horses and cattle than to kill Spaniards.2 Retention of Spanish livestock was one of several exceptions to their observance of revolt leader Popé’s injunction to eliminate all vestiges of Hispanic culture from their own. Visual evidence confirmed their continued possession of European animals, for when the Spaniards made a reconnaissance into their former province the year after the revolt, Cochiti and other Puebloans were observed driving herds of cattle, oxen, horses, and sheep up into remote canyons.3 Fortunately, those colonists that survived the revolt were able to maneuver large flocks of sheep and some cattle down to El Paso, where they holed up for the next dozen years. One witness stated that the El Paso colony would have perished had it not been for those animals. Within a Tumultuous Times chapter six Tumultuous Times • 47 year the sheep had multiplied to the point where some were driven south into Mexico and sold.4 Aftermath of the Pueblo Indian Revolt Twelve years after the revolt, newly appointed governor Diego de Vargas marched back up the Rio Grande from El Paso and partly subdued the recalcitrant Indians, again reclaiming New Mexico for Spain. During his foray in 1692, Vargas noted that San Felipe Puebloans were driving sheep “and some beasts” into a nearby canyon and that they had “a small corral containing sheep.”5 Clearly, many independent Pueblo Indians had determined to preserve and benefit from their Spanish-acquired livestock. The following year, in October 1693, the Spanish general set off from El Paso with a colonizing expedition. Vargas knew that he couldn’t count on Indian cattle, sheep, and goats alone to rebuild the Spanish colonial subsistence base, so he included nine hundred head of livestock, more than two thousand horses, and one thousand mules in his train of eighteen wagons heading north. Alas, many of the sheep were consumed en route by the party of eight hundred Spaniards and sympathetic Indians, and some of the horses had to be sold to Natives residing along the way in exchange for grain and vegetables to ward off starvation.6 A year later the newly reestablished colony in Santa Fe was nearly destitute. Their meager supply of livestock had either been eaten or stolen, and only five hundred horses remained. Partly because of this dire turn of events, Vargas attacked the rebellious Cochiti Indians and captured nine hundred of their sheep. Then, in 1695, a relief expedition from Mexico delivered nearly one thousand head of cattle to the colony. Livestock Inventories Increase The real replenishment of livestock occurred two years later when thirtythree hundred churro sheep, twenty-two hundred goats, and about nine hundred cattle were driven north for distribution to the fifteen hundred or so colonists, missionaries, and soldiers now residing in the province. This time few animals were lost during the drive, and the delivery resulted in a giant step forward for the colony.7 Almost from their beginning, Hispanic settlements along the Rio Grande were grouped into two geographic regions—the Rio Arriba (upper river), extending from Taos through Santa Fe nearly to Bernalillo, and the Rio Abajo (lower river), which continued south to modern Belen. Except for El Paso, settlements to the south were barely populated during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries because of persistent Apache Indian...

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