.
.
Almost immediately, Coronado sent another expedition to report on that river. This time the leader was Garcia Lopez de Cardenas. The Spaniards were interested not just in Gold, but still held out hopes for a Northwest Passage, and thought the river might be that route. Cardenas retraced the route of de Tovar, past the Black Mesa, but was uninterested in the Hopi and apparently ignored them. After viewing the Canyon, Cardenas returned, once again passing by Hopiland. This was to be the last recorded incursion into the Black Mesa for many years.
The Coronado expedition continued to the east, away from Hopiland, but stories of certain acts of the Spaniards would quickly get back to the Black Mesa. When Coronado's men reached Acoma, second only to Oraibi in age as an ancient Pueblo settlement, they found that the residents had already heard of their actions at Hawikuh, and were not about to let them into their town peaceably. The Spanish soldiers had no way to scale the 400-foot cliffs which surrounded the Pueblo. Nevertheless, they tried, and something like 100 Acoma defenders died in the defense of their community. The Hopi knew of this activity within days. At this point, Oraibi was the only major settlement of the Pueblo/Hopi that had escaped a major skirmish and bloodshed upon the arrival of the Spaniards.
During the winter of 1540-41, a Spanish advance party reached the Rio Grande pueblo of Tiguex (modern Tiwa), near modern Albuquerque, in New Mexico. They reported back to Coronado that the locals were friendly and that the land was fertile. Coronado arrived, after the winter had begun, with the entire remainder of his entourage. The “friendly” Pueblo of Tiguex abruptly found themselves with not just a small party, but virtually an entire army, on their doorstep. The stores in the Rio Grande valley were inadequate for a force of hundreds of Spaniards and nearly a thousand support personnel.
The demands of Coronado's party quickly overwhelmed the resources of the pueblo. The soldiers evicted the natives from one of their own main community dwelling buildings. They began to seize warm clothing from the locals, without recompense. A number of rapes were recorded. Supplies in the town quickly ran short. After several weeks of this, the Pueblo revolted, catching the Spaniards by surprise, and giving them a real battle. Inevitably, the natives lost to the might of steel, gunpowder, and armor. In retaliation, Coronado burned 30 natives at the stake and demolished the few buildings in Tiguex which had not been demolished during the battle.
Coronado finally left the Rio Grande valley, in spring of 1541, and spent the summer following a trail of false reports by a native guide known as “the Turk.” The Turk was masterful at deluding his Spanish patrons with tales of riches. The expedition followed his lead through the region of Oklahoma, eventually penetrating well into Kansas before Coronado realized that he had been duped. The expedition ended the torture of a number of natives who were accused, falsely, of lying by the Turk. Eventually, the Turk himself would be tortured. As the field season came to a close, Coronado realized that he needed to return to a support and supply base, and turned back toward Mexico.
Coronado's party got as far as the Tiguex region on the Rio Grande, and was forced to winter there for a second time. This second winter, stripping the meager resources which remained, or had grown over the summer, sealed the fate of the Rio Grande communities near Tiguex. With the main pueblo leveled, the Spaniards imposed on residents who had attempted to return to Tiguex, and on surrounding, smaller outpost communities. This left a lasting impression on the Pueblo of the region and would have an impact on the Hopi and Zuni. By the end of the winter, the valley communities were more-or-less devastated.
Survivors of the slaughter of the previous winter, who had regathered at Tiguex and attempted to rebuild their village and their lives were terrorized by the return of the white devils. Surrounding villages, that had avoided the impact of the invaders the previous winter were now stripped bare. For the second winter in a row, the now-meager resources of the Rio Grande valley were over-stressed. It is believed that many of the Tiguex Pueblo natives moved to Hopiland and settled around the Black Mesa, in an attempt to get as far away as possible from their terrible experience with the Spaniards.
Following the devastation and their bad experiences of the winters of 1540-41 and 1541-42, the Spaniards would stay out of the Rio Grande region of New Mexico for forty years. When they did return, they found the valley was still largely unpopulated. This was evidence of the thoroughness of the havoc that they had wrought during their brief stays. Fields had been stripped, allowing erosion. Seed grains had been consumed. Natives had been killed, impressed, or driven out of the area. A large population would not live there again until the 18th century.
These stories have been well-documented, and are not just Native American word-of-mouth legends. Spanish court records have listed the events. Coronado and his vice-commander were prosecuted by the Government in New Spain for abuse of the population. This was at a time when Human Rights for local natives were almost universally ignored and slavery was still official policy in the Spanish world. Only the most extreme acts could provoke charges of this nature during this era.
Reports of the conflicts and battles in New Mexico spread throughout the Pueblo/Hopi world. In the first two years of contact with the Spaniards, each of the main population centers of the Pueblo and Zuni worlds that had drawn the attention of the Spaniards had paid a terrible price. The Hopi quickly realized how lucky they had been that de Tovar had been leading a minor force, and that their casualties had been so minimal.
Over the next few years, another plague would descend upon the Native Americans. The Spaniards inadvertently attacked the indigenous populations with a number of other unseen invaders. Smallpox, measles, and various other new diseases would kill many a native over the next few centuries, until the population developed some immunity. It is generally acknowledged that there were approximately 100 inhabited Pueblo communities when Coronado led his expedition in 1540. By 1700, this number had been reduced to 18. Only a small number of the villages had been done in by military action. Disease and economic strangulation would each play a prominent role in this decline.
The Hopi may not have recognized that isolation from the Spaniards would help prevent the spread of disease, but they did realize that the newcomers offered them little in the way of benefits. The peoples of the Black Mesa would attempt to avoid any interaction with the invaders, and withdrew, as much as they could from the outside world. Additional contacts between the Hopi and Spaniards were rare over the next several decades, although Spanish expeditions would pass through the region in 1583 and 1598.
In 1582, Antonio de Espejo led a new mission through the Pueblo lands. He would not reach the Black Mesa until the following year. In the meantime, he built his own reputation of terror and atrocities. Records kept by the Spaniards, themselves, tell of burning down populated pueblos, with the people still inside. There are records of executing village residents by shooting them to death if they refused to cooperate with the soldiers of de Espejo's party. This added more to the Hopi fear and loathing of the Spaniards.
By 1598, the Spanish administration had come to recognize that they were not going to find great riches in the wild lands north of their settlements in Mexico. As their population grew, the administration in New Spain decided that they needed to expand. Colonizing missions were to be sent to the open territories to the north, and an administration was to be set up. Juan de Onate was appointed as the new Governor, and he led another expedition into the region. This time, the Spaniards were here to stay, although the Black Mesa was minimally affected, initially.
The de Onate expedition introduced 1,100 cattle, 4,000 sheep, 1,000 goats, 150 colts and 150 mares into the region. This was to prove to be a monumental event in the natural history of the area, and would, ultimately, change the dominant indigenous lifestyles of the peoples of the Southwest. These animals were intended for use by Spanish colonists, exclusively, and were to be denied to the native populace, but, eventually, their descendants would pass into the hands of the natives. Their release led to radical changes in the world of the Pueblo/Hopi, Navajo, and a number of neighboring tribes.
De Onate first went on a multi-year exploration of his new territory. He would eventually travel through Oklahoma, almost to Missouri, on the East, and to the Gulf of California, on the West. In general, this was to be a relatively peaceful mission. There was one notable exception, however, at Acoma, which was to suffer a second time at the hands of the Spaniards. De Onate was tasked with the mission of receiving the “submission” to the King of Spain of the native peoples that he met on his route. This route had been laid out, in part, to visit the largest of the known settlements in the Southwest.
De Onate had little trouble with convincing the Pueblo and other nations to agree to render their submission, just as long as de Onate agreed to leave quickly, once they had done so. As with other towns, the residents of Acoma did submit, but, at Acoma, de Onate did not totally withdraw. Acoma was an impressive site, a larger settlement, and de Onate decided to leave a nephew with a party of 12 soldiers at Acoma, after the ceremony. The cause has been lost in the mists of time, but the Pueblo killed this party. De Onate quickly returned and took vengeance on the community. Over 100 Acoma warriors died, and sixty maidens were seized from the town and transported back to Mexico, where they served as slaves.
When de Onate eventually arrived at the Black Mesa, he was traveling in the wake of the various massacres by Coronado and de Espejo, and of his own actions at Acoma. Nonetheless, the Hopi recognized the wisdom of negotiating with de Onate. They gave their formal submission to the King of Spain, a relatively meaningless gesture in the absence of any Spaniards in the region. Once again, the Spaniards quickly moved on, and the Hopi went back to their world on top of the Mesa.
De Onate eventually proved to be better at exploring than he was at governing. Under his administration, the lands north of the Rio Grande became more of a headache than they were a benefit. By 1607, he was removed as governor due to mistreatment of the peoples and lands under his administration. Reports were filed of the confiscation of corn from the pueblos, beyond their ability to deliver, causing starvation in some pueblos. The villages complained about horses and livestock grazing in their fields and of periodic levies and of pillage of supplies, including the taking of cloth, leaving the natives naked. Slavery was common, and rape was a continuing problem with soldiers who had been away from Europe and family for years.
De Onate was replaced by Pedro de Peralta, who behaved much like his predecessor. The problems were severe since the Spaniards could not figure out how to grow sufficient food in the dry lands of the Pueblo region. The agricultural practices of the locals looked strange to the soldiers, which may have contributed to the problem of the Spanish animals grazing in native fields, although much of this may have been willful contempt on the part of the Spaniards, even though the Spaniards would eventually benefit from the crops.
Although the Hopi were able to keep in keep in constant touch with their neighbors during this period of tribulation in the lands to the east, they had avoided any extended interaction with the Spaniards during this early period of settlement. This isolation could not last, however.
.
.
Follow scholar Kokopelli to the Suggested
Reading List
Return with Kokopelli to the hogan page, the
Table of Contents
.
Black Mesa Highlighted in Sunlight on a Stormy Day
.
to
treeves@ionet.net
.
.
Contents, including illustrations, copyright T. K. Reeves, 1997.
on 5 April, 1997.
