The Spanish Southwest: The Reconquest of New Mexico by the Last Spanish Knight

The events leading up to the Pueblo Revolt, the Pueblo Revolt, and now the Reconquest after the Pueblo Revolt, as you have already gathered, have all, it turns out, taken one episode… each. Instead of, my original plan of one episode… period. For the whole thing. But this is obviously a benefit to us all because this is just so dang exciting and interesting and I love learning and apparently y'all love listening to me learn you something so… if you haven’t listened to the previous two episodes about the Spanish coming to the Southwest and then the Spanish getting kicked OUT of the Southwest, you should. If you have, awesome, let’s continue the story of the Reconquest after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680!

As is customary, before we spend an entire episode on someone, and before we dig into the reconquest of the Land of Enchantment, let’s discover a little bit about our hero, and I mean that in the truest sense of the word, our hero, because as opposed to so many other Spaniards that I have so far talked about, while he does indeed have his flaws, the reconqeruor of New Mexico after the Pueblo Revolt seems to have a whole lot more of the qualities that we today would identify as heroic. But maybe I’m just looking for anyone in our story since the introduction of the Europeans in the new world to root for. Maybe there aren’t any by today’s standards. Although, it’s quite possible today’s standards aren’t what we should be judging anyone by… well, with that being said, let’s learn about the man who will take back New Mexico for Spain, Don Diego de Vargas Zapata Lujan Ponce de Leon y Contreras. The last male descendant in the Noble Vargas line of Madrid.

First of all, his line, the Vargas line, is pretty storied and awesome and it is filled with knights, saints, councilors to kings, ambassadors, governors, warriors on the continent, the European continent, and conquistadors in the new world… did I mention actual medieval knights! They have their names inscribed into marble bridges and at the base of statues all over Spain. Theater plays were written about them and colloquial sayings used their name: Vargas. And the family was in the business of reconquering, for real, since a ton of his ancestors are famous for taking back Spain from the muslim Saracen infidels as they were called. Don Diego was quite literally made for the role of the leader of the reconquest of New Mexico.

Having been been born in 1643 in Madrid, Diego de Vargas Zapata Lujan Ponce de Leon was only 23 years old when in 1666 his father, a knight, died in Guatemala, leaving him with the entirety of the Vargas estate. Which… was… massive. Four years later, in 1670, Diego had a daughter with his wife, Doña Beatriz Pimentel de Prado.

By 1673 though, Diego de Vargas was across the ocean in Mexico, following in the footsteps of his father and his ancestors, and he was in the jurisdiction of Teutilain. Which is in what is now the Mexican state of Oaxaca. And he was there as the chief judge of that jurisdiction for he had begun his political career that same year. But in what must have been a painful stab at the heart, the following year, 1674, Diego learned his wife had passed away back in Spain.

After making sure his brother took custody of his child, with his continued financial support, of course, but with his brother taking control of his daughter back in Spain, Diego was free to move up the political ladder across the ocean and in 1679, he found himself Justicia mayor of the mining town of Tlalpujahua. Oh, he also found himself with three more kids with a woman in Mexico City by the name of Nicolasa Rincón.

By now, after the threeish failed attempts to take back New Mexico, Vargas promised Spain, he was the man to finally do it. And with a family history and name to back him up, Spain was all in. As J. Manuel Espinosa wrote, while summing up the Vargas line, quote, the blood of conquerors ran unmistakably in Don Diego's veins. End quote.

12 years to the very day of the Revolt, on August 10th, 1692, Vargas, having been given the office of governorship of New Mexico the previous year, on February 22nd, but on the 12 year anniversary of the Revolution that swept through New Mexico like a brushfire in the wind, 12 years to the very day, Vargas announced his glorious turn at reconquest and resettlement. Then, 11 days later on the 21st, he marched with fifty soldiers, ten armed civilians, and 100 Piro and southern Tiwa allies who’d came down that dozen years before, but he marched this small but well led army north. Yet, even with this determined army with the strong leader at its helm, who were all ready and willing to fight harder than the previous two armies had done, they met very little resistance. That isn’t to say no resistance though and as Roberts puts it in Pueblo Revolt, quote, it would take four years for Vargas fully to establish control over the shattered Pueblo world, and those years would prove far from bloodless. And in the end, the new colony that Vargas brought into being bore only superficial resemblance to the abject fiefdom Oñate had launched in 1598. End quote.

Since I knew very little about the Pueblo Revolt before deciding over a year ago to do a podcast about it, I knew even less about the reconquest. This fact was made quite clear to me as article after article and the few books I read, especially David Robert’s book, the Pueblo Revolt all reiterated, the same fact that, despite what you have read and / or heard, or if you have heard nothing, what you may hear in the future.. despite all of that, the Reconquest was NOT bloodless. I guess it is known as the bloodless reconquest. So, I am here to tell you dear listener that the reconquest was NOT bloodless… although, it certainly was in the beginning. And Vargas certainly hoped it would stay that way.

As he and his army marched north from El Paso towards the old capitol of Santa Fe, rather rapidly, honestly, Vargas came upon the exact same scene so many Spaniards had come across on their way north before him… deserted pueblo after deserted pueblo. They passed Sandia, Isleta, Domingo, even Cochiti… no one. Remember, Cochiti is where one of those few attempts at reconquest earlier had attempted to set up a forward operating base and Isleta is where Otermín found some locals. This time, no one. Not a soul, at least until they backtracked down the river and came to the Pueblo of San Felipe. It was here, at San Felipe, that Vargas and the reconquerers finally saw the Puebloan enemy… except, this enemy wanted no fight.

After some gentle coaxing down from off the surrounding mesa tops, a San Felipe Puebloan rode towards them on horseback and said in Spanish that they wanted no war but rather, they wanted help… help please, in fighting their Tewa neighbors to the north… Those same Tewa neighbors who had probably won the Anasazi civil war and had come from Mesa Verde with Poseyemu leading them, to the Rio Grande Valley all those years ago… the same Tewa neighbors who had began the Pueblo Revolt in the first place. With Popay, the leader of the revolt if you’ll remember, taking on the mantle of Poseyemu himself.

So the San Felipe puebloans supposedly wanted Spanish help in fighting their northern revolutionary neighbors, the Tewa Indians.

Vargas, was… rather surprised by this request but he agreed! Of course, the Spanish would help, that is, after all, why they came back. Remember, the last real group that had come north were stopped in their tracks at Zia where 50 of them had been injured. I have no doubt, Vargas expected the same thing as he went north, so this was a blessing to him and his men. I’m sure by the campfire that night, they were praying to god in thanks for allowing them to succeed where their predecessors had not.

But… that joy would eventually fade. After waiting for, an inordinate amount of time with nothing to show for it, Vargas and his Spaniards and Indian Allies realized this may have been a ruse once no San Felipe Puebloans showed back up… at all. At this point, he decided it was time to go north to Santa Fe, straight to the capital of this and his territory. It was time to make a statement and to finally take it all back. No more games. The Vargas don’t mess around, after all.

According to Vargas’ own testimony of what went down outside Santa Fe in the pre-dawn dark of September 13th, the armed Puebloans lined the fortresses walls from end to end once the Spaniards had been noticed creeping through the corn fields. They’d arrived on the outskirts the prior night but Vargas had wanted to secure some element of surprise, which he probably never had, honestly. Remember, the Ancient Ones, the Puebloans, the Indians up until the 1870s, were rarely if ever surprised by invaders. But in the dark of the morning, before the sun had risen, the Spanish were creeping quietly through the enemies corn fields that dotted the landscape outside the walls of Santa Fe. Then at some point, in what must have honestly been a frightening display, the Spaniards shouted in unison, five times, no doubt waking up any Puebloans who hadn’t yet noticed the incoming conquerers. What they shouted was something they’d shout repeatedly during the reconquest at almost every pueblo they had to lay siege to. It seems like a somewhat intimidating and pretty awesome way to start a battle. They’d yell, Praise be the blessed sacrament of the altar! They shouted that five times in what they must have felt like was their own version of the Old Testament assault on Jericho. Surely the walls were about to come down.

Instead of securing the city though, an almost comical interchange between the Tewa behind the walls and the Spanish ready to invade ends up occurring.

For whatever reason, the Puebloans along the ramparts thought the invading force of Spanish were Apache Indians… Apaches and some quote unquote liars from Pecos Pueblo. Which, really does go to show the amount of battling and infighting the Puebloans must have had with the outside raiders and themselves. It does seem there truly was a breakdown of the alliance once the Spanish left.

To this though, the Spanish answered that no, no in fact, they were Spaniards sent from God and the Crown to take back the land.

The Puebloans, still sure in their knowledge that this was the Apache, and that this was all some OIT business… I’m referring to Old Indian Trick, of course. Well the Tewa Puebloans behind the walls, next asked if these invaders really were truly who they said they were… are you really Spanish? They yelled. If you are spaniards, then why aren’t you firing your arquebuses?

That is kind of a valid question, I suppose.

Vargas responded with, according to his own words, quote, I replied to this that I was a catholic and they should calm themselves. End quote.

Remember, much like previous entradas, he was there to treat the locals with love and respect and to try and refrain from killing them. At least killing them before they were baptized. Vargas, in this and every situation during his reconquest had to be the bigger, more gentler, wiser man. He was ordered to do so by the King of Spain and this first real interaction, had to look like the Spanish had truly changed from their earlier vengeful burn everything down and kill everyone ways.

The back and forth continued though when the sentinels along the wall demanded that if they weren’t going to shoot their guns or cannons, which were now pointing in their general direction, then they should blow a bugle… Okay, fair enough. In response, Vargas had his men blow the bugle, and pound the war drum, but NOT fire their arquebuses. Nor the cannons.

At this point, the Puebloans may have actually believed the Spaniards because as Vargas says, they, quote, replied that they were ready to fight for five days, they had to kill us all, we must not flee as we had the first time, and they had to take everyone’s life. At the same time, they began a furious shouting that must have lasted more than an hour. End quote.

Clearly, the Puebloans were pissed. I think they’d have actually preferred if it had been Apaches.

I mean, put yourself in this scene, if you haven’t already… It’s dark and you’re a Spaniard or a Puebloan ally of the Spanish and you’ve been marching for days and have seen barely a Puebloan, whom you have sworn to not think of as your enemy. And then, you’ve finally found the Indians, but it’s probably chilly, and your steel gun or sword is cold in your hands and your steel armor is heavy on your torso. You’re trying to quietly creep through the cornfields in the dark, ready to go to war and die for… valor or honor or God or what have you and you’re creeping towards this wall that was the capitol of New Mexico but then you’re noticed, and then for the next hour, you, your leader, and the Indians yell and shout until the sun comes up. Then, according to Vargas again, he leads you and everyone forward 20 more paces…

Vargas tells all of his soldiers and allies after this hour of angry shouting from the puebloans to advance 20 paces. He then again urged the defenders to calm down because he was quote, not coming to do them any harm whatsoever. End quote.

Truthfully… I believe him. He really wanted to welcome the Puebloans back as peacefully as he could. It was his mission, after all.

This is indeed a pretty comically tense scene, really. But lurking under the apparent silliness is the knowledge that, any one warrior on either side makes any sorta mistake… and the fighting breaks out… and then, who knows what the outcome would be. Sure, the puebloans have a big wall but the reconquerers have their canons. And their sheer will. After all, a Vargas was their leader this time and reconquest was in his blood.

Eventually the Puebloans ask Don Diego to remove his helmet so that they may see his face and who he really is. Vargas agrees to this and removes his metal. And he does this despite that fact that someone could have shot an arquebus or an arrow right directly at his Spanish head… it probably wouldn’t have hit its mark… still. So the brave Vargas took off his helmet and showed his white Spanish face and… well, once they saw he was really a Spaniard, oh… all hell broke loose. The puebloans rained down complaints and curses and vitriolic anger upon Vargas and his comrades from one end of the wall to the other. They yelled about how the Spanish had caused the Apaches to be angry at them and to fight them. They complained through an interpreter, a Puebloan who could speak Spanish well and who would later prove to be quite the thorn in the side of Vargas, actually, which… I hope I can remember to mention him again but just know he’s a trickster and his name is Antonio Bolsas. Well, this Bolsas would recount to the Spaniards about how the Spaniards had treated them, the Indians, so poorly and had beat them and had forced them to build their Catholic Churches against their will and the Spanish wouldn’t let them practice their own religions and so on and so forth. Bolsas even mentions three particularly brutal Spaniards by name and says they in particular had harmed and beaten their leaders, including the late Popay!

To me and probably all of you, yeah, of course these complaints are valid and are all good reasons to kick out your conquerors, despite them not using that actual term. I’m sure Vargas felt a little bit of understanding… but after hearing this last complaint, he did assure the Puebloans that those three men were NOT among them. I didn’t read anywhere that they specifically mentioned Javier, but I imagine that he, Javier, was among those three names. Remember if you will, he was the author of the troubles I mentioned in the previous episode.

After assuring the Puebloans that these three men were not among them… something rather remarkable happened, which I’ll explain by quoting Roberts:

Instead of a battle, he had begun a dialogue. Now Bolsas weakened, hinting at clemency rather than war. Roberts now quotes Vargas, He [meaning Bolsas] stated the guilty [for the Revolt] had already died and the living were not at all guilty and most of them had been young men then. End quotes.

After hearing that the ones responsible were dead, whether true or not, Vargas reassured Bolsas that his mission was to pardon the puebloans, not punish them. And for the moment, that worked. And, a battle was avoided. For now.

After Bolsas had retreated though, an Indian came down from the pueblo decked out in armor and with a shield and with a bow and with arrows and a lance and this decked out Indian refused to shake Vargas’ hand. I guess he just kinda stood there silently and stared at the Spaniards and Indian allies faces, just right there on the front lines. Meanwhile, these same Spanish men and Indian allies were noticing, when they weren’t staring at the decked out warrior, they were noticing the many puebloan warriors approaching and filling the ranks of the defenders at Santa Fe. The walls grew thicker with dark hair and lances as the Indians gathered stones to throw, painted themselves with warpaint, and began shouting loudly with a show of force.

At one point, the puebloans even came down and asked for two friars to come into the pueblo, to have a chat, I imagine was the excuse. Shockingly, well, not shockingly if you’ve been listening to these episodes, but surprisingly, two of the friars accompanying Vargas actually leaped off their horses and began walking gleefully towards what they had to have known was certain death. And if they didn’t know it, then these friars really are just… the strangest most suicide loving men of God. Gotta give em props for bravery though. Or lunacy. Or just a pure eagerness to meet their god through holy martyrdom. As they approached the walls, I imagined with smiles and arms either reverently folded or like out to the sides as if to welcome arrows to the chest, well, as they were walking towards the wall, Vargas stopped them personally at the last second with, “your reverences, stop!”

By 11am, the Spanish and the rest of the reconquistadors understood it was time to settle this dispute. Vargas sent four warriors to block Santa Fe’s water to them by filling the only ditch which brings it in, at a place higher above the city. The same move the Indians had pulled on the survivors and Otermín 12 years before. Vargas would later write down that he eventually told them in no uncertain tones, quote, I would consume and destroy them by fire and sword, holding nothing back. End quote. He no doubt meant it.

At this point, a Tewa chief named Domingo, who would also go on to be a thorn in Vargas side in the near future when he tries to incite yet another revolt, but, that’s later… the Tewa chief Domingo came out to ask the arming and readying for a siege Spanish finally… for peace… but Vargas continued the show as he loaded cannons and fixed arquebuses to carts as a sort of proto humvee. Two hours of this gearing up for battle continued. High noon came and went. Domingo, who had gone back to the Puebloans and attempted to talk them into not fighting eventually gave up and told Vargas on his way out, that, hey man, these people are not surrendering. I’mma head out. Then Domingo left.

All the while, confident in his ability to end this as he was commanded, which was peacefully, Vargas continued the show of force while also promising to pardon all the Puebloans. He also continually raised the emblem of the Virgin Mary over and over again while simultaneously assuring the dwindling puebloans behind the wall that he would be absolutely merciless if this came to a battle. Vargas wrote, quote, I replied that I was neither afraid of them nor humbled as they were, confined, besieged, without water, and subject to my burning them out and killing them all, which I could have done in the time that had passed since I arrived. End quote. That would have looked a lot like the reverse of 1680. And I think the Puebloans came to realize it.

Finally… two Indians crept out of the besieged Santa Fe and offered the peace from all the Indians inside the city's walls. At this point Vargas not only shook these two men’s hands but he also hugged them both. Afterwards, he and his forty soldiers marched into the crumbling capital of New Mexico that is Santa Fe. Vargas would say of the whole day, quote, the Indians, although frightened, began to come out to give me the peace, which I gave them all, with all my love. I .. spoke words of tenderness and love, so that they might be reassured about my good intentions. End quote. I think in that moment he really felt a huge sense of relief and, as his knightly blood required of him, he was truly filled with love and thankfulness that he hadn’t had to kill anyone! But… certainly the retaking of New Mexico couldn’t have been that easy, right? That very day he had a cross erected in the center of the city.

Surprisingly and thankfully, because of the lack of bloodshed thus far, but over the next few days, many nearby pueblo leaders came and offered peace and submission for their people. Yet still, Vargas needed full submission from all the pueblos for this reconquest to work, so at the end of that month, September, 1692, Vargas set out on a mission to visit every known pueblo in order to ask for submission and to give pardon.

One of the first pueblos Vargas would visit was Pecos. If you haven’t been to Pecos National Historical Park just off of 25, east of Santa Fe, and South of the Sangre de Christo Mountains, I implore you to visit. It’s amazing and you can see the old church, or what they’ve reconstructed of it, and you can walk amongst the ruins. And you can go down in a reconstructed kiva. And it’s not far from a civil war battle! The decisive civil war battle in the American West, really. Unfortunately… the Yankees routed the Rebs.. or well, maybe not unfortunately, I don’t know, me and my folk are all deeply from the South so, you’ll have to pardon me. But the national park slash monument is a great off the beaten path and rarely visited place with gorgeous views and a great history. The cover of the last episode is of the destroyed church and the kiva they built from the church.

Just outside of view of the large pueblo that is Pecos, Vargas and his men camped for a night before surrounding the important pueblo in the morning. At his signal, Vargas and the men all shouted in unison five times, as was their calling card, Alabado sea el Santísimo Sacramento! Praise be the blessed sacrament of the altar! He’d done this at Santa Fe, remember, and he’d do it again. After the fifth shout, Vargas unsheathed his sword and shouted, Santiago! According to Kessell, quote, Vargas encouraged his men. If these Indians wanted battle, the Christians, now he’s quoting Vargas, the Christians, quote, should trample them under foot, capture them, and kill them. End quote. But be warned: they could have Apaches with them. Now the Spaniards closed at full gallop. End quotes. By now, the entire fierce Spanish led army descended upon Pecos ready for its subjugation.

Once they reached the grand pueblo they found… it was abandoned, which, obviously, like it has been, will be again, a theme that Don Diego would find throughout all of his travels through the land that was New Mexico.

Curiously, as if they had just missed them, in the trees outside of town, were left hanging animal skins which they had probably planned on trading with the Apache. Also, tracks of children, men, and horses were scattered all around the valley and surrounding hills. Within the pueblo, which wasn’t fully abandoned really, were left only a few older people and women, who were tending to the crops and begging the Spanish for peace.

One of Vargas’ men, a man named Pedro Hidalgo, a man who had survived the 1680 revolt whom Kessell described as quote, a swarthy, well-built man, thick of beard, with short curly hair and the scar of a burn on his neck. Born and reared in New Mexico and now in his mid-forties, Hidalgo had witnessed the death of one of the missionaries in 1680 and lived to tell about it. End quote. This man, it is not known if he could speak Tewa… or Tiwa, or Keresan, or any of the languages the Puebloans spoke but he was nonetheless appointed as Vargas’ interpreter and that’s just what he did. Or at least tried to. And from the readings, it seems he did it somewhat successfully.

At Pecos, Hidalgo would interrogate for Vargas the few Puebloans who had voluntarily, or involuntarily, been left behind. And all of these people pretty much told Hidalgo and Vargas the same thing. And that was that the young warriors wanted nothing to do with the Spanish and the religious. Yet… the older men sought peace. One of the prisoners that Vargas would capture was the self proclaimed governor of Pecos who echoed those same exact words and sentiments. When Vargas had found him, this self proclaimed governor, the old man in his sixties, had been butt naked and looking rather frail. I believe Vargas must have taken pity on him.

Seeing a way for this to go well instead of sideways, Vargas appointed this man, the old ex governor, as his emissary. Vargas then hung a rosary around the old man’s neck, gave him a piece of paper saying he was to be treated with respect and peace, and sent him off to find his people, and once he found them, to tell his people that the Spanish truly meant no harm. Once he had told them that, he was to obviously, bring them back. Vargas then hugged the old men, and sent him on his way. In the letter that Don Diego de Vargas had given him though, as a sign of affection and because I think Vargas is just about the only real Spanish hero of our story, but within that letter that he had given the old man, Vargas had tucked away a cross he had personally made himself.

The loss of true nobility and chivalry, as in knighthood, and earned aristocracy, their loss is some of the few lamented casualties of the enlightenment… I think.

At Pecos, Vargas and his men would take up residence in the Pueblo and the kivas and wait for 4 whole days. And during those four days, Vargas would find a total of 27 people that he would keep as quote unquote prisoners, although many of them were themselves prisoners of the Pecos, or at least that’s what they told Vargas. A second older man would approach with the very cross the governor had been sent out with, much to Vargas’ surprise and relief. This older man would yet again repeat the same stories of the younger braves and warriors wanting to leave and do battle… while the women and older puebloans had wanted to stay and make peace. This second older man also told Vargas that the old ex-governor whom he’d shown so much affection to was trying his hardest to gather up his people and bring them back. As a sign of good faith, Vargas told this second older man that he and his Spanish forces were ready to leave the moment the puebloans returned. Just… please, return. Oh, and also, Vargas wanted to be like brothers to the Puebloans… so that they may do no harm to each other. From here on out. With that news, the second older gentleman left the pueblo.

Vargas really is a different type of Spaniard than we’ve been learning about so far.

As the days ticked by, more people came to visit him and they would all tell him the same story and they’d all tell him that the Puebloans were returning soon, they’re returning soon, don’t worry. We promise. Meanwhile, Vargas sent out some more runners to further on pueblos to let them know he was coming shortly, and to prepare themselves to return to the fold. He’d had about enough of Pecos, it seems. And you can’t blame him. His frustration was indeed pretty warranted.

On that fourth day, a runner who’d been sent out into the surrounding lands returned with… a single, young, Pecos puebloan boy. And this boy had the bad news; instead of the people gathering to return, the old men, including the ex-governor, had been threatened with death for wanting to appease the Spanish and the entirety of the people had scattered to the wind. Just blown away. There was no bringing the Pecos back at this moment. According to the youth, the Pecos Puebloans and even the nearby Tewa pueblos were scared of the Spanish. They were scared of the Spanish because they were dogs. And you can’t tame these dogs. So the Pecos Puebloans were going to live up at Taos, or maybe even with the Apache, where their odds fared better than they would have with the Spanish.

Vargas seemingly had two options: he could act like every other petty despot Spanish ruler and burn the place to the ground, just as the Puebloans had burned down the mighty church that once stood there… or he could act as his noble line of ancestors demanded and he could leave in peace and allow the fields to keep their bounty, the kivas roofs to stay, and the three story pueblo buildings to stand. Not surprisingly, the man whose ancestors were literal Knights of the Spanish realm chose peace and after freeing all of the prisoners, except the ones who were prisoners themselves and who opted to go with the Spanish as opposed to return as prisoners back to the Pecos Puebloans, but Vargas freed all of the Pecos prisoners, painted a cross in the kiva, erected a large cross in the plaza, left another piece of paper for safe passage with one of his handmade crosses in it, and… he and his army of Spaniards and Native American allies left.

Kessell writes of the whole thing, quote, by his restraint at Pecos—something the Pueblos did not expect of Spaniards—Diego de Vargas had cut the ground out from under the young hawks. The soldiers had not even ravaged their kivas. Vargas was gambling. By this act of good faith, he hoped to win an ally. End quote.

My only pushback is that Vargas may not have been gambling, but simply acting as someone of nobility ought to act… I guess, that’s enough editorializing on his saintly nobility, I suppose.

After Pecos, Don Diego de Vargas visited San Juan, San Lázaro, San Cristóbal, the Galisteo Basin south of Santa Fe, the Keres pueblos, and Taos. At Taos, he successfully convinced the Puebloans to come out of the mountains, which he hadn’t been able to do at Pecos. Once he’d gained their trust, Vargas and the religious baptized 96 puebloans and forgave the remainder of them. Although… something troubling did occur.

Two elders of the Pueblo asked to meet Vargas in his tent while he was there and Vargas obliged them. Once the secret meeting had begun, the two elders told Hidalgo, the interpreter, who then told Vargas that: at Zuni, the people there, not just the Zuni, but the Hopi, and the Jémez, The Keres, some Pecos, Apaches, and others, they had held a three day ceremony where it was decided that they were all going to join up together, as they had in 1680, and they were going to repel the Spaniards once and for all this time. For. Real. After hearing this, Vargas thanked the old men, and then sent word to his puebloan allies, the Tewa and Tano warriors he could depend on at least, but he sent word to them to gather their best warriors and meet him in Santa Fe by October 16th… they were riding out to stop this possible rebellion.

But first! He had to go back to Pecos. The fact that he hadn’t been able to get their peace and blessings had been bothering him. But he knew of the kinship between the puebloans at Taos and the Puebloans at Pecos so he used this to his advantage. While he was at Taos, he had some of those puebloans run over to Pecos and to tell them that, hey, these Spaniards, led by this badass Vargas, they really were different this time. You seriously can trust them… This… seems to have worked, and much to Vargas’ relief, back at Pecos, after the Spanish had arrived, he found all of the Puebloans waiting for him with peace in their hearts. Kessell writes of this whole interaction, quote, They crowded around the entrance to the pueblo, some of them holding aloft arches of evergreen branches. They had set up a cross, "large and very well made." At about two in the afternoon of October 17, 1692, a Friday, as Diego de Vargas and his party of mounted Spaniards approached, they stepped back opening a path. Those who remembered chanted the Alabado sea. The Spaniards responded gratefully. End quote.

Those Indian allies he’d hoped to have with him hadn’t shown up because of a bad harvest but it was no matter, he did not need them, thankfully. I’ll just quote Kessell one more time here of the scene after Vargas and the Spanish had entered the Pueblo:

The Spanish governor called to the ensign to hoist the royal banner three times. Hung on a processional staff, it bore the image of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, don Diego's special patroness. A squad of soldiers stood at attention with swords unsheathed. Each time the banner went up, Vargas led the crowd in the cry, "Long live the king, our lord! God save him! Charles the Second! King of the Spains, of all this new world, and of the kingdom and provinces of New Mexico, and of these subjects newly won and conquered!" Each time, the soldiers responded, "Long live the king! May he reign in happiness!" Jubilantly, amid cheering, the soldiers threw their hats into the air. Pecos, its lands, and its people had been reconquered. Falling on their knees, the friars intoned the Te Deum Laudamus.

I can’t help but picture this scene on this cold October day as being one sided in its jubilation but it must have been quite a scene. Thankfully, as we’ll soon learn, this time around, it truly was going to be different for the Puebloans. But they didn’t know that yet.

It was now time for Vargas, in what Kessell called a suicidal boldness, to head west and retake those pueblos and puebloans for Spain once again.

Once at Zuni, rather than start the second Revolt, the Puebloans capitulated quickly. This was probably due to the Apaches having told them they were all going to be murdered by the Spanish who were coming swiftly on their way. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case but it still scared the kachinas out of ‘em. They probably also got word from the many other pueblos of the bloodlessness of the whole endeavor so far and the peacefulness that the Spanish had shown everyone.

Then, at the Hopi pueblo of Awatovi, which is the first pueblo the Spanish would have come to on Antelope Mesa, which sits just southeast of First Mesa. Awatovi was quite the hub of activity for the Hopi and was a truly important city… which is why what I’ll bring up later with Awatovi is so shocking. But for now, at this time of Vargas’ arrival, 122 men, women, and children were baptized during his visit, which to the Spaniards, was a true blessing. But what wasn’t a blessing was the news a Puebloan man named Miguel told Vargas. Apparently, at the Hopi village of Walpi, the other leaders and governors of the Hopi had a meeting where it was decided they were going to complete the plan they’d formed at Zuni and they were gonna kill all the Spanish once they’d showed up.

Even knowing that though, the truly brave, and seemingly divinely protected yet boldly suicidal Vargas… he kinda reminds me of those friars I brought up in the last episode that had seemingly wanted to meet god sooner rather than later, but… Vargas, who had been warned by Miguel before, mind you, but Vargas yet again ignored the Puebloans warnings, and climbed to the top of the heavily defended and hard to get to Walpi pueblo, which sits on first Mesa in the Hopi Mesa world or as Roberts describes it, perched atop a knife-edged fin of a butte that thrusts west. Once in the Pueblo, Vargas approached the rebellious leader, Antonio, and told he and his men to lay down their arms, which… they did. Although not everyone at the pueblo agreed to. Those who weren’t from Walpi, held onto ‘em, just in case. Surprisingly, Vargas and his divine protection baptized 81 more people and erected another cross. Yet again, no bloodshed. Although, Vargas did write down that he did indeed notice the puebloans who refused to lay down their weapons.

On second Mesa, much the same happens inside the villages of Mishongnovi and Jongopavi. It seems nothing could stop Vargas and his bloodless reconquest. He had just one more mesa, third mesa, and one more major pueblo on that mesa, Oraibi to pardon, convert, and subjugate for Spain… but, Oraibi would prove to be the one and only pueblo to resist the 1692 reconquista.

Miguel, that puebloan who warned him about the Hopi vengeance that was awaiting him, had warned him again and had told him for real, at Oraibi, you’re not going to make it out alive if you try these shenanigans there. Apparently, something, maybe it was the divine protection, but Vargas heeded Miguel’s warning and decided to head back east… all the way back east, even beyond Santa Fe. He’d be in El Paso by mid December and he’d be a happy man. He’d brought 23 pueblos back to heel and he’d baptized 2,214 Indians in the process. Kessell in Kiva, Cross, and Crown quotes a news bulletin of the day that stated, quote, An entire realm was restored to the Majesty of our lord and king, Charles II, with out wasting a single ounce of powder, unsheathing a sword, or (what is most worthy of emphasis and appreciation) without costing the Royal Treasury a single maravedí. End quote.

Before he made it back to El Paso though Vargas stopped at El Morro, that awesome place near El Malpais in New Mexico where Oñate carved his name and Puebloans before him carved kachinas and where anasazi and ancestral puebloans before them carved their petroglyphs… On El Morro is carved this exquisite boast:

Here was the General Don Diego de Vargas, who conquered for our Holy Faith, and for the Royal Crown, all the New Mexico, at his expense, Year of 1692.

I suppose he earned that one, although… the bloodless part of the exceptional reconquista, the part about n swords unseated or a single ounce of powder being used… that wasn’t meant to last.

Now for the second part of Vargas’ mission: bring some hearty colonists north to repopulate Santa Fe. At this task, he was less successful than he’d hoped he would be… at first. At the time, El Paso wasn’t an easy life by itself with constant Indian attacks from Apache and many other nomadic tribes who had been stealing horses and people for a century already. Not to mention, the Pueblo revolt itself was still fresh. As my sister in law calls it, the land of entrapment wasn’t looking like a great place to set up shop or home for the leery Spaniards.

Eventually, the king’s treasury cut Vargas off when he’d spent 40,000 pesos on recruitment… so much for not costing the royal treasury anything. But apparently to Vargas, his mission was complete. After all that time and money he had succeeded in gathering what he felt was enough people to head north and resettle the land.  With all that money and time he had ran around the entirety of New Spain looking for worthy families to help him resettle, and by October of 1693, almost a year since his return from reconquest, which is a long time and which no doubt confused the Puebloans up north about the Spaniards true intentions… well Vargas set off once again for Santa Fe in October. This time, his party was much much larger, over four times as large as his previous excursion. The Bureau of Land Management has a series titled A Forgotten Kingdom: The Spanish Frontier in Colorado and New Mexico, 1540-1821 that talks about the people he recruited. The paper says, quote:

Vargas' settlers represented a cross-section of society in New Spain. Along with the "quality" families of the interior, Vargas gathered twenty-seven families of negroes and mestizos from Zacatecas. Also included were widows, single men and a few Spaniards of "pure blood" with great social standing… It goes on to say… Luis Granillo was named second in command, Roque Madrid was put in charge of the soldiers, and Fray Salvador was superior to the forty missionaries. Santa Fe was to be reached in fifty days. End quote.

So with him were 100 soldiers, seventy families, plenty of Indian allies, and 18 Franciscan Friars. Not to mention 2,000 horses, 1,000 mules, and 900 heads of cattle. But the drive back to Santa Fe wasn’t as rosy as Vargas or any of the new colonists had hoped it would be.

Kessell writes of the escapade, quote, the journey north was a nightmare. The wind blew bitter cold, food ran low, wagon wheels came off, and nearly every one was sick. Worse, as Vargas and his vanguard of fifty men scouted ahead through the first abandoned pueblos, they began hearing rumors that most of the Indians, fortified on mesa tops, intended to resist. End quote. That had to be the worst news he could have gotten and it no doubt scared the living daylights out of many who had agreed to try their luck in the quote unquote reconquered land.

Obviously, this enormous caravan of animals and people was very tempting to the local native Americans as they passed through their various territories which resulted in the theft of a number of said animals. It was also incredibly slow going. It really wasn’t off to the greatest of starts… but then, on November 10th, Vargas would receive some more troubling news. Only three pueblos remained loyal… In only 8 months, the people had remembered their rebellion. Now, only the Pueblos of San Felipe, Santa Ana, and Zia remained vassals, and they remained in constant fear of Popay’s and the rebellion’s ghost.

Not only that, but the northern Tewa speaking pueblos, those puebloans who had left Mesa Verde all those centuries before as they emerged from Tewayo and then had kicked off the revolt emerging again from Tewayo, they had gathered the other Kiowa-Tanoan speaking peoples of the Tiwa, and Towa, and with them, had gathered even more Indians from the Navajo and Apache tribes, and they were all ready for a fight.

There was only one thing Vargas could do after hearing this news and that was to act as bravely suicidal as he had previously. With 50 soldiers he ran north to the defense of his puebloan subjects. But the news would continue to get worse.

Vargas learned, from the governor of Pecos Pueblo himself, that the people were ready for war with him because a man, a man who had been Vargas’ interpreter the year before, but a man named Pedro de Tapia had spread a dangerous lie once Vargas had left for El Paso the previous year. Tapia had spread the false news during a meeting of pueblo leaders that once he returned, Vargas was going to kill everyone in the New Mexico territory except those between the ages of 12 and 14. Essentially everyone born after the Revolt would be spared, and only them. Tapia himself, had died since the lie, but his rumor lived on and now, Vargas had an angry puebloan army to the north and to the west.

The bad news didn’t cease for Vargas after learning of the hostility. Once the rest of the caravan reached him, he discovered the people had traded many of their goods, far more than had been necessary, but they’d traded way too much of their precious goods and even some of their weapons to Indians for sacks of corn. Guns, powder, jewelry, and even horses had been traded for beans and grains. Then, at the end of November it snowed… heavily and with a bitter cold and a biting wind attached to it. Not long afterwards, sixteen men and women, including seven soldiers, would steal horses, clothing, and food, and head out into the territory, wanting nothing more to do with what was looking like a doomed situation. Vargas vowed retribution on the mutineers but would never get the chance to met it out, as far as I can tell. The fate of those 7 would be interesting to know, but I had no luck finding that information. Unless a few of them were returned to Vargas later by some Puebloans… I’m not sure if they’re one and the same deserters.

Some relief though, did finally came from the Pecos, that pueblo that he had thankfully spared the year or so prior. The relief came in the form of some maize flour but still.. it wasn’t quite enough.

Then on December 10th, Vargas and what was left of the large group of settlers went north, some 25 miles to Santa Fe to prove to all the Indians of the land that he and Spain and God were there, and were there to stay. But… it took them almost a week of rough travel through heavy snow to cover the paltry 25 miles.

And it’s at this point, a certain dejavu sets in when Vargas and his group reach the walls of Santa Fe. Like last time, the Indians lined the ramparts and blocked access except there was no war whooping or hollering but instead they stood stoic. And like last time, Vargas stood in the fields. He had priests sing, kneel, and pray loudly. He had the virgin Mary proudly displayed. He erected a cross. He had some silly seeming ceremony where a priest handed him a document saying he now had Santa Fe again… even though he was clearly not in control of the city. He’d speak through an interpreter and tell the gathered puebloan leaders that he had again in fact come in peace and he was ready to bless his children and that the king wasn’t mad and etc etc but… the puebloans were having none of it.

This time, Vargas decided to play it safe and after realizing he wasn’t going to be let in, he and the caravan headed north and set up camp at the base of a mountain at a distance from Santa Fe which he describes as, quote, two arquebuses shots away, end quote. I love that measure of distance. Two arquebus shots away, which my brief research tells me is about a thousand yards. Apparently most harquebuses were deadly at 400, but Spanish ones were deadly at 600, so I’m taking the middle ground. 1,000 yards away from Santa Fe, to the north, in the snow, at the base of a mountain, the bedraggled group hung out and waited… and they’d wait for 13 days. 13 rough and cold and deadly days.

During these 13 days, apparently, the puebloan Indians, curious at their new neighbors would just come out of Santa Fe and walk around the camp and peer into tents and take things and laugh as they walked by the frightened colonists. I kind of enjoy that visual. It must have been awkward and Vargas had to have been furious and the people were probably scared, but he had to act like the Spanish Knight he was and keep his cool… at least for now.

Both groups were running dangerously low on food though. And sadly, the Spanish camp had no church! So to remedy this situation, Vargas did the cool and sane thing and demanded that the Puebloans head on into Santa Fe and fix that church they burned down during the revolt so they could have mass. But do it with a smile and be happy about it, because, quote, it was not work to make the house of god and his mother, the Virgin, our lady, who was closed up in a wagon. If a lady came, they had a duty to give her a house. End quote.

Surprisingly, instead of laughing in Vargas’ face, the governor of the Pueblo of Santa Fe, a man named Jose, said, look it’s too cold and there’s too much snow to go up into the mountains and cut down some trees so why don’t you just use one of our kivas, to which Vargas said, surprisingly, sure! Okay!

Once in the kiva, they closed up the hole in the roof, blasted a hole in the side to make a door, and whitewashed the walls, destroying the kiva murals, which were probably beautiful and kachina heavy. They also built an alter and dragged the church vestiges inside… and theeeeen, after all of that… the head priest changed his mind and said no, never mind, we can’t do mass in here where the Indians had their evil religious ceremonies… it’s almost as if the Spanish were asking for trouble… I mean, seriously. As Roberts puts it, all this must have sorely tested puebloan patience. I’m sure the head priest probably even frustrated Vargas’ patience as well.

All the while during those 13 days, the colonists watched as the Indians were gathering reinforcements. They’d see them coming into Santa Fe every day. Meanwhile, Vargas told the Puebloans after some deserters, possibly the ones mentioned earlier, but after some deserters were brought to him, he made it be known that these were actually at the head of the incoming 200 soldiers that were on their way to reinforce him. This bluff got the Spanish 20 sacks of maize from the Puebloans on the spot. In reality, disease and cold were actually killing many of the colonists including children. The winter that year would prove to be the coldest for anyone living there and the brutal temperatures, snow, and wind were freezing the camp to death. 22 of Vargas’ travelers would die before long. The people, and Vargas, couldn’t hold out much longer.

On December 27th, after what had to be a pretty disappointing and sad Christmas, the news came to Vargas by way of a blind spy he had inside the Pueblo that the Indians had guessed that the 200 soldiers coming was a lie and they were now preparing for war.

It wasn’t a total lie though, Pecos was sending 140 warriors, but they weren’t there quite yet. And they weren’t arquebus firing, horse riding Spanish soldiers.

On the 28th Vargas himself went to the gates of Santa Fe and asked for peace one last time. But, it was denied him and that night, the people heard war chants and screams all throughout the darkness. The battle was coming.

In Kiva, Cross, & Crown, Kessell writes:

Addressing his entire army, as men and horses stood there benumbed, their breath escaping in white puffs, don Diego de Vargas reassured them that God and the Blessed Virgin were with them, a fact Fray Diego de Zeinos confirmed. Then all knelt in the snow, recited the general confession, and were absolved by the friar. Mounted up, they moved forward, and, met by a hail of shouting, arrows, and rocks, they yelled the Santiago and charged.

The prayers, the reassurances, and the charge would happen on the morning of the 29th and it would effectively end the night of the 29th.

The Puebloans stood no match against Spanish steel, armor, aim, and firepower. Despite the Puebloans putting up a tough fight with stones and arrows and spears, according to Vargas, not a single Spanish soldier was seriously injured during the battle while nine Puebloans lost their lives. The gate was set fire to, the walls had holes blown in it from cannons. Half the city was taken quickly, and then by nightfall, almost the entire city was taken. Along the hills other Puebloan warriors gathered but Vargas sent a group of Spanish and Indian soldiers to shoo them away, which they did. The Puebloans still trapped in the city hid as best they could but Vargas set up sentries to watch for any fleeing Indians and slowly pulled them from their kivas and hiding places.

With seemingly no other option the Governor of the Pueblo, the aforementioned Jose hanged himself before dawn… but the real slaughter was just beginning. Vargas would raise the flag of triumph over the city, assemble the prisoners, chastise them for their deception, line up all captured warrior prisoners outside the city, have them absolved of their sins, and then shot. As Roberts puts it, quote, in a matter of minutes, seventy puebloan warriors lay dead in the dirt. End quote. Vargas then informed every surviving puebloan, 400 of them, including women and children, that they were to be punished with ten years of servitude aka slavery. He let the colonists, their new masters divide them up as they saw fit. It seems Vargas’ old interpreter’s words of Spanish punishment were coming true…

For the Pecos Pueblo though, which had sent over 140 warriors in that battle for Santa Fe, Vargas was true to his word of helping them as they had helped Vargas. Only days after the siege, when a band of rebel Tewas, Tanos, Picurís, & Apache threatened the Pueblo, the Governor, a man named don Juan de Ye, a close friend of Vargas by now, asked for the Spaniard’s help, which Vargas sent him right away. He sent the help in the form of his second in command, his Maese de campo, a man we will talk a bit about later but a man named Lorenzo de Madrid. Madrid took 30 soldiers and off they went.

By the next day though, the defensive party had arrived back in Santa Fe and Madrid reported there was no sign of any enemies. The whole thing may have been a test… which the Spanish, led by Vargas, passed and Madrid reported that everyone in the entire Pecos pueblo, quote, were grateful for the sending of these soldiers to protect them. They welcomed them warmly, and, having the Spaniards so firmly on their side, they feel secure. End quote. Again, Vargas treatment of Pecos would pay off before long.

Throughout that battle of Santa Fe, during the day and the night, hundreds of puebloans had fled northwest to the nearby butte known as Black Mesa. Men, women, and children from San Ildefonso, Pojoaque, Santa Clara, Tesuque, Cuyamunge, and Jacona Pueblos gathered in the hopes of fighting off the Spanish in what they must have been coming to realize was a vain attempt to drive them out once and for all.

On February 26th, after almost two months of gathering strength, courage, resolve, and probably hoping the Puebloans would come down, but on February 26th, Vargas marched towards Black Mesa. Even though they were gathering the courage, those two months were rough on the colonists, and no doubt the Puebloans as well. The cold and the snow hadn’t ceased in that time. And by now the Colonists were almost out of horses, ammo, and food. It was now or never. But choosing now wasn’t easy.

As the Spanish waited at the base of the Mesa with their Pecos allied army, frozen rain and more snow pelted them for days. But not just weather rained down, once they were discovered, the beleaguered Puebloans flung taunts, insults, and threats at the invaders which were disparaging enough apparently for Vargas to issue his men to shoot needlessly up at the screaming and chanting Puebloans.

Finally, on March 4th, after enough abuses, and constant bad weather, Vargas ordered his men to attack the top of the butte… this time though, it wasn’t as successful as had his attack on Santa Fe been. To start the battle, a cannonball or mortar shell shot from the Spaniards misfired and exploded in the artilleryman’s face. He then had sixty men charge up the front as he led 15 around the back. This time, the stones and arrows, being fired from high above were much more effective against the armored Spanish. Vargas said he quit the battle with 20 injured soldiers, although he claimed he fell 12 to 15 puebloans.

Two more unsuccessful attacks followed. The Spaniards would try and use ladders but the Puebloan warriors began rolling boulders. It seems Vargas’ luck had begun to change. On March 18th, he abandoned the siege altogether.

Roberts describes the turn of luck well when he writes, quote, So commenced the pattern of warfare that would stretch through much of the fateful year of 1694, from late February to mid-September. All over the Pueblo world, the resisters had taken refuge on high, well-defended aeries such as Black Mesa. If Vargas really hoped to subdue the colony he thought he had already won, he must march from one end of New Mexico to the other, and devise a way to take the higher ground from warriors who, however inferior their weapons, were highly skilled at fending off attacks from below. End quote.

After the failed attempt at Black Mesa, and some recuperating in Santa Fe, Vargas and his army head to modern day Cochiti where on a similar high mesa nearby, the people, not only from Cochiti but other pueblos in the area as well, but up on a high mesa, a large gathering of Puebloans were holed up in the Cochiti ancestral pueblo of Kotiyiti. It was now April and Vargas was pissed. He had learned in the interim of hostilities that these Cochiti puebloans, as soon as Vargas had left the area two years before, these Cochiti Puebloans gave the nearby loyal to Spanish Zia, Santa Ana, & San Felipe Pueblos a hard time including attacking and plundering of the pueblos. For this attack though, Vargas not only had 50 Spanish soldiers, but also 100 Puebloan warriors as well. Warriors from the aforementioned pueblos who didn’t take too kindly to their families being attacked once the Spanish had left.

In the middle of the night, on April 17th, Vargas split up his small army into three units and silently charged the top of the fortified mesa. 342 puebloan prisoners were taken including 13 warriors who, were of course absolved of their sins, and then executed. Vargas took the mesa top with surprising ease. Or did he… 4 days later, in a surprise counter attack, Vargas says warriors surged down from an even higher and heavily wooded position on the mesa with quote, furious war cries and a large number of people, end quote. After some intense close quarter combat, four puebloan warriors lay dead but half of the captives got away so, it was somewhat successful for the attackers, I suppose. Three days later when Vargas and his army and the prisoners left, he set fire to the ancestral site of Kotiyiti whom the Keres speaking people had been in off and on for centuries.

During the next few months, the governor of Pecos, Don Juan de Ye, would bring news of peaceful Apaches wishing to come and do business with the Spanish and the Pecos Pueblo in October, something they would both benefit from. Both times Ye brought the news, Vargas was more than pleased. The more native Americans he could count as allies, the better. Especially since the west had yet to be reconquered.

The Apaches didn’t wait for October though, and in May, the chief of the Apaches came with buffalo skins, meat, and a teepee to offer to Vargas and to thank him for allowing them to trade with the Puebloans as they had done in the past. Then… in typical fashion, Vargas asked why the Apache chief wasn’t baptized to which the Apache replied, and I’ll quote Kessell’s retelling of this incident, quote, Using his hands, the Indian made signs that they should pour water on his head right then. If the Spaniards would just finish off the rebels, his Apaches would come live in their pueblos and become Christians. That, Vargas allowed, was an excellent thought provided the rebels did not reoccupy them. End quote.

So it was time to finish off these rebels that plagued the reconquest and it was time to bring the rest of the Pueblos under Spanish domain once and for all, but first, he still would like a few more soldiers and settlers.

In June, on the 23rd, Vargas’ hope of more Spaniards would come true when around 200 more colonists, all the way from Mexico City, would arrive. But this group was both a blessing and a curse. The problem that had begun even before the Spanish arrived, the problem that the Chaco Aztec Alteptl had tried to fix and the granaries of the Southwest tried to mitigate, that problem being there never seemed to be enough food, well that problem was STILL plaguing the Puebloans and the Spaniards. Even in 1694… so while, this new group was needed, it was going to be quite hard to facilitate with such few stores of food.

Interesting side note, with this group also came three surviving Frenchmen from the La Salle party that I talked about earlier. I’m not sure why they were there but maybe they didn’t feel comfortable in Mexico City. Or maybe they had some communication skills that could come in handy with the Spanish up north.

In early July, soon after the new colonists arrival, Don Juan from Pecos and Vargas, along with many soldiers and priests, would march north to Taos to once again get the Pueblo under Spanish control. It was at this meeting that both tragedy and luck would strike. The tragedy is that Don Juan from Pecos, the old governor was lulled into a false sense of security by the leader of the Taos Pueblo and most likely killed. Vargas, after embracing him and warning him of some treachery afoot after don Juan had accepted an invitation to stay the night with the Taos puebloans, well that hug and blessing by Vargas to Don Juan was the last any spaniard saw of him. When he didn’t return with the Taos leaders the next day, Vargas, as he had promised he would do, sacked the Pueblo of Taos, where he found an abundance of stored Maize. He then secretly, or attempted to secretly, cart this food all the way up through Colorado and down to Santa Fe in a round about way where it made its way into the bellies of the hungry Spanish.   

Don Juan’s son would enter Santa Fe not long after and Vargas would tell him of the sad fate of his father. Kessell writes of this exchange, quote, Through an interpreter, Diego de Vargas tried "with efficacious words" to express his sympathy. No Spaniard deserved the title reconqueror more than don Juan de Ye, governor of the Pecos. Vargas would never forget him. End quote.

Days later, in July of 1694, Vargas would be on the other side of the Jemez Mountains to battle with… the Jemez. By this point in his campaign, he’d gathered 100 more Puebloan warriors from Pecos and Zia, who were now, despite teaming up in 1680, all too happy to be doing battle again with their old enemy the Towa speaking Jemez. The Zia are a Keresan speaking people, like the Gallina people were and possibly the Chacoans. Towa belongs with Tewa and were from Mesa Verde if you’ll recall. So the old Civil War fault lines were drawn again as descendants from Mesa Verde fought descendants from Chaco. Clearly, there was still some ancient animosity. Not to mention the years between the Revolt and the Reconquest had been tough and Popay’s promises hadn’t come true and in fact, the opposite had happened. The Zia therefore were all too happy to help lead the Spanish up to yet another mesa top pueblo. A mesa top pueblo the Spanish called the Pueblo of the peñol but what the Jemez call the Fortress of Astialakwa. 

In Roberts’ Pueblo Revolt he is having breakfast with two archaeologists and they’re discussing this place and one of them, Mike Bremer, an archaeologist for the Santa Fe National Forest, called the ruins of Astialakwa, a place the Jemez had asked the writer, David Roberts not to mention by name, which he did not. I just saw the name in other research and am callously using it, but archaeologist Bremer called the Jemez’s the Pueblo of the Peñol, quote, their Sistine Chapel and their Gettysburg Battlefield all rolled into one. End quote. In other words, it’s an important place to modern Jemez.

If you know anything about the battle of Gettysburg, you know it wasn’t going to be an easy battle for Vargas and his troops and warriors. There are only two entrances to the top and the Puebloans had been gathering stones from the river bed and knapping arrow heads for months in preparation for battle. The mesa top had sheer walls and boulders had been placed strategically to hide behind while throwing stones until they too could be hurled down and on to the attacking invaders. It was a veritable fortress.

At one in the morning, on July 23rd, Vargas, after sneaking to a solid position, silently gave the command to attack. One group, led by a non relative also named Vargas and with the 100 Zia Puebloan warriors and 25 soldiers, that group went up a treacherous but effective back way while the main Vargas launched the attack from the front. By four in the afternoon, despite the potential of the fortress, after the fighting and the fire, over 84 puebloans had perished. Many of them in combat, some of them by fire, seven of them by jumping to their deaths off the mesa walls. Two died by a firing squad after being captured and then baptized. No Spanish soldiers or Zia warriors were killed. Also 361 men, women, and children were captured. The men were offered a deal. If they helped Vargas, the Spanish, & the Zia make war against their Tewa cousins at Black Mesa near Santa Fe, he’d let ‘em live.

Two months later in September, with his ranks swelled and his resolve hardened, Vargas marched once again on Black Mesa. By the 9th day of that ninth month in 1694, the Tewa speaking once rebel Mesa Verdeans who were again rebels against a southern invader… surrendered. There would be no emergence from Tewayo this time.

And with that, Vargas hoped his reconquest was finally over. Hoping and reality though, don’t always align.

A year later, in the winter of 1695, the Spanish were tested with yet another incredibly harsh season, as so many in New Mexico prove to be. Again, check out my last episode to really get a feel for the suffering that can happen in the land of entrapment. But also remember how many settlers had died while waiting to enter Santa Fe. But the winter of 1695-96 yet again saw the Puebloans reaching a boiling point. Spanish were still demanding too much and taking too much including foods, livestock, and clothing. It seemed, some of the old ways were back.

In December, during that rough winter of 1695, yet another threat of revolt loomed as Spanish families trickled into the area while Puebloans starved. Since the reconquest, churches had been rebuilt, baptisms had began again, and more and more colonists were arriving. Meanwhile, Franciscan friars in that Christmas month began sending messages to Vargas from places as far apart as Taos to the Hopi Mesas that the native people were growing displeased. Not wanting to alarm the Puebloans into outright revolt again by sending armies, Vargas decided instead to go himself from pueblo to pueblo to quell the burgeoning rebellion. For a time, that plan seemed to have worked.

By the end of the spring, on June 4th, 1696 it seems what had been percolating for a while, this latent rebellion, it seems it bubbled up to the surface and in a coordinated effort across much of New Mexico, the Puebloans rose up yet again. Knaut in his Pueblo Revolt of 1680 writes, quote, 5 missionaries and 21 settlers lost their lives in a coordinated uprising that threatened to repeat the pueblo successes of 1680. End quote.

Kessell writes of the incident:

At San Ildefonso, rebels fired the church and convento with Fathers Francisco Corvera and Antonio Moreno inside. Near the convento of twice-relocated San Cristóbal, they tossed the bodies of two more Franciscans, partially stripped, face up grotesquely, in the form of a cross. At San Diego de los Jémez, the Indians called Father Francisco de Jesús María Casañas to confess a dying woman. It was a ruse. Clubbing him dead, they threw the body at the church door where wild beasts later consumed much of it. End quote.

This time though, the revolt would fail. The three pueblos I mentioned earlier, Zia, Santa Ana, & San Felipe, with the added help of the always allied Pecos and Tesuque Pueblos, would not rebel and would in fact help the Spanish in quelling the angry Puebloans. Even some of the Puebloans within the revolting pueblos wanted nothing to do with the coming violence that the attempted revolution would no doubt bring. Knaut writes of some of these leery puebloans, quote, In San Cristobal, for example, a Tano woman recounted the killing of two Friars in the village on the first day of the uprising and told of how quote, the old Indian women and other women put their arms around the bodies and wept over them tenderly, sorrowful over the death of the said two religious and lamenting the hardships which they expected to undergo in the mountains with their children.” She noted also that “some of the Indian men were of this same sentiment. End quotes. The Puebloans were tired of the violence.

For the next seven months, Vargas would ride from pueblo stronghold and mesa top fortress, including ones he’d already burned or destroyed previously, but Vargas would ride around the land from one pueblo stronghold to the next mesa top fortress. Each time, he’d repeat his previous winning record and each time the Puebloans would be defeated.

Almost, all the Puebloans would be defeated. In August, Vargas would try and siege Acoma but he gave up after only three days. The fortress was just too impenetrable. At one point, he asked the Puebloans to come on down and have a real fight on this nice level ground to which… Obviously the Puebloans laughed at and not so politely refused.

At one battle during the now bloody reconquest, the Spanish would kill a puebloan revolt leader named Naranjo, possibly related to the aforementioned Naranjos which I spoke of in the last episode. His head would be kept as a trophy. Similar fates would meet the other leaders of this ill fated revolt 2.0 until it fizzled and was over. Kessel wrote a great summation of the effects of this ill fated revolt when he wrote, quote, The Pueblo revolt of 1696 had backfired. By forcing a decision in Mexico City, it had strengthened the Spaniards' hand. New Mexico must never be evacuated again, whatever the cost. Another such humiliation of Spanish arms and the whole northern frontier might rise. Therefore, the precarious colony must be reinforced with more settlers, provisions, tools, and livestock. The revolt of 1696 not only assured the presence of many more Spaniards in New Mexico, but also by its failure to attract all the Pueblos, it crushed forever the prospect of another 1680. End quote.

From then on, essentially, between the Puebloans and the Spanish, toleration and cooperation as Knaut puts it, quote, to a degree unimaginable in the previous century underscored the interaction of the two peoples. End quote.

You know how Acoma didn’t give up in 1696, that’s probably a good thing cause it turns out, leaders from Cochiti, Santo Domingo, Jemez, and other pueblos were holed up there in an attempt to escape the Spanish retribution. Many puebloans had actually fled during and after the second revolt to the west to live amongst the puebloans and Hopi and Navajo and Apache who were just outside of the Spanish grasp. But at Acoma, those escaped rebel leaders and a few Acomans themselves would cause enough trouble for the Acoma people that they’d leave or be forced out, and they’d take a good number of Acoma puebloans with ‘em. After they left, they travelled not that far off and created the Laguna Pueblo, the only pueblo that was formed AFTER the revolt. By 1707, it had half the number of people that Acoma did. Other Puebloans that didn’t want to be at Acoma or Laguna fled further west to Zuni and Hopi after Vargas had left.

Vargas’s turn as governor actually ended while he was on campaign but once the re-revolt had died his time was truly up. He had succeeded and New Mexico was mostly reconquered for Spain and God. The Puebloan peoples, were no longer free from Spanish rule and their time as the only peoples in the American Southwest was gone for good.

Their ancestors had travelled by boat or by land but probably both across the bering straight and most likely across the north Atlantic and they’d made this hemisphere, this continent their home. Their ancestors had developed the technology to hunt the mammoths, the mastodons, the giant ground sloths, the bison, the tigers, the lions, the bears, the wolves… their ancestors had rid the land of icy giants. Their ancestors had emerged into this fourth world and had planted the corn and had weaved the baskets and fired the pottery and etched the ghostly rain burst figures and big horn sheep and six toes into the walls. They had stories of their people building the ruins in the four corners and tearing out hearts and fighting each other. Their ancestors had built the great houses, the ball courts, the fire towers, the roads, the pueblos, and the kivas. They had stories of combining their clans and using the Kachina to spread peace… and war… they’d been the sole rulers of the American southwest… but after Don Diego de Vargas’ successful reconquest in 1696, those days were over and the native Americans of the American southwest, the puebloans and navajos and many other tribes and groups and nations in the region would soon have a new normal… and a new enemy. And a new identity.

4 years after the reconquest, in the year of our Lord 1700, tons of refugees from the Santa Fe area, the Galisteo Basin to be precise, but a large group of Tano Puebloans moved to the Hopi’s first mesa. They created a town called Hano, right next to the existing Sichomovi. Today, those Tanoans still speak Tewa, they also speak the Uto Aztecan Hopi, but they still hold onto their original Santa Fe Valley / Mesa Verdean language. I know I mentioned them a few episodes ago actually, they act as law enforcement for the Hopi to this day. But these Tewa speakers were some of the most ardent pushers of the Pueblo Revolt. It was they who said they needed to cleanse the land of the Spanish so that they could emerge again from Tewayo as they had done before. They were also the main defenders of Santa Fe when Vargas had returned again for the re-reconquest. They weren’t alone though. Jemez and even Cochiti puebloans, the ones that didn’t want to stay at Acoma or Laguna, but a bunch others also joined the Hopi, although most would not stay forever and many would eventually return home.

Also in the year 1700, something else happens among the Hopi mesas, something that perplexes researchers, archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and yours truly… and that something is the complete and utter destruction of the Pueblo of Awatovi.

The Pueblo of Awatovi on Antelope Mesa had a lot of history, and we discussed a bunch of that history already, well that history is about to end and its ending would leave a lasting impression among the Hopi and anyone who studies what supposedly went down. Some of that history of what went down was told to ethnographers and anthropologists at the end of the 19th century but one researcher really seemed to crack the code of Puebloan secrecy… and he did it not that long ago! That researcher was German born Ekkehart Malotki and probably better than any other non puebloan, maybe in history, Malotki could fluently speak Hopi. While at the Hopi Mesas, Malotki would record the oral tradition of what happened at Awatovi. Then in 1993, he would publish his work which is just so late for a Puebloan ethnography…

His book and a few other works may be the reason the puebloans have slowly closed off to their white neighbors since then. Well, Malotki recorded one particular village elder or story rememberer as he called them, which is a great name for an oral traditionalist. This story remember’s name though, was Lowatuway’ma. I’ll sum up the story as best I can:

By 1700, it seems Awatovi was descending into a nightmare. The rich and enormous city was spiraling out of control with rates of crime, rape, and murder on the rise. And on top of that, for five years a drought rocked the pueblo with two of those years seeing no rain fall at all. Boys were turning vile and doing evil things to the elder and to women. It’s all gnarly stuff to read about, this pueblo’s descent into seeming madness. Eventually, the headman of Awatovi, Ta’Palo realizes he must do something for his pueblo or his people will continue to suffer. He himself had felt much suffering since the Revolt. First his beautiful daughter was killed by a man on horseback when she was run over. Then the betting game he was playing with some neighbors and fellow villagers descended into a promiscuous sex orgy which… puts strip poker in a new light, but which also tarnished his good name. And then lastly, he witnesses his wife cheat on him after a lovely evening of kiva dancing. Things weren’t going well for Awatovi or Ta’Palo and he and the entire pueblo had only one thing to blame… koyaanisqatsi, witches. After a deep think and some possible peyote use, more on that in a second, but after some self reflection, Ta’Palo comes up with the plan on how to turn things around. His remedy: the complete and total annihilation of he and his entire pueblo of Awatovi.

After some rejection from other Hopi towns, the leader of Oraibi hears him out and agrees, it’s what’s got to be done to rid the land of witches. Oraibi, you’ll remember, was not reconquered by the Spanish. So there are no brown robes or crosses at the large city on third mesa. They were watching all of this in horror and thanking their lucky kachinas it wasn’t happening to them. So one late autumn morning in the year of our lord 1700, after a signal from Ta’Palo, the other Hopi Puebloans attacked the city. The men were in the kivas doing men stuff when the attackers arrived and pulled the ladders up before, setting the kivas on fire. The entire village was burned with many of the people being burned alive. The survivors… many of them had their legs and arms chopped off, the men… some of them had their penises, and testicles severed. Some women, had their breasts cut off. In some stories, these hacked apart and brutalized prisoners were left to die on the sand… but one man has found evidence of further butchery.

That man is Christy Turner, yes, that Christy Turner, the archaeologist I have mentioned many times, the man who coined the term man corn, well if I’m mentioning him now, you know what’s coming. In 1970, Turner examined the remains of 30 puebloans who had been found at the base of Antelope Mesa at a place called Polacca Wash. These remains have been dated to 1700 using radio carbon techniques, so the same year as the massacre at Awatovi. Obviously, Turner found pot polishing and other examples of cannibalism. It seems Man Corn was still on the menu for the Puebloans, and it seems the survivors of the massacre at Awatovi were eaten. At least some of them.

Lowatuway’ma concludes the story of the destruction of Awatovi with, quote, thus the village leader Ta’Palo sacrificed his own children to get rid of this life of evil, craziness, and chaos. End quote. That… seems like a bit much but there’s more. After this sacking and burning of Awatovi, the Hopis drove the Spanish Franciscan Friars out of the Hopi mesas once and for all. Since the reconquest and reopening of the churches, the friars may have been baptizing in the year 1700, a hundred souls a day. But that was no more after the destruction at Awatovi. The Hopis were the only pueblos to be spared the catholic’s proscilitzing from then on. They partly blamed the Catholics for the witches being there in the first place… but there could be more to the story.

In 2002, a paper titled Re-imagining Awatovi, by an anthropologist named Peter Whiteley was published. And in that paper, Whiteley claims to have found evidence of the use of Peyote in the Puebloan world. And it was this use of peyote that may have contributed to the spiraling out of control of the pueblo of Awatovi. He goes on to talk about a secret manhood cult called Wuwtsim that may have been using the drug to fuel a pueblo revival as a kind of contradiction to the growing catholic influence. The Wuwtsim may have blamed the catholics for the sorcery or popwaqt that was destroying the town. Whitely uses both Spanish and Hopi accounts to convincingly tie this theory together which he does say is a lot of conjecture. He also talks to David Roberts and tells him, quote, The real popwaqt were the Hopi who supported the church at Awatovi. End quote. Therefore, to get rid of the popwaqt, the koyaanisqatsi, the bad sorcery, the witches, the catholics, the brown robes… to fix the town, it had to burn and its residents had to be destroyed… and that included some good ole fashion Anasazi Ancestral Puebloan man corn.

But like with a lot of things Puebloan, the answer may never be known by non Hopi. David Roberts interviews a few other researchers and Hopi about Awatovi. Some believe it was done because they needed to be rid of the Spanish. Other believe it was done because Awatovi was gaining immense wealth and influence and we know how the Puebloans feel about that. A Hopi man, a mesa guide named Gary Tso, who yes, STILL offers tours! I checked him out online and next time I’m over there, my wife and I will hopefully be using his services… if my series on the Hisatsinum or Anasazi, doesn’t get me into too much trouble with the Hopi, but Gary tells Roberts straight up, quote, The old people say oh, Awatovi, that was a terrible thing, but I just think it was our most glorious day. We could have ended up like them. End quote. Them being the conquered and converted puebloans.

I mentioned that Vargas’ turn as governor was over and after the campaign he was replaced but, oh, in typical New Mexico Spanish governor style, the story’s so much juicer than that. Don Diego de Vargas, the last male descendant in the Noble Vargas line of Madrid was replaced by a Rodriguez Cubero but Vargas flat out refused to give up his position… so, Cubero had him imprisoned… and Vargas would sit in that prison in Santa Fe for 3 years!

Once back in Mexico after his imprisonment though, Vargas would campaign and hustle his way to ANOTHER governorship. This one would see him as governor starting in 1703. But… during this time as ruler of New Mexico, he would die on campaign at 60 years old while doing battle with Apaches.

In the Vargas family chapel in Madrid in Spain there is a portrait of the man with a Spanish inscription that reads, and this is my Spanglish: El Señor Don Diego de Vargas Zapata Lujan Ponce de Leon. Marquis de La Nava de Barcinas, of the Order of Santiago, Gobernador, Conquistador, Pacificador, y Capitan General del Nuevo Mejico; he lost his life 'in open battle while attempting to rescue the sacred vessels at the siege of Bernalillo, the year 1704. End quote.

It turns out, the inscription may be a little off as it is most likely that he died due to an unknown illness rather than during battle… I’m sure he would have rather gone out from the tip of an arrow or the blunt side of a river stone thrown from high atop a mesa wall but… he did die in his beloved New Mexico… the land of entrapment indeed.

During his second time as Governor though, before his death, Vargas would pursue runaway Puebloans into Navajo land or dinetah, but mostly unsuccessfully. He fully believed, and a lot of researchers, archaeologists, and puebloans today also believe that many a refugee puebloan fled Vargas and the Spanish and took up residents with their once sworn enemy, the Navajo. Better to live with a fellow Indian than the europeans, they probably figured. That view has recently been challenged but I am of the opinion that there certainly were a good many refugees that would have fled and influenced Navajo culture and life. Maybe not significantly, but certainly in a few ways. Vargas’ main lieutenant during the reconquest, Roque Madrid, would, after Vargas dies also pursue the rebel Puebloans into Dinetah in 1705 in a brutal and ravaging campaign.

On his quest to quote, make war by fire and sword on the apache Navajo enemy nation, end quote, he hurtled towards northwestern New Mexico in hot pursuit of his perceived enemy. Then after 10 days of searching, he finally ran into three Indians. One was a young woman with a boy, both Navajo and both starving, the other was a young Jemez woman, which, would seem to prove that there were Puebloan refugees among the Navajo. For these three, things didn’t get better after being discovered. Despite being women and children and being starving, Madrid would have the women tortured into revealing where the rest of their beleaguered people were. I’m not sure of their ultimate fate… probably best that way.

On August 12th, 1705, Madrid, who was 60 years old at this point, was finally able to wage his battle against the Indians who’d escaped he and his boss, Vargas, all those years ago. This battle was fought against mostly Navajo but with some Jemez and it was fought on top of a butte in a place called Gobernador Canyon. It was a gnarly battle with ledges and ladders. The Indians ambushed Madrid in the morning after a night of yelling and taunting back and forth between the Indians on the butte and the Spanish and Indian allies at the base of the butte. He drove the ambush back up onto the butte but in the process, some Navajo and Jemez fell and died. Those that didn’t die when they hit the deck were summarily executed. All were scalped though, by the Indian allies of Madrid and the Spanish. These scalpings were done away from the bottom of the butte so that the people on top could see the act. But surprisingly, the Navajo and Jemez repelled the attack and Madrid actually called the whole thing off.

Two days later he’d fight another battle at a place called Tapacito Creek. Although, you can’t call it a battle, really. At Tapacito Creek, on top of another butte, the Navajo and Puebloan refugees shouted at Madrid that they wanted peace and no more fighting. For two hours Madrid kept up the ruse as a group of soldiers and puebloans flanked the peace seeking Indians. Once surrounded, the massacre began. Madrid wrote of the whole affair, quote, of the more than thirty that were there, no more than five escaped, not counting two who in a great fury threw themselves over the edge. End quote. He’d conclude by quote, thanking god that in the whole battle only one of my men was lost, and he was an Indian. End quote.

Madrid would go on to burn every cornfield he could find before returning to Santa Fe and retiring at 70. The Navajo and Rebel Refugee Jemez would surrender after their corn was destroyed. And that surrender signifies the end of the resistance from the Puebloans in the Spanish Territory of New Mexico.

By 1706 the Comanches were the new threat. This led to the Spanish and the Puebloans working quite closely together militarily, with the same technology, this time, including harquebuses and horses, to fight against a powerful common enemy. By now, the puebloans also had much less demands placed on them from the Spanish. Tributes were greatly decreased, much to their relief, and missionary friar zeal had pretty much gone away, leaving the puebloans to practice whatever they chose to out in the open or in their kivas. Life in New Mexico had found a balance.

So what can we make of the Revolt? Was it a success? Was it a failure? Was it worth it? Do I need to editorialize at all? That isn’t really up to me to decide since I was not a participant and neither were any of my ancestors but… I can look at the differences in puebloan life before and after the Revolt and make a guess… I do think the revolt succeeded in ultimately making life better for the puebloans. Think about the Hopi, besides the massacre at Awatovi, they got to be free from then on of the Franciscan Friars. Depending on your thoughts of God and theology, that can either be a good thing or a bad thing. They got to continue to practice the kachina cult after the revolt which I believe is a good thing for their culture. Even as a Christian myself I think it’s important to hold onto one’s faith and beliefs, as long as they’re not hurting others. Plus it does seem they adopted many Christian beliefs into their kachina cult.

Recently I have made a cultural turnaround of sorts, mostly in light of the world around me I suppose. But I think the revolt was ultimately a great thing because the puebloans got to self govern and practice their own beliefs after the reconquista when the Spanish realized they needed to make some compromises. And I believe that being able to self govern and practice your own beliefs is a beautiful and necessary thing. In this current environment I live in, I see it as extremely beneficial and lucky that the people were able to shake off the yoke of a tyrannical government that was seated very far from their own homes and led by a people they could not understand who demanded they quit their own way of life and were being forced to participate in a society they deemed full of witchcraft. All the while, they were forced to pay an overbearing amount of taxes, or as they called it, tribute… I absolutely know the feeling.

I think it’s amazing that as Roberts puts it, quote, no native American peoples anywhere in the united states have kept their cultures more intact than the twenty pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona. End quote. Personally, I cheer on the fact that they’re able to keep out the influences of an ever encroaching and strangling culture their surrounding empire is forcing down the throats of themselves and, the world at large, and I hope they can continue to be successful at keeping out the evil influences of the evil empire. When I began this entire series I had differing views of this and other things. I believed the best way for the native American puebloans to quote unquote succeed in this world is to just assimilate. Open up. Become like the rest of Americans… but now that I no longer count myself as a normal American, I hope the Puebloans continue to protect and allow their culture to flourish. Despite my frustration at not knowing everything I want… but as Lekson said, we can NEVER know what has truly happened at this big corner of the history of the American Southwest.

I think the pueblo revolt was worth it. A loss of life on both spanish and puebloan side is sad as always but sometimes violence is the only way to achieve your goals… especially if those goals are liberty.

https://santafelibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2022/04/History-of-Diego-de-Vargas.pdf

Winds from the North, Tewa Origins and Historical Anthropology by Scott Ortman

The Lost World of the Old Ones by David Roberts

The Pueblo Revolt by David Roberts

Kiva, Cross, and Crown by John Kessell

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 by Andrew L Knaut

Popay's Leadership: A Pueblo Perspective by Alfonso Ortiz

Pope, Pose-yemu, and Naranjo: A New Look at Leadership in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 by Stefanie Beninato

Notes on the Lineage of Don Diego de Vargas, Reconqueror of New Mexico by J. Manuel Espinosa