Following the Pueblo Revolt, the Spanish’s motives for colonization in New Mexico evolved from simple hope, curiosity, and greed into a complicated defensive movement aimed at securing northern settlements from the rising threat of attack by Nomadic Indians and addressing tensions between themselves and the ever-nearing French and English settlers. Whereas previous colonization efforts from the Spanish were led wistfully towards the hopes of untold fortune, the Pueblo Revolt seemed to have shocked the Spaniards into reality; thus, paving the way for new, attentive efforts to establish a defensive frontier.

The Spanish need of colonial fortification and defense was further demonstrated by the strengthening trade alliances between the French, Comanche, and Pawnee Indians. Although the French were incapable of providing the Comanche and Pawnee tribes with the amount of weapons necessary for direct conflict with the Spanish, their brilliant strategy of using their Native American allies as a proxy to provoke the Apache tribe, resulting in Apache raids of Spanish settlements for supplies pressured the Spanish and kept them in a constant state of defense and confusion: A favorable result for a territorially expanding rival.

Fame, fortune, and women were no longer on the Spanish agenda. After the disappointing initial conquest and subsequent Pueblo Revolt, the Spanish experienced a dramatic change in priorities: One that was intended to ensure the stability of the New Mexican colony.

Jared Elliott

The Pueblo Revolt and reconquest affected and transformed the geography and government for the Pueblos. With this Revolt, the town governments had finally all been established, but under the close supervision of the friars. With this close watch, the Indians were allowed to elect a gobernadorcillo (petty governor), an alguacil (sheriff), as well as several mayordomos (ditch bosses), sacristans, and fiscales (church wardens).

After this reconquista the structure of the town government changed dramatically. The Pueblo’s finally had control and made changes. With this came the switch between the Pueblo’s and the Spanish. No longer did the Indians have to respond to the friars. They did not have depend on the friars for elections either. The group that came out most powerful from this were the caciques and the medicine men who controlled the traditional order. The Pueblo-Spanish relationship really evolved from all of this. As we discussed in Chapter 1, the relationship between peace and violence and law and force were all described by the Inside and Outside Chief. Each chief representing a different aspect. In Chapter 2 we discussed the how the Pueblo’s were defeated by the Spanish. The Spanish took on the roles of the different chiefs. Even though the Pueblo’s were defeated they protected their culture and that brought them out on top.

Before the Pueblo Revolt, the Indians were required to perform tribute labors for the population, which was in the hands of the governor to organize and deliver. The role of the governor played a major role in the organization of labor drafts within the “conservatives” and the “progressives”. This led to the Pope and his “conservatives” defeating the Spanish. The goal was to destroy the culture influence the Spanish had on the Pueblo community. After this the town had numerous innovations and were not willing to surrender, which led to a decrease in population for the Pueblo’s.

Finally the Christian faith had contact with the Pueblo’s and transformed the Pueblo’s religious beliefs. I did not find this as shocking to me, because it was emphasized in Chapter 1 that the Pueblo’s sacred fetishes, dances, prayers, and rituals at any one time were those of lineages living together. With new lineages joining towns, new gods were incorporated into the native pantheon.

Jenifer Ann Bohn

My reflection of Chapter three necessarily refers back to chapter two, in which the initial description of the first contact established between the friars and the Pueblo Indians struck me as a thinly veiled quest for power, rather than the “mission work” the friars claimed it to be.  The first “conversions” of the Pueblo Indians were unlikely to be true conversions to the Christian faith due to lack of appropriate communication capabilities.  Though I do not doubt that the friars believed they truly were doing the work of the Lord by destroying idolatries and submerging the Indians in a culture of Christian symbolism and ceremony, it seems to me that they replaced idols by encouraging the “worship” of new idols (themselves).

Because I began this section with this base, chapter three met my expectations.  The “iron fist” with which the friars governed the Pueblos led to discontent, which was supplemented by the friars’ loss of “godly” characteristics, led to a revolt that proved disastrous for the friars and their missions.  I find myself questioning what would have happened had the friars not claimed such power in themselves at the beginning of their relations with the Pueblo Indians.  The Indians lost faith in the friars when they faced famine and drought, which the friars claimed to be able to prevent.  Would the friars’ message still have been received had they not disguised themselves as supernatural beings?  Was the friars’ message ever truly received at all, or were the Indians drawn to worship the friars rather than the God they served?  The techniques the friars used to gain the Indians’ trust and loyalty were certainly effective for conquest and manipulation, but they may have lost sight of the ultimate goal of furthering God’s Kingdom on earth.  The term fatherhood holds great significance when speaking of the relation between a friar and his mission, but I feel the terminology may have been misused.  I found many examples of the type of discipline you might expect from a father figure, but missing were the respect and appreciation of their children that should be present in a father’s heart.

Valerie Gooden

The concept of marriage and sexuality was, I argue, the greatest dividing force between the Pueblo Indians and the Franciscan friars during seventeenth century New Mexico. 

The Franciscan friars used sex and chastity as the basis of their mission to convert the Indians.  In the friars’ view, polygamy, concubinage, and sensuality were anti-Christian and abominable.  A good Christian kept sex within the marriage, and only as a necessity, not a pleasure.  For the friars, the ideal marriage was that of the soul to God in death.  Open sexuality was sinful to the friars.  However, sex was a prominent force in Pueblo Indian society.

The Pueblo Indians viewed marriage and sex as social alliance between foreigners and themselves and as an important component of gift-giving.  When a foreign war chief married a native woman, he was integrated into the Pueblo society.  The Franciscan friars installed themselves as, among other titles, the war chiefs to which the Indians should submit.  The Indians were amazed at first at the friars’ chastity, but as allegations and confessions about several friars’ “enjoyment” of the native women and the birth of their children surfaced, many Indians were not surprised, because war chiefs, in this case the friars, did have sex with their women.  In contrast, many traditionalist Indians were appalled with the joining of Pueblo women with the Christian friars they detested and were especially furious at the physical reminders of such unions present in the resulting children.  To offer sexual intercourse with the enemy was to transform him into a benevolent part of their lives, but the traditionalists didn’t want any part of the friars and Spanish they viewed as the enemy.

After the Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1680, as a method of dividing their practices and existence from the exiled Spanish, the Indians had to abandon the spouses they married under Christianity so they could again embrace the traditional aspects of Pueblo marriage and sexuality.  Their identity resided in their sexuality just as chastity was essential to the friars.  Open sexual practices, or lack thereof, gave each side an identity that barricaded the other from understanding and accepting their religious beliefs.

Stefanie Clark

Reflecting on the third chapter of “When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away,” it is obvious that the concept of trinity is essential to the political and religious structures to the Spanish conquest and colonization of New Mexico.  I have noticed throughout history, that this concept of the trinity has been prominent, and with each, comes its advantages and perils.  New Mexico brought us the viceroys, audiencia, and bishops.  Viceroys held executive power over the provinces. The audiencia was a court of appeals, and the bishops were the form of the episcopate, charged with church administration.  

Today, the structure isn’t too much different, and perhaps this is how the founding fathers wished.  We have the executive, legislative, and judicial branch, which in many ways, parallel the trinity of the politics of New Mexico in the seventeenth century.  Furthermore, Christianity has the holy trinity.  This trio involving the father, the son, and the Holy Ghost. 

Even the Pueblos have their own trinity in the two corn mothers and the father (discounting thought woman, as she was cast aside for the sins of the corn mothers).  It is said that history has a way of repeating itself and this concept of the trinity is a broadened motif that has its foothold in ancient times and has become modified as times have passed by.

However, the Pueblos show us that each faction’s trinity is unique to its own liking.  It is a doctrine that only works for that faction.  The Pueblos didn’t want to assimilate to the catholic lifestyle.  They had their own religious and political system that revolved in a manner that worked for them.  It is seen throughout history that the members of the trinity generally disagree with each other during times of checks and balances.  This in part, relays a Meta sense of disagreement between trinities.  Submission is the destruction of beliefs.  The Spanish political system placed too much tension between cultural lines, which ultimately led to the Pueblo revolt.

Chester Hendershot

In my view, the defeat of the Spanish in the 1680 Puebloan Revolt exemplified the justified downfall of a power-mongering, imperialist nation. It is arguable that the Spaniard’s defeat was caused by the disagreement between church and state regarding the jurisdictions of ecclesiastical and secular power in New Mexico. Moreover, the competition between the descending power of the church and ascending power of the state caused a divide in the Spanish front, which sought to remain supreme over the Peubloan and Apache tribes.  Consequentially, the Spanish were unable to defeat the unified Apache-Puebloan attack.

Furthermore, the vignette on the reigns of Fray Isidro Ordonez and Governor Luis de Rosas on pages 110-113 illuminated the tension between church and state, which inadvertently exposed the weaknesses of the Friars, Franciscans, and governors. This is highlighted by Ordenez’s humiliation and expulsion of Governor Peralta from Santa Fe, which unveiled the church’s ruthless desire to obtain both secular and ecclesiastical power. The Franciscans, who assumed to possess ecclesiastical authority, aided the church, diminishing any conflicting secular power so as to maintain their authority.

Depicting the extreme secular response to the Church’s domination, Governor Rosas used both military force and the monopolization of indigenous laborers to deprive the friars and colonists of Indian tribute and services.  Rosas’s enslavement of Apache Indians allowed him to enforce his superiority not only over the Indians, but over the Franciscans and colonists as well, causing their influence in politics to deteriorate by their financial security.

However, both the church and state failed to recognize their reliance on each other to successfully suppress the natives for the greater good of governing the Kingdom of New Mexico. Without military support, the Friars could not effectively convert Peubloans to Christianity. Conversely, the government could not restrain Indian uprisings without the church’s manipulation. While fighting for power, the fear and intimidation the Spaniards implemented on the Indians wore away. Ultimately, the Puebloan and Apache’s hatred of the Spanish became a uniting force that brought about an alliance, prompting them to fight and take back their indigenous land and culture.

Lily Lewis

The thing I found most interesting in this chapter is how big the difference between the Spanish and the Pueblos’ meaning of gift giving and sexuality was.  When Onate and his men arrived, the Pueblos gave gifts such as water and maize to them as a tribute and traditional sacrifice.  However, the Franciscans took it as a sign of surrendering their riches to them as gifts and started to take advantage of it eventually. Hernan Gallegos said that “the inhabitants gave us much corn . . . We took a little, so that they should not think we were greedy nor yet receive the impression that we did not want it; among themselves they consider it disparaging if one does not accept what it offered . . . since we understood their custom, we took something of what they gave us.  Moreover, we did this to get them into the habit of giving freely without being asked. Accordingly, they brought all they could.” (Gutierrez 52).  This misunderstanding of the Pueblos’ traditions of gift-giving led to the loss of many lives when Captain Don Juan de Zaldivar stopped in Acoma on his way to Zuni and expected the villagers to give him everything he wanted.  His men then stole a turkey, which is sacred to the Indians, leading to the Indians attacking and killing Zaldivar and his men.  Another misunderstood tradition of the Pueblos was the importance of sex in their culture.  As the Spanish soldiers stayed in the villages, the Pueblo women “cooled the passion of the fierce fire-brandishing Spanish katsina through intercourse, and so by doing, tried to transform and domesticate the malevolence of these foreign gods.”  The Spaniards, however, “would interpret their subjugation of the Pueblos as a supreme assertion of masculine virility, and as such, would see 1598 as a sexual conquest of women.” (Gutierrez 51).  The Pueblo women thought that they were welcoming the Spaniards into their village, but the Spaniards believed that they were simply ‘conquering’ women. Reading about this made me realize how important it is for us to understand the customs and traditions of places we go, especially if it’s a completely different culture altogether.  If we don’t, it could lead to huge misunderstandings just like it did for the Spaniards.

Kayla Sampson

In the second chapter of When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away, author and historian Ramón A. Gutiérrez presents the Pueblo Indians’ fear of Spanish authority and desire for protection as reasons for their mostly willing acceptance of Christianization in the sixteenth century.  As a supplement to his valid assertions, I would also argue that Catholicism lent itself particularly well to propagation in this specific instance.  In fact, despite basic ideological differences, the ways in which the Spaniards and the Pueblos carried out their respective faiths were not entirely dissimilar; after all, at its core, Catholicism is a highly ritualistic denomination of Christianity, with a heavy emphasis on the supernatural.  For example, the idea of Holy Communion (the ingestion of bread and wine which has been transubstantiated into the blood and body of Christ) is somewhat akin to traditional Indian rites involving the removal of power from enemy scalps and animal carcasses; in addition, while the friars were quick to confiscate native fetishes, they, too, possessed sacred objects, such as crosses and depictions of the Virgin Mary.  On a related note, although the Pueblos did not equate sex with sin the way the Catholics did, the notion of abstinence for religious purposes was a familiar one to the native men, who were greatly impressed by the Franciscan belief in the spiritual value of lifelong chastity.  Thus, with these connections in mind, it is much easier to comprehend the relative ease with which the Pueblos yielded to the Spaniards’ spiritual indoctrination.

Amanda Ack

In the history of the Pueblo Indians, the 17th century is marked by the onset of Spanish Conquistadors who sought power and the natural resources of the land and Franciscan friars who sought to Christianize the Pueblo villages. These new conquistadors arrived in New Mexico with their foreign customs, animals, dress, religion, and culture, and Franciscan friars who set up evangelical missions followed shortly thereafter.

In reading Gutierrez’s work and attempting to remove my presentism and thus approach history from a completely new perspective, I find it interesting that the friars who entered the Pueblo society which was so starkly different than their European society faced a similar obstacle. In order to reach the Pueblo people and deliver their spiritual message, the friars developed a systematic method of evangelizing: end the practice of idolatry by removing fetishes, overcome the sins of the flesh, educate the people with Christian doctrine through preaching and missions, and overhaul their social structure to replace it with a more acceptable European version. The friars faced great difficulty in evangelizing the people because of a lack of common ground from whence to start. These European Christians were interacting with the Pueblo Indians whose entire mindset and frame of reference was vastly different from theirs (e.g. monks preaching celibacy as a means to spirituality to a people who viewed open sexuality as the ultimate means to spirituality), and because of this their evangelizing often resulted in a simple substitution of new Christian practices for old Pueblo practices, with no real spiritual transformation (e.g. the substitution of the friars’ crosses for the Pueblo prayer sticks).

Just as I strive to remove my present cultural mindset and preconceived notions in order to better understand a historical work, the friars had to remove completely their “cultural presentism” in order to fully understand the Pueblo people and reach them spiritually.   

Taylor Duncan

As I read the beginning of Chapter 2 in When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away, I felt the same emotion that presumably most readers do. I was appalled at the way the Friars, along with the Spanish army and governors, imposed their values and religion on the Pueblos through the use of manipulation, fear and force. They had a plan before they arrived to set the Friars up as more powerful figures than the Inside Chiefs. They did this through choreographed acts such as Hernan Cortes kneeling before and kissing the Friar’s hands and hems, and the “rescue” of the Indians who had been sentenced to die. Once these friars were able to inter themselves amongst the Pueblos, they set about destroying or changing the entire structure of Pueblo society. Examples include the change in the division of labor, the lessening of the role of women, the forbiddance of sexual practices and rituals, and probably most important was the wedge they attempted to drive between the juniors and seniors through the changing of gift exchange. If the outcome was not so horrendous one could find humor in the irony of forcibly bringing the “love” of a benevolent God to the Pueblos by gun, sword and whip.

After reading the part in the chapter about the Franciscans and thinking about the syncretic nature of the Catholic religion, I understood more about where the friars were coming from. This in no way implies that I find their methods and the destruction they wrought upon the Pueblos any less abhorrent. It is just that these Franciscans really had faith in what they were doing. They were zealots who truly believed they were leading the Indians “out from the darkness of paganism…” and guiding them to the “Father of Light. So while they were attempting to expel the vestiges of the Pueblo’s old religion and beliefs, they were trying to make Jesus and Christianity more appealing by fitting it into a narrative they could understand. This can be seen in the crucifixes that had blood dripping from underneath the loin cloth on Jesus and in the way the friars portrayed Jesus as a war god by showing the similarities between him and the Pueblo’s Twin War Gods. This is something that Catholicism has done everywhere it has spread. As I stated earlier this does not mean that I have any admiration or absolution for the atrocities they visited upon the Pueblos, but there is an argument for saying they did these things because they felt they were called to do so.

Kelly Beck