So today, instead of a primary source, we're going to look at a key event for APUSH, and that is Popeye's Rebellion, also known as the Pueblo Revolt. I find this topic really fascinating, especially its central character, Popeye. However, I always found it a little awkward to cover in APUSH, because we spent the first time period and week in the Spanish colonies, and then for period two, most of the time was spent on the British North American colonies, with the exception of this topic, which always feels like a backtrack to the Spanish colonies. However, if you research Popeye's Rebellion in depth, I think anyone would find it fascinating. This video is just going to give a brief overview though.
So this rebellion occurs in the modern-day American southwest, specifically New Mexico, which in the 1600s was the Spanish frontier and far from the base of power in central Mexico. There was a trickle of Spanish soldiers and missionaries and settlers that continued to arrive in the area. However, they were vastly outnumbered by the Native Americans, even after diseases ravaged their population. There were many tribes, but overall two distinct types of Native Americans.
First were the more nomadic and warlike Apaches and Navajos, and second were the more settled Pueblos, which is what the Spanish refer to them as. In Spanish, Pueblo means town, so it's like saying townspeople. The Spanish in this region were particularly cruel to the Pueblos in suppressing their religion and demand for labor and crops and encomiendas, and also their Franciscan priests strictly suppressed traditional Pueblo practices. In the mid-1600s, there were some Spanish laws passed for a more humane treatment of Native Americans, but it did not seem to really affect this far-flung region. In the 1670s, an ecological calamity occurred in the region as a long period of drought set in in an already dry region.
And along with this, the Spanish proved unable to effectively protect the pueblos from Apache raids. In 1675, major unrest set in amongst the pueblos after the arrest of 40 plus traditional medicine men. Leaders from various Native American villages set out to Santa Fe to demand the release of these medicine men who were being beaten and tortured.
One prisoner was a medicine man named San Juan who would become known as Pope. After his release, Popay went to Taos, New Mexico, which was somewhat outside of Spanish control, and for five years rounded up support for a rebellion. Popay promised his fellow pueblos that the gods would reward them if they could expel the Spanish.
The Spanish, already vastly outnumbered, were stretched particularly thin at this point in time dealing with the nomadic Apaches. They could only muster 170 soldiers against the 2,000-plus pueblos. A massacre ensued, with the pueblos targeting Spanish government officials, priests, and settlers, with hundreds more fleeing the area.
Now New Mexico was in the hands of the Pueblos. Pope and his followers destroyed Christian churches and relics, and anything else of Spanish culture including food and livestock. Pope did not end up ruling all of the Pueblos, as they went to mostly local self-government at the village level. To the Pueblos'dismay, the drought and raids by Apaches continued, and Pope's promises of rewards never came.
He would lose favor with the Pueblos who deposed him as a leader. The Spanish slowly attempted a return, offering clemency and more lenient rule. Many villages would return to the Spanish fold. However, a few remained free from Spanish rule ever after.
Okay, so what are the key takeaways for APUSH? First, the Pueblo Revolt shows Native American resistance to European or Spanish colonial rule. And the other key point is that after the revolt, the Spanish are more tolerant and accommodating to Native American culture. Now, it is debatable as to why the Spanish are more tolerant. Did they truly have a change of heart about their cool treatment of Native Americans?
Or was it more a practical and pragmatic reason of avoiding rebellion and chaos in their frontier regions? Okay, that does it for Popeye's Rebellion. Thanks for watching.
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