The Pueblo Revolt was the only time in history that a North American Native group successfully forced occupying Europeans out of the country, although it only lasted a few years. The Spanish Conquistadors, beginning with the Coronado expedition in 1540, had systematically conquered and enslaved the native Pueblo groups in the Southwest, particularly the Spanish colony of New Mexico. The Spaniards have long been accused of atrocious cruelties against the Natives in the Southwest, although the accusations have been challenged by some historians as deliberate disinformation on the part of Spain's European enemies at the time. At any rate, in 1675, the governor of New Mexico imprisoned a large number of Pueblo men on charges of witchcraft. Other than three of them who had been executed, the men were later released, but this was the final straw to the Pueblos. They planned and carried out a coordinated revolt in 1680 that forced every last Spaniard out of their territory and back to Mexico, killing hundreds of them in the process. The Spaniards were able to re-conquer the Pueblos 12 years later, and ruled the American Southwest until giving up the territory via treaties with the United States in the mid-1800's. The question I like to think about is ... how would subsequent history been different if the Spaniards hadn't returned and re-conquered the Pueblos? For one thing, there probably wouldn't be the tremendous Spanish influence that we see in the Southwest today. Personally speaking, it's possible I wouldn't even be here. My grandmother Rosalinda was a direct descendent of Spanish colonists in Mexico. Would she have still come north to attend university in California, where she met my grandfather? Who knows? In my opinion, the Pueblo uprising in 1680 was, even more than the Cheyenne/Sioux rout of Custer in 1876, the greatest Native military victory in North America.
The Spanish didn't treat North American natives any better than the English and Americans did. Sure it would have been nice if the Pueblos and Apaches, Yaquis and Chumash had won their battles. Apparently the Spanish (or Mexicans) had better guns and logistics and more troops. Sante Fe was founded before Jamestown, but like you say it got wiped out. The Indians lost the war, but they won a few battles. The Little Bighorn was no great victory for the Sioux either, if you look at the body counts.
Old Oraibi in Arizona was built centuries before Santa Fe, and people still live there. Some of the other villages on the Hopi mesas are older than Santa Fe, too. In the old section of Walpi, for instance, there are adobe dwellings that have been occupied by the same families since before the Spaniards arrived. These are very traditional people ... no electricity, no telephones, no paved roads. They live in their pueblos high on the cliffs just as their ancestors lived. You can walk across a narrow neck in the cliffs to get to the old section of the village and it's quite interesting. The adobe dwellings are very comfortable ... cool in the summer, warm in the winter. And you can't beat the view.
True, but at least they didn't practice institutionalized genocide. They did have laws requiring humane treatment of the Natives, which is more than the English ever had, even if the laws were more often ignored than observed. And they didn't relocate them to concentration camps.
Santa Fe was founded before Jamestown, but like you say it got wiped out. The Indians lost the war, but they won a few battles. They really didn't get wiped out. They got converted to Christianity, specifically Catholicism . ohh... I see... their brains got wiped out
And even that was an illusion. They continued to practice their Native religion secretly, and only gave the appearance of being "converted" cause they'd be tortured and killed if they didn't.
The Makahs did it with the Spanish after one of them rape a Makah girl. Ran them out and then tore down their Fort they had. But it didn't last long either.
I think it was the Zuni's that were the only ones that got left alone, only due to their remoteness.. or rather they fled to a good place http://www.kwabla.com/zuni.html
