Santa Fe’s 400th Anniversary Celebration
Rubén Sálaz M.

The focus of Santa Fe’s 400th anniversary celebration is ludicrous insofar as it is looking to Native American approval for tone and/or events to be celebrated. I have a moral right to speak out on this issue because one of my direct line ancestors, Pedro Duran y Chaves, was in on the founding of the City of the Holy Faith, and accurate history is crucial to all Hispanos and everyone else who loves Santa Fe and New Mexico.

There is no doubt that the Pueblos are important to New Mexico’s tourist industry but they had little to do with the founding of Santa Fe or Hispanic New Mexico. This view must not be construed as being “anti-Indian.” Indeed, the opposite is true, as is the case with most Hispanos, though some writers glory in casting us as villains.

It would appear Santa Feans are as ignorant as most New Mexicans when it comes to New Mexico history so let’s review some historical facts that were never presented to my generation when we were in school. (Perhaps some aren’t getting these facts today?)

It must be understood the various Native American groups were not exclusively “peaceful farmers” as postulated by writers like Ruth Benedict. These groups warred on each other just about as often as did warlike Europeans. Death by violent means was a constant threat to Precontact Amerindian people. War meant fighting to the death and victors spared no losers. For example, after Chaco collapsed it has been estimated that some 68% of adults and some 38% of children died violently, a horrible reality that didn’t begin to abate until around 1170. In time the various groups formed villages in an effort for self defense. When Spaniards came on the scene they referred to them as “pueblo” (village) people.

With regard to Hispanos in Santa Fe and New Mexico, let us understand something from the very beginning: Spain and Hispanic New Mexicans preserved Native American groups starting in 1598. This is why we have Indian groups in New Mexico to this day. This fact seems to be avoided by otherwise knowledgeable individuals who have been attracted to Santa Fe.

What would have happened if Hispanos hadn’t been the first Europeans in the area? Look at the east coast: after King Philip’s War in 1675 the Indians were virtually exterminated by the English along the coast. In 1830 the USA passed a law that required all Indians to be deported to Oklahoma. In my opinion, understanding that “the best defense is a good offense,” this American “ethnic cleansing” and the English exterminations of Indians are what some writers are trying to hide when they attack Spain, its people, and its Church.

This is not to say everything was peaceful in Spanish lands like New Mexico. Spaniards and Indians also had problems starting in 1540. There was the short, bloody Acoma War of 1599. Despite efforts by some writers to obfuscate the true historical record, the Acomas started an unprovoked war which they lost within a few days of fighting. But Spanish policy never embraced the English attitude of Sir Jeffrey Amherst (1763) when he said the Indians were “an execrable race” good only for extermination. The record shows the Acomas were not exterminated in retaliation.

The most sanguine atrocity in the history of Spanish New Mexico, the Pueblo Revolt massacre of 1680, was a bloodbath which targeted Christian people, Hispanic or Amerindian. These innocents didn’t realize they were the quarry in a genocidal war until the “warriors” showed up for the slaughter of mostly unsuspecting non-combatants. It is amazing that many people today think the Pueblo people were the victims in the murderous uprising and that the revolt is being promoted as a blow for “Freedom!” when in fact Po’pay and other leaders wanted a return to traditions which included the “freedom” of polygamy and dancing with human scalps.

The surprise insurrection of all Pueblos north of Isleta (Isleta Pueblo wasn’t in on the revolt) caused the violent deaths of some 400 Hispanic people, which included 73 men of military age, around 300 women and children, and 21 priests. The next question is always: How many Indians were killed? The answer is NONE until the Christians realized they had to defend themselves or be killed. The only battle of the revolt was the siege of Santa Fe when the town was surrounded by thousands of attacking Indians. The Christians, now ready to fight, sallied out and drove the Indians off for the time being. Among those driven away, the contingent of “warriors” from Pecos Pueblo returned to their village and slaughtered the Spanish women that had been held as prisoners. That tragedy is indicative of the true essence of the Pueblo Revolt.

The Christians in Santa Fe realized they could not survive for very long so they withdrew from the city and headed south. The warriors might have wiped out the Christians with a full scale attack from all sides but they now had experience fighting Spanish men so they let them pass. (According to historical documents, even the women had been ready to fight if the Indians had attacked.) The refugees escaped with their lives but little else. There would be nothing but hardship ahead of them for years.

So why are Santa Feans described as “cautiously planning for the 400th anniversary” of the founding of Santa Fe? The Pueblo people from Taos to Sandía were not exterminated in retaliation for the slaughter of 1680. Instead of being exterminated as the English did along the east coast, instead of being deported to Oklahoma as the Americans did, Pueblo people were made an integral part of New Mexican life by Spain, Hispano New Mexicans, and the Church after Vargas brought us back to Santa Fe. Further, this protective policy enabled the Pueblo people to maintain their lifestyles basically intact when Indian-hating, land grabbing Americans took over New Mexico in 1846. (See about Sand Creek, Camp Grant, the Bursum Bill, etc., if you don’t believe it. What would have happened to the Pueblo people from Taos to Sandía if they had slaughtered 21 American Baptist ministers after 1846?)

I am of the opinion that cultural bias is at work in Santa Fe, in New Mexico, and the Southwest. Outsiders have come to Santa Fe, found surrounding Indian communities which didn’t exist back home, so by way of cover-up they decide to “champion the Indians” whom they refuse to recognize as preserved by Spanish New Mexicans. Hispanic people are then subtly promoted as villains by the new immigrants, using the Indian community in a “Let’s you and him fight” strategy to diffuse Hispanic power in numbers. The strategy has been successful up to a point because apparently there are people in Santa Fe who are living proof that they can’t or won’t distinguish documented New Mexican history from Orwellian propaganda under the guise of history.

We must also be aware that Hispanophobia has perverted the historical record to the point that anyone who relates valid historical facts is targeted as a “revisionist” or an “apologist.” This is a common problem in a society that believes King Arthur was a real person, which he wasn’t. (The Knights of the Round Table never existed either) If you don’t believe it is popular to attack documented history, ask historians like Howard Zinn or James Loewen.

Rubén Sálaz M.