CHAPTER VI
Cliff Dwellers Again
By the close of the sixteenth century, it seems, all of the great towns—the terraced community apartment houses on the [Pajarito]—had been abandoned. Life in the hills and mountains had grown unbearable because of a shortage of water. These people, I have no doubt, disliked leaving their mountain homes. The mountains were more conducive to successful living than the hot sandy banks of the [Rio Grande]. But this made no difference now—moving was a necessity. Groups pushed off the [mesa] tops and down the [canyons] into the Valley of the Rio Grande. Soon little settlements sprang up. This move certainly must have been a step down for the cliff and [pueblo] dwellers. They had lived for centuries on the wooded mesa tops near high mountains and had drunk spring water. Now they had only the muddy waters of the Rio Grande. They established the village of [Perage] on the west bank of the river about a mile west of their present pueblo of Powhoge or San Ildefonso. Other groups could have gone to other Tewa-speaking villages. Just when the pueblo of [San Ildefonso] was established is not certain but it was long, long ago.
Tewas could live in peace now and raise corn, beans, squash and pumpkins, for here the muddy waters of the [Rio Grande] were ever flowing. But it was not for the Tewas to say, or think, that they could live in peace. The next Spanish expedition taught them this. The expedition headed by [Don Juan de Oñate] was the colonizing expedition into New Mexico. In 1598, soldiers, colonists, carts and baggage streamed up the Valley of the Rio Grande and took possession of New Mexico in the name of His Majesty, the King of Spain. This time the occupation was in earnest. Four hundred or more settlers and soldiers marched up the valley, the settlers with everything they possessed in the way of tools and personal effects. Thousands of domestic animals were brought in. The Spanish meant to stay this time.
In the north [Tewa] country, beyond [San Ildefonso], was the Province of Yunqueyunque which is thought to have been located near the present [San Juan] [Pueblo]. It was here that the first capital city of New Mexico was established by the Spanish on July 11, 1598. It was called [San Gabriel].
It was about this time that the Tewa-speaking people on the [Pajarito] Plateau were abandoning their homes in [canyons] and on [mesa] tops and moving to the banks of the [Rio Grande] where they built the [pueblo] of San Ildefonso. These Indians built the pueblo with rows of houses two and three stories high and built their [kivas] on top of the ground instead of below the ground as they had done in their former homes.
After Oñate had been removed from office as Governor of New Mexico, the Viceroy appointed [Don Pedro de Peralta] and the capital was moved from [San Gabriel] to Santa Fe in 1610. Governors changed. Each made new laws. Indians were used as slaves. They produced goods for the Spanish. Children went to school and all went to church. They took on Christianity—yes, but they retained their old beliefs and old forms of worship. Roman Catholic Missionaries built churches in many of the [Rio Grande] [pueblos] which the Indians paid for. Some were flogged for not wanting to go to church, but this new form of religion was forced upon them. Hours were long and hard and taxes imposed by the Spanish were exorbitant. This kept up for seven decades.
Rebellion was on the way. [Acoma], the Sky City, was the first village to rebel. This was quelled. Then the [Jemez], then the [pueblos] of [San Felipe] and [Cochiti], our Keres-speaking friends, rebelled. [Alameda] and [Isleta] were next. But these uprisings were not put down. It all ended up in the bloody and terrible Pueblo Rebellion of 1680. Spaniards were murdered right and left all over New Mexico. The Tewas of [San Ildefonso] were in sympathy with the Rebellion. They had suffered too, and so they marched with their allies regardless of creed, clan or language spoken, to Santa Fe, the capital city. The remaining little handful of Spanish refugees had gathered in the Palace of the Governors as a last resort. One white cross and one red cross were sent to the Spanish Governor [Otermin] by the Indians. White meant peace. Red meant war. The Governor chose war. But the cause was hopeless now. The Spanish were outnumbered and their food and water supply had been cut off. Surrender was the only alternative, so, on August 21, the Spanish left the Palace and back-tracked down the Valley of the [Rio Grande]. The Indian now had his land back. He could live in peace along the banks of the river and raise his crops, so he thought. No more toil and no more taxes. But this Utopia was not to be realized.
Even though the [Navaho] had taken an active part in the uprisings, he began to cause trouble as soon as the Spanish were out of New Mexico. The [Pueblo] people had not counted on this. The Navaho had taken everything from the Spaniard that he could use against him, including the horse. As soon as the weakened Pueblo people thought they had rid themselves of trouble and war and killing, the wild Navaho took advantage of the situation. Terror reigned for a decade or more. The Navaho swooped down upon the pueblos at night, plundering and killing. Putting up with the Spanish might have been easier to take than this. But all was to change again. [Don Diego de Vargas] marched up the [Rio Grande] with another colonizing expedition, soldiers and missionaries. Pueblo after pueblo was reconquered and Santa Fe was re-entered in 1693. The Pueblo people were not too hard to bring to submission this time. The Spanish would help their warriors to drive off their enemies. The pueblos had had about all they could take from the Navaho.
Then there were the [Tewa] villages to be dealt with up the [Rio Grande] between Santa Fe and the [pueblo] of San Juan. The [San Ildefonso] Tewa fled to a high black rock known as “Black [Mesa].” It had been used by them for years as a place of defense. From its top the country can be seen for miles around. It was here that they held out against the Spanish soldiers from January until September of 1694. They finally surrendered after several unsuccessful assaults at their rock and a siege which lasted for five days. Black Mesa figures considerably in the mythology of the Tewas. They say that during this seven-months period while their people were besieged on the high mesa top, brave men descended through the precipitous gap during the night to the Rio Grande below to get water for their marooned people. Black Mesa is sometimes known as “[Mesita Huerfano]” or “Orphan Mesa.” It is said that a giant lived here at one time and caught children from the pueblo which he and his wife and daughter ate. He was at last killed by the Tewa War Gods. Legend has it that the giant’s heart is still on the mesa top in the form of a white rock.
We have almost forgotten the Keres-speaking people to the south who were also having trouble. During the Rebellion, the Cochitenos abandoned their [pueblo] and moved back up the [Cañada de Cochiti] to [Kotyiti]. This was, according to their legends, the last site they occupied after being driven from the [Tyuonyi] and before establishing the present [Cochiti] on the banks of the Rio Grande. Kotyiti was built on top of a high [mesa] known to the Spanish as “[Potrero] [Viejo].” It is a mesa about two miles long and several hundred feet high. It was a natural fortress for the Indians, and it was to this fortress that the [Keres] moved back and built their homes shortly after the beginning of the Rebellion. This fortress was known as “[Hanat Cochiti]” or “Cochiti Above.” With the coming of Diego de Vargas in 1693, the Indians fled from the pueblo on the river to their mesa and put up a stiff battle, but in vain. After their reconquest, broken and tired of trouble, they moved back to Cochiti in 1694 where they have been ever since.