Battle of Acoma
The Battle of Acoma took place in January 1599, marking a significant and tragic event in the early colonial history of New Mexico. Following the arrival of Spanish governor Don Juan de Oñate and his troops in the area, tensions escalated when Juan de Zaldivar and his soldiers demanded provisions from the residents of Acoma Pueblo, who had already been stretched thin by previous Spanish incursions. When the Puebloans resisted, it led to a violent confrontation that resulted in the death of Zaldivar and several of his men. In retaliation, Oñate initiated a campaign against Acoma, aiming to punish the Pueblo for what was deemed treason against the Spanish crown. The siege lasted two days, culminating in the defeat of the Puebloans, with many casualties and the destruction of their village. Following the battle, Oñate imposed harsh penalties on the surviving captives, including enslavement and mutilation, reflecting the brutal realities of colonial subjugation. This event has lasting significance in the history of Indigenous-Spanish relations and highlights the complex and often tumultuous interactions between European settlers and Native American communities in the region.
Battle of Acoma
Date: December, 1598-February, 1599
Place: Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico
Tribe affected: Acoma (Keres)
Significance: After this first major Puebloan uprising against the Spanish invaders, defeat and the Spaniards’ cruel punishment of the survivors kept the Puebloans from attempting another rebellion for many decades
In May, 1598, Don Juan de Oñate, appointed by the Spanish authorities as governor and captain general of all the kingdoms and provinces of New Mexico, reached the Rio Grande valley with a large contingent of priests, soldiers, settlers, and servants as well as two nephews, Vincente and Juan de Zaldivar. Although many Puebloans fled in terror before the invaders, those who remained received Oñate and his men hospitably. In each pueblo he entered, Oñate declared that he had come to protect the Indians and save their souls, and he demanded that they swear allegiance and vassalage to their new rulers, the Spanish king and the Catholic church. At the pueblos of Ohke and Yunque, he drove the Indians from their homes and moved his own people in, leaving King Phillip’s new subjects to survive as best they could in the countryside.
By October, Oñate had reached Acoma Pueblo, where, after the usual ceremony of swearing allegiance to king and church, the inhabitants were asked to give generously of their food, robes, and blankets. Oñate then continued on to the Zuni and Hopi pueblos. In early December, Juan de Zaldivar and thirty soldiers, following Oñate, arrived at Acoma and demanded to be provisioned, ignoring the Indians’ pleas that they had nothing left to spare. The Indians then attacked, killing Zaldivar and twelve of his men.
Oñate, vowing to avenge this serious blow to Spanish authority, called a general meeting to plan for the punishment of Acoma. He consulted the friars, who agreed that this was a “just war” under Spanish law, since the Puebloans had sworn obedience and vassalage to the Spanish crown and were therefore royal subjects who were now guilty of treason. On January 21, 1599, Vincente de Zaldivar and his forces reached Acoma, where they found the Puebloans ready to defend themselves. The Indians, fighting with arrows and stones, were no match for men armed with guns; after two days of bitter fighting, Acoma was defeated, with more than eight hundred of its people dead. The pueblo was destroyed, and some five hundred men, women, and children were captured. Those who did not immediately surrender were dragged from their hiding places and killed.
On February 12, Oñate himself decreed the punishment of the captives: All men over twenty-five had one foot cut off and served twenty years in slavery; all men between the ages of twelve and twenty-five and all women over twelve served twenty years in slavery; the old men and women were given to the Querechos (Plains Apache) as slaves; the children under twelve were given to Fray Alonso Martinez (father commissary of the Church) and to Vincente de Zaldivar; two Hopi men, at Acoma when the battle began, had their right hands cut off and were sent back to Hopi as an object lesson.