Popé (organizer of Pueblo revolt)
Popé was a prominent figure in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, an uprising against Spanish colonial rule in New Mexico. A medicine man from the San Juan Pueblo, Popé emerged as a leader in opposition to the oppressive practices imposed by the Spanish, including religious conversion to Christianity and labor exploitation under the encomienda system. His activism intensified during the 1670s, a period marked by drought and famine, which exacerbated tensions between the Pueblo people and Spanish colonizers. Following the arrest and punishment of several medicine men, including himself, Popé rallied the Pueblos, advocating for a return to their traditional beliefs and promising the return of ancient gods who would restore prosperity.
Popé's organizational skills were central to coordinating a significant revolt that began on August 10, 1680, resulting in the massacre of Spanish Franciscans and the siege of Santa Fe. Although the revolt temporarily expelled the Spanish, internal challenges and external pressures gradually diminished Popé's influence. He passed away in 1690, and while the Spaniards returned to reconquer the region by 1694, they did so with less severity than before the revolt. Popé's legacy endures as a symbol of resistance against colonial oppression and the struggle for indigenous autonomy.
Subject Terms
Popé (organizer of Pueblo revolt)
Category: Tribal leader, medicine man
Tribal affiliation: San Juan Pueblo
Significance: Popé inspired and led the Pueblo Revolt against Spanish colonists in New Mexico in 1680
Little is known of the early life of Popé, a medicine man of the San Juan Pueblo in seventeenth century New Mexico. As an older man, Popé became an ardent opponent of the Spanish regime. The Spanish, whose colony was established in 1598, became more oppressive as more settlers arrived. Franciscan missionaries forced the Pueblos to abandon their own religion in favor of Christianity, while encomenderos exploited Pueblo labor as part of the encomienda system. In the 1670’s, drought and famine brought Pueblo resentment and desperation to a peak. In 1675, signs of unrest prompted Governor Juan Francisco Trevino to punish the Pueblo Indians by arresting and flogging forty-seven Pueblo medicine men, including Popé. Popé then moved from San Juan to Taos, where he began to organize a general revolt against the Spanish.
Popé had brilliant organizational and leadership skills. He preached a millenarian message in which he promised that the ancient gods would return, bearing gifts of prosperity, as soon as the Christians and their gods were dead. Popé offered land and liberation from Spanish slavery for warriors who would fight the Spanish. Spreading his message through the Pueblos, Popé engineered a coordinated attack on the Spanish, beginning on August 10, 1680. Franciscans living in the Pueblos were massacred in the Pueblo Revolt, and Santa Fe was beseiged. By August 20, the surviving Spanish and a group of loyal Indians fled south to El Paso.
As the leader of the Pueblos, Popé urged the destruction of all vestiges of Christianity and promised the return of prosperity as soon as the Pueblos revived their own ancient religion. Drought, internal dissension, and attack from neighboring tribes continued to disrupt Pueblo life. Popé’s influence waned, and he died in 1690. The Spaniards returned to reconquer New Mexico between 1692 and 1694, though they never subjected the Pueblo to such harsh exploitation as they had before the revolt of 1680.