EARLY COLONIZATION
The arrival of European colonist in the Americas during the late 1400s brought with them a dark era - our world experienced unimaginable loss. Our homelands, precious natural landscapes, sources of life and spirituality - culture, language, art, joy, existence - we’re immediately seen as opportunities for exploitation and monetary gain. We can imagine that the beauty and power of our people felt so intimidating that colonists aimed to either entirely erase us or lower us to a status that they felt was safe and inferior to them. Western history has coined this era - The Age of Discovery.
As you’ll find throughout this archive, there is much to say and expand upon whenever talking about any of this times and places. Colonists had taken the Caribbean, Central America, Southern Mexico before arriving at the Chihuahuan desert. We pay our respects to all ancestors from these regions, the horrors they endured still echo through the world. The story of the Chihuahuan desert is unique - and at the same time, it is all the same.
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Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European to travel through the Chihuahuan desert in 1528. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado would follow along about 20 - 30 years later on his way further north armed with hundreds of Spanish soldiers, priests, several hundred Mexican-Indian auxiliaries and thousands of stock animals. In 1562, Francisco de Ibarra would claim the territory that includes Durango, Sonora, Sinaloa, and parts of Chihuahua and Coahuila - naming it Nueva Vizcaya after Ibarra’s home province of Vizcaya in Spain.
Cabeza de Vaca ignited the series of expeditions aimed at searching for gold and silver, rich lands, Indian slaves, and overall domination of the precious desert landscape and all of the life that thrived within it. Once the Spanish officially claimed the Big Bend, they forced indigenous slaves into building a series of presidios along the Rio Grande in a pathetic attempt to fortify the sparsely populated desert and supposedly protect Spanish citizens from later Apache and Comanche raids as Europeans from the east began their westward expansion, pushing native people out of their known territories and into other lands. These presidios were soon abandoned because the native population could not be easily subdued, an outcome we see true throughout La Gran Chichimeca region.
La Gran Chichimeca is the birth place of The Pope Rebellion aka The Pueblo Revolt. On August 11, 1680, a unified rebel Pueblo nation killed 21 Franciscan missionaries - an act that ignited a week long war waged onto European colonizers who had been oppressing the indigenous population for way too long. In just a few days, over 400 colonists were massacred and the European population of Santa Fe was forced out of the region.
“The Christian god is dead, but our sun god will never die.”
Pope, the medicine man who assembled the rebellion, pushed to erase any trace of Spanish cultural beliefs, language, and especially religion. Pope’s efforts kept the Spanish and their culture out of the region for over a decade, during which the native population began to breed mass amounts of horses and work together with the Apache and Comanche. Horsemanship shaped and revolutionized native life ways far and wide.
Many are familiar with the Pueblo revolt of 1680 - but this New Mexican revolt was actually a part of a much larger push back against European colonization that included the Conchos, Tobosos and Tarahumaras. What historians coined as The Great Northern Revolt took place throughout the Chihuahuan desert including the states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Texas.
While the Great Northern Revolt took place across the desert landscape, the Spanish retreated in El Paso where even more revolts spread seemingly all at once. From Casas Grandes to El Paso alone, Conchos, Chinarras, Mansos, Janos, Apachean Jocomes, Pimas, Seri all took up arms and pushed the Spanish and the Spanish military of Nueva Vizcaya to their limits. This was a time of glory for our native ancestors. We were able to raise livestock as our own, build strong relations with our horses, and reclaim our territories.
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In response - the Spanish established a new “Presidio” system throughout La Gran Chichimeca. These military outposts were assigned up to 50 European soldiers plus any passive natives they could recruit to help “safe guard” their territory. This time of revolt also created the Compañia Volante battalions - a light calvary trained at going up against fast nomadic rebels especially Apache and Comanche in the Chihuahuan desert. The wars continued. The death of Pope led to the pueblo union splitting up. This created the perfect environment for newly reinforced Spanish soldiers and missionaries would return to the regions they were pushed out of and reinforce colonial rule.
Not all of the native population was subdued, of course. Apaches and Comanches continued their stronghold and their horsemanship. Their ceaseless raiding would eventually displace quite a few of the other smaller nomadic groups who often had to seek refuge in the Spanish missions. The missions grew once again and became home to many different groups that would eventually share one identity under the Spanish church. Under the church, tired and preyed upon natives could rely on a stable supply of foods, close proximity to a presidio and its protection, jobs and life ways to pass the time on. This is where many natives learned wood working, metal smithing, weaving, and agricultural work. The Spanish missions would ultimately create a living breathing mestizo cultural identity and the erasure of many Chihuahuan desert indians.
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The complex mixing of people, the creation of nations, bastardization of languages - death and birth, loss and gain - cannot possibly ever be condensed into a simple page of writing. At times it might have really seemed like the Spanish conquest had won us over, then we see relentless Comanche raids follow for decades after a time of docility, etc. The events we’ve highlighted above paint an image of the never ending push and pull that comes when any force tries to dominate another. Colonization, assimilation, erasure did not end at any point in time. They are living entities that shape shift and are alive and well during our present lifetimes.