<P> Spanish colonial policies in the 1500s regarding the humane treatment of Indians were difficult to enforce on the northern frontier . With the establishment of the first permanent colonial settlement in 1598, the Pueblos were forced to provide tribute to the colonists in the form of labor, ground corn and textiles . Encomiendas were soon established by colonists along the Rio Grande, restricting Pueblo access to fertile farmlands and water supplies and placing a heavy burden upon Pueblo labor . Especially egregious to the Pueblo was the assault on their traditional religion . Franciscan priests established theocracies in many of the Pueblo villages . The priests converted the Pueblos to build the Spanish empire in New Mexico . In 1608, it looked as though Spain might abandon the province, the Franciscans baptized seven thousand Pueblos to try to convince the Crown otherwise . Although the Franciscans initially tolerated manifestations of the old religion as long as the Puebloans attended mass and maintained a public veneer of Catholicism, Fray Alonso de Posada (in New Mexico 1656--1665) outlawed Kachina dances by the Pueblo Indians and ordered the missionaries to seize and burn their masks, prayer stick, and effigies . The Franciscan missionaries also forbade the use of entheogenic drugs in the traditional religious ceremonies of the Pueblo . Several Spanish officials, such as Nicolas de Aguilar, who attempted to curb the power of the Franciscans were charged with heresy and tried before the Inquisition . </P> <P> In the 1670s drought swept the region, causing a famine among the Pueblo and increased raids by the Apache, which Spanish and Pueblo soldiers were unable to prevent . Fray Alonso de Benavides wrote multiple letters to the King, describing the conditions, noting "the Spanish inhabitants and Indians alike to eat hides and straps of carts". The unrest among the Pueblos came to a head in 1675 . Governor Juan Francisco Treviño ordered the arrest of forty - seven Pueblo medicine men and accused them of practicing "sorcery". Four medicine men were sentenced to death by hanging; three of those sentences were carried out, while the fourth prisoner committed suicide . The remaining men were publicly whipped and sentenced to prison . When this news reached the Pueblo leaders, they moved in force to Santa Fe, where the prisoners were held . Because a large number of Spanish soldiers were away fighting the Apache, Governor Treviño was forced to accede to the Pueblo demand for the release of the prisoners . Among those released was a San Juan ("Ohkay Owingeh" in the Tewa Language) Indian named "Popé". </P> <P> Following his release, Popé, along with a number of other Pueblo leaders (see list below), planned and orchestrated the Pueblo Revolt . Popé took up residence in Taos Pueblo far from the capital of Santa Fe and spent the next five years seeking support for a revolt among the 46 Pueblo towns . He gained the support of the Northern Tiwa, Tewa, Towa, Tano, and Keres - speaking Pueblos of the Rio Grande Valley . The Pecos Pueblo, 50 miles east of the Rio Grande pledged its participation in the revolt as did the Zuni and Hopi, 120 and 200 miles respectively west of the Rio Grande . The Pueblos not joining the revolt were the four southern Tiwa (Tiguex) towns near Santa Fe and the Piro Pueblos south of the principal Pueblo population centers near the present day city of Socorro . The southern Tiwa and the Piro were more thoroughly integrated into Spanish culture than the other groups . The Spanish population of about 2,400, including mixed - blood mestizos, and Indian servants and retainers, was scattered thinly throughout the region . Santa Fe was the only place that approximated being a town . The Spanish could only muster 170 men with arms . The Pueblos joining the revolt probably had 2,000 or more adult men capable of using native weapons such as the bow and arrow . It is possible that some Apache and Navajo participated in the revolt . </P> <P> The Pueblo revolt was typical of millenarian movements in colonial societies . Popé promised that, once the Spanish were killed or expelled, the ancient Pueblo gods would reward them with health and prosperity . Popé's plan was that the inhabitants of each Pueblo would rise up and kill the Spanish in their area and then all would advance on Santa Fe to kill or expel all the remaining Spanish . The date set for the uprising was August 11, 1680 . Popé dispatched runners to all the Pueblos carrying knotted cords . Each morning the Pueblo leadership was to untie one knot from the cord, and when the last knot was untied, that would be the signal for them to rise against the Spaniards in unison . On August 9, however, the Spaniards were warned of the impending revolt by southern Tiwa leaders and they captured two Tesuque Pueblo youths entrusted with carrying the message to the pueblos . They were tortured to make them reveal the significance of the knotted cord . </P>

The pueblo man that in 1680 led a successful rebellion against the spanish