{"id":325,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:32:05","latitude":35.6133329999999972415025695227086544036865234375,"longitude":-106.725832999999994399331626482307910919189453125,"title":"Jemez Pueblo and Resistance to Spanish Rule","subtitle":"Smoldering Tensions","fullsize":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/11a39f61809fe72b06815ac0ee8a35fb.jpg","address":"","all_locations":[],"zoom":14,"creator":["Edgar I. Bernal Sevilla, Northern Arizona University"],"description":"Jemez Pueblo, or Walatowa, consists of several villages united by a shared background and their unique usage of the Towa language. These villages sit at the mouth of the Cañon de San Diego.
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\r\n\tThe formidable fortified villages of Jemez Pueblo were bastions of anti-Spanish sentiment for much of the first period of Spanish occupation of New Mexico. In 1623, fed up with Franciscan demands for labor and forced conversion, the Jemez people burned down the nearby mission of San Jose and retreated into the mountains. The Jemez then returned to their site once they had avoided Spanish retaliation. The mission was rebuilt, but then abandoned in 1639 as sentiments remained hot and the Jemez people continued their recalcitrance in the face of missionary proselytization.
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\r\n One of the three Pueblo religious men executed by Governor Juan Francisco Treviño in 1675 was from Jemez. This was likely a calculated decision by Governor Treviño, as the Jemez people had been among the most successful of the pueblos in reining back the influence of Franciscan missionaries. However, Treviño’s plan backfired as many Jemez warriors were present when a force consisting of several pueblos surrounded Santa Fe and demanded the release of the imprisoned religious men. Jemez Pueblo was also one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and it continued its resistance well into the reconquest of New Spain by Diego de Vargas. Although frequently called a “bloodless reconquest,” the account of Jemez Pueblo during Vargas’ takeover shows that it was anything but. San Diego Mesa, where many Jemez had moved during the Pueblo Revolt for safety, was besieged by Vargas and his Keresan speaking allies from Zia and Santa Ana Pueblos on July 24, 1694. The besieging foce killed eighty four Jemez people and captured another 361 by the end of the day. The remaining Jemez population scattered throughout Apache, Navajo, and Hopi lands.
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\r\n Several years later, many Jemez returned and reconstituted the pueblo in a much diminished form. Many pueblos suffered during the early nineteenth century rise of nomadic raiding powers like the Comanche and Apachean people. In 1838, seeking safety from nomadic incursions, the people of the Pueblo of Pecos joined the Jemez in Walatowa and were absorbed into the Jemez population. There is still a position in the Jemez government for a “Governor of Pecos.”
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\r\n\tTourism on Jemez Pueblo lands today is run through the Walatowa Visitor Center. The Towa language, also called the Jemez language, is spoken only by the Jemez people. With around eighty percent of the tribal population speaking it means that the language is not currently endangered. Jemez Pueblo has been very successful in preserving its culture, and cultural conservation programs run by the Pueblo government have even revived its pottery styles that were lost during the chaotic Vargas reconquest years.
","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"The Pueblo Revolt took place in 1680, but Spanish power was questioned in New Mexico before that date. Jemez Pueblo in particular was a fierce opponent for Spanish hegemony, even during the periods of solid Spanish power in New Mexico.","website":"http://www.jemezpueblo.org/","related_resources":["Knaut, Andrew L. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680: Conquest and Resistance in Seventeenth Century New Mexico. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964.","National Parks Service. “San Jose de los Jemez Mission and Giusewa Pueblo Site, Sandoval County, New Mexico.” National Parks Service, date unknown. Accessed 4/21/2019. https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/weekly_features/12_11_02_San_Jose_Mission.htm","Sando, Joe. Pueblo Nations: Eight Centuries of Pueblo Indian Territory. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishers, 1992.","Weber, David J. What Caused the Pueblo Revolt of 1680?. Boston, CT: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999."],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/11a39f61809fe72b06815ac0ee8a35fb.jpg":{"id":1355,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"jemez pueblo 1.png","description":"This 1850 image by Richard H. Kern shows Jemez Pueblo during that time. Kern was an illustrator that did work for the U.S. Army. He was killed in an ambush three years later. |
Kern, Richard H., 1821-1853, artist; Duval, Peter S., 1804 or 5-1886, lithographer. \"Pueblo of Jémez, from the east, Aug. 20, 1850.\" Digital Image. Wikimedia Commons. Digitally published November 29, 2009.
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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JemezPueblo1850.jpg | Richard H. Kern","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/11a39f61809fe72b06815ac0ee8a35fb.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/e445476bfda02eb7ee2ae34d2add18ee.jpg":{"id":1356,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"jemez pueblo 2.png","description":"This photograph, taken by John K. Hillers sometime between 1873 and 1881, shows the ruins of Giusewa, one of the old Jemez villages, and the San Jose de Jemez Mission, which was burned down in 1623 and rebuilt, only to be abandoned again in 1637. Giusewa remains an important site for Jemez Pueblo people. | Hillers, John K. \"The Jemez ruins.\" Digital image. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Digital Archives. 2009.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jemez_State_Mon_1877.jpg | John K. Hillers","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/e445476bfda02eb7ee2ae34d2add18ee.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/d8fd07533962d4e0f1f206740a6e59db.jpg":{"id":1357,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"jemez pueblo 3.png","description":"This present day photo by taken by the Jemez State Monument, shows another view of the San Jose de Jemez Mission ruins. | Magdalena, Marlon. \"Ruins of Gisewa Pueblo and San José de los Jemez Mission Church.\" Digital Image. Jemez State Monument. March, 29, 2008. 

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