History 120/Lorna Keith: The Taos Pueblo Revolt of 1847

The valley inhabited by the Tewa people who created Taos Pueblo has been inhabited since about 3000 B.C. and the Pueblo was erected between 1000 to 1450 A.D. The Pueblo is considered to be the oldest continually inhabited community in the United States. When Coronado first saw Taos Pueblo, he thought he had found one of the cities of Cibola; one of the Seven Cities of Gold the Spanish were looking for when they first sailed from Spain. From the beginning, Taos Pueblo was considered a place of trade for goods and information and was frequented by the other tribes, trappers and later the Spanish settlers to trade their crafts and goods since commerce used the barter system before the Europeans brought the concept of money to this continent. Every summer, the Taos Pueblo Powwow hosts the other tribes who now come to exchange their culture. (1), (2), (3)

Taos Pueblo in winter Photo by Bruce Gomez

Taos Pueblo with the Rio de Pueblo in the foreground.

Photo by Kathy Weiser, September, 2008

The Taos Pueblo Revolt of 1847 occurred 167 years after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was led by Pope (or Popay) a member of San Juan Pueblo. San Juan Pueblo is located about 30 miles to the south of Taos Pueblo through the canyon. Recently, the San Juan tribal members changed their name back to their Indian one, and San Juan Pueblo is now called Ohkay Owingeh. The purpose of the first revolt was to drive out the Spanish authorities and settlers brought to New Mexico by Onate. Onate, as referenced in Foner on page 31, brought the first Spanish settlers into New Mexico, but he also felt he needed to crush and destroy any descent, an example of which was Acoma Pueblo which was completely destroyed by Onate’s soldiers. (4)

The purpose of the Taos Pueblo Revolt of 1847 was to drive out the Americanos who had displaced the Spanish the year before, which was occurring the same time as the Spanish-American wars across the Rio Grande in what is now Texas and New Mexico. There was a previous revolt planned for December of 1846 by Diego Archuleta and Tomas Ortiz, influential and longtime Hispano residents of Santa Fe. This plot was discovered and the conspirators arrested. This seemed to be the end of it as far as Governor Bent was concerned and he left Santa Fe for Taos in early January. The new revolt was led by Tomas Romero, a member of Taos Pueblo, and Pablo Montoya, a Hispanic landowner. On the morning of January 19^th, they and their group of locals broke into Governor Bent’s home and beheaded him and killed Sheriff Richard Lee, Judge Cornelio Vigil and Bent’s brother-in-law Pablo Jaramillo, while Bent’s wife and children escaped through a hole punched into an adobe wall. Padre Martinez, a well-respected priest and son of a local landowning family, tried to stop the revolt from happening, but ended up burying both Americanos and locals who were caught and executed.

On February 3^rd, Colonel Sterling Price left Santa Fe to meet the rebels to quell the uprising. The soldiers and rebels met in the canyon near Embudo and many rebels were captured or killed. Colonel Price continued on through the town of Taos to Taos Pueblo where tribal members had taken refuge in the Mission church of San Geronimo. Colonel Price destroyed the church and the men, women and children inside. (5)

The new Mission Church of San Geronimo, built in 1850

Photo by Kathy Weiser, September 2008

The Original Mission Church of San Geronimo destroyed by Colonel Price and his troops.

Photo by Kathy Weiser, September 2008

You can visit all the places where these events occurred. The Bent House is now a museum where you can see the rooms which are preserved and decorated much like the Bent family found them when they arrived the week before Governor Bent was killed. Go around the corner to the Plaza, and you can visit the old Courthouse and Jail. In the middle of the Plaza is a statue of Padre Martinez. You can also visit his family Hacienda which is about 3 miles from the Plaza. Take a walk across the street and you can visit the Kit Carson House; behind his house where the stable used to be is a community theater and the rest of the acreage is a community park. Also about three miles away on the south side of town on the way to Santa Fe is San Francisco de Asis Church, which is entirely built of adobe and has walls many feet thick. The congregation and the local families get together every fall to re-mud the walls before winter. And of course, you can visit Taos Pueblo, Taos Village and the Mission Church of San Geronimo. (6)

I returned to California last year from living in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico for 7 years. I owned a house in a rural area on the south side of town where the Mission church is built. For a few months in 2009, I lived in an apartment that was created from a family home that was made of adobe the same year the Mission of San Francisco de Asis was built. (6) After a couple of years living there, I made a lot of friends whose family had lived there for generations. In this small community, a person gets very involved with the history in this area, because you meet Romero’s, Vigil’s, Jaramillo’s, and Archuleta’s, both Hispanic and Indian, every day. You run into history every-day, driving by family cemeteries in the rural areas and entering historic buildings that have been kept for their original purpose or converted to another use. It’s a very interesting and inspiring place to live.