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Footpaths “The Pueblo Revolt Against the Spanish: A First Mesa
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Hopis learn their history through
SAR’s Classroom Resources storytelling. They are often related to or
familiar with the people involved in
historical events. Here, Nuvayoiyava (Albert
Yava) tells this story about the Pueblo Revolt
of 1680.
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~ ~ ~ ~
T he village leaders and the people were
always thinking about how they might
get rid of the Castillas—that’s what they
called the Spanish. Then one time they got
word from the Eastern Pueblos that some
kind of uprising was being planned. They sent
a delegation over there, representing the
main Hopi villages, and found out that the
Eastern Pueblos had gotten together and
were preparing a revolt under the leadership “Portrait of Albert Yava,” Unidentified
of a Tewa named Po’pay, who came from San (Photographer)
Juan or Santa Clara, which had been called
Kapo until the Spanish renamed it.

In Tewa, Po’pay means water-bug—mosquito larva—and they say he was called that because he
was always in motion. In Hopi they call him Pa’ateu. He was probably a Water Clan man. He was
the driving force of the revolt. After he got the Tewas to back him up, he went to the other
pueblos organizing and getting support.

Well, the Hopis joined forces with the Eastern Pueblos. A particular day had been set for the
beginning of the attack against the Castillas. The Hopi delegation brought back a buckskin thong
with a number of knots in it, indicating the days to go before the uprising. The last knot on the
thong represented the day when all the villages on the Rio Grande side and the Hopi side were
supposed to go into action.

But after the Hopi delegation returned home, Po’pay learned that
someone had revealed plans for the uprising to the Spanish, and so
he moved the date of the attack ahead. As a result, the uprising along
the Rio Grande began before the Hopis came to that last knot in the
thong. The date was August 10, 1680.

The Eastern Pueblos struck hard, killed a lot of Spaniards, and drove
the rest of them south into Mexico. Of course, all that didn’t happen
“Pueblo Men, Place of the on the first day. After the first attack, the Indians just kept pressing
Governor’s, Santa Fe the Castillas until they were gone from Pueblo country.
with Navajo Blanket,”
Unidentified
(Photographer) Back here in the Hopi villages, the revolt started a couple of days
later. In Oraibi, a war party attacked the church and the outbuildings.
It seems that some of the padres and their assistants were away at the
time, having gone somewhere for supplies. They say over there that the Badger Clan warriors
took the lead. They killed two padres, their Indian assistants, and a few Spanish soldiers who
were stationed in the village. They dragged the bodies away and threw them in deep washes.

After that they looted the church, stripping out all the paraphernalia. The church livestock was
divided among the clans. The One Horn Society took the steel lances of the Castilla soldiers and
put them in the kiva as a record of the event. After that, the people
razed the church to the ground, stone by stone and beam by beam.
They scattered the stones in all directions, and stacked up the beams
for future use. The large church bells were hauled away and sealed up
in a secret crypt.

At Keuchaptevela, over here on First Mesa, the church was torn down
the same way, and the big bells were taken out in the valley and “Boys Standing Outside
buried at a place of drifting sand. On top of the mesa they laid out a Laguna Church,”
Unidentified
line of stones pointing to where the bells were buried. In later years, (Photographer)
people sometimes went to the line of stones and sighted along it to
see whether the sand might have drifted away and uncovered the
bells. Our One Horn Society on First Mesa has some souvenirs of the
church, some small bells that look like sleigh bells. We ring those bells sometimes when we are
chanting in a ceremony.

All the villages tore down their churches. In Awatovi everything was
torn down except some of the outbuildings, which were later
converted into living quarters by some of the families. Of course, the
Hopis didn’t have to confront Spanish military forces, but what they
did took some courage because it invited reprisals by the Spaniards.

After that they waited,

expecting that one day or “In time it began to look
another the Castillas would as if the Castillas
arrive to punish them. The
Keuchaptevela people weren't coming back.”
moved their village to the
top of the mesa, where Walpi is today, for more security. Other
villages also moved to higher ground. Awatovi already was on top of
Antelope Mesa. In time it began to look as if the Castillas weren’t
coming back. They were gradually resuming their control over the
“Walpi Pueblo,” H. F. Eastern Pueblos, and I guess they were too preoccupied with that to
Robinson think much about the Hopi villages.
(Photographer)