Tenamaxtli
Encyclopedia
Francisco Tenamaztle (also Tenamaxtlan or Tenamaxtli) was a leader of the Caxcan
Indians in Mexico
during the Mixton War of 1540-1542. He was later put on trial in Spain
. With the support of Bartolomé de las Casas
he defended the justice of his cause by appealing to King Carlos I.
set forth from Mexico City
with 300-400 Spaniards and 5,000 to 8,000 Aztec
and Tlaxcaltec
allies on a march through the future states of Nayarit
, Jalisco
, Durango
, Sinaloa
, and Zacatecas
. Over a six-year period Guzman conducted frequent violent slave raids throughout Northern Mexico, enslaving thousands of Indians. Guzmán and his lieutenants founded towns and Spanish settlements in the region, called Nueva Galicia
, including Guadalajara
, the first temporary site of which was at Tenamaztle’s home of Nochistlán
, Zacatecas. The Spaniards encountered increased resistance as they moved further from the complex hierarchical societies of Central Mexico and attempted to force Indians into servitude through the encomienda
system.
Tenamaztle was baptized a Catholic
sometime after Guzman’s expedition and given the Christian name Francisco. He became “Lord Tlatoani
of Nochistlan,” an urban center and region in the southern part of Zacatecas. The Caxcan Indians are often considered part of the Chichimeca
, a generic term used by the Spaniards and Aztecs for all the nomadic and semi-nomadic Native Americans living in the deserts of northern Mexico. However, the Caxcanes seem to have been sedentary, depending upon agriculture for their livelihood and living in permanent towns and settlements. They were, perhaps, the most northerly of the agricultural, town-and-city dwelling peoples of interior Mexico.
Presumably at the same time as his baptism, Tenamaztle also swore allegiance to the Spanish crown and was confirmed in his position and any property he owned. Spanish rule, however, was oppressive and in mid-1540 the Caxcanes and their allies, the Zacatecos and possibly other Chichimeca tribes, revolted. The command structure of the Caxcanes is unknown but the most prominent leader who emerged was Tenamaztle.
led a Spanish and Indian force to quell the rebellion. The Caxcanes killed a peace delegation of one priest and ten Spanish soldiers. Oñate attempted to storm Mixtón, but the Indians on the summit repelled his attack. Oñate then requested reinforcements from the capital, Mexico City.
The Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza
called upon the experienced conquistador Pedro de Alvarado
to assist in putting down the revolt. Alvarado declined to await reinforcements and attacked Mixton in June 1541 with four hundred Spaniards and an unknown number of Indian allies. He was met there by an Indian army, estimated by the Spanish to number 15,000, under Tenamaztle and Don Diego, a Zacateco. The first attack of the Spanish was repulsed with ten Spaniards and many Indian allies killed. Subsequent attacks by Alvarado were also unsuccessful and on June 24 he was crushed when a horse fell on him. He subsequently died on July 4.
Emboldened, the Indians led by Tenamaztle attacked Guadalajara in September but were repulsed. The Indian army retired to Nochistlan and other strongpoints. The Spanish authorities were now thoroughly alarmed and feared that the revolt would spread. They assembled a force of 450 Spaniards and 30 to 60 thousand Aztec, Tlaxcalan and other Indians and under Viceroy Mendoza invaded the land of the Caxcanes. With his overwhelming force, Mendoza reduced the Indian strongholds one-by-one in a war of no quarter. On November 9, 1541, he captured the city of Nochistlan and Tenamaztle—but the Indian leader later escaped. In early 1542 the stronghold of Mixton fell to the Spaniards and the rebellion was over. The aftermath of the Caxcan's defeat was that “thousands were dragged off in chains to the mines, and many of the survivors (mostly women and children) were transported from their homelands to work on Spanish farms and haciendas. By the viceroy's order men, women and children were seized and executed, some by cannon fire, some torn apart by dogs, and others stabbed. The reports of the excessive violence against civilian Indians caused the Council of the Indies to undertake a secret investigation into the conduct of the viceroy.
With the defeat, Tenamaztle and Guaxicar, another leader, and their followers retreated into the mountains of Nayarit
where they lived in hiding for nine years. This area, primarily occupied by the Cora people
, did not come under the complete control of the Spanish until 1722, the last bastion of Indian opposition to Spanish rule in Nueva Galicia. In 1551, Tenamaztle voluntarily surrendered to the Bishop of Nueva Galicia who brought him to Mexico City. After an investigation, on August 12, 1552 Spanish authorities established his identity as the leader of the Caxcanes in the Mixton War and on November 17 he was ordered to be sent for trial to Spain.
and later took up residence in a Dominican monastery. Here he met Bartolomé de las Casas
who helped him plead his case. The wheels of justice rolled slowly and it was July 1, 1555 before he had an opportunity to present his case to the King and the Council of the Indies.
Tenamaztle’s strategy was to (1) establish that he was the rightful tlatoani of Nochistlan; (2) demonstrate that the Caxcan had received the Spanish in peace and that he should have all the rights of a vassal of the King of Spain; (3) accuse Nuño de Guzman, Cristobal de Oñate and Miguel de Ibarra of exploiting and murdering Indians; and, (4) declare that the war of the Caxcanes was “natural justice” because of the abuses of the Spaniards. He petitioned that his lands, wife, and children be returned to him.
Tenamaztle asked the king to consider "the unparalleled wrongs and evils that the Caxcanes had endured at the hands of the Spanish” and said that the objective of the Indians was not to rebel but to “flee the inhuman cruelty to which they were subjected." The trial proceeded without decision for more than one year. The last known document related to the trial is dated August 7, 1556. Nothing more is known of the disposition of the case or of Tenamaztle. He probably died in Spain.
Caxcan
The Caxcan were a partly nomadic indigenous people of Mexico. Under their leader, Francisco Tenamaztle, the Caxcan were allied with the Zacatecos against the Spaniards during the Mixtón Rebellion. During the rebellion, they were described as "the heart and the center of the Indian Rebellion". They...
Indians in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
during the Mixton War of 1540-1542. He was later put on trial in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. With the support of Bartolomé de las Casas
Bartolomé de Las Casas
Bartolomé de las Casas O.P. was a 16th-century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar. He became the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians"...
he defended the justice of his cause by appealing to King Carlos I.
Background
The first contact of the Caxcan and other indigenous peoples of northwestern Mexico with the Spanish, was in 1529 when Nuño Beltrán de GuzmánNuño Beltrán de Guzmán
Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán or sometimes Nuño de Guzmán was a Spanish conquistador and colonial administrator in New Spain. He was Governor of the province of Pánuco from 1525–1533, and of Nueva Galicia from 1529–1534, President of the first Audiencia from 1528-30. He founded several cities in...
set forth from Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
with 300-400 Spaniards and 5,000 to 8,000 Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
and Tlaxcaltec
Tlaxcaltec
The Tlaxcalteca were an indigenous group of Nahua ethnicity that inhabited the Kingdom of Tlaxcala located in what is now the Mexican state of Tlaxcala.-Pre-hispanic history:...
allies on a march through the future states of Nayarit
Nayarit
Nayarit officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its capital city is Tepic.It is located in Western Mexico...
, Jalisco
Jalisco
Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...
, Durango
Durango
Durango officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is located in Northwest Mexico. With a population of 1,632,934, it has Mexico's second-lowest population density, after Baja...
, Sinaloa
Sinaloa
Sinaloa officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 18 municipalities and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales....
, and Zacatecas
Zacatecas
Zacatecas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Zacatecas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is Zacatecas....
. Over a six-year period Guzman conducted frequent violent slave raids throughout Northern Mexico, enslaving thousands of Indians. Guzmán and his lieutenants founded towns and Spanish settlements in the region, called Nueva Galicia
Nueva Galicia
El Nuevo Reino de Galicia or Nueva Galicia was an autonomous kingdom of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. It was named after Galicia in Spain...
, including Guadalajara
Guadalajara
Guadalajara may refer to:In Mexico:*Guadalajara, Jalisco, the capital of the state of Jalisco and second largest city in Mexico**Guadalajara Metropolitan Area*University of Guadalajara, a public university in Guadalajara, Jalisco...
, the first temporary site of which was at Tenamaztle’s home of Nochistlán
Nochistlan
Nochistlán is a town in the Mexican state of Zacatecas. Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán, on December 3, 1531, hired Juan de Oñate to establish a village in Nochistlán; the village would be named Guadalajara to honor Guzmán for having been born in Guadalajara....
, Zacatecas. The Spaniards encountered increased resistance as they moved further from the complex hierarchical societies of Central Mexico and attempted to force Indians into servitude through the encomienda
Encomienda
The encomienda was a system that was employed mainly by the Spanish crown during the colonization of the Americas to regulate Native American labor....
system.
Tenamaztle was baptized a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
sometime after Guzman’s expedition and given the Christian name Francisco. He became “Lord Tlatoani
Tlatoani
Tlatoani is the Nahuatl term for the ruler of an altepetl, a pre-Hispanic state. The word literally means "speaker", but may be translated into English as "king". A is a female ruler, or queen regnant....
of Nochistlan,” an urban center and region in the southern part of Zacatecas. The Caxcan Indians are often considered part of the Chichimeca
Chichimeca
Chichimeca was the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to a wide range of semi-nomadic peoples who inhabited the north of modern-day Mexico and southwestern United States, and carried the same sense as the European term "barbarian"...
, a generic term used by the Spaniards and Aztecs for all the nomadic and semi-nomadic Native Americans living in the deserts of northern Mexico. However, the Caxcanes seem to have been sedentary, depending upon agriculture for their livelihood and living in permanent towns and settlements. They were, perhaps, the most northerly of the agricultural, town-and-city dwelling peoples of interior Mexico.
Presumably at the same time as his baptism, Tenamaztle also swore allegiance to the Spanish crown and was confirmed in his position and any property he owned. Spanish rule, however, was oppressive and in mid-1540 the Caxcanes and their allies, the Zacatecos and possibly other Chichimeca tribes, revolted. The command structure of the Caxcanes is unknown but the most prominent leader who emerged was Tenamaztle.
The Mixton War
The spark which set off the war was apparently the arrest of 18 rebellious Indian leaders and the hanging of nine of them in mid 1540. Later in the same year the Indians rose up to kill the encomendero Juan de Arze. Spanish authorities also became aware that the Indians were participating in “devilish” dances. After killing two Catholic priests, many Indians fled the encomiendas and took refuge in the mountains, especially on the hill fortress of Mixton. Acting Governor Cristobal de OñateCristóbal de Oñate
Cristóbal de Oñate was a Spanish Basque explorer, conquistador and colonial official in New Spain. He is considered the founder of the contemporary city of Guadalajara in 1531, as well as other places in Nueva Galicia .-Background:Oñate was born in 1552 in Vitoria or Oñate, in the Basque country...
led a Spanish and Indian force to quell the rebellion. The Caxcanes killed a peace delegation of one priest and ten Spanish soldiers. Oñate attempted to storm Mixtón, but the Indians on the summit repelled his attack. Oñate then requested reinforcements from the capital, Mexico City.
The Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza
Antonio de Mendoza
Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco, Marquis of Mondéjar, Count of Tendilla , was the first viceroy of New Spain, serving from April 17, 1535 to November 25, 1550, and the second viceroy of Peru, from September 23, 1551 to July 21, 1552...
called upon the experienced conquistador Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of Mexico led by Hernan Cortes...
to assist in putting down the revolt. Alvarado declined to await reinforcements and attacked Mixton in June 1541 with four hundred Spaniards and an unknown number of Indian allies. He was met there by an Indian army, estimated by the Spanish to number 15,000, under Tenamaztle and Don Diego, a Zacateco. The first attack of the Spanish was repulsed with ten Spaniards and many Indian allies killed. Subsequent attacks by Alvarado were also unsuccessful and on June 24 he was crushed when a horse fell on him. He subsequently died on July 4.
Emboldened, the Indians led by Tenamaztle attacked Guadalajara in September but were repulsed. The Indian army retired to Nochistlan and other strongpoints. The Spanish authorities were now thoroughly alarmed and feared that the revolt would spread. They assembled a force of 450 Spaniards and 30 to 60 thousand Aztec, Tlaxcalan and other Indians and under Viceroy Mendoza invaded the land of the Caxcanes. With his overwhelming force, Mendoza reduced the Indian strongholds one-by-one in a war of no quarter. On November 9, 1541, he captured the city of Nochistlan and Tenamaztle—but the Indian leader later escaped. In early 1542 the stronghold of Mixton fell to the Spaniards and the rebellion was over. The aftermath of the Caxcan's defeat was that “thousands were dragged off in chains to the mines, and many of the survivors (mostly women and children) were transported from their homelands to work on Spanish farms and haciendas. By the viceroy's order men, women and children were seized and executed, some by cannon fire, some torn apart by dogs, and others stabbed. The reports of the excessive violence against civilian Indians caused the Council of the Indies to undertake a secret investigation into the conduct of the viceroy.
With the defeat, Tenamaztle and Guaxicar, another leader, and their followers retreated into the mountains of Nayarit
Nayarit
Nayarit officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its capital city is Tepic.It is located in Western Mexico...
where they lived in hiding for nine years. This area, primarily occupied by the Cora people
Cora people
The Cora are an indigenous ethnic group of Western Central Mexico that live in the Sierra de Nayarit and in La Mesa de Nayar in the Mexican states of Jalisco and Nayarit. They call themselves náayarite , whence the name of the present day Mexican state of Nayarit...
, did not come under the complete control of the Spanish until 1722, the last bastion of Indian opposition to Spanish rule in Nueva Galicia. In 1551, Tenamaztle voluntarily surrendered to the Bishop of Nueva Galicia who brought him to Mexico City. After an investigation, on August 12, 1552 Spanish authorities established his identity as the leader of the Caxcanes in the Mixton War and on November 17 he was ordered to be sent for trial to Spain.
Trial in Spain
In Spain, Tenamaztle was imprisoned in ValladolidValladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...
and later took up residence in a Dominican monastery. Here he met Bartolomé de las Casas
Bartolomé de Las Casas
Bartolomé de las Casas O.P. was a 16th-century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar. He became the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians"...
who helped him plead his case. The wheels of justice rolled slowly and it was July 1, 1555 before he had an opportunity to present his case to the King and the Council of the Indies.
Tenamaztle’s strategy was to (1) establish that he was the rightful tlatoani of Nochistlan; (2) demonstrate that the Caxcan had received the Spanish in peace and that he should have all the rights of a vassal of the King of Spain; (3) accuse Nuño de Guzman, Cristobal de Oñate and Miguel de Ibarra of exploiting and murdering Indians; and, (4) declare that the war of the Caxcanes was “natural justice” because of the abuses of the Spaniards. He petitioned that his lands, wife, and children be returned to him.
Tenamaztle asked the king to consider "the unparalleled wrongs and evils that the Caxcanes had endured at the hands of the Spanish” and said that the objective of the Indians was not to rebel but to “flee the inhuman cruelty to which they were subjected." The trial proceeded without decision for more than one year. The last known document related to the trial is dated August 7, 1556. Nothing more is known of the disposition of the case or of Tenamaztle. He probably died in Spain.