Tepehuán Revolt
Encyclopedia
The Tepehuán Revolt broke out in Mexico in 1616. The Tepehuán
Indians attempted to break free from Spanish rule. The revolt was crushed by 1620 after a large loss of life on both sides.
, primarily in the future state of Durango
. They spoke a Uto-Aztecan language and depended mostly on agriculture for their livelihood. Thus, they differed from their neighbors in the deserts to the east, the Chichimeca
who were nomadic and semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers.
The Tepehuán and the Acaxee
and Xixime to their west shared common traits such as
The Tepehuán had likely suffered a series of devastating epidemics of European-introduced diseases in the years before the revolt. Epidemics were known to have occurred in their region in 1594, 1601-1602, 1606-1607, 1610, and 1616-1617. The Tepehuán and their neighbors may have been reduced in population by more than 80 percent by the epidemics, from a pre-Columbian population of more than 100,000 to fewer than 20,000, of which the Tepehuán may have been one-half of this total
During the Chichimeca war
(1550–1590) the Tepehuán remained neutral although urged by the Chichimecas to join them in resistance to Spanish expansion. The Spanish failed to defeat the Chichimeca militarily and instituted a new policy called "peace by purchase" in which Catholic
missionaries would be a major tool in pacifying hostile and semi-hostile Indians. Indians were to be supplied with food and tools and resettled into towns. Missionaries, rather than the military, would take on most of the responsibility for integrating the Indians into Mexican and Christian society. The Acaxee
and Xixime were the first to have this new Spanish policy applied to them and the Tepehuán would be next.
Quautlatas
Spanish settlers began coming to the Tepehuan country in the 1570s to mine silver and raise cattle. The Jesuits began missionary work among the Tepehuan in 1596, establishing missions at Santiago Papasquiaro
and Santa Catarina de Tepuhanes
and, later, Zape. The Tepehuanes seemed relatively receptive to the missionaries, although they resisted living near the missions and working in Spanish mines and on haciendas, and often raided Indians friendly with Spanish. Nevertheless, by 1615, a Jesuit could declare that the Tepehuanes “showed great progress and were in the things of our holy faith muy ladino" (much like the Spanish).
In 1616, however, a messianic leader named Quautlatas who had been baptized as a Christian, arose among the Tepehuán. Quaultlatas traveled throughout the mountains, his symbol a broken cross, preaching that the gods were angry because the Tepehuan had abandoned them and that they must kill or expel all Spaniards, especially the missionaries, from their lands. Quaultlatas’ appeal to his people blended Christian and Indian beliefs. He called himself a bishop and he promised that all those killed by the Spanish would rise again after seven days and that, after the Spanish were killed, the old gods would bless their land with good crops and fat cattle – cattle being a Spanish introduction. Quautlatas message was typical of the millenarian
movements which emerge in societies under extreme stress. Other examples in the Americas and worldwide, include, the Pueblo Revolt
, the Ghost Dance
, and the Boxer Rebellion
.
In attempting to explain the cause of the Tepehuán revolt the Jesuits denied any Spanish responsibility. Rather, they saw the Spanish impact as beneficial.
“Ever since the Spanish settled here, there has been an abundance of food, clothing, riches, and other material comforts,” said the priest Andres Perez de Ribas
. What the Jesuits did not see was the connection in the Indian’s mind betáween the arrival of the Spanish and death. The Jesuits celebrated the souls saved by deathbed baptisms, but the Tepehuán said that “the fathers had brought them disease and death with baptism, because after they were baptized they fell sick and died.” The Jesuit practice of consolidating the Indians into fewer and larger settlements facilitated the easy spread of disease. in Jesuit eyes the opportunity to live in a town was a characteristic of civilization and was to be encouraged – or forced – upon the Indians. Moreover, the Jesuits worked closely with the Spanish encomenderos and miners to provide them with a steady supply of Indian laborers.
As the Spanish perceived that they were providing both earthly and heavenly benefits to the Tepehuán, their explanation was that the revolt was the work of the devil
. “It was Satan
who intervened here, with a pure scheme and design…This was most clearly demonstrated by the diabolical shamans who had intimate dealings with the Devil and were the main force and instigators of the uprising.” Quautlatas was identified with the Antichrist
and the Jesuit's assertion that the revolt was the work of the devil exonerated the Spaniards from blame. On their part, the Tepehuán fought to return to their traditional ways of life, hoping that worshiping their old gods and practicing their old culture would halt the horrific loss of life due to European disases and their virtual enslavement by the Spanish priests, miners, and encomenderos.
was attacked by the Tepehuán just outside Santa Catarina de los Tepehuanes
, a small village in the eastern foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental
. Thus began what Jesuit historian Andrés Pérez de Ribas
called "one of the greatest outbreaks of disorder, upheaval, and destruction that had been seen in New Spain
...since the Conquest." Before it was finished four years later, more than 200 Spaniards, 10 missionaries, an unknown number of Indians, Black slaves, and mesizos allied with the Spanish, and perhaps 4,000 Tepehuán died, many of hunger and disease, with destruction to property valued as much as a million pesos.
The Tepehuán attack on the Spaniards, under six war chiefs, most notably Franciso Gogoxito, was well coordinated as nearly simultaneous attacks at missions and Spanish settlements occurred throughout the region. 100 people were killed in a church at El Zape and a similar number died in Santiago Papasquiaro. Only a single Jesuit missionary in Tepehuán territory survived the initial attacks. At the first report of the outbreak, and fearing an attack on Durango
itself (Guadiana), Governor Gaspar de Alvear arrested 75 local Indian leaders and ordered them executed. In December he led an expedition traversing Tepehuán country and rescued 400 Spanish and Indian allies. Another expedition consisting of 67 Spanish cavalry and 120 Concho Indian allies set out from Guadalajara
in March 1617 and engaged and won several battles with the Tepehuán. In the war against the Tepehuán, the Spanish abandoned their conciliatory "peace by purchase" policy and instead waged a war of "fire and blood" (fuego y sangre). They targeted the six war chiefs and killed the last of them, Gogoxito, in March 1618. After Gogoxito's death during the third major Spanish campaign major hostilities ended in May 1618. Quautlatas was killed during the Spanish campaigns. Alvear abandoned the conciliatory “peace by purchase” policy of the Spanisn and initiated a war of terror against the Tepehuan in which captured men, and sometimes women, were executed and women and children enslaved. However, the death of the war chiefs and Quautlatas did not end the hostilities. Tepehuan continued to raid Spanish settlements and then retreat to the mountains for safety. One Tepehuan raid on Mapimi left about 100 people dead.
Despite their initial successes, the Tepehuán were unable to persuade neighboring Indian groups to join their revolt and the Spanish prevailed. In 1618 the missionaries, Jesuits and Franciscans, were allowed to return to their missions. The Governor, however, declared that the province was “destroyed and devastated, almost depopulated of Spaniards. The…churches were burned. The silver mines and their machinery were also burned.” It would be half a century before the region returned to its former prosperity. The Tepehuán Revolt also caused a revision in Spanish policy toward the Indians. Hereafter, the missions and settlements would be better protected by the Army.
The revolt was officially declared at an end in 1620 but the Jesuits spent years trying to persuade many of the surviving Tepehuán to come down out of the mountains to live at mission stations. They still faced hostility when they attempted to establish a mission among the Tepehuán in 1707 and it was 1745 before a large number of Tepehuán baptisms were reported. Slowly, the Tepehuán were overwhelmed in numbers by Spanish speakers and absorbed into mestizo society. But three groups survived: the northern Tepehuán in Chihuahua and the southeastern and southwestern Tepehuán in southern Durango
. They still retain some of their old customs. The northern Tepehuán numbered 6,200 in 2005; the southeastern, 10,600, and the southwestern, 8,700.
Tepehuán
The Tepehuán are a Native American ethnic group in northwest Mexico, whose villages at the time of Spanish conquest spanned a large territory along the Sierra Madre Occidental from Chihuahua and Durango in the north to Jalisco in the south...
Indians attempted to break free from Spanish rule. The revolt was crushed by 1620 after a large loss of life on both sides.
The Tepehuán People
The Tepehuán Indians lived on the rugged eastern slopes and valleys of the Sierra Madre OccidentalSierra Madre Occidental
The Sierra Madre Occidental is a mountain range in western Mexico.-Setting:The range runs north to south, from just south of the Sonora–Arizona border southeast through eastern Sonora, western Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Jalisco, Aguascalientes to Guanajuato, where it joins...
, primarily in the future state of 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...
. They spoke a Uto-Aztecan language and depended mostly on agriculture for their livelihood. Thus, they differed from their neighbors in the deserts to the east, 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"...
who were nomadic and semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers.
The Tepehuán and the Acaxee
Acaxee Rebellion
The Acaxee Rebellion was an insurrection against Spanish rule in Mexico by Acaxee Indians in 1601.-The Acaxee:The Acaxee spoke a Uto-Aztecan language and lived in the mountains, the Sierra Madre Occidental, and canyons of east central Sinaloa and western Durango, east of the city of present day...
and Xixime to their west shared common traits such as
The Tepehuán had likely suffered a series of devastating epidemics of European-introduced diseases in the years before the revolt. Epidemics were known to have occurred in their region in 1594, 1601-1602, 1606-1607, 1610, and 1616-1617. The Tepehuán and their neighbors may have been reduced in population by more than 80 percent by the epidemics, from a pre-Columbian population of more than 100,000 to fewer than 20,000, of which the Tepehuán may have been one-half of this total
During the Chichimeca war
Chichimeca War
The Chichimeca War was a military conflict waged between Spanish colonizers and their Indian allies against a confederation of Chichimeca Indians. It was the longest and most expensive conflict between Spaniards and the indigenous peoples of New Spain in the history of the colony.The Chichimeca...
(1550–1590) the Tepehuán remained neutral although urged by the Chichimecas to join them in resistance to Spanish expansion. The Spanish failed to defeat the Chichimeca militarily and instituted a new policy called "peace by purchase" in which 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"...
missionaries would be a major tool in pacifying hostile and semi-hostile Indians. Indians were to be supplied with food and tools and resettled into towns. Missionaries, rather than the military, would take on most of the responsibility for integrating the Indians into Mexican and Christian society. The Acaxee
Acaxee Rebellion
The Acaxee Rebellion was an insurrection against Spanish rule in Mexico by Acaxee Indians in 1601.-The Acaxee:The Acaxee spoke a Uto-Aztecan language and lived in the mountains, the Sierra Madre Occidental, and canyons of east central Sinaloa and western Durango, east of the city of present day...
and Xixime were the first to have this new Spanish policy applied to them and the Tepehuán would be next.
QuautlatasQuautlatasQuautlatas was a shaman who inspired the bloody Tepehuán Revolt against the Spanish in Mexico in 1616.-The Tepehuán and the Spanish:The Tepehuán were an agricultural people who lived primarily in the future Mexican state of Durango on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental...
and the Jesuits
Spanish settlers began coming to the Tepehuan country in the 1570s to mine silver and raise cattle. The Jesuits began missionary work among the Tepehuan in 1596, establishing missions at Santiago PapasquiaroSantiago Papasquiaro
Santiago Papasquiaro is a town of 47,360 people located in a valley in west-central Durango, Mexico. It is the fourth-largest community in the state in population, and is the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. It is home of a military base of the 71st Infantry Battalion. The town...
and Santa Catarina de Tepuhanes
Tepehuanes
Tepehuanes is both a town and a municipality in the Mexican state of Durango. It is located in the North West of Durango at 25°12'"-26°25'"N 105°23'"-106°40'"W , at an elevation of about 1,830 meters...
and, later, Zape. The Tepehuanes seemed relatively receptive to the missionaries, although they resisted living near the missions and working in Spanish mines and on haciendas, and often raided Indians friendly with Spanish. Nevertheless, by 1615, a Jesuit could declare that the Tepehuanes “showed great progress and were in the things of our holy faith muy ladino" (much like the Spanish).
In 1616, however, a messianic leader named Quautlatas who had been baptized as a Christian, arose among the Tepehuán. Quaultlatas traveled throughout the mountains, his symbol a broken cross, preaching that the gods were angry because the Tepehuan had abandoned them and that they must kill or expel all Spaniards, especially the missionaries, from their lands. Quaultlatas’ appeal to his people blended Christian and Indian beliefs. He called himself a bishop and he promised that all those killed by the Spanish would rise again after seven days and that, after the Spanish were killed, the old gods would bless their land with good crops and fat cattle – cattle being a Spanish introduction. Quautlatas message was typical of the millenarian
Millenarianism
Millenarianism is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming major transformation of society, after which all things will be changed, based on a one-thousand-year cycle. The term is more generically used to refer to any belief centered around 1000 year intervals...
movements which emerge in societies under extreme stress. Other examples in the Americas and worldwide, include, the Pueblo Revolt
Pueblo Revolt
The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, or Popé's Rebellion, was an uprising of several pueblos of the Pueblo people against Spanish colonization of the Americas in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México.-Background:...
, the Ghost Dance
Ghost Dance
The Ghost Dance was a new religious movement which was incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. The traditional ritual used in the Ghost Dance, the circle dance, has been used by many Native Americans since prehistoric times...
, and the Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
.
In attempting to explain the cause of the Tepehuán revolt the Jesuits denied any Spanish responsibility. Rather, they saw the Spanish impact as beneficial.
“Ever since the Spanish settled here, there has been an abundance of food, clothing, riches, and other material comforts,” said the priest Andres Perez de Ribas
Andrés Pérez de Ribas
Andrés Pérez De Ribas was a Spanish Jesuit missionary, and historian of north-western Mexico.-Life:...
. What the Jesuits did not see was the connection in the Indian’s mind betáween the arrival of the Spanish and death. The Jesuits celebrated the souls saved by deathbed baptisms, but the Tepehuán said that “the fathers had brought them disease and death with baptism, because after they were baptized they fell sick and died.” The Jesuit practice of consolidating the Indians into fewer and larger settlements facilitated the easy spread of disease. in Jesuit eyes the opportunity to live in a town was a characteristic of civilization and was to be encouraged – or forced – upon the Indians. Moreover, the Jesuits worked closely with the Spanish encomenderos and miners to provide them with a steady supply of Indian laborers.
As the Spanish perceived that they were providing both earthly and heavenly benefits to the Tepehuán, their explanation was that the revolt was the work of the devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
. “It was Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
who intervened here, with a pure scheme and design…This was most clearly demonstrated by the diabolical shamans who had intimate dealings with the Devil and were the main force and instigators of the uprising.” Quautlatas was identified with the Antichrist
Antichrist
The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...
and the Jesuit's assertion that the revolt was the work of the devil exonerated the Spaniards from blame. On their part, the Tepehuán fought to return to their traditional ways of life, hoping that worshiping their old gods and practicing their old culture would halt the horrific loss of life due to European disases and their virtual enslavement by the Spanish priests, miners, and encomenderos.
The Revolt
On November 16, 1616, a wagon train traveling to Mexico CityMexico 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...
was attacked by the Tepehuán just outside Santa Catarina de los Tepehuanes
Tepehuanes
Tepehuanes is both a town and a municipality in the Mexican state of Durango. It is located in the North West of Durango at 25°12'"-26°25'"N 105°23'"-106°40'"W , at an elevation of about 1,830 meters...
, a small village in the eastern foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental
Sierra Madre Occidental
The Sierra Madre Occidental is a mountain range in western Mexico.-Setting:The range runs north to south, from just south of the Sonora–Arizona border southeast through eastern Sonora, western Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Jalisco, Aguascalientes to Guanajuato, where it joins...
. Thus began what Jesuit historian Andrés Pérez de Ribas
Andrés Pérez de Ribas
Andrés Pérez De Ribas was a Spanish Jesuit missionary, and historian of north-western Mexico.-Life:...
called "one of the greatest outbreaks of disorder, upheaval, and destruction that had been seen in New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
...since the Conquest." Before it was finished four years later, more than 200 Spaniards, 10 missionaries, an unknown number of Indians, Black slaves, and mesizos allied with the Spanish, and perhaps 4,000 Tepehuán died, many of hunger and disease, with destruction to property valued as much as a million pesos.
The Tepehuán attack on the Spaniards, under six war chiefs, most notably Franciso Gogoxito, was well coordinated as nearly simultaneous attacks at missions and Spanish settlements occurred throughout the region. 100 people were killed in a church at El Zape and a similar number died in Santiago Papasquiaro. Only a single Jesuit missionary in Tepehuán territory survived the initial attacks. At the first report of the outbreak, and fearing an attack on Durango
Durango, Durango
-Climate:The city of Durango has a semi-arid climate, classified as Bsk in the Koppen system. The climate is temperate in the western portion , with the average annual temperature being 15 °C and consisting of an average annual rainfall of 1,600 millimeters. In the eastern region, the average...
itself (Guadiana), Governor Gaspar de Alvear arrested 75 local Indian leaders and ordered them executed. In December he led an expedition traversing Tepehuán country and rescued 400 Spanish and Indian allies. Another expedition consisting of 67 Spanish cavalry and 120 Concho Indian allies set out from 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...
in March 1617 and engaged and won several battles with the Tepehuán. In the war against the Tepehuán, the Spanish abandoned their conciliatory "peace by purchase" policy and instead waged a war of "fire and blood" (fuego y sangre). They targeted the six war chiefs and killed the last of them, Gogoxito, in March 1618. After Gogoxito's death during the third major Spanish campaign major hostilities ended in May 1618. Quautlatas was killed during the Spanish campaigns. Alvear abandoned the conciliatory “peace by purchase” policy of the Spanisn and initiated a war of terror against the Tepehuan in which captured men, and sometimes women, were executed and women and children enslaved. However, the death of the war chiefs and Quautlatas did not end the hostilities. Tepehuan continued to raid Spanish settlements and then retreat to the mountains for safety. One Tepehuan raid on Mapimi left about 100 people dead.
Despite their initial successes, the Tepehuán were unable to persuade neighboring Indian groups to join their revolt and the Spanish prevailed. In 1618 the missionaries, Jesuits and Franciscans, were allowed to return to their missions. The Governor, however, declared that the province was “destroyed and devastated, almost depopulated of Spaniards. The…churches were burned. The silver mines and their machinery were also burned.” It would be half a century before the region returned to its former prosperity. The Tepehuán Revolt also caused a revision in Spanish policy toward the Indians. Hereafter, the missions and settlements would be better protected by the Army.
The revolt was officially declared at an end in 1620 but the Jesuits spent years trying to persuade many of the surviving Tepehuán to come down out of the mountains to live at mission stations. They still faced hostility when they attempted to establish a mission among the Tepehuán in 1707 and it was 1745 before a large number of Tepehuán baptisms were reported. Slowly, the Tepehuán were overwhelmed in numbers by Spanish speakers and absorbed into mestizo society. But three groups survived: the northern Tepehuán in Chihuahua and the southeastern and southwestern Tepehuán in southern 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...
. They still retain some of their old customs. The northern Tepehuán numbered 6,200 in 2005; the southeastern, 10,600, and the southwestern, 8,700.