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Spain and the Pueblo de Los Pecos
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Father Juarez left Pecos in 1635 and his successors soon ran into serious trouble with a succession of royal governors. During that same time period epidemics ravaged New Mexico and the population of the Pueblo de Los Pecos declined dramatically. In 1637 Don Luis de Rosas was named governor and opposition to the Spanish flared up in Pecos when Rosas attacked Apache allies of the pueblo. The Franciscans opposed Rosas vigorously and eventually arrested him. He was murdered in January 1642 while in the hands of Franciscan supporters. Spanish civil and religious authorities were at each others throats for the rest of the decade. In 1640 a new epidemic hit New Mexico and several thousand Pueblo Indians died. In 1641 the population of Pecos was estimated by the Franciscans to be 1,189 persons. During the 1640s tensions between Spaniard and Indian mounted and several abortive revolts by Pueblo Indians took place. Relations between church and state continued to worsen during the 1650s. In 1663 in an argument over an escaped prisoner who had sought asylum in a church Governor Diego de Penalosa arrested Father Alonso de Posada in Pecos. Posada eventually prevailed over the governor but not before providing to the Pueblo Indians yet another example of discord among their Spanish rulers.
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Drought, locusts, crop failure, and disease characterized the 1660s and 1670s in New Mexico. Apache raids plagued the colony, but Pecos was not attacked. Instead it continued to trade profitably with the Apaches. Everywhere else in New Mexico, however, the colony was in serious economic difficulty and relations between Spaniard and Indian were deteriorating. In 1675 Governor Juan Francisco Trevino arrested 47 alleged Indian sorcerers. They were tried and found guilty. Three were hanged, one committed suicide, and the rest were whipped. In confrontation with the governor, a group of seventy Pueblo Indians secured the release of the prisoners and they returned to the pueblos. It was a seminal event. On August 8, 1680, in the Pueblo de Los Pecos, Father Fernando de Velasco was one of the very first to learn that a general uprising was imminent. On August 9 Governor Antonio de Otermin had Velasco's warning along with two others from Taos and Galisteo. On August 10 the Indians began coordinated hostilities throughout New Mexico. The people of Pecos appear to have been divided as to how to deal with the Spaniards. One group wanted to warn the Spanish while another group supported the uprising and participated in the attack on Santa Fe on August 13, 1680.
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The siege of Santa Fe lasted a week, but on August 21, 1680, Governor Otermin was forced to evacuate the thousand or so inhabitants. They fled south and joined forces with the remainder of the Spanish community living in the El Paso area before continuing on south into Mexico proper. In New Mexico 380 colonists and 21 Franciscan missionaries had been killed during the uprising including Father Fernando de Velasco, the missionary assigned to Pecos. (Interestingly, Father Velasco was not killed in Pecos. After being warned of the insurrection by Pecos Indians he fled to Galisteo where Tanos Indians dispatched him.) A principal organizer of the revolt was known to the Spanish as El Pope. He was one of the 47 Indians arrested and whipped by Governor Otermin five years earlier. After the Spanish were routed El Pope, a San Juan medicine man, took credit for the revolt and demanded that the pueblos destroy all vestiges of their relationship with the Spanish. During this purge the great church in Pecos was obliterated. In 1681, after El Pope's fall from power, Governor Otermin attempted the reconquest of New Mexico, but was soundly rejected by Indians who appeared to be well content with their return to their traditional way of life and did not wish to see the Spanish return.
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During the years that the Spanish were absent from New Mexico, Pueblo de Los Pecos participated in the constantly shifting set of alliances between the various Indian groups and attempted to continue to trade with the Apache. In 1688 Conde de Galve was named Viceroy and in 1691 Don Diego Jose de Vargas Zapata y Lujan Ponce de Leon y Contreas was appointed Governor of New Mexico. In August 1692 Vargas reoccupied Santa Fe without a battle. He then turned his attention to Pueblo de Los Pecos, but found it deserted. After trying unsuccessfully to locate the people he departed for a tour of other pueblos. On October 17, 1692, he returned to find Pueblo de Los Pecos occupied and the people willing to accept the return of the Spanish administration. Pecos was still divided into pro-Spanish and anti-Spanish groups but the former were in the ascendency. The Governor appointed Juan de Ye governor of Pecos. Vargas completed the reconquest of New Mexico by Christmas 1692 and was hailed a hero in Mexico. Juan de Ye became a valued ally of the governor and ensured that Pecos was a constant ally of the Spanish during his lifetime.
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In the fall of 1693 Vargas began moving Spanish families north to re-settle Santa Fe. The city was now occupied by Tanos and Tewa Indians and they decided to resist. Late in December 1693 Juan de Ye and 140 fighters from Pecos assisted Vargas in forcibly reoccupying Santa Fe in a hard fought two day battle. Following the return of Spanish power to New Mexico Pecos sought to re-establish its prominence as the trade portal between the pueblos and the plains. Vargas assisted them in this endeavor. In 1694 while engaged in supporting Governor Vargas in putting down a revolt in the Taos Pueblo, Juan de Ye volunteered to go into Taos unarmed to try to talk the rebels into surrender. He was never seen again. Vargas continued to suppress Indian revolts and continued to receive the support of the people of Pecos. In September 1694 Father Diego de Zeinos was installed in Pecos. He was the first Franciscan missionary to be reassigned outside of the capital since the revolt of 1680. Don Francisco de Anaya Almazan was appointed Alcalde (mayor) of Pecos. Anaya had been a functionary in New Mexico at the time of the revolt of 1680 and was a man in his early sixties. He and Zeinos got along well and cooperated closely and one of their first acts was to build a new church on the site of the earlier church.
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Father Zeinos was well-liked by the Pecos but an unfortunate shooting accident in which he killed an Indian resulted in his removal after only one year. His replacement was Father Juan Alpuente. Father Alpuente was not well received by the people of Pecos. In June 1696 a second major revolt involving many of the pueblos erupted in the colony. Once again the pro-Spanish faction in Pecos assisted Governor Vargas in suppressing the revolt. In 1696 Conde de Galve was replaced as Viceroy and in July 1697 Vargas was replaced as governor by Pedro Rodriguez Cuberto. Although there continued to be two opposing factions within Pecos the pueblo remained staunchly allied with Spain until its final abandonment. Famine, pestilence, internal strife, and increased raiding by plains Indians gradually reduced the population of the pueblo and eventually resulted in its demise. In the 1730s the Comanche dominated the plains and disrupted traditional trading practices between the people of Pecos and the plains Apache. The Comanche warred on Pecos and preferred to trade in Taos. In the minds of the Spanish, the Comanche threat was intensified because French traders to the east of New Mexico were providing them weapons and supplies.
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In 1776 Jose de Galvez became Minister of the Indies in Madrid. Within six months he had reorganized the several northern colonies in New Spain from Texas to California into a northern defensive jurisdiction independent of the Viceroy in Mexico. The governors in these colonies reported to Galvez through their commander. In 1778 Lieutenant Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza was appointed governor of New Mexico. At the time of his appointment the leader of the Comanche was named Cuerno Verde (Green Horn). In 1779 de Anza led a military expedition that killed the Comanche Chief. Six years after that victory de Anza was able to conclude a peace with the Comanche. The ceremonies associated with the treaty's conclusion were held in Pecos. The commandant general approved the treaty on February 28, 1786. Pecos once again became an important trading center - this time with Comanche and Ute as well as a few Apache. Although the Ute and Comanche had agreed to peace between them peace did not extend to the Apache. Comanche and Apache continued thier hostility toward one another and many Apache continued to raid Pecos.
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The population of the pueblo and surrounding area was no longer primarily Indian and by the end of the century Spanish settlers had begun establishing ranches and farms in the area. In 1812 the last resident Franciscan missionary moved from Pecos to the nearby community of El Vado. In 1821 Mexico declared its independence from Spain and on January 6, 1822, the new flag was raised for the first time at Santa Fe. In the 1820s the Santa Fe Trail linking Missouri and New Mexico began reorienting the economy of the region toward the emerging American powerhouse to the north. By the 1830s Hispanic settlers had taken possession of virtually all of the land formerly cultivated by the people of Pecos. In 1838 the last remaining few Pecos people left their pueblo and moved to Jemez Pueblo. In 1848 General Stephen Watts Kearney occupied Santa Fe and declared that all of New Mexico had been annexed into the United States. In the succeeding years ownership of the lands around the Pueblo de Los Pecos continued to be squabbled over in the courts and the bones of the old building itself became one of the premiere archeological sites in the Southwestern United States.
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