The Pueblo Revolt: The Secret Rebellion That Drove the Spaniards Out of the Southwest

by David Roberts

Book Overview

The dramatic and tragic story of the only successful Native American uprising against the Spanish, the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.With the conquest of New Mexico in 1598, Spanish governors, soldiers, and missionaries began their brutal subjugation of the Pueblo Indians in what is today the Southwestern United States. This oppression continued for decades, until, in the summer of 1680, led by a visionary shaman named Pope, the Puebloans revolted. In total...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743255178
• ISBN13: 9780743255172
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

American Holy War

I LOVE books like this! A true historical event that reads like a detective novel, uncovering a surprising momentous episode in our continent's past. Honest, cautious scholarship that does not over-reach, driven by the author's obvious love for the topic and for the indigenous Americans who were victimized and oppressed by the "loving" Europeans who invaded the continent with a gun in one hand and a bible in the other. Although Roberts doesn't use this exact phrase, he describes an American "Holy War" waged in the Southwest between the oppressive Spanish Christians and the natives who simply wanted to worship their own gods in their natural, Kachina manner. As I read about the successful revolt, I found myself rooting for the Pueblos, and although their desecrations of the Catholic churches and priests turned out to be almost as violent as anything that was meted out to them, I can't help thinking that the Spaniards "had it coming to them." An eye for an eye . . . I especially appreciate the author's own modern tales of standing on the same spots, ruins, battlefields, villages, combining his historical research with a "feel for the land," and a wonderfully informed imagination helping us to fill in the blanks with plausible (sometimes admittedly contradictory) interpretations. I am recommending this book to all my friends.

The lesson of NM history

Excellent history. I recommend this book to anyone interested in an accurate history of Northern New Mexico. It is refreshing to read an author who states his bias upfront instead of cloaking it in academic pretentions of "fair and balanced." in "The Pueblo Revolt" Roberts dispels the fantasy of the "bloodless reconquest" of New Mexico. The Pueblo Revolt was envisioned by the medicineman Pope after he was tortured by the then Govenor of New Mexico. Pope, who was unknown to the Spanish, went to the Taos Pueblo and organized the revolt which resulted in expelling the Spanish from the Pueblos. The Neo-Cons should read this history and learn the true consequences of torturing enemies.

not so much a history as an excellent guide

Another great book by Roberts... It's not just a history of the Pueblo Revolt but also a guide to the people who are affected by it today. Roberts does a graet job of not only giving a brief history but of getting a "feel" for the current scholorship of his subjects. I was especially impressed with the way this book handled, or attempted to handle, the pueblo side of the history of the Pueblo Revolt. It is still a story that has yet to be told , and one that the Pueblo are telling in thier own way, Roberts allows people to speak for themselves whether it is Pueblo leaders or the archeologists and anthropologists working on the ground. I really recomend this to anyone who is not familiar with the Pueblo Revolt as a first look at the subject. As usual Roberts annotated biblography is probably worth the price of the book in itself

A History Hidden on Mesas and in Canyons

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 is one of those hazy historical events of which many are aware, but about which few really know much. As with his "In Search of the Old Ones", David Roberts has taken on another topic that combines a fascinating history with the outdoor experience of the southwest. David Roberts does this better than anyone else except, perhaps, Craig Childs. But while Craig Childs writes marvelously of his outdoor experiences in the canyons of the southwest, Roberts weaves in important historical topics that reveal the American southwest as more than just a backcountry experience, but an experience of the human species. The Pueblo Revolt is an important event, not only to American history, but to human history as well: the Puebloans did indeed drive the Spanish out of the southwest for a time, an event that was never repeated by any other North American native people. Roberts' narrative is engaging and personal: he discovers that, three centuries later, hard feelings still exist between natives and hispanics, yet he is sensitive to all sides and tells the story without bias. He protects Native place names out of respect for native wishes, and he struggles to get modern Puebloans to drop their veil of secrecy to reveal the history that they have kept hidden from the rest of the world. He is not entirely successful in this regard, and must rely upon (as previous historians have also) Spanish documents for his primary sources. Many (not all) of the Puebloan peoples will not share the oral histories that have been passed down to them, as if they are not, themselves, Homo sapiens and a part of the human history of the planet. This is a real shame since their self-imposed apartheid could ultimately doom their rich cultures (and some languages as well) to nothing more than enigmatic footnotes in human history. Nevertheless, Roberts has navigated through these challenges to write a comprehensive, on-the-ground history of the Pueblo Revolt that will entertain as well as inform.

Easy Read

This book is an easily digested read. It is absorbing and you never get lost in a mountain of dry facts. For anyone interested in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, this book will provide plenty of information while remaining interesting to both the amatuer historian or the Southwest expert. The only problem I had with the book was Roberts' description of Pueblo religion. As a Pueblo indian myself, I found his analysis somewhat off-mark. The use of the title "Kachina Cult" to describe Pueblo religion is somewhat offensive and doesn't account for all of the aspects of Pueblo religion.