Pueblo War Rituals

Santa Clara and San Juan gained two thing by cooperating with the governors’ requests for auxiliaries. When they reported Navajo incursions, they could summon larger forces than they could mount alone. More importantly, they could continue traditional military practices while appearing to submit.

When they mustered for the Spanish, they were with their own war captains. Within campaigns, they were commanded by pueblo leaders. In 1706, it was Domingo Romero Yaguaque of Tesuque who served as capitán mayor de la guerra. In 1708, Romero and Felipe of Pecos served Juan de Ulibarrí.

Scouts were almost always from the pueblos. Diego de Vargas used José López Naranjo as his lead against the Faraón in the Sandías in 1704. Roque de Madrid used him when they chased the Navajo west the follow year. Ulibarrí used the scout with Jean de l’Archevêque when they ventured onto the plains in 1706. In 1713, Naranjo was capitán mayor against the Navajo.

Warriors continued using their traditional methods. During the 1705 campaign, they scalped the Navajo men. Antonio Álvarez Castrillón said, there were:

"many more deaths that the Indian allies will have carried out among the women and chusma over the distance they covered on top of the mesa. This is their custom, and no matter how much I reproach them, they neither take heed nor pay attention unless Spaniards are present."

Post-battle rituals were maintained, at least until 1712 when José Chacón banned them. Then they continued surreptitiously.

He reported the pueblos: "keep the scalps taken from their enemies, the unfaithful enemies whom they kill in battle, bring them and dance publicly." He speculated on what happened later in the kivas where "they invoke the devil, and in his company and with his advice and suggestion they exhort one thousand errors."

What actually happened in the kivas was probably more subtle that the witchcraft imagined by Juan de la Peña, the Franciscan custodio in 1709, or by Chacón in 1712. The governors only knew they asked pueblo alcaldes to bring specified numbers of men. They had no idea if particular warriors were selected because they were the most experienced or were initiates who needed to prove themselves.

They certainly had no idea if there were any kinship or other special relationships between the men. Commanders only recorded the numbers from each pueblo on the muster rolls, not names. Sometimes, all that survives in documents is the total number of auxiliaries, or a mere acknowledgment they were present.

In 1706, Juan Álvarez estimated there were about 210 "Christian persons, large and small" at Santa Clara and 340 at San Juan. If one assumes 30% of the male population was the right age, and only 40% of the population was male after the battles of the Reconquest, there would still have been 25 available men at the one and 40 at the other. In 1704, Santa Clara’s quota, including war captains, was five, and San Juan’s six.

Commanders knew pueblo warriors painted themselves and wore feathers when they went into battle. Soldiers and settlers camped separately from auxiliaries. They had no idea what occurred before battles when men from different pueblos prepared themselves.

Cuervo believed the auxiliaries were "satisfied with the useful spoils of war." He didn’t recognize traditional male roles, social groups, and status hierarchies were being reinforced by opportunities to continue doing what ought to be done - punishing those who had harmed the pueblos - at a time when his regime might have been undermining traditional leaders by overseeing the elections of internal governors and appointing outside alcaldes.

Notes:
Álvarez, Juan [Fray]. Declaration, 12 January 1706, in Bandelier; population numbers.

Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, 1889.

Bandelier, Adolph F. A. and Fanny R. Bandelier. Historical Documents Relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Approaches Thereto, to 1773, volume 3, 1937, translated and edited by Charles Wilson Hackett.

Castrillón, Antonio Álvarez. Campaign journal for Roque Madrid’s campaign against the Navajo, republished in Rick Hendricks and John P. Wilson, The Navajos in 1705, 1996; chusma were non-combatants.

Jones, Oakah L. Pueblo Warriors and Spanish Conquest, 1966; quotation on scalps from Chacón. Chacón described "the pueblos," did not specify which ones.

Rael de Aguilar, Alonso. Certification, 10 January 1706, in Bandalier; quotation from Cuervo.