But the Spanish had lived in their world for more than 80 years and established
relationships with Hispanized Indians among them, and soon the Trevin
˜
o learned
that Fray Andre
´
s Dura
´
n and several of his relatives believed that Indian sorcerers
had bewitched him. Trevin
˜
o, angered that Pueblo religious leaders had refused to
turn their back on traditionalism, in 167 5 rounded up 47 people that the friars
and their allies identified as “sorcerers.” Brought to Santa Fe
´
, these Pueblo Indians
found themselves belittled, ridiculed, and charged with sorcery. Trevin
˜
o sentenced
four to death by hanging (one committed suicide before the sentence could be car-
ried out), which incensed the pueblo community. Seventy warrior s forced their
way into his abode and threatened to kill him and his dependents and incite a broad
rebellion if the rest were not set free. The rest had been publicly beaten and
wh ipped, but in the end Trevin
˜
o acquiesced and sent them home as an example
that the Spanish government would not tolerate sorcery. He had unwittingly
averted a major rebellion, for Pueblo Indian warriors had scattered about the hills
above Santa Fe
´
, awaiting orders.
One of those “sorcerers,” an Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan) spiritual elder,
returned home to his village to plot revenge. The Spanish minister of government
and war under Trevin
˜
o and the new governor, Antonio de Otermı
´
n, however, found
out about his brooding and plotting. Pohe
´
-yemo astutely moved north to Taos, far
from the tentacles of Spanish authority. He retreated into a kiva and, according to
oral history, word spread among the pueblos that while in the kiva, he encountered
and was counseled by three key deities of pueblo cosmology. They told him that he
needed to lead a rebellion that would eliminate the Spanish from their homelands,
but that they must return to traditional ways—destroying all that the Spanish had
brought with them: buildings, livestock, missions, and even seeds. For the “God
of the Spaniards was worth nothing and theirs was very strong, the Spaniard’s
God being rotten wood.” (Knaut 1995, 168). With the assistance of numerous
other tribal war and r eligious leaders from San Ildefonso, Picurı
´
s, San Lorenzo,
Taos, Jemez, Pecos, Tesuque, Santa Clara, and Santo Domingo, Pohe
´
-yemo (more
commonly known as Pope
´
), began orchestrating a plan to remove the Spanish and
destroy all that they had brought. The revolt would begin on August 12, 1680. To
keep the S panish from finding o ut, Pope
´
and the others observed the strictest
secrecy. When it came time to notify other pueblos of the plot, he sent runners
out under the pain of death to keep the secret if they were apprehended by Spanish
authorities. Moreover, the quipo, or knotted cord that indicated which day
the revolt should occur (b y untying a knot every day), and instructions were to
be accepted and the rebellion agreed to by each village on pain of death. When
he held meetings, he held them only during feast days at pueblo villages that he
believed to be sympathetic, that no one would question a gathering of so many
Pueblo men. At one point, Pohe
´
-yemo learned that his own son-in-law, governor
Pueblo Revolt (1680) 31