About this ebook
On August 10, 1680, the Pueblo peoples of New Mexico accomplished what no Native American nation had before: they expelled a European colonial power completely from their homeland. In ten days of coordinated attacks across 200 miles, they killed 400 Spanish colonists, destroyed every church, and drove 2,500 settlers south into Mexico. Spain, the most powerful empire on earth, retreated in defeat.
Most Americans have never heard this story.
Pueblo Revolt: The First American Revolution of 1680 recovers this lost chapter with the narrative power and meticulous research of great historical writing. Drawing on Spanish colonial records, archaeological evidence, and Pueblo oral traditions, this book tells the complete story of how religious persecution, forced labor, and cultural suppression ignited rebellion—and how a medicine man named Po'pay forged an unprecedented alliance among dozens of independent pueblos to achieve total victory.
You'll follow Po'pay from his public whipping in Santa Fe to secret meetings in the kivas where revolution was planned. You'll feel the tension as knotted cords moved from pueblo to pueblo, each knot marking one day until the uprising. You'll stand with Pueblo warriors as they besieged Santa Fe and forced Governor Otermín to abandon his capital.
But this book goes beyond the battles. It examines twelve years of Pueblo independence, the challenges of maintaining unity among diverse communities, and the eventual Spanish reconquest. It reveals how Pueblo peoples kept the memory of their victory alive across three centuries, passing it from elders to children in ways no colonial authority could suppress.
Before the Continental Congress. Before the Boston Tea Party. Before the shot heard round the world—the Pueblo peoples fought for freedom and won.
Their revolution was the first American revolution. It's time we remembered it.
