Juan De onate

In the late 16th century, unlike before, when the Spaniards came back to New Mexico, they were here to stay. There were advantages in staying due to hunting and taking advantage of people by making them do what they are told. A man by the name of Juan de Onate, was the New Mexico colonizer and leader of the Spaniards. During this time he claimed a Spanish town, "San Juan," killed Acoma natives, and forced Pueblos to live under Spanish rule.

In 1598 Juan de Onate entered North America as a private contractor and was given the permission to settle in New Mexico. From Mexico, he led a group of servants, and soldiers with their wives and kids, which totaled to over five hundred people. Although all of them were of Spanish decent , only some were born from Spanish parents, which made some mestizos and mulattoes. Onate took it upon himself to claim the Spanish town, along with the inhabitants of the land, up on the Rio Grande, which came to be entitled the Jornada del Muerto. This is where the Pueblo Indians resided. After claiming the land, Onate renamed this place San Juan , and kicked out the king along with his vassals, but made certain that he kept the natives close, so that he could have them handy when it came down to labor, food, and clothing. Being that Juan de Onate was the so-called "ruler" of all the Pueblos, it is said that the probably the only reason that they listened to his commands, is because they were afraid that they would die if they didn't obey him. It was the Pueblos job to accommodate to needs because they didn't want the things that other explorers did to them to happen again just for failure to offer hospitality.

Of course, since Onate wanted to control everyone, he was definitely enforcing this lesson. The people of Acoma hated this and Onate for what he was doing, so they ordered a surprise attack among Onate and his people, in which they killed twelve of his soldiers. This obviously infuriated Onate, so he sent his men back to kill the Acoman and prevailed once again, this time killing five hundred men, three hundred women and children, and taking many women and children captive, which was a sure way to prove to them exactly who was running the show. The Acoman men were found guilty, so in order to show them that they shouldn't refuse to accept the order that they are given, they received punishments that were viewable to the public.

Onate enforced a new agenda that made it mandatory for Pueblos to accept the Spanish rule in 1598. Onate proclaimed that "submission would bring peace, justice protection from enemies, and the benefits of new crops, livestock, and trade." With that being said, he wanted to replace Pueblo religion with Catholicism. It was the Franciscans who were able to persuade the Pueblos to build churches and get baptized . In some cases, it was the friars that brought complete conversions, but it appears that the Pueblos got some