http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=6522

Honoring the man who led America’s first revolution
Notes from Indian Country

Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) 5/30/2005

© 2005, Native American Journalists Foundation, Inc.

In the year 1680 the immigrant Pilgrims and other settlers (called invaders
by the indigenous people) were getting a toehold on the eastern seaboard of
this continent.

The Spaniards and Portuguese already had a head start. The Spaniards had
been roaming and exploring South, Central and Southwest America for nearly
two hundred years. They had already constructed one of the oldest permanent
settlements (white settlements) in America at St. Augustine in what is now
Florida.

The Pilgrims had come to this continent seeking freedom of religion, but
they wanted their brand of religious freedom only and would set about
denying the same freedom of religion to the indigenous people.

In the Southwest, the Spaniards had set about bringing Catholicism to the
Pueblo Indians with force. The Indians either joined the faith or were
punished, oftentimes by death.

A holy man of the Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo) watched in silence as the
atrocities against his people mounted with each passing year. Finally, this
farmer and warrior had enough. His name was Po Pay, which translates to
mean “Ripe Pumpkin” in the Tewa language.

According to accounts by the people of the Pueblo, Po Pay and 46 holy men
were arrested by the Spaniards and beaten for practicing what they labeled
as “sorcery.” According to the San Juan historian Alfonso Ortiz, now
deceased, the men were whipped and three were hanged. This happened in
1675. After they were released it is said that Po Pay developed a deep
hatred for the Spaniards.

Ortiz wrote, “On the one hand the Spanish friars preached to the Pueblos
about equality, brotherhood and Christian love, while on the other Spanish
soldiers brutally attempted to stamp out the Pueblo religious practices.”

Ortiz was actually an anthropologist and a longtime friend of mine. He was
only one of a few Indian anthropologists in America. One evening in San
Francisco Ortiz told me about Po Pay and how he tied knots in a rope that
was sent secretly, by runners, to the war chiefs of all the Pueblos. They
were told to untie a knot every day and when the last knot was untied, they
were to attack, simultaneously, the Spanish soldiers, settlers and priests.
The year was 1680 and it was the first revolution against the invaders by
an indigenous population.

Cliff Fraqua, a member of the Jemez Pueblo, was commissioned to carve a
statue of Po Pay. At the unveiling ceremony held at the San Juan Pueblo
plaza on May 21, 2005, Fraqua spoke of the challenge he faced. About 1,000
people were in the audience on that scalding, hot day. He said that it took
him nearly one year to start the actual work on the statue. The seven-ton
block of Tennessee marble sat in his cornfield while he watched it thought
about it and listened to it.

He said that one day he started to draw on the stone and then everything
fell into place for him. The figure of Po Pay emerged from the rock where
it had been held captive for centuries. The finished statue will be moved
to Washington, DC where it will go into the National Hall of Statuary, the
first statue of an American Indian to hold such a place of distinction.

Po Pay was reviled by descendants of the Spanish settlers as a shaman and
murderer, but he was revered by the People of the 19 Pueblos as a hero. His
leadership in the revolution drove the Spaniards out of New Mexico. The
revolt took the lives of 21 priests and 400 settlers and soldiers. When the
Spaniards returned 12 years later, they had learned their lesson and their
brutality to the Pueblo Indians diminished considerably. Many Pueblo
Indians believe that it was the revolt led by Po Pay that saved their
world.

Governor Joe Garcia of San Juan Pueblo was the Master of Ceremonies at the
unveiling. He said that one day his daughter listened to a teacher talk
about Santa Fe as the first permanent settlement in New Mexico. His
daughter boldly corrected the teacher by telling her that she was wrong.
She said that Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo) was much older than Santa Fe.
The teacher thought for a minute and said, “You know, you are right. Thank
you for the history lesson.”

Many people of the 19 Pueblos and Indians across America were not taught
about the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 in their classrooms. Many had to do the
research themselves in order to find out about this remarkable man and his
efforts to save the religion and the culture of his people.

The sculptor Fraqua learned his craft at the Institute of American Indian
Art in Santa Fe. Many great Indian artists and artisans have passed through
the halls of IAIA including such noted artists as Fritz Scholder. The
contributions they have made to Indian art more than justifies the
existence of the Institute.

The statue of Po Pay is beautifully crafted and I still find it amazing
that it will be the first statue of and by an American Indian in the
National Statuary Hall in Washington, DC. Oftentimes the First Americans
are also the last.

(Tim Giago is the founder and former editor and publisher of the Lakota
Times, Indian Country Today and the Lakota, Dakota and Pueblo Journals. He
can be reached at giagobooks@...)