Book Review Of “The Pueblo Revolt Of 1680”

Discovering the past of North America has been an twisted and dark story of inhumanity and self indulgence. The treatment of others by the European powers has recently been uncovered as a degrading time for the Native Americans. Nobody else in the past five hundred years has faced genocide of this power; albeit, the forces of the Spanish people have created the most horrific stories of domination by one race. To say all the Spanish people were horrible is in fact a nasty thing to say; there were some people under the Spanish crown that wanted fair treatment of the natives. Andrew L. Knaut explores these sides of the Spanish crown during the seventeenth century of their claim to New Mexico. The native peoples of the New Mexican territory would struggle to maintain or gain power back from the Spanish peoples; but the Spanish would find every outlet of exploitation and force new ideas upon these Pueblo Indians. The books intention was to shine new light on the external and internal struggles of both the Spanish and the Pueblo Indians. The following is a critical review of the facts stated in his book. This is followed up by a review of the book itself.

The expedition from Mexico City to New Mexico was a long and dangerous trek trough many sects of the Pueblo Indians and the more dangerous nomadic Indians lands. The route trough Mexico City into Santa Fe was at least a fifteen hundred mile trip through rough lands and tribes. These European travelers put life in their own hands on a trek that put them at great risk passing the Tobosos, Tarahumares, and a few others lands. Resolving this potential problem that would threaten them for many years to come would be fixed with having large armed groups travel in convoys taking much more time than needed.(Knuat 125) This would bring up their next great struggle; because they were out in the wilderness for long amounts of time they would need to rely on exploiting the natives for everyday goods. This exploitation was seen openly at the Pueblo Acoma. The Spanish demanded vast amounts of tribute, but the Indians refused to give their goods; so the Spanish would attack at night completely destroying the inhabitants and stealing their goods.(37-44) This attack would emulate many more to come in the future years to come. These external battles between the Spanish and Native Americas would continue for at least two hundred more years creating and building hatred up in the Pueblo Indians. This hatred would soon burst into a revolt in the year of 1680.

Reviewing the book on a critical level would also need to include the opinion of the book. The book clearly stated its purpose upon the readers of such a controversial topic. Mr. Knaut explored the deeper regions of the human psychic. He forced the reader to face the facts of the Revolt of 1680. Approaching the book as a true historian, by not giving any opinion forced the audience to decide who was wrong and who was right. However this could not be solved, as with any history few things were in black and white. Andrew Knaut wrote a provocative book that screwed itself into the brain of the audience. In general this was a great book written in clear English so the lay man could understand the struggles between man and nature, man vs man, and most obvious man vs god. These struggles were both faced by the Pueblo Indians and the Spanish con

Some topics in this essay:
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