The Pueblo Revolt

In 1680, Pueblo Indians rebelled against the Spanish in what is known as the Pueblo Revolt. Under the leadership of Po′pay, from Ohkay Owingeh (formerly known as San Juan Pueblo), the Pueblo people drove the Spanish from New Mexico and kept them out until Diego de Vargas, the governor of New Mexico, led a military force back into the region in 1692.

The effects of the revolt rippled throughout the northern Southwest. Fearing reprisals after the return of the Spanish, some Pueblo Indians in the Rio Grande valley of New Mexico sought refuge on the Hopi mesas in Arizona. Others retreated to remote locations in northwestern New Mexico and northeastern Arizona, sometimes living among the resident Navajos. Throughout the early and mid-1600s, well before the revolt, Pueblo Indians had had extensive contact with the Navajo, so it is not surprising that some Pueblo people sought safety among their non-Pueblo neighbors in the years following the revolt.