Editing Juan de Oñate (section)

==Governorship and 1598 New Mexico expedition==
[[File:Texas Historical Marker for Don Juan De Onate and El Paso Del Rio Norte.jpg|thumb|Texas Historical Marker for Don Juan de Oñate and El Paso del Río Norte]]

In response to a bid by Juan Bautista de Lomas y Colmenares, and subsequently rejected by the King, on September 21, 1595 [[Philip II of Spain|Philip II]]'s Viceroy [[Luis de Velasco, marqués de Salinas|Luís de Velasco]] selected Oñate from two other candidates to organize the resources of the newly acquired territory.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kessell|first=John L.|title=Kiva, Cross, and Crown: The Pecos Indians and New Mexico, 1540–1840|publisher=[[National Park Service]]|year=1979|isbn=9781877856563|location=Washington, D.C.|chapter=Oñate's Disenchantment: 1595–1617}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Moquis and Kastiilam: Hopis, Spaniards, and the Trauma of History, Volume I, 1540–1679|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=2015|isbn=9780816532438|editor-last=Sheridan|editor-first=Thomas E.|location=Tucson, Arizona|pages=82–83|chapter=Juan de Oñate’s Colonization of New Mexico|jstor=j.ctt183p8mp.9}}</ref>

The agreement with Viceroy Velasco tasked Oñate with two goals; the better-known aim was to explore and colonize the unknown lands annexed into the [[New Kingdom of León y Castilla]] (present day [[New Mexico]]) and the [[New Spain|Viceroyalty of New Spain]].{{explain|date=August 2020}} His second goal was to capture Capt. [[Umana and Leyba expedition|Francisco Leyva de Bonilla]] (a traitor to the crown{{how|date=August 2020}} known to be in the region) as he{{who|date=August 2020}} already was transporting other criminals.{{explain|date=August 2020}} His stated objective otherwise was to spread [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] by establishing new [[Spanish missions in New Mexico|missions in Nuevo México]].{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} Oñate is credited with founding the Province of [[Santa Fe de Nuevo México]], and was the province's first colonial governor, acting from 1598 to 1610. He held his colonial government at [[Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico|Ohkay Owingeh]], and renamed the pueblo there 'San Juan de los Caballeros'.

In late 1595, the Viceroy [[Gaspar de Zúñiga, 5th Count of Monterrey|Gaspar de Zúñiga]] followed his predecessor's advice, and in the summer of 1596 delayed Oñate's expedition in order to review the terms of the original agreement, signed before the previous Viceroy had left office. In March 1598, Oñate's expedition moved out and forded the [[Rio Grande]] (Río del Norte) south of present-day [[El Paso, Texas|El Paso]] and [[Ciudad Juárez]] in late April.

On the Catholic calendar day of [[Feast of the Ascension|Ascension]], April 30, 1598, the exploration party assembled on the south bank of the Rio Grande. In an Ascension Day ceremony, Oñate led the party in prayer, as he claimed all of the territory across the river for the [[Spanish Empire]]. Oñate's original terms would have made this land a separate [[viceroy]]alty to the crown in New Spain; this move failed to stand after de Zúñiga reviewed the agreement.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}

All summer, Oñate's expedition party followed the middle Rio Grande Valley to present-day [[northern New Mexico]], where he engaged with [[Pueblo Indians]]. [[Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá]], a captain of the expedition, chronicled Oñate's conquest of New Mexico's indigenous peoples in his epic poem ''Historia de la Nueva México''.<ref>
{{cite book
|title=Historia de la Nueva México, 1610 : a critical and annotated Spanish/English edition
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h1vPZP0YHFEC
|publisher=UNM Press
|year=1992
|isbn=0826313922
|via=Google Books
|work=Paso Por Aqui Series on the Nuevomexicano Literary Heritage
|translator=Joseph P. Sánchez
|editor1=Miguel Encinias
|editor2=Alfred Rodríguez
|editor3=Joseph P. Sánchez
|author=Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá
}}
</ref>

Oñate granted land to colonists on the expedition, and empowered them to demand tribute from Native Americans.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/2020/07/11/890000884/who-was-juan-de-o-ate-a-look-at-the-conquistadors-violent-legacy-in-new-mexico Who Was Juan De Oñate? A Look At The Conquistador's Violent Legacy In New Mexico]</ref>

===Ácoma Massacre===
{{main|Acoma Massacre}}
In October 1598, a skirmish erupted when a squad of Oñate's men stopped to trade for food supplies at the [[Acoma Pueblo]]. The Ácoma themselves needed their stored food to survive the coming winter. The Ácoma resisted and 11 Spaniards were ambushed and killed, including Oñate's nephew, [[Juan de Zaldívar (Spanish soldier)|Juan de Zaldívar]].<ref>
{{cite web
|url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/American_Latino_Heritage/San_Gabriel_de_Yunque_Ouinge.html
|title=San Gabriel de Yunque-Ouinge: San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico
|publisher=National Park Service, US Department of the Interior
|series=Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary: American Latino Heritage
}}=
</ref> 
In January 1599, Oñate condemned the conflict as an insurrection and ordered the ''pueblo'' destroyed, a mandate carried out by Juan de Zaldívar's brother, [[Vicente de Zaldívar]], in an offensive known as the [[Ácoma Massacre]]. An estimated 800–1,000 Ácoma died in the siege of the ''pueblo.'' Much later, when King [[Philip III of Spain]] heard the news of the massacre, and the punishments, Oñate was banished from New Mexico for his cruelty to the natives, and exiled from Mexico for five years, convicted by the Spanish government of using "excessive force" against the [[Acoma people]].<ref name="pbs.org">{{cite web|title=Background {{!}} The Last Conquistador|url=https://www.pbs.org/pov/lastconquistador/background/|website=POV PBS {{!}} American Documentary Inc.|date=22 January 2008|access-date=2 September 2017|archive-date=25 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925220604/http://www.pbs.org/pov/lastconquistador/background/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Oñate later returned to Spain to live out the remainder of his life.<ref>Simmons, p. 145</ref><ref>
{{cite book
|author=Ramon A. Gutierrez
|title=When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500–1846
|publisher=Stanford University Press
|date=February 1, 1991
|page=53
}}</ref>

Of the 500 or so survivors,<ref>Simmons, p. 143</ref> at a trial at [[Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico|Ohkay Owingeh]], Oñate sentenced all men and women older than 12 to twenty years of forced "personal servitude". In addition, men older than 25 (24 individuals) were to have a foot amputated.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> According to recent research, there is no evidence of this happening and that, at most, the prisoners lost some toes. This latter theory makes sense, for losing toes rather than a whole foot left the prisoners useful as servants.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chavez, Thomas E.|title=New Mexico past and future|date=2006|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|isbn=0-8263-3444-X|location=Albuquerque|oclc=70054191 |page=54}}</ref> In Onate's personal journal, he specifically refers to the punishment of the Acoma warriors as cutting off "las puntas del pie" (the points of the foot, the toes).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Gilbert|first=Donald A. Chavez Y.|title=OPINION {{!}} An accurate accounting of the history of Oñate|url=https://www.abqjournal.com/1090770/an-accurate-accounting-of-the-history-of-ontildeate.html|access-date=2020-06-22|website=www.abqjournal.com|language=en-US}}</ref>