Indians From Phillip's Tribe example essay topic

5 years and nearly an entire continent separated King Philip's war from the great pueblo revolt. Compare and contrast the causes and consequences of these 2 conflicts. The Great Pueblo revolt of 1680 all started with the droughts of 1660 when the Southwest had severe drought that brought famine and disease. During this, hungry Apaches who couldn't find food on plains attacked the pueblos. This angered the people on the pueblos, but there new leader Pope', a mysterious medicine doctor, tried to keep the Indian beliefs around and resisted the Christian religion. The Spaniards hated this, so they captured his older brother.

This enraged Pope' against the Spaniards so he held meetings to tell everybody that the Spaniards must leave. The Spaniards found out about this and arrested Pope, publicly flogged him and released him back to the pueblos. When he was captured, the pueblo people set fires in the Indian villages in New Mexico. To take care of the fires, the Spaniards sent troops to halt the ritual of setting the fires by pueblo people, and they arrested all of the medicine doctors, killing several of them. The people believed that the doctors protected them from evil, so all of the pueblo towns wanted to unite against the Spaniards. The group from the pueblos went to the governor of Santa Fe and told him that if the doctors that were imprisoned weren't released by sundown, all of the Spaniards in New Mexico would be killed.

They released the prisoners because the Indians outnumber the Spaniards by a huge amount. Hate and anger was spreading throughout the pueblos concerning the Spaniards power in New Mexico. There was a small skirmish in Santa Fe that the Indians won, but Pope said they needed more than that. He wanted Indian organization, leadership, and a magic spark with which to set the country aflame. He traveled to each pueblo and won their loyalty during secret meetings he held. He wanted each pueblo to strengthen the courage of their Indians by cleansing the ranks of informers.

He suspected his son-in-law as being as a spy for the Spaniards, so they killed him. The Spaniards found out about this and went looking for Pope, but he hid in the Taos Pueblo. In midsummer 1680, Pope said the time was now for a revolt. Pope used his mystical powers to summon 3 native Gods to his secret chamber. They said the time was right for a revolt. Pope sent a message to each pueblo saying when the revolt will actually happen.

The Spaniards got word of the attack, and notified every Spanish official in the pueblos to arrest any expected ringleader of the Indians. The Spaniards were also notified that the Indians had painted themselves for war. They rounded up all of their people, distributed arms, and let everybody wait to see what will happen. Later that day, there were uprisings in many of the pueblos, but the capital of Santa Fe was not attacked yet.

On August 14,500 Indians marched on Santa Fe. The governor tried to negotiate with the Indians before they attacked, but it failed and the next morning the Spaniard attacked the Indians. The Indians were driven from their position and fled to the foothills, until Indian reinforcements put them back in position to attack Santa Fe. Two days later, 2500 Indians charged the Spaniards and swarmed around the palace and burned a chapel. The entire Spaniard army met the Indians in the plaza at the capital and waged hand to hand combat all day long. The Spaniards sent the Indians back, and they retreated into their palace.

The next day the Spaniards met the Indians and tried to regain there water soured back, but were met with a huge resistance. They were sent back to the palace, and watched the Indians burn all of Santa Fe during the night. The next morning the Spaniards took the Indians by surprise, and killed 300 and took 47 prisoners, while the rest retreated to the hills. The Spaniards had no water, so they decided to move south to the Rio Grande to get water. Behind them, the entire province of New Mexico was again in Pueblo hands. Pope moved into the ruins of Santa Fe and told everybody to forget the ways of the Spaniards and return to the ways of their ancestors.

The people could not live without some of the material goods and culture that the Spaniards brought to them, so they revolted against Pope. Pope ended up becoming a tyrant like the oppressors that he booted out of the cities. Alexander (Wamsutta) was a well-known Wampanoag. His brother Phillip became leader of the tribe.

During this time, the English demanded that the Indians surrender their guns and gunpowder. Phillip was against this, so he sent his secretary John Sassaman to deliver a message to the English. Sassaman was a double agent, and was later murdered by the Indians. Phillip wanted to conquer the English so he tried to form alliances, but couldn't find any alliances. Phillip attacked anyway, starting King Phillip's War. After the attack, the Nip mucks and the Mohicans joined him by burning several English cities.

In spring 1676, Phillip attacked Massachusetts and lower Rhode Island. All of the Indians from Phillip's tribe were helping him, except for the praying Indians who were on the English side. Phillip relocated all of the praying Indians to Dear Island, while he continued his conquest. Alderman, one of the praying Indians, knew of Phillips whereabouts and told the English where he was. The English killed Phillip and let Alderman keep Phillip's hand in a bucket of rum so he could show everybody. His head was severed and placed in a cage in Plymouth for everybody to see.

The war resulted in 1/6th of the entire white population was killed, a cost of 90,000 pounds of sterling, and 25 English towns abandoned or destroyed. The fighting continued until 1678, when only 6 Indian villages remained in Maine, with only praying Indians surviving. The wars also freed up a lot of land for English Settlements.