Customer Reviews

The Pueblo Revolt: The Secret Rebellion That Drove the Spaniards Out of the Southwest

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This is an interesting read and Roberts does a good job with presenting the myriad and complex Spanish documents on the topic. Sadly, he's limited by his lack of knowledge of the native cultures of the southwest. There are some hilarious passages where he's bemoaning the fact that modern-day Puebloans won't talk to him...yet his relationship with these people seems to consist entirely of his showing up and asking pointed questions. He also makes some glaring errors, as in his reference to Peyote "mushrooms" and his suggestions about the kiva at Abó.

This book is an easily digested read. It is absorbing and you never get lost in a mountain of dry facts. For anyone interested in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, this book will provide plenty of information while remaining interesting to both the amatuer historian or the Southwest expert.

The only problem I had with the book was Roberts' description of Pueblo religion. As a Pueblo indian myself, I found his analysis somewhat off-mark. The use of the title "Kachina Cult" to describe Pueblo religion is somewhat offensive and doesn't account for all of the aspects of Pueblo religion.

I spend a lot of time in the Southwest, particularly these days in Northern New Mexico. I am fascinated by the culture and the history. So naturally, when I came across David Roberts's book I snatched it up and headed home to read. It wasn't long, however, before I became disillusioned.
Sure, David Roberts has authored or co-authored a number of books. Okay, maybe he is a note-worthy mountaineer. Neither of those makes him a good writer. The more pages I waded through, the more I got the impression that Roberts's ego is more important than writing concisely and consistently.
While Roberts admits that his book is not meant to be an "objective history" of the Pueblo Revolt, I was particularly offended by his subjective treatment of a visit to Santa Fe. His tone is disparaging and sarcastic. He speaks of Santa Fe's central plaza and writes as if his visit is on the same level as ridding a yard of a month's accumulation of dog waste. He refers to the "appropriately scruffy latter-day hippies" the wrought iron benches where "two or three homeless men slept off their last nights drunks" (by the way, was it two or three? It couldn't be that hard to tell). Jones writes of the "fervid tones of the self educated expert" (a tour guide) and the "so-called cathedral" a block east of the plaza. Jones continues on Old Fort Marcy Park,"...a greensward that ought to be idyllic, but that it seems a bit dingy, strewn as it is with broken glass and dog turds." And finally completing his tirade with a description of the Cross of the Martyrs, "A truly ugly monument....locals, however, must find the monument inspiring..." Maybe so, but he's describing someone's home. One can be simultaneously un-objective and yet un-subjective in the name of good taste. David Jones hasn't managed that here.
At this point, suffice it to say that the book might be informative, but it's certainly not well written and there are probably other books on the subject more worthy of your time and money.

Roberts provides some excellent insights and thought provoking discussion on the history of the Pueblos and the great Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

But this discourse is distracting in its imbalance and agenda. Roberts admits up front that this is a biased history... in that the Indians could do no wrong and the settlers and Christian padres could do no right. But he goes further than that as he consistently mocks the Christians and belittles their often sincere, though humanly imperfect, attempts to "civilize" the Indians and demonstrates that he is in the forefront of 21st Century political correctness and victimization apology, bordering on romanticizing the 17th Century Pueblo people. That is distracting given the setting of the 17th Century in New Mexico, a frontier for the Spanish and home for the Indians, a home that had been conquered and contested among other migrating, opportunistic peoples for generations prior to the arrival of the new opportunists, the Spanish. Instead, this would have been a better history had Roberts shown that both Indians and settlers were in step with their times and no side had a monopoly on either virtue or hard heartedness. Survival in that era was often a testament of cruel excesses on both sides, whether it is settler against Indian, Indian against settler, Indian against Indian or settler against settler. Also it was an era where the more exemplary human qualities of courage, resourcefulness, determination and compassion existed and worked on both sides attempting to thwart those brutal excesses. With historical balance, this might then have resulted in a more insightful work on this tragic and inevitable event in Southwest history. This is an event that cries for objective analysis because of its important ramifications for both cultures today.

After reading In Search Of The Old Ones (which I thought was a very good read), I saw the newer book by David Roberts "The Pueblo Revolt", I had to pick it up and take it home. Having a small interest in the Anasazi and the Puebloan Indians and having visited many of the sites and Pueblos firsthand, I was interested in knowing a little more about their "modern" history. I enjoyed the earlier In Search Of The Old Ones partially because of the author's personal observations and comments and I was expecting the same here. Like someone else stated earlier, the author repeatedly complains about how the Pueblo Natives would not give him any information on their knowledge of the history concerning the Pueblo Revolt and about their sacred religious beliefs. I guess he thinks because he is an author and that he wrote a book about the Anasazi, that they were supposed to answer all of his questions. The Pueblo Indians 'religous beliefs and practices as well as other Indian Tribes' religous beliefs and ceremonies are secret. In the late 1800'/early 1900's, ethnic researchers were given some of their sacred practices and knowledge was given to the outsiders with the condition that it would not be made public. When those researchers published their findings and included the priviliged information, the Puebloans pretty much refused to share any more information with future researchers/authors and for good reason. The book provided enough "background" information that satisfied my curiosity and the history of some of the Pueblos' history was interesting as I have visited many of them myself which made the information more interesting on a personal level. The author is definitely biased towards the Puebloan's but he pretty much states that in the Prologue. The author has his own "presumptions" which granted, he's the author but it doesn't make it fact. He evidently did some research but it doesn't make him an expert. He made several statements where for anyone who has done even a little bit of reading on Indian religions, that he was mistaken. Maybe one mistake, ok, but after several, well, it makes it hard for me to put a whole lot of weight with his observations and statements. Overall it was a good book but wish the author would leave out some things as they make him appear he thinks of himself as "superior" to his subjects and deserves special treatment.

The first time I visited the Pueblo areas of New Mexico I was unable to get any sort of feel for what was going on. The public historical displays gave little insight and the Native American groups tended to not publish much. Looking into books, I found the typical set of very academic writings on the subject. On my second trip down here I found David Roberts' book and it has changed my perspective.

Roberts does an excellent job of pulling together a subtle part of our nation's history and presenting it in an enjoyable to read narrative. It is pretty amazing that the pueblo groups revolted and completely kicked the Spanish out in 1680. I liked his combination of historical story telling and personal narrative. He has obviously done extensive research both into the Spanish journals and texts from the late 1500's and early 1600's, personal interviews, and visiting a myriad of sites.

I can see where he could probably have missed some nuances and facts, this is a large subject and the key players' descendants in the area are famously shy about talking to anyone. Overall, though, his facts and research come together to paint a picture that helped me understand the context of pueblo culture in New Mexico. Surprisingly, in spite of his apology to the contrary, I did not find him overly sympathetic to either group, the Spanish or the Pueblo groups. In fact, after reading the book I have a higher regard for the Spanish than I did before.

We have modified our two week vacation to spend additional time visiting Sky City (Acoma), one of the key pueblos he mentions with the hope of hearing some of the story from the Native American viewpoint (prior to now, our visits have been mostly at National Parks). I would highly recommend this book to anyone going to North or Northwest New Mexico, it will give some structure to what you are seeing and engage you in a story like no other played out in The Americas.

Surely, beginning in the Sixteenth Century and continuing through today, Native Americans have fantasized countless times about expelling the Europeans who invaded their homelands and displaced and oppressed them. But on one occasion that dream became reality, if for only twelve years. That occasion was the Pueblo Revolt in 1680, when indigenous peoples (now known collectively as Puebloans) scattered across northwestern New Mexico and into Arizona rose up nearly in unison and killed or drove out of the region the Spanish who had occupied and governed the area for eighty years. Though the Spanish returned twelve years later, the Pueblo Revolt, in its magnitude and its success (from a native perspective), is unique in the history of North America. Moreover, as David Roberts writes, "the Puebloans never lost their languages, their dances, the tales that conjure up their history. No Native American peoples anywhere in the United States have kept their cultures more intact than the twenty pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona."

David Roberts has written several books about the American Southwest and its native peoples, including one that is an excellent introduction to the subject: "In Search of the Old Ones: Exploring the Anasazi World of the Southwest." In this book, he turns his attention to the remarkable Pueblo Revolt of 1680, its causes and its consequences. The book is relatively informal and non-academic in style and presentation. In addition to the history of the Revolt, Roberts touches upon numerous matters relating to the Puebloans, including petroglyphs, contemporary pueblo ruins, kachina rituals and other religious practices, their linguistic diversity, and their engrained secrecy and suspicion. Today, virtually any subject relating to Native Americans of the Southwest is controversial and any publication is liable to be criticized or disparaged, but in my judgment, while Roberts is respectful and sympathetic to the Puebloans, THE PUEBLO REVOLT is generally objective and always informative.

One of many anecdotal points from the book I find interesting: In their initial conquest and attempted civilization and Christianization of the Pueblo Indians in the 17th Century, the Spanish time and again employed a gimmick of theatrical deception. When Puebloans were being recalcitrant, the military/political leaders would sentence them to death and turn them over to soldiers to be executed; at the last moment, the execution would be forestalled by Franciscan friars who would intervene on behalf of the Indians and successfully plead that their lives be spared. One of the Spanish leaders explained that the objective was for the Indians to "recognize the friars as their benefactors and protectors and come to love and esteem them, and to fear us." Christian evangelism through chicanery.

Pueblo Revolt is interesting in that it explores a part of history that is not well known to those who are not experts in the field or who live outside of the Southwest. I learned a lot about the infiltration of the Spanish into the Southwest in the sixteenth and seventeenth century.

Unfortunately, Roberts is extremely biased in his recounting of this story. Although I am not familiar enough with the history of this time and period to pick out specific examples, I know from modern history that no conflicts are as black and white as Roberts paints in Pueblo Revolt. This is a major problem in much reporting of the exploitation of the Native American tribes in North America. War is war and there are atrocities committed by both sides. Unfortunately, Robert uses too broad a brush when talking about the noble savage and the evil invader. This decreases the value of this basically good book.

Sadly, I did not find this book to be a very good read. I love how it covers something I had never heard about, but I did not enjoy the author's style. I believe there is good (if almost solely from the Spanish viewpoint) information in the book. I like his trips to whatever sites he could visit so he could experience the geography of important buttes, or witness the astonishing rock carvings from the Pueblo peoples, and I like his interviews with knowledgeable people on the subject. Despite that, the book was not as good as its subject.

The American Indian Wars are generally written from the standpoint of the Americans fighting the Indians in battles ranging from the French & Indian war through the pacification of the American West during the late 1800's. This book brings a new chapter of Indian warfare against the encroaching European settlers. In this book the period is the late 1600's, the advancing Europeans are the Spanish, and the Indians are the Pueblo Indians in what is now New Mexico.

This was was different than the others in that the Indians won. The Spanish were driven out and the Indians were independent for a dozen years or so. This is the only incident where the Indians were successful in driving out the white settlers for a lengthy period of time.

The book is quite well done for a light, non textbook, easy to read effort. It is based on the oral history of the Indians and the surviving Spanish documents from the time. The bibliography is especially well done. the author has made comments about the various books and documents that give them a better relationship to the book than is normally the case where only title, author, publisher are given