Battle of Acoma
After Juan de Oñate's expeditions and settlement in Santa Fe, he had a reputation of not being a diplomat to both the Spanish colonist as well as the natives. in October of 1598, a confrontation when some Spanish military demanded supplies from Acoma tribe, which these supplies would help survive the winter for either the Spanish or the natives. The Acoma tribe resisted to give help to the Spaniards and 12 Military men were killed, and among them it was Don Juan Oñate's nephew. A war began early in January of 1599 killing 800 villagers. Juan de Oñate enslaved about 500. He also send the order for the native men from the age 12 to 25 to have cut their right foot to prevent them from escaping or retaliating to the Espaniords. Later on Oñate soon retired leaving his place as governer due to an accusation of maltreatment to the natives. Onate was ordered by king Philip III in 1605 to return to Mexico city. Onate went back to clear his name. He became successful in clearing his name under the Spanish crown.
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The Foot Conspiracy
Due to what Juan de Oñate was able to acomplish; leading expeditions to find what is now from the Rio Grande all the way up to Colorado, establishing many major cities that now in days are very important such as El Paso, Las Cruzes, and Santa Fe to name a few, its been tought that it would be a great idea on honoring/ remembering him with a statue of him right? Well the city of El Paso and North Espanola NM had thought on putting a monument for Juan de Oñate, but they never thought that that would bring a great controversy.
Once the City of El Paso gave news to the public that they statue of Juan de Oñate that had been taken about 5 years, 2 million dollars was about to be done, many people with native descents blood should up and protest that "why should we honer him if he did that to many of their ancestors?" This for some people had a different opinion (could be said that these people where true/proud to come from Spanish /European blood actually like the idea of honoring him in this such way. In El Paso after many debates, the statue was put on the airport (a federal facility to prevent vandalism). A few years earlier in north Espanola NM, in a smaller statue of Juan de Oñate, on a early morning they found his right foot cut off, which many people laugh and enjoyed that moment. El Paso tried to prevent something like this happening to this statue that it was put on a federal lactation such as the airport. |