Tewa
The Tewa are Pueblo Indians and form a language group that belongs to the Kiowa-Tano language family and lives in New Mexico in the southwestern United States . One speaks of Tewa in the pueblos
Tewa is also spoken in Hano in Hopi country because around 1700 numerous Tewa families fled here from the Rio Grande when the Spaniards recaptured the area they had lost in the Pueblo uprising .
residential area
According to tradition, the Anasazi ancestors lived in the cliff houses (English cliff dwelling) of Mesa Verde . From archaeological finds it is known that the Tewa-speaking groups lived in three villages on the Pajarito Plateau before they moved to their present residential area on the upper reaches of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, north of the present-day city of Santa Fe around the year 1300 .
history
First Spanish contact
At the beginning of the 16th century, New Mexico, especially the valley of the Rio Grande, was densely populated and intensively farmed. There were numerous populous villages made up of terraced, multi-storey residential buildings. This spatially concentrated way of life of the residents allowed the full use of the limited fertile arable land on both sides of the river. In more than a millennium, the Pueblo Indians had developed a rich and diverse culture.
In 1541 and 1542 a large army of Spaniards, led by Francisco de Coronado, invaded the Tewa area and tried to subjugate a people they named Pueblo after the structures they built. After the Spaniards left, the diseases brought in by the Coronado expedition took their toll. Coronado's visit was useful in that it paved the way for greater unity among the Pueblo Indians in their resistance to the hated strangers.
Oñates colony
But the Spaniards stayed away for more than 40 years. In 1598 the entire territory of what is now New Mexico was assigned to the Spanish general Juan de Oñate , who was supposed to establish a permanent colony here at his own expense - the usual Spanish practice at the time. There were 400 men, some with families, many Indian servants from Mexico, over 7,000 horses, as well as cattle, sheep and goats. The pueblo had no chance against such a force.
Oñate set up his headquarters near the Pueblo San Juan and named it San Gabriel . The Indian priests of the Tewa pueblo were forced to agree to a Spanish settlement in the neighborhood. At the urging of the priests, all Indians had to leave the pueblo. Every now and then a community would look for a new place to live that was closer to the fertile farmland. But that did not disturb their relationship with the country, because the people there were connected to the country itself, not to their homes. Although it was certainly difficult for them to say goodbye to their old houses, the Tewa may have preferred to move to the Spanish occupation in view of the overwhelming power of the Spaniards.
But the cautious hope of the Indian priests that an amicable agreement could be reached with the Spaniards was soon disappointed, because their main goal was the active Christianization of the pagan indigenous people. Ten padres were in charge of this task, and behind them stood the Spanish military power. Any pueblo who opposed their proselytizing was severely punished. At the same time, the soldiers, who were unable to support themselves in the inhospitable country, extorted food and other supplies from the Indians through threats, torture and murder. Any resistance was severely and brutally suppressed. Many Pueblo Indians were killed, sentenced to long years of forced labor, or had their feet chopped off. Even from today's distance, it is difficult to understand such brutalities. More and more pueblos rebelled, and eventually most of Oñates' colonists, who had doubts about the company's future, returned to Mexico. In 1606 Oñate was deposed on charges of mismanagement. In 1610 the Spanish moved their headquarters from San Gabriel to the new settlement of Santa Fe.
Across the region, Spanish settlers established their haciendas on assigned land. According to feudal custom, these land certificates included the residents of the area and were expected to provide the patron with food and labor. As a result, individual pueblos rebelled again and again: Zuni 1632, Taos 1639–1640, Jemez 1644 and 1647 and the Tewa pueblos 1650. Undoubtedly there were other outbreaks of violent protests that went unmentioned in the Spanish reports because no one was due to incompetence wanted to be removed from his post.
The pueblo uprising in 1680
It was especially the priests of the pueblos who managed to organize the uprising and drive the Spanish colonists from the lands of the pueblos for the next 12 years. At the head of the uprising and the alliance was a priest chief from Tewa-Pueblo San Juan, whose name Popé means “ mature plantation ”.
Over half of the colonists and their pets fell victim to the attack by the Pueblo Indians. The reputation of the Europeans was so bad that the Indians threw away everything of Spanish origin after they were driven out. Indian priests held rituals to defaptize the forced converts and free them from bad influence.
In 1692 the Spaniards returned and were able to conquer the region again after the alliance collapsed. Nevertheless, the uprising of 1680 was a long-term success for the Pueblo Indians, because the Spaniards no longer tried to impose their religion and culture on the Indians with such brutality.
religion
Faith permeates all areas of existence among the Tewa. All areas of life - art, handicraft, economy, social structure and family - are brought together under the umbrella of a uniform worldview. Based on the belief that people must live in harmony with nature, the Tewa have developed rich cultural traditions that are expressed in their poetry, legends, songs, dances and art. The architectural focal point of a village, both literally and symbolically, is a space called a kiva . Private and public ceremonies take place here daily and at special times of the year. Prayers are said for the germination and ripening of crops and to give thanks for good health or for recovery from illness.
Social structure
Secular and spiritual authorities are strictly separated from one another with the Tewa. At the top is a so-called Kazike (span. Cacique). Secular leadership is in the hands of a governor who is appointed or elected annually. In the 1860s, these governors were given canes as insignia by President Abraham Lincoln , which have become treasured symbols of their office. The governor has several assistant principals (Engl. Principales) called a group of highly respected older men whose wise decisions bring about a balance between secular and religious affairs.
The pueblos of the Tewa are divided into two social halves or moieties . Affiliation to a moiety is determined by the father, but a woman can change affiliation if she marries a man from the other moiety. In one half of the year the political and ceremonial duties are in the hands of the summer people , in the second half of the year the moiety, the winter people , take over these tasks.
Todays situation
North of Santa Fe is a group of Tewa villages, the southernmost of which are Tesuque, Nambe and Pojoaque. They are well preserved and have an old town center. A few kilometers to the west are the villages of Santa Clara and San Ildefonso. These pueblos have discovered a gap in the competitive pottery market for themselves. The black ceramic style created by Maria and Julian Martinez in the 1920s has evolved and has spawned a thriving trade in all kinds of Indian pottery that fetch good prices.
About 7 km north of Santa Clara is San Juan Pueblo, which occupies a kind of political leadership among the pueblos. Ceremonies are held here all year round. San Juan is the headquarters of the council of eight northern pueblos. Here you can get information about upcoming events. Since not all ceremonies are open to the public, inquiries should be made in advance. Visiting a pueblo can be very interesting, especially during dance events. However, some villages are critical of tourists.
literature
- William C. Sturtevant (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians , Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC
- Alfonso Ortiz (Ed.): Southwest Vol. 9, 1979 ISBN 0-16-004577-0
- Alfonso Ortiz (Ed.): Southwest Vol. 10, 1983 ISBN 0-16-004579-7
- Tom Bathi: Southwestern Indian Tribes , KC Publications, Las Vegas 1995
- Editor of Time-Life Books: The Spanish West , Time-Life Books Inc., 1976
- Alvin M. Josephy Jr. : 500 Nations. The Illustrated History of the Indians of North America. Frederking & Thaler GmbH, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-89405-356-9 .
- Alvin M. Josephy jr .: The world of the Indians , Frederking & Thaler GmbH, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-89405-331-3
- John Gattuso (Ed.): Indian Reservations USA , APA Guides, RV Reise- und Verkehrsverlag, 1992
- Siegfried Augustin : The history of the Indians , Nymphenburger, Munich 1995
- Elsie Clews Parsons (Ed.): Tewa Tales . New York 1926.
