Kachina and the Cross (37 page)

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Authors: Carroll L Riley

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Page 178
other feature. The accused asked them, having noticed that the response, or echo, given by the Indians who were dancing contained no distinguishable word, whether any of it signified or meant anything. The interpreter and the others who knew the language of these Indians said that it meant nothing.
What do we make of the various descriptions of these ceremonial dances? First of all, it is reasonably certain that dances lumped by the Spaniards as
catzinas
were not all kachina dances, although clearly some of them were. Recall, from the descriptions in chapters 2 and 5, that kachina dances, at least in later historic pueblos, were basically weather-control and fertility ceremonies conducted by masked dancers who were avatars of the supernatural ancestral beings lumped under the name
kachina
. These kachinas entered the Southwest, from somewhere farther south, sometime after A.D. 1300. The kachina cult seems to have been basically an outgrowth of the great and ancient Mexican rain deity Tlaloc, and, like the Tlaloc cult, may have originally involved human sacrifice. This aspect had certainly disappeared by Hispanic times.
The seventeenth-century Spanish descriptions of the dances seem, in fact, to be of several ceremonies. Various of the later historic kachina dances are foreshadowed here. This includes such things as ritual whippings with yucca leaves (the "palm" leaves of the missionaries), use of arcane language (probably an archaic form of the Pueblos' own tongue), robing in the kivas, use of masks, the use of sacred corn pollen and feathers, and the ritual number of days. In fact, the "two or three days" fasting mentioned by Freitas is most likely a reference to the four-day ceremonial period of the Pueblos. There seem to be elements of the Chakwena in the dances, and also ceremonies performed by the sacred clowns. Some of the antics of the clown groups sound very much like the later
Koshare
, and the leather masks described in several accounts would fit the historic Zuni mudheads.
The dance specifically described by the governor, however, does not sound like a kachina dance. The Indians were in everyday dress, and there was a strong social element in the dancing. The watermelons, which clearly served as gifts, suggest the gift giving in historic Pueblo dances, whether kachina or not. I get the feeling that what the Tesuque Indians put on for López in Santa Fe was an eclectic dance, perhaps developed to entertain the Spaniards.
One of the elements insisted on by the missionaries (though not mentioned by López) is the widespread incest following the dances. It would be easy to dismiss these allegations out of hand because such incestuous relationships are quite alien to the social or religious uses of the Pueblo Indians. However, I think these claims of widespread incest represent a certain misplaced logic in missionary reasoning. Since the witchcraft mythology in Europe held that
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incest was an important part of Satan's stock in trade, the evil Pueblo kachina dances, which honored the devil and all his darkness, must also have this element. It may well be that the Franciscans believed these incest charges, for certainly the credulity level in seventeenth-century New Mexico was very high. Still, it should be pointed out that such accusations helped wonderfully in blackening the character of the "Indian lover" López.
The resistance of the Franciscans and their supporters among the colonists had begun even before López had reached his new province. As mentioned earlier, formal accusations against the governor and his followers were sent to Mexico City in the fall of 1659 and presented to Viceroy Fernández de la Cueva early in 1660. In the spring of 1660, a second group of accusations was prepared by Vice-custodian Garcia de San Francisco, including the case against Aguilar, who had actually been excommunicated for his actions against the clergy. Custodian Ramírez, who was in Mexico with the supply wagon train, brought a number of these problems before the Inquisition officials. One side issue was that the Franciscan order was becoming increasingly unhappy with Ramirez, who was considered somewhat at fault for the desertion of a number of missionaries traveling north in 1659, and whose financial records as chief of the supply service were suspect. The order decided to remove Ramirez as custodian, although they allowed him to remain in charge of the supply train for the time being. Around the end of 1660, a new custodian was appointed, Alonso de Posada, a man who had served in the Hopi missions in the 1650s. An able zealot, Posada was to prove a deadly enemy to López.
Not only missionaries were pressing charges against López. These were now augmented by ex-governor Juan Manso, who with the help of friendly colonists had escaped New Mexico on the night of September 9, 1660. A few months later Manso filed charges before the new viceroy, Juan de Leiva y de la Cerda. Manso was generally successful, for in February 1661, López was removed from any jurisdiction in Manso's case, and the viceroy ordered a restoration of Manso's property that had been seized by the governor. A few months later, Manso was appointed an officer of the Inquisition and was ordered to place himself at the disposition of the new custodian, Fray Alonso, who had also replaced Ramirez as the commissary of the Holy Office. Manso was to return to New Mexico early in 1662. Meanwhile, a new governor, Diego de Peñalosa, had been appointed in the latter part of 1660 and soon was on his way north, arriving in Santa Fe in August 1661.
López was fully aware of the attacks and tried to counter them with charges of his own. In the fall of 1660 he collected documents to be sent both to the civil authorities and to the Holy Office, which defended his case. The governor had a certain difficulty in getting his side of the story to Mexico City, however. Tomé
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Domínguez de Mendoza, who had been appointed procurador, or attorney, was on his way to Mexico on provincial business. Domínguez, who had been replaced as lieutenant governor, had no love for López and flatly refused to take on this task. The governor, according to Domínguez de Mendoza's later account, became enraged and forbade Tomé to leave the province, eventually replacing him as procurador with the more loyal Francisco Gómez Robledo, who at that time was the Santa Fe cabildo alcalde ordinario. With a companion, Juan Lucero de Godoy, Gómez left in November 1660. On his way, however, he met Fray Alonso de Posada, journeying north to take up his post as custodian and commissioner of the Holy Office. Posada instructed Gómez to report to the new governor, who was also wending his way north, though well behind Posada. Gómez and Lucero met Peñalosa at Zacatecas and turned over the various papers to him. Gómez later testified that he wished to continue on to Mexico City but that Lucero and the governor-elect took the papers without his consent. At any rate, Governor López was never able to publicize his own side of the story until far too late.
After Posada's arrival in New Mexico he quickly began to build cases against López's four main lieutenants: Aguilar, Romero, Gómez Robledo, and Anaya. The first move against López, came with the arrival of the new governor, Peñalosa in mid-August 1661. Peñalosa quickly appointed a number of López's enemies to high offices. For example, ex-governor Manso's nephew, Pedro de Valdéz, was appointed lieutenant-captain general, and the treacherous Lucero de Godoy became the governor's administrative secretary. Anti-López elements in Santa Fe captured the cabildo elections. In November 1661, Peñalosa promulgated orders restoring the clergy's rights to Indian service, given them by Governor Guzmán in 1648.
Peñalosa immediately launched an extensive residencia of López de Mendizábal. It included a potpourri of charges, including corruption, interfering with the clergy in their missionizing efforts, allowing the kachina dances, murder of friendly Apaches in order to enslave their women and children, mistreatment of the missionaries and of settlers, and misconduct with women, including rape. One interesting charge was that López sold the office of lieutenant-captain general of Sandia to Juan Domínguez de Mendoza. The Domínguez de Mendoza family was a highly respected one in New Mexico. As mentioned above, López had removed Juan's brother, Tomé Domínguez de Mendoza, from the position of lieutenant governor and installed Juan in 1659. Tomé quickly became a bitter enemy of the governor, but Juan Domínguez de Mendoza seems to have remained loyal to López. This did not hurt his later chances for advancement, and as we shall see, Juan was an important figure during the last decades of the seventeenth century in New Mexico.
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The charges against López de Mendizábal were sent on to the Audiencia in Mexico City sometime during December 1661 with Peñalosa's indictment on some thirty-three counts. Meanwhile, from December on, López had been held under house arrest in Santa Fe. On May 12, 1662, the Audiencia delivered its verdict, which did not go wholly against the ex-governor. His Indian wage policy was upheld, perhaps because it was engineered or at least agreed to by the viceroy in the first place. The court also held that the iniquity of the kachina dances needed more proof. The Audiencia did, however, generally defend the prerogatives of the missionaries in their treatment of Pueblo Indians, especially where contractual arrangements were involved. For example, the right of the clergy to free Indian labor was reaffirmed. López was given a rather severe sentence: he was not to hold public office for eight years, and was fined three thousand silver pesos. On posting bond to insure this payment, the governor was to be set free and allowed to return to Mexico City.
By the time this verdict had reached Santa Fe in August 1662, López's main problem was not with the civil but with the ecclesiastical authorities. In early 1661 the Audiencia of Mexico had restored ex-governor Juan Manso's property, and Manso returned to New Mexico in March 1662 acting as chief constable of the Inquisition. With him came orders for the arrest of López's four main lieutenants, and this was done over the next two months. Peñalosa, though the arrests were engineered by the Inquisition, promptly took over the personal possessions of Aguilar and Romero. Although Custodian Posada did not dispute this high-handed action, the brief honeymoon period between Peñalosa and the missionaries had already ended, and the Franciscans quietly began making a case to the Inquisition against the new governor.
The problem of the moment, though, was ex-governor López. The hearings dragged on through the summer of 1662, and in August, Peñalosa received the finding of the Audiencia against López. The same messenger brought orders from the Holy Office for the arrest of López and Doña Teresa and they were brought to Santo Domingo to be placed in separate cells under the charge of Fray Salvador Guerra, whose murderous proclivities at Hopi were by then forgotten and who was an official of the Inquisition. López de Mendizábal could never be accused of tact. While in the Santo Domingo prison, he remarked to Fray Salvador:
Father, is it possible that the Inquisitors should place in such a plight an illustrious man like myself, the representative of illustrious forbears and of a line which has produced bishops, governors, and Inquisitors, and other persons of great importance? Father, who do you think the Inquisitors are? Sons of cobblers

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