Acoma Massacre

Acoma Massacre
Part of the Acoma War, Conquest of New Mexico
A lithograph of Acoma Pueblo made in 1848.
Date January 22–24, 1599 Location Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico 34°53′46″N 107°34′55″W / 34.896°N 107.582°W / 34.896; -107.582Coordinates: 34°53′46″N 107°34′55″W / 34.896°N 107.582°W / 34.896; -107.582 Result Spanish victory in battle, civilians massacred.
Belligerents
Crown of Castile	Acoma
Commanders and leaders
Vicente de Zaldívar	Zutacapan
Strength
~70 conquistadors ~Indian auxiliaries ~1 artillery piece	~2,000 warriors
Casualties and losses
unknown	~500 killed ~500 captured
Civilian Casualties ~300 killed

The Acoma Massacre was fought in January 1599 between Spanish conquistadors and Acoma Native Americans in what is now New Mexico. After twelve soldiers were killed at Acoma Pueblo in 1598, the Spanish retaliated by launching a punitive expedition, which led to the deaths of around 800 men, women and children during a three-day battle. Several hundred survivors were also enslaved or otherwise severely punished.

In the late 1500s, the Spanish began their conquest of the Pueblo people in northern New Spain and in 1595 the conquistador Don Juan de Oñate was granted permission from King Philip II to colonize Santa Fé de Nuevo México, the present-day New Mexico. Relations between the Spanish and the Acoma people had been mostly peaceful for several decades after the two groups first came into contact around 1540. In 1598, the Acoma leader, Zutacapan, learned that the Spanish intended to conquer Acoma Pueblo. Initially, the natives planned to defend themselves; however, their belief that the Spanish were immortal and their knowledge of Spanish atrocities committed in the past led the Acoma to try to negotiate a peaceful solution to the conflict. Accordingly, Don Oñate sent his nephew, Captain Juan de Zaldívar, to the pueblo to consult with Zutacapan. When Zaldivar arrived on December 4, 1598, one of the first things he did was to take sixteen of his men up the mesa on which the pueblo was located to demand food from the natives. After being denied the food they had demanded, the Spaniards allegedly attacked some Acoma women. A fight ensued, leaving Zaldivar and eleven of his men dead.

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