Antonio de Otermin

Signature of Antonio de Otermín in 1682

Antonio de Otermín was the Spanish Governor of the northern New Spain province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, today the U.S. states of New Mexico and Arizona, from 1678 to 1682. He was governor at the time of the Pueblo Revolt, during which the religious leader Popé led the Pueblo people in a military ouster of the Spanish colonists.

Biography

Life Early

It is not known when or where he was born. It is assumed that he was born roughly between 1620 and 1630 in the family home Otermin that in those then be recorded as Otromin House. It is located on the foothills of the Massif de Aralar, natural border between Gipuzkoa and Navarre, Spain. On the Gipuzkoa side is the house Otromin Haundi which, by their size (and name) was the ancestral home of the Otromin.

Government of New Mexico and the Pueblo Amerindians´s revolt

Otermín was appointed governor of New Mexico in 1678. On August 9, 1680, Pueblo leaders of the Galisteo Basin, allies of the Spanish, send to Otermín the news of revelion of the Pueblo who had awakened.^[1] According to the message were two men from Tesuque those who planned the attack on the Spanish cities and Franciscan missions. Because of that, he ordered the arrest of the messengers of the peoples. In the Pueblo Revolt, Popé's forces besieged Santa Fe, surrounding the city and cutting off its water supply. ^[2][1]

So, Otermin decided to assemble a council of war. In it was decided to attack back. On August 20, settlers and soldiers abandoned a fortified enclave and they raided the Pueblo. However, the important number of weapons of the Pueblo was a fact and although the Otermin´s army managed to defeat many Pueblos, the number of his soldiers killed was even greater. In fact, the Pueblo victory over the Otermin´s government was such that, according to reports from the Pueblo captives, most of the rest of the population of New Mexico had been killed by them. After the defeat of his army, Otermín and his council thought that if they wanted to survive of the Pueblo Revolt, they had to go to Isleta Pueblo, where had established the other people who had survived the revolt.

So, Otermín surrendered their arms to the settlers and headed en masse on August 21 at the Isleta Pueblo. After their arrival, they met another group of refugees who had arrived there a few weeks before them.

More late, to three days of his arrived, Otermín obtained the degree of lieutenant governor. On September 13, the number of refugees from Santa Fe overtook those from Isleta. Now, the insurgent population was already very large for fight against the Puebloans.^[1] Still, on that day, Otermín, being barricaded in the Palace of the Governors^[3], believing that in northern New Mexico already all settlers had been killed by the Puebloans and he not feeling safe in the Isleta (although in reality the settlers of Santa Fe were alive and continued to resist the attacks of Puebloans),^[2] called for a general retreat. He and the Fray Cristobal ordened to people of Isleta that emigrated of New Mexico and on September 21 the Spanish settlers streamed out of the capital city headed for Ciudad Juárez, then called El Paso del Norte, in order to reconquer New Mexico, which was falling into the hands of the revolutionary Pueblo.^[3]Five days later arrived to Salinetas, north of El Paso del Norte. Here lived up until the first week of October. At La Salineta was organized a meeting, so the number of persons accompanying to Otermin were, a least, 1,946. It was also decided to delay the re-conquest New Mexico, until the colonists will get the help of the viceroy and the progress of the group of people who were with him at the Guadalupe mission, because of the dangers they were in El Paso del Norte. Thus, by October 9 the refugees already had to two leagues downriver from the Guadalupe mission.^[3]

On September 16 came a group warriors Queres from Cochiti and Santo Domingo led by mestizo Alonso de Catiti, whose brother was with the defenders of the governor's house in Santa Fe. He informed to the Spanish that the attackers were 2,500 people and the city ​​could not withstand their attacks. He then blocked the Casa Real (Royal House), cutting the water supply and women and children, after exhausting their supplies in a few days, began to die of thirst. Because to that Ortemin could not stand it any more, on August 21, he arranged the execution of 47 prisoners that he had captured in the combats and arranged a general exit to break the fence. They obtained it and in February, Otermin and his army went to El Paso, in the present Texas^[2], along to many of inhabitants of Isleta, and the others settlers fled to south and interior of Parral, Chihuahua and west into Sonora.^[1]. New Mexico was already in hard of Puebloans.

In November 1681 Otermín attempted to return to New Mexico, burning both Isleta Pueblo (which had not taken part in the revolt) and Sandia Pueblo. He returned to what is today known as Isleta del Sur, near El Paso, with some prisoners, but little else.^[4][5]

In Isleta Pueblo, the settlers were attacked by the Puebloans, but they were defeated. So Otermin held a ceremony in which he re-established the Spanish power in the region and spared the natives for their actions. Otermin also gave large amounts of corn of local inhabitants, as was claimed by them but scarce in the Isleta.

After the victory of Otermin, this sent to Juan Dominguez de Mendoza and a company of Hispanic men and Pueblo allies to north to the Tiwa and Keres peoples of Albuquerque and Bernalillo. There he spoke with Pueblo leaders who told him that his people had the intention of attacking and killing the settlers to return to the region. Therefore, Domínguez ordered the settlers were directed to Isleta, where he was the governor. Otermin was with his army to northern New Mexico, but there he found that the region of the Pueblos was empty. Perhaps for fear of planning a new attack, he decided to reconvene several councils of war.

In August 1682, Otermin fell ill so he requested to be replaced in the government of New Mexico. Thus, he was replacement by Domingo Jironza Petrís de Cruzate.^[1] In this year, he, along with Fray Francisco de Ayeta founded La Misión de Corpus Christi de San Antonio de la Ysleta del Sur in Ysleta, Texas.

Personal life

Antonio Otermín married Ana María Ladrón de Guevara in 24 May 1692 in Asuncion, Mexico,^[6]one of the survivors of the Pueblo Indian Revolt. There are no data about its death.

See also

• Sandia Pueblo

References

• PBS The Pueblo Revolt