Po'pay Called the "First American Revolutionary"

Ohkay Owingeh Buffalo Dancers perform in the Capitol Rotunda after the statue of Po'pay is unveiled. Photo by Rick Romancito



Po’pay proved to be a little more humble than anyone expected.

When it came time to unveil the statue of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt leader in the nation’s Capitol Rotunda Thursday afternoon, Sept. 22, 2005, the cloth stubbornly refused to come off. It took the efforts of Rep. Tom Udall and others to finally slide the cloth from the figure’s shoulders to finally reveal the figure it has taken Jemez Pueblo artist Cliff Fragua and Statuary Hall Commission members so long to bring to Washington D.C.

All five members of New Mexico’s delegation were present for the unveiling of the statue of a man, who many called the “leader of the first American Revolution.”

In the decades prior to 1680, New Mexico’s Pueblo Indians became victims of individuals within the Spanish colonial church and military, who sought to eradicate Native language, traditions and religion. This found many Pueblo Indians starved, beaten and sometimes killed for attempting to maintain their traditional cycle of ceremonials vital to their survival. Po’pay, a San Juan Pueblo medicine man, moved to Taos Pueblo in order to formulate plans for the revolt against Spanish oppression. On Aug. 10, the feast of San Lorenzo, the revolt began at Taos and quickly spread throughout the Spanish realm in New Mexico, driving the survivors south into Mexico.

Upon their return 12 years later, the humane treatment originally ordered by superiors in Mexico City was now strengthened and resulted in what Sen. Pete Domenici termed “an enduring lesson of tolerance and diversity.”

The statue is made out of Tennessee marble. It stands seven feet tall. Starting out, it weighed around seven and a half tons when Fragua began carving it in 2002.

The ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda included a traditional blessing by Joe Garcia, governor of San Juan Pueblo — which, he said earlier, will soon be known only as Ohkay Owingeh, its name in the Tewa language. There was also a buffalo dance performed.

“The Po’pay-led insurrection against the Spanish conquerors was, at its core, a basic human and American need to challenge oppressors,” Domenici said. “This statue represents not only the history of a single man, but a legacy that helped ensure the survival of Pueblo and American Indian culture in New Mexico.”

Sen. Jeff Bingaman echoed those sentiments, referring to the fact that the statue of Po’pay was also historic for being the last one added to the Statuary Hall Collection in the Capitol. In addition, it is the only one created by an American Indian artist.

Before the march by tribal leaders to the Capitol from the National Museum of the American Indian, a short walk from the Mall, Fragua said he was “excited and a little nervous because of the caliber of the dedication, but at the same time I also feel real proud that this event is finally happening and that Po’pay is being honored today.”

In an interview with Fragua last May, the artist commented on the struggles that continue today for Indian people, saying, “Yes, the struggle still continues. Although we do not have the type of oppression that Po’pay and his contemporaries had faced, we still do have oppression. Sovereignty is still a big issue among native people and we still strive for that. But, in this day and age, we’re (fighting it) in a civilized way, but the struggle still continues. To this day, we’re still working at surviving as a people to keep our traditions and the culture.”

“Because of Cliff Fragua’s stunning achievement,” Rep. Tom Udall said at the unveiling, “we can get a glimpse of who Po’pay was — as will thousands of visitors to Washington, D.C. each year.”

In the audience were dozens of tribal leaders throughout New Mexico, from Taos Pueblo to Isleta Pueblo del Sur near El Paso. So many, in fact, that an official at a reception the night before quipped “So, who’s minding the store back home?”

San Juan Pueblo Gov. Joe Garcia said he was invigorated by the official unveiling of the statue last May in his home village. He said Indian people may have “sat back for too long,” but that in the past decade resurgence has occurred in Native solidarity. Like Po’pay’s ability to develop a coalition from all the Pueblos in New Mexico, Garcia said, today, Indian people need to remember that lesson.

The unveiling of Po’pay’s statue was also an occasion to set aside centuries held animosities and to celebrate the blend of cultures that began when Don Juan de Oñate established the first Spanish colony in 1598, 22 years before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

The Po’pay statue will join New Mexico’s statue of the late Sen. Dennis Chavez, which was installed in 1966. For at least the next several months, the Po’pay statue will be displayed in the Capitol Rotunda.