Zia People - History

History

Archaeologists believe that the Keresan-speaking residents of Zia are descendants of the Ancestral Puebloan people of the Four Corners region who migrated to the Jemez River Valley sometime in the thirteenth century. Spanish explorer, Antonio de Espejo first encountered the Zia in 1583 when he noted that the biggest pueblos was the one the natives called, Tsiya, which the Spanish later altered to Zia.

Spanish settlers and their religious orders slowly took control of the region and outlawed traditional Zia religious ceremonies. The first missionary was assigned to the Zia in 1598 by Don Juan De Oñate, and by 1613 a church and convent had been built by tribal members. Tensions between the Spanish and Zia continued to build until 1680 when a regional uprising led by Pope, a Tewa religious leader, overthrew the Spanish regime. The uprising was successful and the Spanish were forced to flee south. The Pueblo Indians acquired horses from the Spanish, thus allowing the further spread of horses to the Plains tribes.

It was another nine years before the Spanish returned, laying siege to Zia Pueblo in 1689. Soldiers led by Governor Domingo Jironza Petriz de Cruzate sacked the pueblo, killing 600 people and taking 70 Zia Indians captive. Three years later the Spanish had crushed any Pueblo resistance and convinced the Zia people and their leader, Antonio Malacate, to return to their homes, but fighting and disease had taken their toll with only about 120 people left living in Zia in 1892.