Nihil sub sole novum

1. Read Chapters VII & VIII in Part I, then Chapters III & IV in Part II of The Spanish Pioneers by Charles Fletcher Lummis (1893). As you read, fill in all dates on the Decade Charts & plot locations on the map of New Mexico.

2. Read the following primary sources – Sentence from the Trial of the Indians of Acoma (complete source, from page 51); and the Letter of Fray Juan de Escalona, Commissary of the Franciscan Missions of New Mexico, to King Phillip III Concerning Conditions in the New Colony, October 15, 1601 (source).

In your history notebook, write a response to these primary sources. What do you think of them? What details strike you? What questions do they raise? What do you think of the punishment of the Acoma Indians?

3. Time permitting, read the Letter of the Governor and Captain-General, Don Antonio de Otermin, from New Mexico, in which he gives him a full account of what has happened to him since the day the Indians surrounded him (September 8, 1680).

Auxiliary Disciplines

Literature

Read chapter V in The Spanish Pioneers. Then read selections from The History of New Mexico by Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá (1610) – opening stanza (in verse, to appreciate that this is a poem, even if the rest of the translation is in prose), Canto I, then Canto XXII continuing to read for as much time as you have.

History of Art, Architecture, and Design

Read chapter VII in The Spanish Pioneers. Learn about the missionary church established in 1629 at Acoma, San Esteban del Rey.

Read this essay at Smarthistory, then watch either Virtual Field Trip: Acoma Pueblo or NM True TV – Acoma Sky City/Pueblo Deco Revival.

You can explore even further, time permitting, the current preservation of the network of missions described in The Spanish Pioneers – List of Sites — Spanish Colonial Missions of the Southwest Travel Itinerary.

Religion

On the 24th of May, you can read a contemporary account of the bilocation of of the Venerable Mary of Jesus of Ágreda’s to the New World in order to appear to the Jumanos Indians in the early 1620s.

*********

Supplementary Resources

Histories of Catholicism in the United States

Popular History of the Catholic Church , also by John O’Kane Murray.

A History of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States by Thomas O’Gorman.

A History of the Catholic Church within the Limits of the United States by John Gilmary Shea.

The Catholic Church in the United States: A Sketch of Its Ecclesiastical History by Henry de Courcy.

Catholic Pioneers by John O’Kane Murray.

US History Surveys Written for Catholic Schools

A History of the United States for Catholic Schools by the Franciscan Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration.

Sadlier’s Excelsior Studies in the History of the United States, for Schools – Section II, Study No. 2, 1-2 & 16-17.

Histories of New Mexico

Kiva, Cross, and Crown

Illustrated History of New Mexico

Primary Sources

Cibola Project

Historical Documents Relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Approaches Thereto, to 1773 – Volume I, Volume II, Volume III.

Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Otermins Attempted Reconquest 1680-1682

Historical Sources for 16th & 17th Century United States History – The Spanish Pioneers

The Spanish Pioneers by Charles F. Lummis (1893).

This book is an engaging read, a living book par excellence! Not only does it acknowledge, indeed celebrate, the debt that the United States owes to Spain, but also fills a gap in most histories, even Catholic ones.

17th C. AmericaNew Mexico

17th C. America
New Mexico