Juan de Oñate | El Paso | US
Don Juan Oñate was
a Spanish colonizer from New Spain, explorer, and colonial governor
of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in the vice royalty of
New Spain. Oñate is known for leading the 1599 Acoma Massacre - the
punitive expedition by Spanish colonizers at Acoma Pueblo in January
1599 that resulted in the deaths of around 500 Acoma men killed in a
three-day battle, along with 300 women and children. Of the remaining
Acoma who survived the attack, many were sentenced to 20-year
enslavement and 24 suffered amputations. The massacre was the result
of a battle between Spanish colonizers and Native Americans from the
Keres Acoma Nation during the colonization of what is now New Mexico.
