Acoma Massacre — Oñate Destroys Sky City Pueblo

After Acoma Pueblo warriors killed 11 Spanish soldiers (including a nephew of governor Juan de Oñate) in December 1598, Oñate dispatched 70 soldiers under Vicente de Zaldívar to punish the community. Over three days in January 1599, the Spanish attacked Acoma Pueblo — perched 367 feet above the surrounding New Mexico plain on a sandstone mesa — killing approximately 800 of the defenders and destroying most of the village. Survivors were sentenced in a formal 'trial': men over 25 had one foot amputated and were sentenced to 20 years of forced labor; women and children were distributed to the Franciscans as servants; two Hopi visitors had their right hands cut off as a warning to neighboring peoples. Oñate was later investigated by Spanish authorities, tried, and found guilty of cruelty — a rare case of colonial accountability — but the sentence was not fully enforced. The massacre established Spanish domination over the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest and set conditions for the devastating Pueblo Revolt of 1680, when the Pueblos drove the Spanish from New Mexico for 12 years.