Revolt at Taos: The New Mexican and Indian Insurrection of 1847

Historian Crutchfield (The Way West) relates how Spanish-descended New Mexicans and their Taos Indian allies in the former Mexican Republic, reeling from an abrupt takeover by the United States, took their fury out on the territorial governor, Charles Bent, killing him and five others. Over the next several weeks, dozens of American civilians, soldiers, New Mexicans, and Indians died in this pivotal—though little-known—uprising during the Mexican American War. To Anglo-American minds, seizing the northern reaches of the Mexican Republic was the next logical step of manifest destiny, the controversial doctrine that undergirded the U.S. push westward toward the Pacific Ocean. White American homesteaders and soldiers ran roughshod over Indians and New Mexicans alike. In Crutchfield’s view, they suffered decimation akin to the infamous Trail of Tears, the brutal removal of native peoples from the Eastern states. The Taos revolt inflamed the interactions between the invaders and the local people, producing tensions that simmered well into statehood. Crutchfield’s judiciously told and masterfully researched history reveals the rough conditions endured by the soldiers and settlers en route to the Southwest, as well as the growing dismay of the local peoples who finally erupted under continuing threats to their ancestral lands and way of life. [em](May) [/em]