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Just watching the PBS FrontLine/American Experience series on Netflix: "God in America: How Religious Liberty Shaped America" and have learned quite a few interesting historical tid-bits in just the first episode.
I was always under the impression that the Spanish Conquistadors pretty much just ran roughshod over all the native tribes, from the Aztecs to the Mayans to the Incans, converting them all to Christianity by the sword without too much resistance. (Well, they pretty much did in Central and South America, hence the Catholic dominance there now.)
But I never realized that the Spanish had ventured so far north in the late 16th century, settling in what would become New Mexico, and tried to pull the same shit with the Pueblos. Well, the Pueblos apparently played along, they "converted" and went to church and adopted the baby Jesus story, which made the Catholics happy until they realized that outside of church the Pueblos were still practicing their old heathen ways.
The Catholic leaders demanded that the colony soldiers enforce their "one true faith." Native ceremonies were banned, religious icons burned, sacred places of worship destroyed. The breaking point came in 1675, when 47 Pueblo religious leaders were imprisoned in Santa Fe for "sorcery." The Catholics tortured, flogged, and hanged some of them, yet one of the survivors managed to get word out to all his fellow tribes about what was happening.
2000 Pueblo Indians descended on the Spanish, hundreds died in the fighting. But it was the Catholic priests who were specifically targeted, more than half their number were slaughtered. It was August 10, 1680 -- ten days later, the Spanish fled New Mexico. The Catholic Empire had faltered...
They never taught any of this stuff in my junior high U.S. history classes -- for some reason religious history was always left out. Sure, there was a brief mention of the Puritans in passing, but never any of the major religious struggles of the time. What a shame. Organized religion has such a "colorful" history in the formation of the Americas, you'd think they'd teach kids all about it in school.
Maybe we should allow some exception to the "Separation of Church and State" principle to allow religious history to be taught more freely in public school history classes? I think every child should be shown what religion is really all about, not just the biased crap they are exposed to in Sunday School. Might allow for them to form their own opinions and make their own minds up on the matter... but we couldn't have that, could we?
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