Popé

'''Po'pay, sometimes spelled Popé''', (, , ; – ) was a Tewa religious leader from Ohkay Owingeh, who led the Pueblo Revolt in 1680 against Spanish colonial rule. In the first successful anticolonial revolt against a European colonial power in the Western Hemisphere, the Pueblo expelled the colonists and kept them out of the territory for twelve years. Thereafter, Po'pay ruled over the Pueblo peoples until his death.

== Background == Spanish rule of the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande valley of New Mexico began in 1598. Although they numbered 40,000 to 80,000 people at that time, the many independent towns, often speaking different languages and hostile to each other, were unable to unite in opposition to the Spanish. Revolts against Spanish rule were frequent, but the Spanish ruthlessly repressed dissent. The Pueblo suffered abuses from Spanish overlords, soldiers, priests, and their Amerindian allies, many from Tlaxcala. In particular, the Spanish suppressed the religious ceremonies of the Pueblo. The effects of violence, forced labor, and European diseases (against which they had no immunity) reduced the Pueblo population to about 15,000 by the latter years of the 17th century.