Spanish troops marched north out of El Paso in 1689 and recaptured Santa Fe in 1692. By 1694, they had reconquered the more remote pueblos. The Pueblo Indians again became wards of the Spanish state. The Spanish treated the Indians less harshly, however, allowing them to practice their traditional religions to a greater degree.
A lasting cultural trait grew out of the Pueblo Rebellion and came to influence Indians far and wide. It was during the revolt that the Indians first acquired their own horses, left behind by the fleeing Spanish. The Pueblo Indians traded these with northern tribes or lost them in raids. The more northern Indians, such as the UTE, traded the horses to other PLAINS INDIANS. By the mid-1700s, horses had spread to many tribes and a whole new way of life was emerging on the Great Plains.
The Pueblo Indians remained under Spanish rule until 1821, the year of Mexican independence. In 1848, following the U. S.-Mexican War of 1845-48 and the Mexican cession of territory to the United States as defined by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Pueblo Indians came under the authority of the U. S. government.
Pueblo Indians remained peaceful through this period. The one exception occurred during the U. S.-Mexican War, when the Tiwa of the Taos Pueblo, angry because American troops stole their crops and livestock and even kidnapped their women, launched a series of raids against settlers. U. S. forces responded with a heavy artillery attack on the pueblo. The thick adobe walls repelled the shells, however. But the overwhelming firepower of the soldiers eventually routed the Indians.
Not all historic pueblos survived to modern times. Attacks by raiding tribes, such as the APACHE, NAVAJO, and COMANCHE, took their toll as did diseases carried by Europeans and Euroamericans.