Pacomio


José Pacomio Poqui, better known as Pacomio, was a Chumash revolutionary, carpenter and comisario de policia of Monterey, who led one of the most significant Native American uprisings against the Spanish and Mexican rule of California, the Chumash Revolt of 1824. Pacomio's revolt against the Mexican-Spanish establishment was perhaps the most brutal in California's history, and grimly showed the Mexican government that California's indigenous population was not as servile as once thought.

Early life

Pacomio Poqui was born on La Ranchería de Esniscue, Alta California around 1794 to Chumash parents, and was baptized and given the Spanish name José at Mission La Purisima in 1803. During his time as a young boy at Mission La Purisima, he proved to be extraordinarily intelligent, which won him the favor of the mission's Franciscan friars. The friars taught the young Chumash how to read and speak Spanish, which was rarely practiced by the Spaniards. Most priests did not bother to teach the new indigenous converts their Spanish language, focusing instead on teaching them the basic symbols and ideology of Catholicism. Pacomio's fluent understanding of Spanish would become invaluable later in life.
In August 1807, at the age of thirteen, Pacomio married the eleven-year-old neophyte Gordiana. The couple would live childless in Mission La Purisima for twelve more years, until Gordiana's unexpected death in 1819. At the same time, Pacomio trained to become a carpenter, working under the watchful eyes of Salvador Carabantes and, after 1811, master stonemason José Antonio Ramírez. In December 1812, Mission La Purisima was totally destroyed by an earthquake, and the craftsmen of the former mission were instructed to build a new version three miles to the north of the original site. Pacomio and other neophyte craftsmen, like Mariano Francisco, Sebastián Tomás and Juan Nepomunceno, worked hard on the arduous task. Upon Gordiana's death, Pacomio and Tomás traveled to Monterey to work on the Presidio. After his duties in the Presidio expired, Pacomio took a liking to the city, and settled there. In February 1820 he married the widow Eusebia María, and in December had a daughter, María de Jesús. However, in 1824, growing tensions between his people, the Chumash, and the new Mexican Government forced him to leave his family in Monterey. Little did Pacomio know how significant those tensions were to become.

Chumash Revolt of 1824

When Mexico gained control over Spanish California in 1821, following its own independence from Spain, things seemed hopeless for the former Spanish colonists and soldiers. Not only had a former Spanish colony won independence and taken over their land, but under the orders of the unpopular King Ferdinand VII, the Spanish government had stopped their funding of all of the Spanish missions and presidios in California. This news was too much for the Spanish settlers to bear, and former Spanish soldiers began to take their anger out on the Native Californians. On February 21, 1824, a young Chumash boy from Mission La Purisima was severely beaten by a Mexican soldier when he was visiting a relative imprisoned inside the Mission Santa Inés guardhouse. This brutal act caused the Chumash neophytes in the mission to take up arms against the soldiers, attacking them with arrows and setting multiple buildings on fire. Two of the Chumash assailants were killed. After a heated battle with many wounded and the arrival Chumash reinforcements, the mission's priest and soldiers barricaded themselves inside a building, where they waited to be rescued until the next day, by a detachment of Mexican troops from the Presidio of Santa Barbara. The soldiers forced the Santa Inés rebels into the neophyte housing of the mission, which they promptly burnt down to flush the Chumash out. Some of the Chumash ran off to the two nearest missions, Santa Barbara and La Purisima, to inform their fellow Chumash of the revolt, and to join them. One messenger met with the Wot of the Chumash tribe, and informed him of the successful revolt against Mission Santa Inés. The Chumash leader ordered a call to arms among his people and more attacks on the surrounding missions, as well as the evacuation of all women and children to the mountains. The Chumash warriors armed themselves with bows and arrows and machetes, preparing for the inevitable conflict against the Mexican soldiers.
As the Chumash revolted against the Mexican soldiers inside Mission Santa Inés, a group of 2,000 Chumash warriors made a frontal assault on Mission La Purisima, capturing it and taking the soldiers, priests and civilians inside as prisoners. During the assault of the mission, one Chumash warrior was killed, and in retaliation, the rebels massacred four innocent travelers that they had captured during the battle. On February 24, The surviving soldiers and civilians inside La Purisima were allowed to travel back to the safety of Mission Santa Inés unharmed. Only one Franciscan, Father Antonio Rodríguez, stayed behind with the Chumash insurgents.
On February 22, the next day after the initial revolt, the Chumash occupiers were reinforced by the warriors fleeing from the skirmish at Santa Inés, as well as Chumash from Mission San Fernando Rey de España. The insurgents began to fortify La Purisima, erecting wooden palisades and cutting gun loops out of the mission's walls, arming themselves with the mission's muskets. Simultaneously, Mission Santa Barbara was also captured by another force of Chumash, who forced the mission's soldiers, clergy and civilians to retreat to the nearby Santa Barbara Presidio. Soon after the capture of Mission Santa Barbara, however, a small force of Mexican troops and priests arrived at the mission from the presidio, attempting to negotiate the surrender of the Santa Barbara rebels. Predictably, the Chumash refused, and a heated battle raged inside the mission for multiple hours, ending with two Chumash killed and three wounded, and four Mexican soldiers wounded. The Mexican detachment fled back to the presidio, while the Chumash defenders sacked the mission of its valuables and supplies, and retreated into the back country.
Upon hearing the news of the revolt at Santa Inés, as well as the uprisings at the surrounding missions, Pacomio was overjoyed. His people had finally resisted against the cruel subjugation that they had faced for many years. Pacomio left his family after the Santa Inés revolt, to join up with the Chumash at Mission La Purisima. He assumed command over the force of 400 Chumash there, and began to train them in the art of European warfare. Pacomio issued his warriors gunpowder and muskets, drilling his men endlessly with the intention that they would become proficient with the foreign weaponry. He also trained them to use the mission's two swivel guns, in order to bring heavier firepower against the well-trained Mexican Army.
Nearly a month after the initial revolt on February 21, 1824, a company of 100 Mexican soldiers, cavalrymen and priests, as well as a four-pound cannon, arrived at Mission La Purisima in the morning, intent on violently crushing the rebellion. The Mexican Governor of Alta California, Luis Antonio Argüello, had had enough chaos in his country's new territory, and had given the order for the Chumash rebellion to be quelled with bloodshed, if necessary. A bloody battle broke out at Mission La Purisima, with Pacomio bravely leading the insurgents against the Mexicans. The Chumash let loose precise musket volleys, which scattered the Mexican ranks, and torrents of lethal arrows rained down upon the Mexican soldiers and cavalry. The Mexicans charged the Chumash with their cavalrymen, armed with muskets, who provided support and covering fire for the infantry. The four-pound cannon opened fire on the insurgents, killing many and causing disorder among the Chumash ranks. Eventually, as the battle progressed, Pacomio ordered the mission's two swivel guns to fire upon the enemy. However, the Chumash manning the guns had very little experience with them, and the two swivel guns misfired, exploding in the gunners' faces, killing them instantly. Dismayed, Pacomio commanded his men to hold strong, despite the loss of the cannons. After a morning of intense fighting, a ceasefire was negotiated by Father Rodríguez. The casualties at the end of the battle were appalling: five Mexican soldiers were killed, as well as many wounded, while sixteen Chumash were killed and wounded. After the Battle of La Purisima, Pacomio and his remaining warriors surrendered. The captured La Purisima rebels were rounded up and taken to Monterey, where they were tried in court. Seven Chumash were convicted of the murder of the four travelers at Mission La Purisima, and were publicly executed by Hanging. The four leaders of the revolt, Pacomio, Mariano, Benito and Bernarde, were sentenced to ten years of chain gang labor. After two months of unrest, the bloodiest Native American uprising in Californian history was over.

Later life and death

After serving his sentence of ten years of hard labor for his role in the Chumash Revolt of 1824, Pacomio was reunited with his family in Monterey in 1834. He continued with his skill in carpentry, making furniture for the Monterey Presidio and Mission La Purisima. Pacomio's business began to flourish, as Monterey's population was booming. The population of 1,600 in 1830 would increase to nearly 2,000 in 1845. At the age of thirteen, in 1833, María de Jesús married Gregorio, a Chumash neophyte who participated in the Revolt. In 1836, however, soon after moving into her father's house with her husband, María died in childbirth at the age of sixteen.
Despite the loss of his daughter, Pacomio was becoming an influential man in the Monterey community and local government. His contemporaries described him as "a well-educated neophyte, skillful carpenter and cabinet-maker" as well as "an intelligent citizen and member of the Ayuntamiento of Monterey." Ironically, the man who had led the Chumash in revolt in 1824 was offered the position of Monterey's comisario de policia, or Police commissioner, in 1836, which Pacomio gladly accepted. Throughout the rest of his life in Monterey, Pacomio never lost touch with his native heritage and identity. Citizens walking past his house regularly observed him outside, singing "Chumash songs while dancing, dressed only in a breech-clout, his body painted red, white and black, and with feathers on his head." Unfortunately, Pacomio's life was a relatively short one, with him and wife both perishing from the Monterey Smallpox Epidemic of 1844. Monterey had lost a man whose exploits had changed California's history, and ultimately, America's history as well.