Protector of the Indians (Spanish: Protectoría de Los Indios) was an administrative office of the Spanish colonies that deemed themselves responsible for attending to the well-being of the native populations by providing detailed witness accounts of mistreatment in an attempt to relay their struggles and a voice speaking on their behalf in courts, reporting back to the King of Spain. The establishment of the administration of the Protector of the Indians is due in part to Bartolomé de las Casas – the first Protector of the American Indians, and Fray Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros, the great Cardinal Regent of Spain. Throughout this era, the King of Spain gained information regarding the treatment of native peoples through Bartolomé de las Casas and Fray Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros. Bartolomé de las Casas was one of the first Europeans to set foot into the new hemisphere. He later dedicated his life to ending the harsh treatment of Indigenous Americans. The institution of the Protectors of the Indians rested on the idea that rulers should appoint officials to defend, both within and outside of the courts of justice, individuals who were less favored.
Origins
As previously stated, the immediate origin of the Protector of the Indians is mainly due to Fray Bartolome de las Casas and Cardinal Cisneros. The first steps towards implementing protection policies for indigenous peoples are believed to have commenced in 1516. Several Hieronymites friars (individuals that make up the Hieronymite monastic order in Spain), including Bartolome de las Casas, were sent to the Spanish colonies to evaluate the actions and consequences that colonization was having upon the demographic decline of the native population. The Indians faced other effects such as forced conversion to Christianity. The report by Fray Bartolome de las Casas to Cardinal Cisneros is probably the first documented attempt of those efforts when the bishops took upon themselves the task of exercising protective actions on the native population. Bartolome de las Casas presented this report to the Spanish Court in 1516, denouncing the harm and cruelties imposed on native peoples of the colonies. After that, the kings of Spain, or the governors in their name, took it upon themselves to designate and appoint individuals, such as bishops, friars, and civilians, as protectors of the Indians.
Cisneros granted the title of Protector de Indios to Bartolomé de las Casas, and he was given instructions to serve as an adviser regarding issues concerning the native population. Bartolomé de las Casas was also asked to speak on their behalf during legal proceedings, reporting back to Spain. For over fifty years, while traveling to and from the New World and the court of Spain, Bartolomé de las Casas used his books, letters, and preaching to defend native peoples and reveal the harshness of such unjust conquests. Other notable protectors included Juan de Zumárraga (appointed 1527) and Hernando de Luque (appointed 1529).
Bartolomé de las Casas
As argued by Diego von Vacano in his article Las Casas and the Birth of Race, the first theorist to lay the grounds for a racial conception in politics was Bartolomé de las Casas. Las Casas contributed to the administration of the Protector of the Indians significantly during his time in Spain. Las Casas was a participant in the Spanish conquest until his eyes were opened to the horrors of the conquest experienced by the native populations. After witnessing the harsh treatment of native people in Spanish colonies, Las Casas pursued further education in the moral and juridical conceptions of just war, which he then used in an attempt to defend native peoples from such unjust conquests as Protector of the Indians.