CORONADO

Among those responding to Coronado’s successful urging of the Cibolans to spread word of his arrival and good intention were representatives from Cicúique which we currently know as Pecos, New Mexico.

(Pecos National Historical Park (25 miles southeast of Santa Fe via U.S. 25) preserves the ruins of two Spanish mission churches which sit above the unexcavated ruins of Cicúique a multi-story communal pueblo dwelling once housing 2,000 and which, when still visible, was a landmark on the Santa Fe Trail.)

This was in the direction of Acoma which Marcos de Nizza had earlier reported hearing of. So, on 8/29/1540 four days after Cardenas left for the west, Hernando de Alvarado left Hawikuh for the east, and, as with Cardenas, Coronado gave him 80 days and about 20 troops. Guiding them were the Pecos natives, and though the way was more difficult than customary Indian routes, Alvarado wanted to see Acoma. After meeting people from Acoma who descended to greet them and exchange gifts, Alvarado continued east until making camp at the southernmost of the Tiguex pueblos lining the Rio Grande north of present-day Albuquerque. Representatives arrived to greet them, and Alvarado responded by proceeding up the Rio Grande, pueblo by pueblo, as far as Taos. After returning to the southern point, Alvarado sent word to Coronado that things looked good, and was guided east to Cicúique, close to modern Pecos. Here the troops rested a few days. Even then, the Pecos locale was significant, serving as a gateway for Pueblo Indians going hunting on the Buffalo Plains. As historian Herbert Bolton notes in “Coronado, Knight of Pueblos and Plains,” it was a pass for war and trade between the Pueblos and Plains tribes, and would serve as a portal through the mountains for these explorers and later traders and buffalo hunters; for St. Louis caravan traders with Santa Fe; for pioneer Anglo-American settlers; for Civil War armies; and eventually for the railroad connecting east to west. It was here that the Tiguex guides who had brought them this far excused proffered slaves they had captured from more easterly Plains tribes to guide them farther east. Heading east, they became the first Europeans to see the American Bison. At the eastern end of Alvarado’s green line on the map, while traveling east along Canadian River, one of the slaves (called by the Spanish “Turk, because he looked like one,” stated that if they would go northeast, they would find a rich country called “Quivira.”

This was a ploy to get back home and hopefully freedom. He reported having had a gold bracelet that his captor had taken from him.

As Alvarado’s allotted time was nearly up anyway, and excited about the prospect of gold, he turned about and returned to Cicúique intent on seeing the bracelet as proof of what the Turk claimed. As the Turk’s captors would not present it, Alvarado took the two representatives and their two slaves by force back to Tiguex.

By then, Coronado, having concluded Tiguex would be a better base than Cibola, had sent Cardenas to set things up. With winter coming on, and the Indians ill prepared to accommodate so many uninvited guests, Cardenas asked the natives to vacate the pueblo of Alcanfor. Alvarado stopped here to, like Cardenas, await the arrival of Coronado and the rest of the 300 troops.

Coronado did not leave Hawikuh until Arellano had led most of the rest of the expedition from Sonora Valley to Hawikuh where they could rest 20 days until following Coronado to Alcanfor. Following in Coronado’s footsteps from Sonora Valley, Arellano had found the natives along the way cooperative, testament to Coronado’s good treatment towards them as he passed by.

But when Coronado arrived at Alcanfor in December, things were not as peaceful, the Alcanfor residents having to make-do with 24 year old Alvarado’s takeover of their pueblo. And, within a day of arriving, he permitted Alvarado to torture the Turk’s captor for news and presentation of the golden bracelet. To no avail.

Coronado and company spent the rest of the winter surviving, exacting help from the rest of the pueblos lining the Rio Grande and elsewhere nearby. Occasional battles were the result and by spring, the natives had abandoned all twelve pueblos along the Rio Grande.

AURA

So . . . No . . . . You don't want to hear what I'm thinking  (lyrics). Never mind.

CORONADO

So, with nothing to go on besides the “Turk’s” phantasm of wealth and luxury living in Quivira, Coronado led the expedition east on April 23, 1541. Convinced, hopeful and desperate to win the prize with a single, powerful blow, he massed all those at Alcanfor to march east.

Castaneda, for these latter events an eye witness, states that the retinue included a thousand horses, five hundred cattle, five thousand sheep, and 1500 people including entire Spanish families and Tiguex captives. Retracing Alvardo’s way east, this expedition stopped at Cicúique (modern-day Pecos) and left peaceably. Following the Turk, they proceeded farther east, with the Turk occasionally moving on ahead and returning to guide them.