April 1541 he took a small force eastward to
find the kingdom of Quivira. El Turco led the
expedition across the plains of northwestern
Texas, later dubbed the Llano Estacado
(Staked Plains). This southern boundary of
the Great Plains seemed so featureless to the
Spaniards that they made piles of buffalo
bones and dung to mark their path. One rider
who wandered away disappeared forever in
the endlessly flat landscape.
Coronado’s men were the first Europeans
to meet an Indian tribe of the Great Plains, a
western Apache group they called Quere-
chos. These nomadic people hunted bison
and traveled across the plains on foot, trad-
ing hides with more permanently settled
tribes. “From what was learned of these Indi-
ans, all their human needs are supplied
by these cows, for they are fed and clothed
and shod from these,” remembered Juan
Jaramillo, one of Coronado’s captains. “They
are a people who wander around here and
there, wherever seems to them best.” Horses
were still unknown to the Plains Indians.
They transported their belongings on
wooden pole frames (later known by the
French term travois) that were harnessed to
dogs. The tribes Coronado encountered—
both the Querechos and their enemies,
the Teyas—treated the Spanish with great
hospitality.
As Coronado crossed the north Texas and
Oklahoma panhandles into present-day
Kansas, faith in El Turco’s guidance ebbed.
Another Indian captive, Isopete, accused El
Turco of lying and leading Coronado aim-
lessly around the countryside. Low on sup-
plies, Coronado ordered most of his men
back to Tiguex. He continued onward with
only 30 horsemen, led by Isopete, who
offered to guide the company in exchange for
his freedom. On June 29, 1541, they reached a
Wichita village by the Arkansas River near the
present-day town of Ford, Kansas. This,
Isopete explained, was Quivira, home of a
Caddoan-speaking tribe whom later Euro-
peans called the Wichita. Spaniards viewing
the village’s straw-roofed dwellings realized
that, as with Fray Niza’s portrait of Cíbola, El
Turco’s promise of an affluent metropolis was
anillusion. To discover if Quivira was more
than a heavily populated trading center,
Coronado continued north along the
Arkansas River past Great Bend, exploring
the region for more than a month. He finally
commanded a halt near the present site of
Salina, Kansas.
The fertile countryside was rich with game,
clean water, and fruit trees, but not with gold.
When El Turco secretly appealed to the Quivi-
rans to kill the Spaniards, his captors stran-
gled him. A few days later, Coronado freed
Isopete, planted a cross to “take possession” of
the land for Spain, and returned west, hoping
to rejoin his army before winter. Ironically, the
expedition had come within only a few hun-
dred miles of Hernando de Soto’s floundering
entrada, members of which were scouting
along the lower reach of the Arkansas River
after having recently discovered the Missis-
sippi River.
Coronado’s men found their way back
across 1,000 miles of grassy plains to their
headquarters at Tiguex, arriving in October- That winter, some members of the
expedition discussed staying in Tierra Nueva,
the “New Land,” which would one day
become New Mexico. Some considered
Quivira suitable for settlement, while others
wanted to push even further eastward, still
convinced that theremight be truth in El
Turco’s tales of riches. In December, however,
Coronado was gravely injured in a riding
accident. While recovering, he declared that
the entradawas over and ordered a return to
Mexico.
Coronado and the Seven Cities B 117