Historical Introduction to Studies Among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico; Report on the Ruins o | Page 5

Adolph Bandelier
of each journey. From Zu?i to Acoma the country was uninhabited; therefore the length of each journey may have been great, because there was nothing to attract the attention of the Spaniards,--nothing to prevent them from hastening their progress in order to reach their point of destination. From Acoma on, the ethnographical character changed. The actual distance to the Rio Grande may be shorter; but pueblos sprung up at small intervals of space, which necessitated greater caution, and therefore greater delay, in the movements of the advancing party. Still, we have a guide of great efficiency in another branch of information. The pueblo of "Tiguex," mentioned as lying three days from Acoma, indicates, seemingly, a settlement of Tehua-speaking Indians. Now, the "Tehua" idiom is spoken in those pueblos which lie directly north of Santa Fé. San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Clara, Pohuaque, Nambé, and Tesuque. But it is quite apparent that, considering the great distance of Santa Fé from Acoma, the journeys, as indicated in Casta?eda, would fall very short of any of the pueblos mentioned.[53]
The Tehua, like all the tribes along the Rio Grande, suffered vicissitudes and consequent displacements; and it might be advanced that one or the other of the Tehua villages, formerly known as Tiguex, might now be destroyed.
Fortunately, we need not resort to such hypotheses. It appears, from documentary evidence of the year 1598, that there was, distinct from the Tehua or Tegua, a tribe of "Chiguas," or "Tiguas;"[54] and, from the notes of Father Juan Amando Niel (written between 1703 and 1710), it results that their settlements were near Bernalillo, on the Rio Grande; there being at that time three villages, the most northern of which was Santiago, the central one Puaray, near Bernalillo, and the most southern one San Pedro.[55] The distance between the first two pueblos, according to Fray Zarate Salmeron, in 1626, was about one and a half leagues, or five and a half English miles.[56] Tiguex, therefore, must be located on or near the site of Bernalillo. The "Rio Tiguex" of Casta?eda is the Rio Grande del Norte, and the Indians of Tiguex belonged to the stock of the "Tanos" language, now spoken still by a few Indians at Galisteo, and by the inhabitants of the pueblos of Sandia and Isleta.[57] Even the direction in which the Spaniards moved from Acoma--that is, to the north-east--perfectly agrees with that in which Bernalillo lies, whereas the mouth of the Rio Puerco, below which General Simpson locates Tiguex, lies south-east of the pueblo of Acoma.
Having thus, as we believe, satisfactorily located Tiguex, it is easy to locate Cicuyé. It can be nothing else than Pecos, whose aboriginal Indian name, in the Jemez language, is "?gin," whereas Pecos is the "Paego" of the Qq'uêres idiom. There is no other Indian pueblo answering to its description and geographical location as given by the chroniclers of Coronado. The fact that "when the army quitted Cicuyé to go to Quivira, we entered the mountains, which it was necessary to cross to reach the plains, and on the fourth day we arrived at a great river, very deep, which passes also near Cicuyé,"[58] does not at all militate against it. The easiest passage, and the most accessible one from Pecos eastward, leads directly to the slopes between the Rio Gallinas and the Rio Pecos; and either of these two streams could be, and had to be, met with very near to the confluence of both.[59] For other proof, and very conclusive too, I refer to my detailed description of the Ruins of the Pueblo de Pecos.
I repeat, it is not to our purpose to describe the "faits et gestes" of Coronado and of his men, but only to discuss the results of his march for the Ethnography of New Mexico. I even exclude Ethnology in as far as it does not include language. The distribution of tribes and stocks of tribes designated by idioms, as Coronado revealed it in 1540 to 1543, is to be the final result of the discussion. Therefore, I leave the acts of the Spaniards aside everywhere, when they are not essential to the object, and do not even follow a strict chronological sequence.
After Alvarado had left Cibola for Tiguex, Coronado himself followed him; and, "taking the road to Tiguex," he crossed a range of mountains where snow impeded his march,--and during which march he and his men were once two and a half days without water,--until finally he reached a pueblo called "Tutahaco."[60] General Simpson has not paid any attention to this place. Mr. Davis places it near Laguna.[61] This author has forgotten that Tutahaco was further from Zu?i than Tiguex itself, since it took Coronado more than eleven days to reach it.[62] This could not have been the case, had he passed north
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