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Quivira is a place named by explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541, for the mythical 'Seven Cities of Gold' that he never found. The location of Quivira is believed by most authorities to be in central Kansas near present-day Lyons extending northeast to Salina. The Quivirans were the forebears of the modern day Wichita Indians and Caddoan tribes, such as the Pawnee or Arikara. The city of Etzanoa, which flourished between 1450 and 1700, is thought to be part of Quivira.^[1]

Discovery[edit]

Route of the Coronado Expedition, 1540–1542

Depiction of Coronado's expedition. Coronado sets out to the north, oil painting by Frederic Remington, c. 1900

Wichita Tribe History. The definite history of the Wichita more particularly of the Wichita proper begins in 1541, when the Spanish explorer Coronado entered the territory known to his New Mexican Indian guides as the country of Quivira.
Kansas is Quivira and Quivira is Kansas. It had been determined perhaps beyond all question that the Quiverans were of the Caddoanlinguistic stock of North American Indians. From the account of the houses found by Coronado in Quivira it had been determined that the Quivirans were the Indians known in modern times as the Wichitas.
Kansas is Quivira and Quivira is Kansas. It had been determined perhaps beyond all question that the Quiverans were of the Caddoanlinguistic stock of North American Indians. From the account of the houses found by Coronado in Quivira it had been determined that the Quivirans were the Indians known in modern times as the Wichitas.

In 1540, Spaniard Francisco Vásquez de Coronado led a large expedition north from Mexico to search for wealth and the 'Seven Cities of Cibola'. Instead of wealth, he found farming peoples living in an array of communities and villages in what are today Arizona and New Mexico. These were the Apache, Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, and Rio GrandePueblo Indians of today.

As Coronado arrived at the Rio Grande, he was disappointed by the lack of wealth among the Pueblos, but he heard from an Indian (whom the Spaniards called 'the Turk') of a wealthy civilization named 'Quivira' far to the east, where the chief supposedly drank from golden cups hanging from the trees. Hearing of this, Coronado led his army of more than 1000 Spaniards and Indian aides onto the Great Plains in 1541. The Turk was his guide to Quivira.

On his journey, Coronado traversed the Texas Panhandle. He found two groups of Indians, the Querechos and the Teyas. He was heading southeast when the Teyas told him that the Turk was taking him the wrong direction and that Quivira was to the north. It appears the Turk was luring the Spaniards away from New Mexico with tales of wealth in Quivira, hoping perhaps that they would get lost in the vastness of the Plains. Coronado sent most of his slow-moving army back to New Mexico. With 30 mounted Spaniards, priests, Indian followers, the Turk, and Teya guides he had forced into service, he changed course northward in search of Quivira. After a march of more than 30 days, he found a large river, probably the Arkansas, and soon met several Indians hunting buffalo. They led him to Quivira.^[2]

TRIBE OF QUIVIRA At Quivira Scout Ranch, Scouts and leaders may become members of the Tribe of Quivira by completing tasks at camp on Friday. Each successive year, they attain higher stations in the tribe and add beads to their coup thongs. Leaders say the program brings Scouts back to camp.

Description of Quivira[edit]

Coronado found Quivira 'well settled...The land itself being very fat and black and being very well watered by the rivulets and springs and rivers. I found prunes like those of Spain, and nuts and very good sweet grapes and mulberries.' It was, he said, the best land he had seen during his long trek north from Mexico.^[3] Coronado spent 25 days in Quivira and traveled about 65 miles (25 leagues) from one end of the country to the other. He found nothing more than straw-thatched villages of up to 200 houses each and fields of corn, beans, and squash. He found no gold, other than a single small piece, which he reasoned had come into the natives' hands from a member of his own expedition.

Coronado found the Teyas Indians in Blanco Canyon, east of present-day Lubbock, Texas. The Querechos lived on the flat Llano Estacado above the canyon.

The Quivirans were simple people. Both men and women were nearly naked. They 'were large people of good build' many of the men being over six feet tall. They seemed like giants compared to the Spaniards.^[4]

Coronado was escorted to a farther boundary of Quivira, an area called 'Tabas,' where the neighboring land of Harahey began. He summoned the 'Lord of Harahey' who, with 200 followers, came to meet the Spanish. The Harahey Indians were 'all naked—with bows and some sort of things on their heads, and their privy parts slightly covered. It was the same sort of place... and of about the same size as Quivira.'^[5] Disappointed at his failure to find wealth, Coronado turned his face toward New Mexico and marched back across the plains, met up with the rest of his army there, and the following year returned to Mexico. Before leaving Quivira, Coronado ordered the Turk strangled. The Coronado expedition had failed in its quest for gold.

Coronado left behind in New Mexico several Catholic priests and their helpers, including Friar Juan de Padilla. Padilla journeyed back to Quivira with a Portuguese assistant and several Christian Indians. The friar and most of his companions were soon killed by the Quivirans, apparently because he wished to leave their country to visit their enemies, the Guas. The Portuguese and one Indian survived to tell the story.^[6]

Later expeditions to Quivira[edit]

Don Juan de Oñate led an expedition to Quivira in 1601. Oñate was married to a granddaughter of Hernán Cortés and the Aztec princess Isabel Moctezuma.

In 1594, Francisco Leyba (Leyva) Bonilla and Antonio de Humana (Umana) made another attempt to find the Quivira of Coronado, though it was denounced as unauthorized by Spanish officials. Only one Mexican Indian, Jusepe (Jusepe Gutierrez), returned from this journey. He related that Leyba had killed Umana in a quarrel and that he, Jusepe, had deserted the expedition.

Following this, in 1601, the governor of New Mexico, Juan de Oñate, undertook another expedition in search of Quivira. He found settlements of the Escanjaque and Rayado Indians in Kansas or Oklahoma, but no gold or silver. He learned that Leyba and other members of the Umana and Lebya expedition had been killed by Indians. In 1606, 800 of these 'Quivirans' were said to have visited Oñate in New Mexico to trade.

Quivira is again mentioned in a 1634 expedition of Captain Alonzo Vaca, who found it 300 leagues east of New Mexico (this suggests more than 1000 miles). Another reputed expedition was undertaken in 1662 by Diego Dionisio de Penalosa, who allegedly found a large settlement he called a city, but an examination of his account by a modern scholar has concluded that the story is fanciful.^[7] The enemies of the Quivirans in all these accounts were the Escanjaques. In 1675 and 1678 came 'two Spanish royal orders for the conquest of Quivira'.^[8]

The location of Quivira and the identity of the Quivirans[edit]

Archaeological evidence has suggested that Quivira was located near the Great Bend of the Arkansas River in central Kansas. The remains of several Indian settlements have been found near Lyons along Cow Creek and the Little Arkansas River along with articles of Spanish manufacture dating from Coronado's time.^[9]

A sketch of a Wichita Indian village in the 19th century. The beehive shaped grass-thatched houses surrounded by corn fields are characteristic and appear similar to those described by Coronado in 1541.

The Quivirans were almost certainly the Indians who came later to be called the Wichita. Coronado's meager d

Tribe Of Quivira