09/22/2024
Good morning from Coronado Historic Site at Kuaua Pueblo! Come 1540, Kuaua was one of an estimated 12+ villages found within the Middle Rio Grande Valley that was associated with the Tiguex Region. The following account is thought to have been written by a friar who accompanied the Coronado Expedition through Zuni (Cíbola) and to this area. Described in the text are many of the features that would have been seen right here at Kuaua Pueblo hundreds of years ago.
(In reference to the Tiguex): “The river is almost as wide as that of Seville, although not so deep; it flows through a level country; the water is good; it contains some fish; it rises in the north. He who relates this, saw twelve villages within a certain distance of the river; others saw more, they say, up the river. Below, all the villages are small, except two that have about 200 houses. The walls of these houses are something like mud walls of dirt and sand, very rough; they are as thick as the breadth of a hand. The houses have two and three stories; the construction is like those at Cíbola. The country is very cold. They have hot-houses, as in Cíbola, and the river freezes so thick that loaded animals cross it, and it would be possible for carts to do so. They raise as much corn as they need, and beans and melons. They have some fowls, which they keep so as to make cloaks of their feathers. They raise cotton, although not much; they wear cloaks made of this, and shoes of hide, as at Cíbola. These people defend themselves very well, and from within their houses, since they do not care to come out. The country is all sandy.”
New Mexico Website.
