lO SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



hunting scene that is revealed.' Subsequent Spanish expeditions in 

 1593, 1 601, 1 618, and 1634, concerning which even less is on record, 

 reached as far north and east as the indefinite region that had then 

 come to be designated as Quivira. The Llano Estacado stood as a 

 barrier, the way was long, and observable profit lacking. Hence, even 

 before the Pueblo revolts of 1680 and 1696, Spanish enterprise had 

 been for some time temporarily diverted to the south. 



The next act of our drama, therefore, finds adventurous French 

 traders, missionaries, and explorers pressing from the northwest 

 toward the Gulf and later to the north and west in quest of furs, 

 converts, and territory. Long before any written accounts French 

 traders were living with the tribes on the Missouri River, and almost 

 the only record of their discoveries is preserved in various maps drawn 

 up by European cartographers from word-of-mouth accounts. Some 

 first-hand knowledge of the Missouri River tribes from 1719 to 1801 

 can be gained from the bare records or more rare accounts of such 

 men as Du Tisne, Charlevoix, Bourgmont, the Mallet brothers, the 

 La Verendryes, father and sons. Truteau. Perrin du Lac, and Le Raye, 

 but on the whole this was a period of silent commercial expansion or 

 exploitation rather than one of scientific or even political exploration. 



The European horse had been first introduced into the Plains by 

 the early Spanish explorers and later by trade, or through raids of 

 the southern Indians on Spanish-Mexican rancherias. By 1682 the 

 Pawnee were in possession of horses, and it is possible that the 

 tribes south of the Platte had them as early as 1600.^ Hence the native 

 culture of the Plains during this period of the late seventeenth and 

 early eighteenth centuries was being greatly modified. Not only did 

 traveling become easier and more rapid, but buffalo hunting was 

 now possible by new and easier methods. Many tribes were thus 



* For the accounts of the various chroniclers see Winship, 1896, pp. 528, 577, 

 590, 591. The Relacion del Suceso as translated by Winship, p. 577, regarding 

 Quibira, reads, " they have corn, beans and melons " whereas the Spanish text, 

 T. P. Smith, 1857, p. 152, reads " maiz e frisoles e calabazas ", i. e., the fruit 

 of pumpkins or gourds as the last item. For regional and tribal identifications : 

 Bandelier, 1890, pp. 44, 170; 1893, pp. 235, 239; and F. W. Hodge in Brower, 

 1899, pp. 29-73. The nomads mentioned in the chronicles may have been bands 

 of Apache, Tonkawa, or Comanche, Winship, 1896, p. 396. By implication 

 Wissler, 1920, pp. 148-149, cites the description of these nomadic hunters as 

 though it applied rather universally to the cultural status at the time of such 

 Plains tribes as the Pawnee, though elsewhere, 1914, pp. 14, 25, he is more 

 explicit. 



" Wedel, no date. Wissler, 1914, p. 6, thinks that Pawnee may have had 

 horses as early as 1630. 



