748 



KguA 



[b. a. e. 



waters of the Rio Grande; another in- 

 habiting Sandia and Isleta, n. and s. of 

 Albuquerque, respectively; the third di- 

 vision living in the pueblos of Isleta del 

 Sur, Texas, and Senecu del Sur, Chi- 

 huahua, on the lower Rio Grande. At 

 the time of Coronado' s visit to New Mexico 

 in 1540-42 the Tigua inhabited Taos and 

 Picuris in the n., and, as to-day, were 

 separated from the middle group by the 

 Tano, the Tewa, and the Rio Grande 

 Queres (Keresan). The villages of this 

 middle group in the 1 6th century extended 

 from a short distance above Bernalillo to 

 the neighborhood of Los Lunas and over 

 an area E. of the Rio Grande near the salt 

 lagoons of the Manzano, in a territory 

 known as the Salinas, from Chilili to 

 Quarai. The pueblos in the s., near El 

 Paso, were not established until late in 

 the 17th century. The Tigua were first 

 made known to history through Coro- 

 nado's expedition in 1540, whose chroni- 

 clers describe their territory, the prov- 

 ince of Tiguex, on the Rio Grande, as 

 containing 12 pueblos on both sides of 

 the river, and the people as possessing 

 corn, beans, melons, skins, and long robes 

 of feathers and cotton. The Spaniards 

 were received by them with friendliness, 

 but when it was decided to spend the 

 winter of 1540-41 in Tiguex province, 

 and the Spaniards demanded of the na- 

 tives "about 300 or more pieces of cloth " 

 with which to clothe the army, even 

 stripping the cloaks and blankets from 

 their backs, the Indians avenged this and 

 other outrages by running off the Span- 

 ish horse herd, of which they killed a 

 large number, and fortifying themselves 

 in one of their pueblos. This the Span- 

 iards attacked, and after exchanging signs 

 of peace the Indians put down their arms 

 and were pardoned. Nevertheless, 

 through some misunderstanding the 

 Spaniards proceeded to burn at the stake 

 200 of the captives, of whom about half 

 were shot down in an attempt to escape 

 the torture to which the others were be- 

 ing subjected. Says Castaneda, the prin- 

 cii)al chronicler of the expedition: "Not 

 a man of them remained alive, unless it 

 was some who remained hidden in the 

 village and escaped that night to spread 

 throughout the country the news that 

 the strangers did not respect the peace 

 they had made." As a result of this ill- 

 treatment the Tigua abandoned all but 

 two of their villages, one of which was 

 also known to the Spaniards as Tiguex 

 (see Puara.y), into which they took all 

 their stores and equipped themselves for 

 the inevitable siege. Every overture 

 made by the S]ianiards toward peace was 

 now received with derision by the natives, 

 who informed them that they "did not 

 wish to trust themselves to people who 



had lib regard for friendship or their own 

 word which they had pledged." One of 

 the Tigua villages was surrounded and 

 attacked by means of ladders, but time 

 and again the Spaniards were beaten off, 

 50 being wounded in the first assault. 

 During the siege, which lasted 50 days, 

 the Indians lost 200 of their number and 

 surrendered 100 women and children. 

 Finally, the water supply of the natives 

 became exhausted, and in an attempt to 

 leave the village at night and cross the 

 river with the remainder of their women, 

 "there were few who escaped being killed 

 or wounded." The other pueblo suffered 

 the same fate, but its inhabitants appar- 

 ently did not withstand the siege so long. 

 In attempting to escape, the Spaniards 

 pursued "and killed large numbers of 

 them." The soldiers then plundered the 

 town and captured about 100 women 

 and children. 



In 1581 Chamuscado, with 8 soldiers 

 and 7 Indian servants, accompanied the 

 Franciscan missionaries, Agustin Rodri- 

 guez, Francisco Lopez, and Juan de Santa 

 Maria, to the country of the Tigua, but 

 all three were killed by the Indians 

 after the departure of the escort. In 1583 

 Antonio de Espejo with 14 Spanish fol- 

 lowers journeyed to New IMexico, and on 

 his approach the Indians of Puaray, where 

 Rodriguez and Lopez had been killed, 

 fled for fear of vengeance. This was the 

 pueblo, Espejo learned, at which Corona- 

 do had lost 9 men and 40 horses, thus 

 identifying it with one of the Tigua vil- 

 lages besieged by Coronado 40 years be- 

 fore. In 1591 Castano de Sosa also visited 

 the Tigua, as did Oiiate in 1598, the latter 

 discovering on a wall at Puaray a par- 

 tially effaced native painting representing 

 the killing of the three missionaries. 



In 1629, according to Benavides, the 

 Tigua province extended over 11 or 12 

 leagues along the Rio Grande and con- 

 sisted of 8 pueblos, with 6,000 inhabitants. 

 This reduction in the number of villages 

 was doubtless due to the effort of the 

 Spanish missionaries, soon after the be- 

 ginning of the 17th century, to consolidate 

 the settlements both to insure greater 

 security from the predatory Apache and 

 to facilitate missionary work. Thus, in 

 1680, the time of the beginning of the 

 Pueblo revolt, the Tigua occupied only 

 the pueblos of Puaray, Sandia, Alame- 

 da, and Isleta, all on the Rio Grande. 

 The population of these towns at the date 

 named was estimated bv Vetancurt at 200, 

 3,000, 300, and 2,000, respectively. 



The eastern portion of what was the 

 southern area of the Tigua up to about 

 1674 was limited to a narrow strip along 

 the eastern slope of the Manzano mts., 

 beginning with the pueblo of Chilili in 

 the N., including Tajique and possibly 



