It was hoped that some of the village sites in its drainage basin in central. Brief published reports are available on the Udden site on Paint Creek (Udden, 1900; Wedel, 1935), and I have seen a sample of the pottery and other material from the nearby Swenson site on Sharps Creek. For this, such easily transportable skin structures as the tipi of the Plains hunting tribes would have been poorly adapted.
A rolled basket with a single bar foundation (Fig. 3, h) was uncovered during the work of the National Museum at the Tobias site. In Rice and McPherson counties most of the pottery is granular; on the Cowley County scale. This surface finish may have been achieved by paddling with a notched rib of the type mentioned above (Wedel and Hill, no date).
A small number of sherds have rough cord exteriors that are strikingly reminiscent of the prehistoric Upper Republican wares from which they may have come.
NO. 7 ARCHEOLOGICAL REMAINS IN CENTRAL KANSAS WEDEL 7
In this connection, we may note a possibly significant clue in the accounts of the De Soto expedition. There is at least one implication in this passage that chain mail was used by members of De Soto's party; and as this expedition was to all practical purposes contemporaneous with that of Coronado, it is entirely within reason to believe that similar devices were used by Coronado's men. Louis, commented as follows (letter of June 10, 1941) on the use of chain mail in the American Southwest.
It is true that chain mail ceased to be widely used in Europe after the 6th century, but practically throughout that century. It seems entirely possible to me that mercenary soldiers or adventurers, especially in a country where their potential adversaries were known to love the bow and arrow, could continue to wear such reinforcing patches of mail until a very late period.
NO. 7 ARCHEOLOGICAL REMAINS IN CENTRAL KANSAS — WEDEL 9
DuPratzmapof 1757 (partially reproduced in Wedel, op.cit., . map 5) shows only Panis blancs (Pawnee) at the head of R. In short, it appears that the Quivira grass communities on the northeastern Santa Fe plains were abandoned some time between 1664 and 1757-. Repeated references by the Spanish to thatched houses and a sedentary gardening lifestyle in Quivira have been common.
Their history and movements before about 1700 are still shrouded in uncertainty; since that date they appear to have resided with related tribes at various localities on the lower Arkansas, Red, Brazos, and Trinity Rivers in present-day Oklahoma and Texas (Bolton, 1914, pp. 23, 43).
CORONADO AND QUIVIRA
NO. 7 ARCHEOLOGICAL REMAINS IN CENTRAL KANSAS WEDEL II
It is possible that the first settlement, after the hunting camp, was seen in the vicinity of the present town of Great Bend. I am aware that archaeological sites assignable to the Coronado period have not been reported from this location. In fact, Jaramillo's report suggests that the party left the main river valley, probably marching overland in an east or northeast direction where the river swings south again.
Such a course would have taken the explorers directly to the town sites on Cow Creek in western Rice County. One of the largest of these — the Malone site 4 miles west of Lyons — is about 100 miles from Ford, which is not much more than the 30 leagues given by the Relaciondel Suceso. Between these populated smaller streams, the upland prairies were uninhabited, Jaramillo says, and exactly the same situation is shown by the archeology of the Rice-McPherson County site.
The various documents leave us in doubt as to the length of time spent in Quivira, the distance and direction traveled to reach it. Coronado, in his report to the king, states that there were no more than 25 villages, and that he spent 25 days in examining the province. In any case, there is no evidence that the party traveled any great distance to Quivira.
From an archaeological point of view, it should be noted that among the known sites at Cow Creek, on the Little Arkansas River, and farther east on the tributaries of the Smoky Hill River in McPherson County, there are easily six or seven large villages sufficiently distant from one. another that required a 4- or 5-day march-. With closely related towns located as far east as Marion on the upper Cottonwood and also southeast down the Arkansas drainage, I believe Coronado could easily consume the 25th.
NO. 7 ARCHEOLOGICAL REMAINS IN CENTRAL KANSAS WEDEL I3
In short, we are dealing with probabilities; therefore it is not to be expected that the exact line of march from beginning to end will ever be definitively determined. Tiguex, where the army was stationed awaiting Coronado's return from Quivira, was located where the present town of Bernalillo is located, N. 34, the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul, on which Coronado's chosen band crossed a river below Quivira.
As far as I know, there is no date anywhere when this detachment returned to Tiguex. According to Coronado (Hammond and Rey, 1940, p. 186), they traveled 17 days for each Querechorancheria; after another 5 days they "reached certain plains which were without landmarks, as if they were surrounded by the sea." This is where the local guides lost their bearings.
NO. 7 ARCHEOLOGICAL REMAINS IN CENTRAL KANSAS WEDEL I5
One objection to this identification is that Palo Duro Canyon is less than 300 miles, or just over 100 miles, east and slightly south of Pecos. This is not so far from the 150 leagues of the Relacion del Suceso if we suppose that a third of the distance was spent in the aimless wandering of which Coronado speaks. From the point where he left the army, possibly at Palo Duro Canyon or somewhere not far south or southeast, Coronado says (Hammond and Rey, 1940, p. 187) he traveled 42 days and that "after days of travel [from Tiguex] over these barren lands" he reached the province of Ouivira.
According to the Relacion del Suceso (ibid., p. after several days' journey with the needle, God was pleased that we arrive in 30 days. We reach it 30 leagues before reaching the settlement of the same name." Jaramillo (ibid. , p. 302) observes, that "from here we always turned towards the north and continued the journey for more than 30 days or near 30 days of travel, although the marches were not long, without ever running out of water during all these days Jaramillo and the Relacion del Suceso say that the river was under Quivira was reached in 30 days, and that it was still 30 leagues (Relacion del Suceso) or 6 or 7 days (Jaramillo) to the Quivira cities, making a total of about 36 or 2)7 days to Quivira, compared with Coronado's 42 days.
This can be verified by Castafida's statement that the expedition traveled ^i days to reach the barranca where the separation occurred. If the above dates are substantially correct and the expedition was not divided until May 30th or 31st, about 2 weeks were allotted to aimlessly wandering the Staked Plains.
NO. 7 ARCHEOI-OGICAL REMAINS IN CENTRAL KANSAS WEDEL I7
A northward course from Palo Duro Canyon, or from any other point along the eastern front of the Staked Plains, would bring the party into Arkansas near Garden City, about 75 miles above where the river turns to the northeast. A right-south approach to Arkansas below Dodge City would take the party over the western part of the Cimarron Breaks in southern Meade and Clark counties, Kans. Here the terrain is rugged and dissected, in striking contrast to the flat plains to the west and north.
One wonders if such an area, if traversed by Coronado, would have escaped some attention in at least one of the narratives. If the party had marched northward from Texas to the vicinity of Meade, or a little further west, thence northeast for a day or two, and then north again, it would have traveled almost entirely through High Plains terrain and would reached the Arkansas near the present city of Ford.
ORATE AND QUIVIRA
NO. 7 ARCHEOLOGICAL REMAINS IN CENTRAL KANSAS WEDEL I9
Here, too, treasure pits have turned up shards of Puebloan glazed paint from the periods 1525-1650, along with patterns like those on the Cow. If several of these neighboring communities were occupied at the same time, they would make on the visitor exactly the impression which Oiiate's men received — a great one. In addition, it is clear that further north up Walnut, as well as Arkansas and its.
In other words, Ohate's geographical observations fit nicely here; and as far as archeology affords any verification, the inhabitants of these Walnut Valley sites follow. As with Coronado's explorations, Ohate's movements were not recorded in a detailed daily log. How much of the remaining 95 days was spent exploring Quivira and how long it took the supposedly slow expedition to reach the province.
They encountered some large ravines and broken hills, but nowhere did the terrain present serious obstacles to the easy movement of army chariots. 34; like those of Colima" is identified with Palo Duro Canyon, the river below Quivira with Canadian, and Quivira with Canadian Valley, Wolf Creek,.
NO. 7 ARCHEOLOGICAL REMAINS IN CENTRAL KANSAS WEUEL 21
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
There is a striking uniformity in pottery and other cultural remains from sites in Rice, McPherson, Marion, Butler, and Cowley Counties. The finds of chain mail fragments, glass beads, an iron ax blade, etc., indicate that the sites were inhabited in or during an annual period of white contact; turquoise, glaze-paint shards and obsidian are evidence of trade relations with Puebloan groups in the Rio Grandearea. Additionally, glaze paint sherds from widespread sites in Rice and Cowley Counties have been identified with wares produced on the Rio Grande between about 1525 and 1650.
McPherson County Town; (2) that Onate's visit to Quivira may have occurred 60 years later on the Walnut River near present-day Arkansas City, Kansas; (3) that although the exact limits of Quivira, Kansas, cannot now be determined, the heart of the county (fig. i) lay north and east of the Arkansas and south of the Smoky Hill, extending from Rice, or possibly Barton, County eastward via McPherson and Marion Counties, thence southward via Harvey, Butler and Cow-.
LITERATURE CITED
A comparison of the cultural manifestations of Burkett (Nance County) and Gray-Wolfe (Colfax County). Coronado's expedition in search of the "Seven Cities of Cibola" and a discussion of their probable location.
