Querecho Indians
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The Querecho Indians were an historical band of
Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...
people living on the
Southern Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include the mix ...
. In 1541 the Spanish conquistador
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comm ...
and his army journeyed east from the
Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...
Valley in search of a rich land called
Quivira Quivira was a province of the ancestral Wichita people, located near the Great Bend of the Arkansas River in central Kansas, The exact site may be near present-day Lyons extending northeast to Salina. The Wichita city of Etzanoa, which flouris ...
. Passing through the Texas Panhandle, he met a people he called the Querechos. This was the first known venture of Europeans across the
Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...
of the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. Coronado and his chroniclers were the first Europeans to describe the buffalo-hunting nomads of the Plains.


Name

The name ''Querecho'' was what the Pecos Pueblo people called this band of Apache. The term ''Apachu'' was not written down until 1601. The word ''Querecho'' passed out of usage, replaced by other names.


History


1540s

The
Coronado Expedition Coronado may refer to: People * Coronado (surname) * Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (1510–1554), Spanish explorer often referred to simply as "Coronado" * Coronado Chávez (1807–1881), President of Honduras from 1845 to 1847 Places United S ...
were the first Europeans to encounter the Querecho in 1541. Coronado and his army found a Querecho settlement of about 200 houses on the
Llano Estacado The Llano Estacado (), sometimes translated into English as the Staked Plains, is a region in the Southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. One of the largest mesas or tablelands on the North A ...
, of Staked Plains, of the Texas Panhandle and adjacent
New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
. On the Llano they also saw vast herds of buffalo or
bison A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American ...
. According to members of Coronado’s expedition:
'' he Querechos livedin tents made of the tanned skins of the cows (bison). They travel around near the cows killing them for food.... They travel like the Arabs, with their tents and troops of dogs loaded with poles... these people eat raw flesh and drink blood. They do not eat human flesh. They are a kind people and not cruel. They are faithful friends. They are able to make themselves very well understood by means of signs. They dry the flesh in the sun, cutting it thin like a leaf, and when dry they grind it like meal to keep it and make a sort of sea soup of it to eat.... They season it with fat, which they always try to secure when they kill a cow. They empty a large gut and fill it with blood, and carry this around the neck to drink when they are thirsty.''


1560s

In 1565, Francisco de Ibarra met a bison-hunting people he called Querechos near
Casas Grandes Casas Grandes (Spanish for ''Great Houses''; also known as Paquimé) is a prehistoric archaeological site in the northern Mexico, Mexican state of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua. Construction of the site is attributed to the Mogollon culture. Casa ...
,
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
, hundreds of miles from where Coronado had visited them. There were about 300 men and their "attractive" women and children visiting the area, probably on a trading mission. They said that large bison herds could be found on a four-day journey to the North. This meeting indicates that the Querechos were far-ranging even before they acquired horses.


1580s

This brief account describes many typical features of pre-horse
Plains Indians Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nations peoples who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of North ...
culture: using hide for clothing and lodges ( tipis),
travois A travois (; Canadian French, from French language, French ; also travoise or travoy) is an A-frame structure used to drag loads over land, most notably by the Plains Indians of North America. Construction and use The basic construction con ...
pulled by dogs, Plains sign language, jerky (food), and
pemmican Pemmican () (also pemican in older sources) is a mixture of tallow, dried meat, and sometimes dried berries. A calorie-rich food, it can be used as a key component in prepared meals or eaten raw. Historically, it was an important part of indigeno ...
. In 1581, Spanish explorers of the Chamuscado and Rodriguez Expedition had another meeting with the Querechos. They found a large "rancheria" of 400 warriors on the
Pecos River The Pecos River ( ; ) originates in north-central New Mexico and flows into Texas, emptying into the Rio Grande. Its headwaters are on the eastern slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Mora County north of Pecos, New Mexico, at an elev ...
. probably near present-day
Santa Rosa, New Mexico Santa Rosa is a city in and the county seat of Guadalupe County, New Mexico, Guadalupe County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 2,848 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It lies between Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerqu ...
. The Spanish were especially interested in the Indian dogs which pulled
travois A travois (; Canadian French, from French language, French ; also travoise or travoy) is an A-frame structure used to drag loads over land, most notably by the Plains Indians of North America. Construction and use The basic construction con ...
with all their belongings. The Indians told the Spaniards that the bison herds were two days to the east and were "as numerous as grass in the fields." In 1583, the explorer
Antonio de Espejo Antonio de Espejo (c. 1540–1585) was a Spanish explorer who led an expedition, accompanied by Diego Perez de Luxan, into what is now New Mexico and Arizona in 1582–83.pg 189 - The expedition created interest in establishing a Spanish col ...
met Querechos in the mountains near Acoma who traded salt, game, and deerskins to the townspeople in exchange for cotton blankets. He described them as warlike and numerous. These were the people later called Navajos, related to the Apache.


Who Were the Querecho?

The Querecho were a band of Apache. They were Southern Athabascan people who had migrated to the Southwest and Southern Plains in previous centuries from the Athabascan homelands in Alaska and northwestern Canada. The Apache arrived on the Llano Estacado perhaps possibly around 1450 CE years the Spanish visited them there. A village farming culture in the Texas Panhandle, the Antelope Creek Phase, disappeared about 1450. The reason for its disappearance may have been displacement by the Apache or the onset of a dryer climatic phase. By the time of Coronado, it appears that the Apache settled across a wide area of the Great Plains extending north from the Llano Estacado to
Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...
. They might be related to the Dismal River culture.Hammond and Rey, 224


References


External links


Vaquero Indians
Texas State Historical Association {{authority control Native American tribes in Texas Apache tribes Athabaskan peoples Plains tribes Pre-statehood history of Texas