Tiguex War The Tiguex War was one of the first wars between European s and Native Americans in what is now the United States . It was fought in the winter of 1540 - 41 by the expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado against the twelve or thirteen pueblos of Tiwa Indians as well as other Puebloan tribes along both sides of the Rio Grande , north and south of present - day Bernalillo , New Mexico , in what was called the Tiguex Province . The Coronado expedition had the primary motivation of finding the silk and spices of the Indies as well as gold , silver , and land for forced - labor encomienda estates . The Coronado expedition was huge in size , with about 350 European men - at - arms , a large number of spouses , slaves , and servants , and as many as 2 , 000 Mexican Indian allies , mostly warriors from Aztec , Tarascan , and other tribes from central and western Mexico . The expedition also brought thousands of livestock , including horses , mules , sheep , cattle , and perhaps pigs . War . As soon as Coronado entered present - day New Mexico he attacked and conquered the Zuni pueblo of Hawikuh , also known as Hawikku , Cíbola , or Cibola . He was visited there soon after by a delegation from Pecos Pueblo ( now Pecos National Historical Park ) . One of the leaders of this delegation , after exchanging gifts , offered to guide the expedition to Pecos and the buffalo herds of the Great Plains . He had a mustache , which was unusual for a Native American , and so the Spaniards called him Bigotes ( Spanish for " mustaches " ) . Coronado sent Hernando de Alvarado as commander for the journey . Alvarado was one of two soldiers who had used their bodies to protect the fallen Coronado at the battle of Hawikuh , saving him from being bludgeoned to death by stones dropped by the Zuni defenders . Bigotes guided Alvarado and twenty - three other Spaniards and an unknown number of Mexican Indian allies east , past Acoma and into the Rio Grande valley . There they found a cluster of Tiwa pueblos they called the province of Tiguex , named after the occupying Tiwa Puebloans . They traveled north along the river as far as Taos , claiming for Spain the land of several pueblos along the way . They finally arrived at Bigotes ' s community of Pecos . This was the easternmost of the pueblos with a well - developed commerce with the plains Indians . Alvarado journeyed another five days easterly to see the vast buffalo herds that Bigotes had earlier described to Coronado . He returned to Tiguex at about the same time an advance party led by Field Master García López de Cárdenas also arrived . The Tiguex Province was described as the most prosperous area the expeditionaries had seen , with the Rio Grande flowing through a wide , level , desert with vast irrigated cornfields . Alvarado notified Coronado that the expedition should move there for the oncoming winter . To establish a headquarters , Cárdenas commandeered a pueblo the Spaniards renamed as Coofor , forcing the Pueblo inhabitants out with nothing but the clothes they wore . Although Spanish accounts imply the Puebloans left Coofor voluntarily , archaeological excavations in the 1930s prove that an unreported battle took place there . Coronado stayed at Coofor for the winters of 1540 - 41 and 1541 - 42 . He used Coofor as a military base from which to wage the Tiguex War against the Tiwa pueblos , intimidating and requisitioning supplies from the Keres and Tewa pueblos north of Tiguex , and for his 1541 foray across the Great Plains to central Kansas in search of the chimerical riches of Quivira . Upon his return , the Towa Indians of Jémez and Pecos had decided the Spaniards were enemies and turned hostile , resulting in a battle and siege against Pecos . The expedition traded beads and trinkets for food and clothing for their winters in Coofor from the Tiguex pueblos at first . But as provisions became scarce for the pueblos , they resisted further trades , Coronado ordered his men to simply take what they needed . In the winter of 1540 - 41 , at least one of the pueblo women was raped , and the expedition ' s livestock consumed much of the post - harvest cornstalks normally used by the Puebloans for cooking and heating fuel during the winters . In December 1540 Tiwas retaliated for the abuses by killing 40 to 60 of the expedition ' s free - roaming horses and mules . As a result , Coronado declared a war of " fire and blood , " which became the Tiguex War . He sent Cárdenas with a large force of Europeans and Mexican Indian allies to conquer a Tiwa pueblo the Spaniards called Arenal . All of Arenal ' s defenders were killed , including an estimated 30 Tiwas who the Spaniards burned alive at the stake . The Tiwas abandoned their riverside pueblos and made their last stand in a mesa - top stronghold the Spaniards called Moho . There probably was a second mesa - top stronghold as well , but Spanish accounts differ on its existence . Coronado was not able to conquer the stronghold by force , so he laid siege to Moho ( and the second stronghold if it existed ) for about 80 days in January – March 1541 . Finally , Moho ' s defenders ran out of water and attempted to escape in the night . The Tiguex War ended in a slaughter when Spaniards heard the escapees and killed almost all the men and several women . The women survivors would spend the next year in slavery as captives . The Tiwas abandoned all pueblos until the expedition left for Kansas , then abandoned them again upon the expedition ' s return . The Tiwas waged guerilla warfare from their mountain sanctuaries throughout the second winter . Coronado withdrew back to Mexico in April 1542 , and the Spaniards would not return for 39 years . Colonization . By the time of the Spanish colonization led by Juan de Oñate in 1598 , the pueblo people in the Tiguex Province had reestablished themselves . But during the period of colonization , pueblo peoples were ravaged by disease . Franciscan missionaries also consolidated most Towa , Tiwa , Keres , and Tewa pueblos from south of Albuquerque to north of Santa Fe , reducing the number of pueblos . After the 1680 Pueblo Revolt and reconquest in the 1690s , the only remaining Tiwa pueblos in the old Tiguex Province were Alameda and Isleta . The Sandia Pueblo land grant was created in 1748 for several Puebloan refugees who had fled Spanish domination by living several decades with the Hopi in western Arizona . Sandia is now the only Tiwa pueblo community existing within the boundary of that part of the Tiguex Province that Coronado waged war against , although 15 other Tiwa , Keres , Tewa , and Towa pueblos still remain on or near the same sites where Coronado found them in 1540 .