THE SIX  CITIES  OF  CIBOLA
Zuñi Region History for Travelers

In 1583, an expedition led by explorer Antonio de Espejo was sent to
the Rio Grande valley pueblos in search of two Franciscan priests.
After confirming that the priests had been killed, Espejo headed
westward toward Zuni. On March 11, 1583, he recorded
his stop at a place he called El Estanque de Penol
(pool at the great rock), the first historical record of El Morro.

El  Estanque  del  Peñol

Traveling from the Pueblo of Ácoma to the Zuni area in March of 1583, Pérez de Luxán indicates:
"We set out from this place [ El Elado ] on the eleventh of the month and marched three leagues
and stopped at a waterhole at the foot of a rock. This place we named El Estanque del Peñol"

Ruins near El Morro

Evidence for a visit to El Morro by the expedition of Antonio de Espejo in 1583 is compelling.
The narrative account of Diego Pérez de Luxán, a member of the Espejo party, suggests it is
highly probable that this group did camp in the El Morro area.
 

Inscription: "Pasó por aqui, el adelantado Don Juan de Oñate del descubrimiento de la mar del sur a 16 de Abril de 1605."

There is no question that the earliest inscription on EI Morro is that of Oñate, whose name was
carved in the rock, at which was the "Agua de la Pena," on his return from the Gulf of California
later in the spring of 1605.

THE SIX  CITIES  OF  CIBOLA

About seventy-five miles west of Acoma, on March 14th, 1583,
Espejo arrived at the pueblo of Malaque, one of the six pueblos of
the famous Zuni or Cibola nation.

Because of the inclement weather, the explorers remained in Zuni almost a month;
most of this time was spent in the western most pueblo, Agrisco. In several of the
pueblos they found crosses that had been erected by Coronado and Chamuscado.
They also found four Mexican Indians who had remained there after Coronado's expedition.

"The hides are from the humpbacked cows [vacas] which
they call civola, and whose hair is like that of cows of Ireland."
 

Francisco López de Gómara’s La Historia General de las Indias
The edition shown above, published in Antwerp, includes the first known depiction of a bison

 

C I B O L A

"The hides are from the humpbacked cows which they call "civola".
~ Narrative of Espejo. Account of the Journey to the Provinces and settlements of New Mexico

Variant Spellings
 

Modern Zuni - si:wolo

Ceuola - Marcos De Niza 1539 - The Journey of Alvar Nunez - Cabeza de Vaca

Cibola. - Castaneda (1540-96)

Sivola. - Relacion Postrera de Sivola (ca. 1542)

Zibola. - Perea, Verdadera Relaci6n, Madrid, 1632

Tzibola. - Mota-Padilla (1742)

The entire group of pueblos was called "the kingdom of Cevola",
and each has its own name and no single one is called Cevola,
but all together are called Cevola. - Friar Marcos De Niza

Ruin shards near El Morro

Two days later (May 31, 1583) Espejo and his eight
companions took leave of the Zuni Indians.

From Galisteo, Espejo crossed the mountains to the
northeast to the Pecos River Valley. A short distance from
that river, which they called Rio de Las Vacas,
because of the buffalo that ranged it's banks.
 

If Cibola was a known Spanish word,
why didn't Espejo use it for the Rio de Las Vacas?
Because Cibola wasn't Spanish, ... yet.

Ruins near El Morro

Resources

Hodge, F. W.. "The Six Cities of Cíbola, 1581–1680."
New Mexico Historical Review 1, 4 (1926)

Mecham, J. Lloyd "Antonio de Espejo and His Journey to New Mexico"
The Southwestern Historical Quarterly ,
Oct., 1926, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Oct., 1926), pp. 114-138

*Note - In comparative historical linguistics, the reconstructed Proto-Kiowa-Tanoan root for bison is *kol-.
Tewa: Kóo-hyáre (“buffalo dance”).  Cibola was not loaned from Tanoan contacts.

The modern Zuni word for herd, livestock is "wo-".
Si:wolo (bison) has that "wo-" hooved root component.
Perhaps "hairy herd" fits, with - lo affixing a collective form. "That hairy herd"?
Just a theory.
.
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Vowel and Colon  = Long Vowel ~ ~ ~ Webpage by 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌺𐍃.

 

ZUNI LANGUAGE DICTIONARY / VOCABULARY Link

KERESAN LANGUAGE CONVERSATIONAL PHRASES Link

KERESAN LANGUAGE VOCABULARY Link

DINÉ LANGUAGE CONVERSATIONAL PHRASES Link

EL MORRO QUADRILINGUAL VOCABULARY Link

Toward the west, they came to a certain province called by the inhabitants themselves Zuny, and called by the Spanards Cibola
 

Click Here for PDF of a ZUNI Public School District book on Greetings

Link to - New Mexico Digital Zuni Language Materials Collection

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