Historical Introduction to Studies Among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico‪…‬

From a distance, Fray Marcos sees a great pueblo of stone, its houses rising several stories, and names it Cibola—“more considerable than Mexico.” How did a glimpse become the promise of seven cities?

In sixteenth-century Mexico, reports of northern settlements mingled with older tales of the Seven Caves and rumors of the Seven Cities. Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier traces how these stories shaped Spanish expectations, from Fray Marcos’s journey north to Coronado’s expedition, while reading the chronicles for clues to the Native peoples who lived in New Mexico and Arizona. The accounts are vivid, but routes blur, claims grow grand, and legend can be hard to separate from evidence. What can these early reports really tell us about the communities behind the fabled cities?

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