The Escanjaques were an
American Indian tribe
In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, tribal nation, or similar concept is any extant or historical clan, tribe, band, nation, or other group or community of Native Americans in the Unit ...
who lived in the
Southern Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and ...
.
Juan de Oñate
Juan de Oñate y Salazar (; 1550–1626) was a Spanish conquistador from New Spain, explorer, and colonial governor of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in the viceroyalty of New Spain. He led early Spanish expeditions to the Great ...
encountered the Escanjaque in 1601 during an expedition to the
Great Plains of
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
,
Oklahoma, and
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...
. The Escanjaques may have been identical with the Aguacane who lived along the tributaries of the
Red River in western Oklahoma. If so, they were probably related to the people later known as the
Wichita.
Juan de Oñate
Juan de Oñate, governor and founder of the newly created Spanish province of
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
, led a Spanish expedition to the Great Plains in 1601. He followed the route taken by an unauthorized expedition in 1595, by
Francisco Leyva de Bonilla and Antonio Gutierrez de Humana. A Mexican Indian named
Jusepe Gutierrez
Jusepe Gutierrez (also known as Joseph and usually called only by his given name),) (born c. 1572; fl. 1590s, death date unknown) was a Native Nahua guide and explorer. He was the only known survivor of the Umana and Leyba expedition to the Gre ...
, from
Culiacan,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, guided Oñate. Jusepe was a survivor of the Leyva and Humana expedition.
Accompanied by Jusepe, more than 70 Spanish soldiers and priests, an unknown number of Indigenous soldiers and servants, and 700 horses and mules, Oñate journeyed across the plains eastward from New Mexico. Departing June 23, he followed the
Canadian River
The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River in the United States. It is about long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma. The drainage area is about .[Quivira
Quivira is a place named by Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541, for the mythical Seven Cities of Gold that he never found.
Quivira was a province of the ancestral Wichita people, located near the Great Bend of the Arkans ...]
. = "They were not a people who sowed or reaped, but they lived solely on the cattle
ison
Ison, ISON or variant, may refer to: Geography
* Isön, a small island in lake Storsjön, Jämtland, Sweden People First name / given name
*Ison (rapper), stage name of Ison Glasgow, a Swedish rapper of American origin Last name / family name
* Dav ...
They were ruled by chiefs ...
utthey obeyed their chiefs but little. They had large quantities of hides which, wrapped around their bodies, served them as clothing, but the weather being hot, all the men went about nearly naked, the women being clothed from the waist down. Men and women alike used bows and arrows, with which they were very dexterous."
The Escanjaques led Oñate to a large settlement of their enemies, the
Rayados, about 30 miles away. The Rayados abandoned their settlement and Oñate restrained with difficulty the Escanjaques from looting it. He sent them back to their own settlement. However, when Oñate returned to the Escanjaque settlement the next day, the Indians had turned unfriendly and he estimated that 1,500 men attacked him. Oñate fought a two-hour battle with them before retiring from the field and beginning his return to New Mexico. Oñate said that several Spaniards were wounded in the battle and claimed that a large number of Indians were killed.
A cause of the battle may have been that Oñate kidnapped several women and children from the Escanjaques. Oñate released — or was forced to release — several of the women but he "took some boys upon the request of the religious, in order to instruct them in the matters of our holy
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
faith." One of those kidnapped was named Miguel, a captive of the Escanjaques himself from a land he called Tancoa, possibly the
Tonkawa
The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe indigenous to present-day Oklahoma. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct, is a linguistic isolate.
Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the federally recognized Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. ...
of North Texas and Oklahoma. Miguel would later provide information for the first map of the region.
The identity of the Escanjaques
Some authorities have identified the Escanjaques as
Apache, but Oñate's account would seem to distinguish them from the Apache who were by this time well known to the Spanish. They have also been identified as the
Kaw
Kaw or KAW may refer to:
Mythology
* Kaw (bull), a legendary bull in Meitei mythology
* Johnny Kaw, mythical settler of Kansas, US
* Kaw (character), in ''The Chronicles of Prydain''
People
* Kaw people, a Native American tribe
Places
* Kaw, Fr ...
, although not persuasively as the Kaw are not known to be on the Great Plains in 1601.
It is possible that "Escanjaques" was not the name of the Indians, but rather a greeting. On meeting Oñate, they extended their hands toward the sun and returned it to their breasts saying "escanjaque." "
Later, Miguel told the Spaniards that the Escanjaques were, in reality, a people called the Aguacane. His information enabled the Spanish to draw a map of the region in which the Aguacane seemed to be located in southwestern Oklahoma along the Red River and its tributaries. If so, it is likely the Escanjaques (Aguacane) were speakers of a
Caddoan
The Caddoan languages are a family of languages native to the Great Plains spoken by tribal groups of the central United States, from present-day North Dakota south to Oklahoma. All Caddoan languages are critically endangered, as the number of ...
language and probably akin to the Wichita. Given their geographic location, the Aguacane might also be identical or related to the people called
Teyas
Teyas were a Native American people living near Lubbock, Texas who first made contact with Europeans in 1541 when Francisco Vásquez de Coronado traveled to them.
The tribal affiliation and language of the Teyas is unknown, although many scholars ...
by
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado 60 years before Oñate.
A few more references in the 16th century to the Escanjaques have survived. It has been suggested that their descendants were the
Iscani
The Wichita people or Kitikiti'sh are a confederation of Southern Plains Native American tribes. Historically they spoke the Wichita language and Kichai language, both Caddoan languages. They are indigenous to Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas.
...
, a Wichita tribe of the 18th century.
Location of the Escanjaque settlement
The Escanjaque settlement Oñate found was probably a temporary camp. Its size, 600 tents and 5,000 people, precludes if from being a hunting camp. Perhaps the camp was large because the Escanjaques intended to go to war with the Rayados, or possibly it was formed to trade with the Rayados for Florence chert, a flint favored for arrowheads over much of Oklahoma and Kansas.
The site of the Escanjaque settlement has not been found and the geographical details in Oñate's account of his journey do not permit a location to be determined with certainty. Two possible locations are suggested: the
Ninnescah River about 20 miles south of the present site of
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...
or the
Salt Fork River near
Tonkawa, Oklahoma
Tonkawa is a city in Kay County, Oklahoma, United States, along the Salt Fork Arkansas River. The population was 3,216 at the 2010 census, a decline of 2.5 percent from the figure of 3,299 in 2000.
History
Named after the Tonkawa tribe, the cit ...
. Archaeological data best supports the Tonkawa site. An extensive archaeological site at
Arkansas City, Kansas, is believed by many to be the site of the Rayado village. Extrapolating backwards a location near Tonkawa for the Escanjaque settlement fits with Oñate's account.
[Vehik, p. 14-21, Bolton, p. 205]
See also
*
Quivira
Quivira is a place named by Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541, for the mythical Seven Cities of Gold that he never found.
Quivira was a province of the ancestral Wichita people, located near the Great Bend of the Arkans ...
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Escanjaque Indians
Caddoan peoples
Extinct Native American tribes
Kay County, Oklahoma
Native American tribes in Kansas
Native American tribes in Oklahoma
Native American tribes in Texas
Plains tribes