Antonio Gutierrez de Umana and Francisco Leyba de Bonilla
Encyclopedia
Umana and Leyba, Spanish colonists, made an unauthorized expedition to the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...

 in 1594 or 1595. An Indian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

, Jusepe Gutierrez
Jusepe Gutierrez
Jusepe Gutierrez was a Native American guide and explorer. He was the only known survivor of the Umana and Leyba expedition to the Great Plains in 1594 or 1595...

, was the only survivor of the expedition.

Background

In 1593, Antonio Gutierrez de Umana (also spelled Humana) recruited Jusepe in Culiacan
Culiacán
Culiacán is a city in northwestern Mexico, the largest city in the state of Sinaloa as well as its capital and capital of the municipality of Culiacán. With 675,773 inhabitants in the city , and 858,638 in the municipality, it is the largest city in the state of Sinaloa...

, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 to join him on an entrada (expedition) to what would become New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

. At the time, the Viceroy in New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...

 (Mexico) was planning to authorize an official expedition and colonization of New Mexico. The expedition of Umana and his partner, Francisco Leyba de Bonilla (also spelled Leyva) was therefore illegal.

After recruiting Jusepe, Umana and Leyba found additional Spanish and Indian soldiers and servants in Santa Barbara, Chihuahua and proceeded onward to New Mexico. They remained there about one year among the Pueblo Indians near the Rio Grande River. At the time there were no Spanish settlers in New Mexico although there may have been other fortune-seekers and slavers living among the Pueblos.

The Expedition

Jusepe told the story of the expedition to Juan de Onate
Juan de Oñate
Don Juan de Oñate y Salazar was a Spanish explorer, colonial governor of the New Spain province of New Mexico, and founder of various settlements in the present day Southwest of the United States.-Biography:...

.

Umana and Lebya and an unknown number of Spanish and Indian soldiers and servants left New Mexico to explore eastwards, presumably in search of rich kingdoms which were rumored to be just over the horizon. Their route led them by the Indian pueblo at Pecos
Pecos National Historical Park
Pecos National Historical Park is a National Historical Park in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is located about east of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The site was originally designated Pecos National Monument on June 28, 1965. In 1990 new lands were added to the park and the official designation was...

 and out onto the Great Plains of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 where they met the Vaquero (Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...

) Indians. They found numerous rancherias, some of them abandoned, and herds of bison
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...

, he American buffalo. Jusepe said they found abundant water in many marshes, springs, and arroyos as well as great numbers of plum trees and nuts. At some point they turned toward the north. The further they went the more abundant were bison. After traveling 45 days, they crossed two big rivers and beyond was a very large Indian settlement ten leagues long (about 26 miles) and two leagues wide. One the two rivers flowed through the settlement.

Jusepe gave a brief description of the "Great Settlement." The houses were built on a frame of stakes with straw roofs. They were built close together, separated by narrow pathways and, in some places, between the houses were fields of maize, pumpkins, and beans. The people of the settlement received the Spanish in peace and provided them with food. They depended upon buffalo hunting as well as agriculture.

Leaving the settlement, three days toward the north they came upon a "multitude of buffalo," but no more Indian settlements. Discord between the leaders broke out. Umana spent an afternoon and morning in his tent apparently writing up his account of the dispute and then sent a soldier, Miguel Perez, to summon Leyba. Leyba came to Umana's tent, dressed in shirt and breeches only. Umana "drew a butcher knife which he carried in his pocket, unsheathed it, and stabbed Captain Leyba twice." Leyba died and was quickly buried. Then Umana showed "some papers" to his men. He said that because Leyba had threatened to give him a "beating with a stick" he had killed him.

The expedition continued, reaching a very large river ten days beyond the Great Settlement. The river was one-fourth of a league wide (about two-thirds of a mile), deep and sluggish. "They did not dare to cross it." It was here that five of the Indians, including Jusepe, deserted . Three became lost on the plains and Indians killed another. Jusepe was taken captive by Apaches and lived with them for a year until he escaped or was set free and made his way back to New Mexico. By this time (1596) Onate and a large group of settlers had arrived in New Mexico and Jusepe took up residence at the San Juan Bautista Pueblo. On February 16, 1599, Onate interviewed him concerning the Umana and Leyba entrada.

According to later accounts from Indians, Umana and the other members of the expedition were killed by Indians 18 days beyond the Great Settlement.

Where were the "Great Settlement " and the "great river?"

In 1601, Jusupe guided Juan de Onate, the founder of New Mexico and governor of the new colony, on a large expedition to the Plains. He took Onate to the same area where he had gone with Umana and Leyba. They found the Great Settlement which was probably located either at the site of present day Wichita, Kansas
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...

 or along the Walnut River
Walnut River
The Walnut River is a tributary of the Arkansas River, long, in the Flint Hills region of Kansas in the United States. Via the Arkansas, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed....

 in Arkansas City, Kansas
Arkansas City, Kansas
Arkansas City is a city situated at the confluence of the Arkansas and Walnut rivers in the southwestern part of Cowley County, located in south-central Kansas, in the central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 12,415....

. Archaeological discoveries favor the Walnut River. The people of the Great Settlement were almost certainly Wichita Indians
Wichita (tribe)
The Wichita people are indigenous inhabitants of North America, who traditionally spoke the Wichita language, a Caddoan language. They have lived in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas...

 whom Onate called Rayados.

The large river where Jusepe deserted the expedition may have been the Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

, perhaps near Kansas City. The Missouri is about 500 yards wide at this point, not as wide as Jusepe estimated, but the largest river that could be reached in about 10 days travel from the Great Settlement. This would be the first known visit of Europeans to the Missouri River.

What does not fit very well with this possible route is Jusepe's comment that three days beyond the Great Settlement that they came upon "such a multitude of buffalo that the plain - which was level, for there are no mountains -- was so covered with them that they were startled and amazed at the sight." If the Great Settlement were at Wichita or Arkansas City, three days travel toward the Missouri River would place the expedition in the rocky and rolling Flint Hills—not a plain. Moreover in historic times buffalo were most abundant in the shorter grass prairies west of Longitude 97 rather the tall grass prairies to the east. Thus, the contradictions in Jusepe's account will continue to incite speculation.

Conceivably the "great river" was the Kansas
Kansas River
The Kansas River is a river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is the southwestern-most part of the Missouri River drainage, which is in turn the northwestern-most portion of the extensive Mississippi River drainage. Its name come from the Kanza people who once inhabited the area...

 which during high water would have been deep and wide. The Platte River
Platte River
The Platte River is a major river in the state of Nebraska and is about long. Measured to its farthest source via its tributary the North Platte River, it flows for over . The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, which in turn is a tributary of the Mississippi River which flows to...

 in Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

has also been suggested, but that would require a major recalculation of the route of Umana, Leyba, and Onate and the location of the Great Settlement.
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