The Tiguex War was one of the first wars between Europeans 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,