cíbolas

( cíbolo [sípolo], abbreviation for ganado de Cíbola or toro de Cíbola. Cíbola was a territory in Arizona and New Mexico < Zuni siwona)

   1) Carlisle: 1888. A buffalo, or American bison. Santamaría concurs, adding that in Mexican Spanish the term cíbolo may also refer to the hide of the animal, which is so thick and soft that travelers use it in place of a mattress. Cobos indicates that in New Mexico and southern Colorado Spanish, the animal is also called vaca de Cíbola 'cow from Cíbola.'

   2) A land of great wealth, or seven golden cities, searched for by Coronado and other early Spanish explorers. Blevins and Hendrickson indicate that the area later proved to be a region in western New Mexico inhabited by Zuni Indians. Santamaría glosses cíbolas (also cíbolos) as inhabitants of an imaginary city, country, or kingdom called Cíbola, which the Spaniards searched for in vain. He also notes a fissure in a mountain range in Coahuila, Mexico, that is known as Cíbolo. In addition, members of an ancient Indian tribe in Coahuila are known as cíbolas.