The Perceptions of the Bison in the Chronicles of the Spanish Northern Frontier

The hopes of strengthening the Spanish economy with the American bison products of the northern frontier sparked the interests of Spaniards as early as 1536. In the following 250 years explorers, colonizers and authorities continued their quest for bison products. The various Spanish accounts show how these products were pivotal to the subsistence of the New Mexico colony as they had been for Pueblo and Plains natives for centuries.