Guachoyo

Guachoya was an Indigenous chiefdom in the lowlands near the Mississippi and lower Arkansas rivers. Its settlements formed part of a fertile region of maize-growing communities linked by waterways. In 1542 Hernando de Soto reached Guachoya after visiting neighboring Anilco, whose chief had resisted his approach.

The chief of Guachoya had met the Spanish commander at Anilco and expressed friendship. De Soto hoped to reach Spanish settlements by water and obtain supplies, but fell ill at Guachoya and died in May 1542. His companions concealed his death from the local people and placed his body in a hollow tree and sank it in the Mississippi. The expedition subsequently continued under Luis de Moscoso, leaving behind a region transformed by the violence of its passage.