Tanico

Tanico was a town in Cayas, a farming province along the Arkansas River. Its inhabitants lived in a landscape of scattered farmsteads rather than the fortified towns found farther east along the Mississippi. In 1541 Hernando de Soto's expedition entered Cayas and later continued upriver. Guides from Tanico led the Spaniards toward the Tula, whose language they did not understand. The encounter with the Tula ended in fierce fighting.