Etzanoa . . . the Itza Mayas in southeastern Kansas

Etzanoa is the Spanish version of Itzanoa . . . an Itza Maya word that means Itza River!

In the 1500s, this massive town at the confluence of the Arkansas and Walnut Rivers contained over 20,000 residents, but was part of a megapolis containing perhaps, 200,000 people. When Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado’s expedition visited present-day Kansas in 1541, he dubbed the culturally advanced Indigenous Province, “Quivira”. The Umana and Leyba expedition visited the Etzanoa site in 1594 and Juan de Oñate visited there in 1601.

Ancestors of the Wichita People lived in that part of Kansas. Either the town was founded by Itza colonists or the Native American name for either the Arkansas or Walnut River was “Itza River.”

The suffix, “noa” also appears on several river names in the Southeastern United States.

The Mayas in Georgia Series

The Itza Language Family

Itza is a family of languages spoken today among the Tamulte Maya in Tabasco State, plus by many Maya tribes in the Highlands of Chiapas State, central & eastern Campeche State, the Guatemalan Highlands, western Belize and among the Hitchiti Seminoles-Miccosukee in southern Florida. Most Creeks in northern Georgia, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee spoke an Itza dialect, but my grandmother’s generation was the last that even knew some Itsate words.

The majority of the 300,000 Highland Maya immigrants, who came to North Georgia to work in the poultry, carpet and construction industries, speak a dialect of Itza as their mother tongue. They are terrified, if I speak Spanish to them, because they fear that I am some sort of Federal agent or a local cop trying to get on the band wagon of harassing Indigenous Peoples from Latin America . . . but if I speak Itza to tell them that their ancestors came here over a thousand years ago . . . they look stunned, thinking perhaps I am the god Kukulkan. LOL

When the Itza boats landed on the Pacific Coast of Chiapas around 1500 BC, the spoke a language entirely different than any in Mesaoamerica. Over time they absorbed words and grammar from the locals. Between 200 AD and 600 AD, they were ruled by Totonacs from Teotihuacan. Then, many Itza provinces came under the domination of large city states in the Lowlands of Campeche and Guatemala, which spoke “Classic” Maya languages. Only the Itzas in central Campeche, western Chiapas and along the Gulf Coast of Tabasco maintained a degree of political independence.

Thus, in Itza there are often duplicate words from Austronesian, Totonac and Lowland Maya languages that mean the same thing. For example, chiki, choko, kalle and nah all mean “house.”

When the big city states collapsed, the Itzas rose to power and expanded beyond Palenque and a cluster of towns in central Campeche . . . absorbing words from even more cultures. They founded the great city of Chichen Itza. So, modern Itza contains numerous Totonac and Lowland Maya words, plus some Toltec and Mexica (Aztec) words.

The discovery of Etzanoa

Etzanoa was mentioned by several 16th and early 17th century Spanish expeditions then disappeared from the maps. For decades, academicians debated where the great town was located . . . or if it even ever existed.

Archaeologist Dr. Don Blakeslee rediscovered Etzanoa in June 2015 after a teenage boy showed him artifacts that he had found near the Walnut River. Blakeslee, is a professor at Wichita State University.  In this excellent and fascinating documentary video below,  he explains the on-going archaeological work occurring on this massive town site.