Food.

An army of hundreds of people and hundreds of horses consumed enormous quantities.

Native agricultural communities had food stored because their survival depended on planning for future seasons.

To the Spanish, those stores could look like supplies waiting to be taken.

To the Native community, they represented months of labor.

Corn was not simply a crop.

It was time.

It was the work of clearing fields, planting, tending, harvesting, processing, storing, and protecting.