As a young girl living in the Red River region of what is now East Texas, Big Eyes was captured by the Tejas and, after a short time, she was sold by them as a slave to the Tiguex people of Arizona. She remained with them until she was approximately 20 when an event occurred which had a far reaching impact on what is now the United States.

In 1540, the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado came upon the Tiguex and, in the battle which followed, Big Eyes was captured and became the property of Juan de Zaldivar, one of Coronado's captains. She was taken with the expedition as they continued their journey north and then east �?following first the Pecos River and then the Red River in their search for the Seven Cities of Cibola and the gold they were certain would be found there. When the expedition reached the Texas panhandle, Big Eyes recognized the land, and was able to escape Zaldivar to return to her people, the Wichitas. She told amazing stories of the Spanish she had lived with; of their odd foods, strange ways, and of the sights she had seen.

When Hernando de Soto's expedition from Florida reached the Mississippi Valley in the summer of 1542, the Natives there told de Soto of the Wichitas woman who had traveled to the west and back, and who had seen and known the great Coronado. Big Eyes was located, and was pressed by de Soto for information about Coronado and his travels. She was able to trace in the dirt the route Coronado had taken from the Rio Grande, and the journey she had taken from Tule Canyon to her homeland. One of the men of the de Soto party copied Big Eyes sketches in the dirt onto a piece of parchment, and that scrap of parchment eventually made its way to Europe and to the map makers of the world.

Because of Big Eyes, her memory, and her adventures, the first link was made between the expeditions of Coronado in the west, and de Soto in the east. For the first time, map makers were able to estimate the scope of this continent and its width. As with so many Native women, Big Eyes slips from the records after her monumental contribution to the history and physical formation of this country.