Tiwa is the English name for these peoples, which is derived from the Spanish term Tigua and put into use by Frederick Webb Hodge.
The Spanish spelling of the name as Tihua is contemporarily accepted, though the anglicized form (Tiwa) is, perhaps, academically more prevalent.
The Governor of the New Mexico Territory, LeBaron Bradford Prince, wrote about a difference between the Tehua pueblos and the Tihua nation.
Coronado fought the Tiguex War against 12 of the southern Tiwa pueblos around what is now Albuquerque, which together with the diseases and consolidation of missions by the Catholic priests the Spanish brought, resulted in the abandonment of many of the villages.
[2] A band of peaceful Tiwa, called Tigua, are massacred in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, referring to a period around 1849-50.