“Arroyo” is borrowed from Spanish (in which it means “stream”) to name a particular kind of steep-sided gully formed over time by fast-moving water. This type of land feature is commonly found in the southwestern United States, an area that was originally settled by the Spanish. The word “arroyo” is used in American literature to bring to mind specific imagery. In Willa Cather’s 1918 book about settling the American West, we find the phrase, “the deep arroyo through which Squaw Creek wound.” Dee Brown later wrote about “a vast and rugged country broken by … steep-banked arroyos” in 1970’s “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”