The story of Texas begins many thousands of years before the birth of Christ, when
ice masses connected the continents of Asia and North America, between points in
what we now know as Siberia and Alaska. Between 12,000 and 40,000 years ago,
until the Bering Sea reclaimed this bridge of ice for good, Asiatic nomads of the same
Homo sapiens group that became today’s Mongoloid race trekked across it in a series
of distinct migration as they hunted for edible plants and animals. (Calvert, De León,
Cantrell, p. 1)
When and from where?
Most scholars agree that the Western Hemisphere was settled in a series of migrations
across the Bering Strait from Asia. There is uncertainty when these migrations took place.
Sometime after 14,000 B.C., hunting groups expanded into the hemisphere. However, some
evidence suggests that humans may have been present in South America as early as
35,000 B.C. Most likely, groups of humans came to the Americas in different waves of
migration. (Burkholder & Johnson, p. 1)
Clovis Spearheads
Nomadic Beginnings: Ancient nomads dispersed throughout the vast land of North and
South America. Different cultural and linguistic patterns appeared as bands struck out on
their own in the search for fresh sources of game and vegetation, and as people sought to
adjust to diverse habitats.
(Calvert, De León, Cantrell, p. 1)
(Calvert, De León, Cantrell, p. 1)
New World peoples began to develop agriculture around 7000 B.C. Once New
World societies learned to till the soil and harvest plants, human beings began
to exercise some control over nature and develop strong ties to the land.
Maize, beans and squash were planted in the same hill of soil, loosened and
weeded by hoes made of shoulder blades of bison and elk.
http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/landmgt/parks/i&m/CORRIDOR/archeo/sites/sites.htm
By 1500 over 350 major tribal groups, 15 distinct
cultural group centers, and more than 160 linguistic
stocks could be found in Latin America. (Burkholder
& Johnson, p. 1)
Despite the wide variety of different
Amerindian peoples, there were,
essentially, three forms or levels of
Indian culture:
•Nomadic hunters and gatherers
•Sedentary or semi-sedentary
•Complex civilizations
Despite the wide variety of
different Amerindian
peoples, there were,
essentially, three forms or
levels of Indian culture:
•Nomadic hunters and
gatherers
•Sedentary or semisedentary
•Complex civilizations
•The Maya
•The Aztecs
•The Incas
See pp. 2-3.
See page 3.
Pueblos
Northeast
Woodlands
“Five Civilized
Tribes”
The Location of some Texas
Indian Peoples Around the MidSeventeenth Century
Karankawas and Coahuiltecans
The Karankawas and the Coahuiltecans lacked
formal political organization; social life revolved
around the family, extending into small autonomous
bands (related by kin) presided over by a chieftain.
(Calvert, De León, Cantrell, p. 5)
Karankawa territoriality extended along a
thin area running down the coast from
Matagorda (some archaeologists believe
even as far north as the Lower Brazos
River region) to Corpus Christi Bay. To
guarantee a reliable and abundant food
supply, the Karankawas during the fall and
winter stayed close to the coast, when
they relied most heavily on shellfish,
aquatic plants, and water fowl, but also
hunted deer and even alligators. For life
along the bays and lagoons, the
Karankawas built small canoes from tree
trunks and fashioned nets, an assortment
of traps, lances, and bows and arrows.
During the spring and summer, the
Karankawas moved inland to the coastal
prairies and woodlands. There they relied
less on marine life (though numerous rivers
and creeks still provided them with fish)
and more on land animals—among them
deer, rabbits, prairie fowl, and occasionally
buffalo—and the annual offerings of nuts,
beans, and fruits produced by indigenous
trees and shrubs.
(Calvert, De León, Cantrell, p. 5)
Karankawa
Territory
Beans of the mesquite tree were an
important food to native groups in late
summer and fall. Photo of display at the
Institute of Texan Cultures, San Antonio.
Source:
http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/stplains/peoples/coahuiltecans.html
The Coahuiltecans
Source of paintings:
http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/stplains/peoples/coahuiltecans.html
The Coahuiltecans lived in the Gulf Coast Plain and much of
what is today considered south Texas and northeast Mexico.
Similar to the Karankawas, the Coahuiltecans migrated
according to changes in seasons. Both the Karankawas and
Coahuiltecans usually dwelled in dome-shaped wigwams
covered by animal skins or improvised windbreaks. When it
came time to move, they simply dismantled their shelters,
taking them and other useful items with them. During the
warmer season, the Coahuiltecans foraged for nature’s
yields over a large expanse of South Texas. They took
advantage of the spring rains, catching fish trapped in
receding pools of water, and hunting deer, lizards, birds, fish,
insects and gathering mesquite beans, prickly pears, pecans,
and roots. (Calvert, De León, Cantrell, p. 5.)
Source: http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/tejas/fundamentals/who.html
Caddo village scene about 900 years ago (A.D. 1100) as envisioned by
artist George S. Nelson. This scene is based on archeological details
from the George C. Davis site in east Texas and on early historic
accounts. Courtesy of the artist and the Institute of Texan Cultures, the
University of Texas at San Antonio.
Source: http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/tejas/fundamentals/life.html
The Caddo
The Caddo constructed domeshaped homes from grass and
cane. As many as four families
shared one such domicile, for
Caddo home life apparently
revolved around multifamily
dwelling. (Calvert, De León, Cantrell, p. 5.)
Artist's depiction of early Caddo village, about 900 years ago. Painting
by Nola Davis on display at Caddoan Mounds State Historic Park, Alto,
Texas. Courtesy Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
WPA workers uncovering outline enormous Late Caddo temple structure
covered by an earthen mound at the Hatchel site on Red River near
Texarkana, thought to be the location of the Upper Nasoni village visited
in 1691 by the Teran Expedition.
Workers from the University of Texas-WPA project uncovering structural
remains within the Hatchel Mound near Texarkana in 1938. This
archeological excavation was among the largest ever undertaken at a
Caddo site. Photograph from TARL archives
Chiefs known as the xinesí presided
over Caddo society, both as political
and religious leaders. Serving in a
hereditary position, the xinesí (whose
authority extended over several Caddo
communities) mediated between his
followers and a supreme deity—the
world’s creator who influenced both
good and bad things in life—and led
religious celebrations, ceremonies, and
festivals. In Caddo society, the xinesí
was a person demanding of respect
from tribal members, who looked upon
him as a powerful figure able to
determine such phenomenon as a
successful sowing; as such, the
xinesís’s wishes and directives were to
be followed unquestionably. (p. 7)
Grand Xinesi (pronounced chenesi, meaning Mr. Moon), head religious
leader of the Hasinai alliance. Painting by Reeda Peel, based on
descriptions by Spanish explorers in the late 1600s. Courtesy of the
artist.
The Jumano Indians
Inhabiting the Trans-Pecos area in the final years of the fifteenth century were the Jumanos.
Quite plausibly the whole of western Texas was the domain of the Jumanos before such fierce
tribes as the Apaches and Comanches entered the region sometime in the seventeenth century.
At La Junta de los Ríos (the confluence of the Rio Grande and the Concho Rivers), the Jumanos
established permanent settlements and cultivated maize, beans and squash. The nomadic
Junanos of the West Texas plains were nearly full-time hunters and gatherers. They roamed the
vast grasslands in pursuit of a variety of game: from snakes, fish and birds, to deer, antelope,
rabbits, and armadillos, and, naturally, to the indispensable buffalo, which furnished them with
meat for food and hides for shelter and clothing.
Both the sedentary and nomadic Junanos
earned reputations as accomplished
merchants. The nomadic Junanos, in
particular, appear to have made commerce
as much a part of their war of life as was
hunting, establishing trading villages on
the Plains as centers of exchange.
(Calvert, De León,
Cantrell, pp. 7-8)
Before they acquired horses, Indians of the Plains
sometimes hunted buffalo by driving them over cliffs, as
shown in this model of a Blackfoot buffalo jump. Today,
buffalo herds provide meat and hides for community
events, and the buffalo remains important to the culture
of Plains Indians.
The Spaniards and the Jumanos
The Spaniards responded to the Jumanos’
invitation with an expedition to Jumano country
in 1629 commanded by Fray Juan de Salas, and
another on in 1632 led by the Franciscans.
Spanish entered Jumano territory to:
• Proselytize
• Harvest freshwater pearls (found in
mollusks living in the western
tributaries of the Colorado River)
• Obtain buffalo hides, tallow and meat
• Seek trade relations with the Caddo
Indians
(Calvert, De León, Cantrell, p. 20)
“In 1654…Diego de Guadalajara returned
to Jumano country in search of pearlbearing conchas (shells) in the present-day
forks of the Concho River of West Texas.”
In 1683, the Jumano Chief Juan Sabeata asked the Spaniards to
send priest to his lands in West Texas, and, parenthetically, for
assistance in countering threats from Apaches. Responding to
Sabeata’s request, Spanish authorities dispatched a missionary
expedition led by Juan Domínguez de Mendoza and Fray Nicolás
López to the San Sabá River area, where they established
themselves at Mission San Clemente.
After about six weeks at San Clemente, proselytizing and
collecting thousands of buffalo hinds, the Spaniards left the
Jumanos promising to return at a later date. (Calvert, De León,
Cantrell, p. 20)
THE FOUNDING OF SAN ANTONIO DE BÉXAR: In 1718 an
expedition, led by Martín de Alarcón, marched from Mexico City
toward the Río San Antonio in 1718 to found a military post called
San Antonio de Béxar and a mission they named San Antonio de
Valero. The new presidio and mission would serve the purpose of
Christianizing the Coahuiltecan Indians, who had long eked out a
marginal existence in their ancestral territories and were presently
under attack by marauding bands of Apaches coming down from
the plains. (Calvert, De León, Cantrell, 4th ed., 24.)
The Spanish established other settlements in Texas
1721
1731
1746
1750s
1757
Los Adaes
Canary Islanders established a civilian settlement, San Fernando de Bexar, near
the presidios and missions that constituted San Antonio.
The Spanish established a presidio and missions on the San Gabriel river to assist
the Tonkawas defend themselves from the Apaches and Comanches. The
enterprise was abandoned in 1755.
Laredo
The Spanish established a mission and presidio along the San Saba river for trade
and missionary work among the Apaches. The enterprise was abandoned in
1769.
Spanish Settlers in Texas
THE THREAT OF INDIANS ATTACKS AND THE DEMIS OF THE MISSION OF SAN SABÁ: Since the establishment of the San Antonio
complex, Apache Indians had made periodic attacks on the settlements there, but by the 1740s their own hostilities with the
Comanches had made the Apaches receptive to an alliance with the Spaniards. Seeing the opportunity to Christianize the Apaches
finally present itself, the Spaniards in 1757 established a mission and fort along the San Sabá River; prospects of finding silver
deposits also encouraged the enterprise. It did not last long. (Calvert, De León, Cantrell, 4th ed., 25.)
In March of 1758 a large
force of Nortenos attacked,
looted, and burned Mission
San Sabá, less than one
year after its founding. The
mission was never rebuilt,
however, the presidio lived
on for another 14 years
until hope for silver riches
waned. The presidio was
abandoned in 1772 by order
of the Viceroy of New
Spain.
José de Páez, Destruction of Mission San Sabá in the Province of Texas and the Martyrdom of the Fathers Alonso Giraldo de Terreros, Joseph
Santiesteban, c. 1763. Courtesy of the Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City. Mission San Sabá was the northernmost Spanish mission
established in Texas and was destroyed by Indians in a 1760 attack. The painting was commission in the mid- 1760s, within a decade of the
event, on commission from mining magnate Pedro Romero de Terreros, cousin of the martyred priest and sponsor of the mission. The artist is
believed, on stylistic grounds, to have been Jose de Paez (the mural is not signed). Sources: http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/sansaba/ &
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/rtyler/HIS350L/Texas/page2.htm
THE PLAINS INDIANS: The Apaches, Comanches, Kiowas, and
Tonkawas did not live in Texas in pre-Columbian times, but came to
play an important part in Texas history during the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries.
A Comanche named Bow
and Quiver. Painted by
George Catlin in 1832.
New Power in the Horse
The Apaches and Comanches would not enter the region until
sometime in the seventeenth century. The Apaches and Comanches,
as well as the Kiowas and Tonkawas, found new power in the horse,
for they learned to ride horseback with great skill while hunting
buffalo, conducting warfare, or relocating to newer locales. These
Indian peoples depended on the buffalo for almost all their living
essentials, including shelter, clothing, weapons, and tools. They
generally lacked any pan-tribal political structure, families forming
the basic social foundation. (Calvert, De León, Cantrell, pp. 9-10)
Pictograph of a conquistador, Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, part of
a procession of mounted Spaniards drawn on the canyon wall.
Riders on horseback and an
antelope are pictured in this rock
drawing at Canyon de Chelly
National Monument. (AP
Photo/Beth J. Harpaz)
Newcomers: “Strikingly different from the aforementioned Native
American tribes were the Apaches, Comanches, Wichitas, and
Tonkawas. None of these Indian peoples—all of whom would play
important parts in Texas history during the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries—lived in Texas in pre-Columbian times.”
(Calvert, De León, Cantrell, 4th ed., 9.)
A Gros Ventre family demonstrating how Plains peoples moved their
camp by horse travois. Photographed by Edward Curtis, 1904.
(Library of Congress [#USZ62-40310])
"Buffalo Chase" by George Catlin.
A Blackfoot encampment at twilight, photographed
by Walter McClintock at the turn of the century.
A Pawnee buffalo robe
depicting the tribe's victory
on horseback over a band
of horseless Kansa Indians.
A Shoshone elk
hide depicting a
buffalo hunt on
horseback and
at the center a
dance to bring
luck in the hunt.
George Armstrong Custer (left
center in light clothing) leads a
military expedition into the Black
Hills of Dakota Territory in 1874.
"The Villa Brule." A Brule Lakota camp at Pine Ridge reservation in Dakota
Territory, 1891. Though the scene is from a later era, after the Wounded Knee
Massacre of 1890, it gives some idea of the culture that came under direct attack
by the U. S. Army in the mid-1870's. Photograph by J. C. H. Grabill.
A pictograph showing the dead horses left in the aftermath of
the Battle of the Little Bighorn, by the Minniconjou Lakota chief,
Red Horse, who fought in the battle.
Native Americans, 1821-1836
• Those tribes that the Spanish had targeted for conversion had by the 1820s either perished due
to wars and (European) diseases, been displaced from their native lands and driving into the
western regions, or had integrated successfully into Spanish/Mexican communities.
• Only vestiges of the Coahuiltecans remained by the 1830s
• In 1824, setters from Austin’s colony launched hostilities against the Karankawas to drive them
from their ancestral hunting lands. During the 1830s, the Karankawas numbered less than 800
persons, but desperately clung to survival by preying on Tejano-owned cattle, or, in the case of
those who gradually drifted back to their previous homeland, by “hiring out” to Anglo settlers as
casual laborers or domestic servants.
• The Plains Indians (Comanches, Apaches, and Norteños) remained faithful to their traditional
lifestyles, relying on a combination of the hunt and small-scale farming. Women tended gardens,
cultivating and harvesting corn, pumpkins, and beans, while the Plains warriors sabotaged
settlements in an effort to halt the encroachment on their land and to take livestock, especially
horses.
• The Caddos of East Texas contended with problems that threatened to unravel their civilization.
Alcohol, provided to them by American traders, enfeebled many tribes people almost at the same
time outsiders began penetrating long-held Caddo territory. Interlopers included other Native
American peoples from the U.S. South as well as Anglo empresarios bearing contracts to establish
colonies in Caddo land. By the late 1820s, the Caddos numbered no more than 300 families.
• In 1818-1819, a band of Cherokees, bowing to legal and extralegal pressure by Anglos to
abandon their homelands in Georgia and Alabama, arrived in northeastern Texas near Caddo land.
They tried to settle near present-day Dallas, but were forced to relocate by the hostile Plains
Indians. They eventually settled in and around today’s Van Zandt and Cherokee counties. The
Cherokee actively sought to acquire legal title to their new homeland from the Mexican
government, but never received anything but vague promises.
(Calvert, De Leon, Cantrell, pp. 73-74.)
Many Native Americans welcomed African
Americans into their villages. Even as slaves
many African Americans became part of a
family group, and many intermarried with
Native Americans - thus many later became
classified as Black Indians. Therefore Black
Oklahoma evolved in many areas as biracial
communities within Indian nations. This is a
unique history, which developed in many of
the western communities where the two
groups came together.
The state government’s
official policy toward
Indians in the mid1850s was to put the
Indians on reservations.
Table 7.1 Makeup of the Texas Population
Year
Total
Urban
Rural (%)
Blacks (%)
1860
604,215
26,615
577,600
(96.4)
182,921
(30.0)
1870
818,579
59,521
764,058
(95.6)
253,475
(31.9)
1880
1,591,749
146,795
1,444,954
(93.7)
393,384
(25.0)
1890
2,235,521
349,511
1,886,016
(90.5)
488,171
(21.8)
1900
3,048,710
520,759
2,527,951
(84.5)
650,722
(20.0)
While Texas cities did experience some growth, the state, overall, remained overwhelming
rural and agricultural.
Calvert, DeLeón, Cantrell, p. 177.
Until the 1870s, the dominant powers on the plains
of West Texas were the Comanches and Kiowa.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Warrior tradition
Military tactics
Westering Texans stopped short of Comanche and Kiowa territory.
The nomadic lifestyle meant the Indians had no farms,
storehouses, or munition stock piles to attack.
Kiowa and Cheyenne leaders pose in the White House conservatory with Mary Todd Lincoln
(standing far right) on March 27, 1863, during meetings with President Abraham Lincoln,
who hoped to prevent their lending aid to Confederate forces. The two Cheyenne chiefs
seated at the left front, War Bonnet and Standing In the Water, would be killed the next year
in the Sand Creek Massacre.
Southern
Plains Indian
tribes during
the Red River
War and
location of
reservations.
Map courtesy
of the Texas
Historical
Commission.
The threat of Indian raids was a constant source of anxiety for
settlers on the Texas frontier, particularly after U.S. troops left
Texas during the Civil War years. Painting by Nola Davis,
courtesy of Fort Richardson SHS, Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Why were the buffalo exterminated?
Indians slaughtered more buffalo for sustenance
and for trade.
Domesticated animals exposed buffaloes to fatal
diseases.
Increased population and livestock reduced
timberland and grazing land.
Droughts reduced the number of buffaloes.
Whites slaughtered the buffalo.
Why
1.
2.
3.
4.
did whites slaughter the buffalo?
"Sportsmen"
Suppliers of meat for railroad crews
Traders in buffalo hides
To destroy the Plains Indians' economy
Rath & Wright's buffalo hide yard, showing 40,000 buffalo hides
baled for shipment. Dodge City, Kansas, 1878. The virtual
extermination of the buffalo aided the defeat of the Comanches
and Kiowas by destroying their economy and way of life.
Kiowa brave. Tow-An-Kee, son
of Lone Wolf. Killed in Texas in
1873. Photo, ca. 1867-1874,
courtesy of the Center for
American History, Caldwell
Collection (#03962), The
University of Texas at Austin.
Kiowa camp, ca. 1867-1874.
Photograph courtesy of the
Center for American History,
Frank Caldwell Collection
(#10187), The University of
Texas at Austin.
A Kiowa ledger drawing possibly depicting the
Buffalo Wallow battle in 1874, one of several clashes
between Southern Plains Indians and the U.S. Army
during the Red River War.
After the Civil War, the U. S. Grant administration
attempted a peace policy toward the Plains tribes.
At the Salt Creek Massacre (1871), Satanta, a Kiowa
chief, and between 100 and 150 followers attacked a
supply train, killing and mutilating seven of the
twelve drivers. In response, the U. S. Army took the
offensive against the Plains Indians. Comanche raids
decreased.
Indian resistance failed:
1. defeat on the battlefield
2. no system of supply depots and
armories
3. no support network of factories, farms,
or efficient infrastructure
4. weapons ineffective in a conflict
against a well-armed and well-financed
opponent.
5. disease and alcoholism
6. elimination of the buffalo
In 1871, Salt Creek
Massacre resulted in a
new military offensive in
Texas against the
Indians by the U.S. army.
U.S. Army columns of the
Red River War. Courtesy
of the Texas Historical
Commission.
Satanta was a Kiowa chief who
fiercely resisted Anglo incursions,
and who carried out the Salt Creek
Massacre.
As a result of the Red River War in
the mid-1870s, most of the West
Texas Indians were killed or
forced onto reservations.
These are Kiowas waiting for their monthly
food ration from the reservation commissary
around 1900. It gives a little insight into what
life must have been like on the reservation.
(http://www.texasindians.com/kiowa.htm)
Topin Tone-oneo, daughter of Kicking
Bird. The only one of the great Kiowa
chief's children to survive him, she was
with the first group sent to Carlisle
Indian School in 1879.
Source:
http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/forts/indians.html
Indians at Fort Marion. Indians of
various tribes who were captured in the
Texas Red River Wars and other Indian
battles of the late 19th century were
imprisoned at this Florida military fort.
Photo ca. 1860s-1930s, courtesy the
National Anthropological Archives,
Smithsonian Institution (Lot 90-1 INV
09854500). Source:
http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/forts/indi
ans.html
Pupils at Carlisle Indian school, Pennsylvania. Established in 1879 by
Richard Pratt, the school attempted to assimilate Indian children into the
"white man's world" through education and financial support. Among its
students were four of Comanche chief Quanah Parker's children and those
of others involved in the Texas Indian Wars.
Source: http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/forts/indians.html