NATIVE AMERICANS OF TEXAS

I. THE ANCIENT TEXANS

The first person to call North Americans “Indians” was Christopher Columbus. He did this by mistake, since he thought he had landed on one of the islands in the East Indies.

Christopher Columbus

Actually, his voyage across the Atlantic had brought him to one

of the islands off the coast of Central America, now called the

West Indies.

Only later did Columbus realize that he had discovered entirely

new land. However, his mistaken name “Indians” for the

inhabitants of his newfound island was later used for all of

North and South America’s native peoples, and is still in use

today.

The first inhabitants of North America came across from Asia

thousands of years ago. (Scientists think anytime from about 40,000 to 13,000 years ago.) In those days, most of Northern Asia and North

America were covered by layers of ice thousands of feet thick in

places.

Because so much of the earth’s water was taken up by ice

sheets, the oceans were lower. This drop in sea level exposed a land bridge between Siberia and

Alaska.

Scientists believe this could be their story:

The little band of ancient hunters crept along cautiously, stopping often to listen for the sounds of the game lumbering through the underbrush ahead. An icy wind swept down from the slowly melting glacier, but

the sun was warmer than it had been for a long time.

The hunters moved on, carrying sharp, pointed stone spears to bring down the fleeing mammoth- or was it a mastodon? The elephant-like mammal pushed forward blindly, trying to escape its pursuers.

The hunters

themselves did not realize that every step was taking them farther and farther east into a land where no human being had ever walked before.

The men did not know that, pursuing their prey, they were

stepping off a broad land bridge that then connected Asia with

what is now Alaska. The hunting band was composed of the first humans to set foot on

the continent of North America.

THE FIRST AMERICANS

When ice blankets you call glaciers were moving, slowly moving,We found an open passagebetween their frozen walls.And we took that rich, green passage,in small bands we took that passage,

following the bison,following the game,

Finding as we followed,nuts and berries,

elk and deer.

Mother Earth and Father Sun,hear the voices of your children,thankful voices of your childrenfor the gifts you made appear.Ours were the first voices,The first voices were the people. Now we whisperwhen the winds flow.Remember we were here.

Evidence indicates that humans first reached regions of Texas approximately 11,500 years ago.

How do we knowabout these early Indian cultures?

Artifacts such as tools,

artwork, pottery, bones, baskets, and shells provide glimpses of how ancient people viewed themselves and how they lived.

For several thousand years, Indians livedin caves and overhangs like this one in Seminole Canyon near Lake Amistad.

The Indians had no letters as we do, so they wrote their stories by drawing pictures. These are pictures of shaman.

A shaman is a person who is believed to have the power to cure the sick and forecast and control the future. The shaman in the middle has wings like an eagle.

The ledges above became black from the soot of their fires. The walls below became red from generations of “over painting.”

This was a “table” upon which plants and bones were ground into food.

Even though these early Texans were much smaller and slower than the animals they hunted, they had other advantages.

The people had tools and had developed a notched throwing stick called an atlatl which could make their spears fly farther and faster.

Strategy was another advantage. In the “surround,” hunters encircled a herd of animals and then moved in and killed the animals as they tried to escape.

Pits of bones have been found in Texas where ancient Texans encircled and drove herds of bison and other animals off cliffs in mass hunts. Many animals in the lower pits, like the ancient camel, are now extinct.

People who lived in Texas before Europeans arrived shared many similarities.

• Most lived in small groups and shared responsibility for decision making.

• Most believed that animals, plants, and humans once understood each other’s languages.

• Most believed that spirits walked the earth and interacted with human beings.

• Each culture had a creation story, or explanation of how the earth and people were created.

But these Native Americans also were different from one

another.

• They did not speak the same language.

• Some were peaceful, but some were warlike.

• While many lived in communities, others moved frequently as nomads.

II. EARLY PEOPLE OF TEXAS

The early people of Texas had developed into four distinct cultures by the time the first Europeans arrived in the 1500’s. These were: 1. Forest Culture2. Gulf Culture3. Plains Culture4. Pueblo Culture

Indians of the Forests

The Caddo Indians made up this group. The Texas Caddos were one part of a larger group called a confederacy.

Each Caddo group had its own government, headed by two leaders.One leader handled matters of war and peace. The other directed affairsof religions.

For hundreds of years, the Caddos lived and farmed in the East Texas timberlands. They cultivated crops of squash, beans, pumpkins, melons, sunflowers, plums, and two crops of corn, their main source of food. The women and children also gathered fruit andberries, while the men hunted for turkeys, bears, and deer.

Most Caddos lived in permanent villages. They built dome-shaped houses of mud, poles, and straw. Carefully made, these structures would last for twenty years.

The Caddo Indians were usually on good terms with people,like the French, who wished to trade with them.

But other Indian nations and European groups such as the Spanish wished to take Caddo land. With these groups, the Caddo often engaged in warfare.

Indians of the Gulf

The Karankawa Indians lived along the Gulf coast. They were nomads who roamed the area in search of food.

In fall and winter they lived near the coast where they would catch fish, turtles, shellfish, and gather sea plants. Their dugout canoes were their most prized possessions.

In spring and summer, the Karankawas would camp near the forests where they could gather nuts and berries and hunt deer, bears, and stray buffalo.

Karankawa homes were long poles tied together with a skin to cover the side from which the wind came. Thenthe hut was covered over withmarsh reeds and grasses. These dwellingswere called wickiups. Because they moved about a great deal, they didn’t need permanent shelter and never lackedresources to makea shelter.

Members of the Karankawa family worked together to make the tools necessary for their existence. They made pottery and wove baskets. These were coated with tar to make them waterproof. Seashells were used to make their tools.

By the mid-1800’s, Karankawas no longer lived in Texas. When North American settlers moved on to the coastal plains in the 1820’s, fighting broke out between the settlers and the Karankawas. By 1850, almost all Karankawas were killed, displaced,or had died of European diseases.

A second gulf people, the Coahuiltecan,is not a tribe at all, but many small bands of hunter/gatherers that live in the same region. The bands did not always speak the same languages and rarely had anything to do with each other.

Though the Coahuiltecans had access to the south Texas coast, they had little to do with the water. These nomadic bands camped in wickiups on the dry, brushy plains hunting and gathering anything they could to stay alive.

In good times, the Coahuiltecans used bows and arrows to hunt deer, bison, and wild pigs (javelina). They also ground up dried plants such as prickly pear and agave into flour. When times were lean, they ate worms, lizards, bugs, and even dirt.

By the time Texas became part of the United States in the 1800’s, the Coahuiltecans had almost disappeared from the Gulf region. Many had been killed in battles with the Apache and Comanche. Others had moved into Mexico. A great many Coahuiltecans had died from diseases that the Europeans brought to the region.

Indians of the Plains

The major Plains cultures in Texas included:* The Comanche* The Apache* The Kiowas

The buffalo, the horse, and theteepee were very important elements of the Plains cultures.

The buffalo provided almost everything the group would need to survive including food, hides, robes, and horns for making spoons and needles. The hoof could be turned into glue. The tendons could be used for thread.

The way of life for the Plains culture changed with the arrival of horses from Spain. The horse provided freedom of movement and speed for hunting game, and the Plains Indians became excellent horsemen and dangerous foes in times of war. Male members were expected to become warriors.

Plains Indians were also nomads, who were prepared to move quickly and often. In times of danger, whole camps could be packed up and moved in 30 minutes. Families lived in tepees of tanned hides . Up to 20 hides were fastened around a framework of 20 to 24 poles. The hides were sewn together and usually decorated with beautiful paintings.A fire burned in the center of the tepee, and beds of willow branches and skins lined the sides.

Until 1875, many Plains Indians fought desperately to keep their lands and way of life. The destruction of their buffalo herds forced them to finally accept reservationlife in present-day Oklahoma.

The Pueblo Culture

The Pueblo culture goes back more than 8,000 years. It developed in the desert lands of the Southwest.

Pueblo people built and lived in large structures, called pueblos. Many families lived in each pueblo, which was made of clay and straw bricks called adobe. Because the climate was dry, these houses lasted for years.

The Pueblo people became skilled farmers in the harsh desert region. Most of their fields were near rivers and streams where water was more reliable.They grew corn, beans, and squash.

The Jumano was the main Pueblo culture in Texas. Many of these people were great traders. They were middlemen between the eastern farming communities and western Pueblo people who built their cities on the sides of cliffs.The Jumanos used the barter system. They traded one item for another without using money.

The Jumanos were easily recognizable as peaceful traders. They tattooed theirfaces with horizontal striped lines. Men cut their hair short,except for one long lock, towhich they tied colorful feathers. Women wore theirlong hair in braids.

The arrival of the Apaches drove the peaceful Jumanos toward the Rio Grande by the late 1600’s.

III. Texas Indians Today

Today, three Indian tribes still call Texas home:

• The Kickapoo Tribe• The Tigua Tribe• The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe

The Kickapoo Tribe, which numbers about 625 people, spends the major portion of

each year on lands near Eagle Pass, which were granted to them by the government.

On this land, they are allowed to run a casino to make money. During summer

months, many live a semi-nomadic lifestyle working as migrant agricultural laborers. Most live on very meager incomes, and remain an illiterate culture by choice.

The Kickapoo Tribe – Then and now

The Tigua Indians are the only Puebloan tribe still in Texas. They live on 26 acres of reservation land called Ysleta del Sur, near El Paso.

Much of present-day El Paso is built on land taken from the Tigua.

This left the Tigua very poor.

Tigua Photographs from 1900

The Alabama-Coushatta Indian Tribe of Texas occupies a 4,600-acre

reservation near Livingston in East Texas. Approximately 500 people live on Texas’s oldest reservation, which

was established by General Sam Houston in 1854 as a reward to the tribe for their display of courage in

remaining neutral during the Texas War for Independence from Mexico.

The End