Once upon a time in Texas by Mable Cash… May2, 2008
Picture this: It is 1519, you are a native Texan, while out fishing in your yard, which is the Gulf of Mexico; you spy a peculiar sight. It appears to be a man, strangely dressed, floating along on a boat in the salty water. The stranger waves and brings his floating device to shore. As he approaches, he pats himself on his chest and utters these words, “Alvarez de Pineda.” He offers items for trading and then he plants a flag in your front yard, making a declaration in words you cannot understand, “I have discovered this place and I claim all this territory for Spain!” How would you handle this situation? Would you, (A) Smile, nod and serve him oysters on-the-half-shell? (B) Take him home to meet your wife and the new papoose? (C) Put him back on his boat, hand him his flag and point out to the big water? Or (D) Sink his boat and use his flag to diaper the baby?
The story of American Indians is a sad one. As settlers made their way to America they wanted land. Some traded for it, others simply took it. Those who fought for their land were often killed. The Indians had two good reasons to hate the incoming settlers; the white men had come to take their land and to kill their people. As Americans moved westward, the Indians were pushed ahead of them. The Cherokee, Delaware, Osage, Choctaw, Alabama, Coushatta and Seminole tribes were pushed from their native lands to Texas into territory claimed by twelve other tribes. Tribes indigenous to Texas are: Kiowa, who lived in the Texas Panhandle, north of the Canadian River,
Wichita, who settled along the Red River near the present day, Wichita Falls, Caddo, dwelled between the Trinity and the Sabine, on the Neches River ,often called “Forest Indians,” Comanche, roamed most of north-western portion of Texas, following the buffalo herds from Palo Duro Canyon to Edwards Plateau, Tonkawa, resided near the Brazos River in the area we refer to as the Brazos Valley, Karankawa, lived along the Gulf Coast, were fierce warriors with cannibalistic tendencies, Coahuiltecan, dwelled at the lower tip of west Texas near the Quitman Mts. along the Rio Grande, Apache(Lipan) settled at the head of these rivers, Guadalupe, San Antonio and Nueces, Jumano, lived alongside the Concho tribe on the Rio Grande on the southwestern border, Mescalero Apache, settled south of the Pecos River, were hunters and farmers, and Atakapan, lived in southeast Texas on the Trinity from the Brazos to the Sabine Rivers.
These early Texas inhabitants made a major contribution to the new-comers who came. Much of the food we eat today was introduced into our diets by the Indians. Europeans learned of corn, squash, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and cocoa beans,(from which chocolate is derived.) They shared a recipe for pemmican, which is similar to our present day, “jerky.” They even taught the settlers their technique for fertilizing and rotating the crops they raised. Their most valuable gift to the white man was their knowledge of medical treatments that were unknown to the Europeans. Indians taught them how to use bacteria-fighting herbs, aspirin-like extracts from tree bark and quinine for treating malaria.
Sam Houston, a friend of the Indians intervened and set aside the Alabama-Coushatta Reservation, for those who would stay in the Big Thicket near Livingston. Land near El Paso was reserved for Indians, as well. Our early history is of different peoples, both desiring the same territory. Priests came and tried to change the Indians’ ways, to live as the white men. But the Indians were free people, as were their ancestors. They had no desire nor need for fences on their land.
The settlers and the Indians fought bravely for what each thought was theirs…. In the end, the strongest took the prize. This is a bitter-sweet period in our Texas history.
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