This months Book Bite is selected scraps of information about the Indians that occupied North Central Texas and the areas surrounding it. All of what follows, including the quotes, come from J.J. Newcombe’s excellent book, The Indians of Texas.

Wichitas - North central, Southern plains

The Wichitas are a large group of tribes that are related linguistically. They are not native to Texas but migrated South between 1600 and 1700 for several reasons; the greatest being military pressure exerted from the North by the Osage Indians that had become equipped with European weapons. The Wichitas were acquiring horses from a southwestern New Mexico source and this aided the migration as well as had a dramatic impact on their culture. On the forefront of the migration South were the Wacos (more properly the Iscani) and Tawakonis - familiar place names in our part of Texas.

The Wichita peoples possessed an advanced society. They used a greater variety of tools and utensils than any other nomadic tribe in Texas. Their villages were surrounded with gardens. Most of their food was grown rather than hunted, especially in pre-horse days.

They were very fond of ornamentation and both sexes were extensively tattooed. The men were tattooed on both eyelids, with a short horizontal line extending from each eye outward. The name the Wichitas used to refer to themselves translates into "the raccoon-eyed people".

Comanches - Southern plains and North central Texas

The Wichitas became warriors to survive the changing times. The Comanches were a different sort of people entirely. Comanches lived to be warriors - they were "the terror of the Southern plains". Sometime during the 1600’s they became acquainted with horses and their culture changed radically. They had always been nomadic hunters and gatherers and the horse made this lifestyle much easier. By 1700 they had gained tremendous military prowess and appeared on the plains of Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas and continued to advance Southward rapidly. By the mid 1700s they controlled much of the Southern plains. The word Comanche is derived from a Ute Indian word meaning "enemy". They were the most stubborn adversary the European settlers had. Comanches launched raiding parties against Mexicans, Spaniards, Texans and other Indian tribes without discrimination.

"The duration of Comanche existence on the plains was short....It was a streaking comet in the nighttime skies, appearing from nowhere, blazing brightly for a time, meeting abrupt extinction.....Like a successful immigrant boy, Comanche culture could never quite hide its origins, and like him it was tough, enduring, boisterous, and aggressive."

Kiowas & Kiowa Apaches - far ranging, Southern plains

The Kiowas and Kiowa Apaches also were relatively recent arrivals to Texas. They were being driven out of their traditional range by the Dakotas (Sioux) and the Cheyennes. As they moved South into the panhandle region of Texas they encountered the Comanches and were at war with them for many years.

Finally, in about 1790 they made peace with each other. It was a lasting peace in which they shared hunting grounds and presented a united front against the invading Europeans for possession of the Southern plains.

Lipan Apaches - Southern plains

During the 1500 and 1600s the Eastern and Western Apaches were the predominant people of the Southern plains. The Lipan Apaches are in the Eastern Apache group which is separated from the Western Apaches by cultural and linguistic differences. By the 1700 and 1800s the Lipans were being crushed from all sides by invaders to their territory.

The Lipans subsisted by light farming during spring and summer followed by bison hunting through fall and winter. The bison was their main source of food.

Tonkawas - central

The area in central Texas on the Edwards Plateau in the 1500s was the home of a number of autonomous bands of Tonkawan Indians. "Tonkawa" (as well as for most modern names of Indians) was not the name they chose for themselves. It was derived from the Wacos term for them which meant "they all stay together". The Tonkawas called themselves ticanwatic which means "the most human of people".

The men painted themselves and their horses with complicated designs which were unique to the individual and could not be copied by others without permission from the creator of the design.

In historic times the Tonkawas were similar to the Lipan Apaches and other Southern plains Indians in many cultural respects but their language is difficult to relate to any other. Their former range extended into North Central Texas until they were ousted by the Witchita. They may have inhabited Texas for many thousands of years. There are no accounts of their migration from anywhere else. No one knows, but it is not at all unreasonable to believe that Indians of some sort were living in most areas of Texas since the dawn of whenever.

"At present the earliest published date for man in America comes from a site near Lewisville in Denton County, Texas. Here members of the Dallas Archeological Society found a number of hearths in the floor of a borrow pit which had been excavated for the Garza-Little Elm Dam. These hearths (at least fourteen are known) contained the charred remains of both modern and extinct Pleistocene animals, shells, and hackberry seeds. A Clovis fluted point was found in one of the hearths. Charred wood from the same hearth and from the same level, as well as another sample from another hearth, were submitted to a radiocarbon laboratory. It was found that the age of the samples was beyond the testing limits of the laboratory technique, and its limit was thirty-seven thousand years." (Crook and Harris, 1958. Quoted by Newcombe)

Caddo - East

The Caddo confederacies were highly advanced agriculturists who lived in the piney woods of East Texas. In the far distant past they had developed their civilization to the point of having enough free time and sufficient population density to build huge earthen mounds. These mounds were square or rectangular and flat topped. They formed the ceremonial centers around which the population would gather.

The Caddos were not friendly to the first Spanish expeditions that passed through in the mid-1500s. From the accounts the Spanish probably had it coming to them. About 100 years passed before the next set of European encounters. This time it was with the French. They met with a much better reception and soon established trading posts. The Spanish were upset and sought to establish missions among the caddos but these were also not very well received.

The Caddos had the misfortune to live in an area which was a bone of contention between the Spanish and French, then the Spanish and Americans and lastly, between the Americans and the Republic of Mexico. It seems ironic that all the while the land was occupied and had been occupied by Caddo speaking people for possibly thousands of years.

The greatest contribution made by the Caddos as far as modern Texans are concerned is the Name of our state. The various tribes of the Caddo confederation referred to each other as Tayshas, meaning allies or friends. This name was also applied in later times to the French and also to the Spanish from which it was written as "Tejas", and later by Americans as "Texas".

References:

Newcomb, W.W. Jr. 1961. The Indians of Texas. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press.

Natural History of North Central Texas Index
 

Royce & LuCretia Milam Copyright © October 1995 Wild Vision. All rights reserved.