Texas Almanac, 1968-1969 Page: 52
[706] p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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S.
Indian tribes recorded their history in these pictographs painted on the rocky walls of
the Concho River near Paint Rock. Numbering more than 1,500, this is the largest collection
of Indian pictographs.
A HISTORY OF TEXASOnly 27 years after Columbus' earliest
voyage, the first Europeans explored the
coast that now is Texas. They were Span-
iards in the Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda expe-
dition of 1519.
But the vast subcontinent between the
Rio Grande and the Red, the plain that
slopes from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf,
had long been a crossroads of plants, ani-
mals and natives of the New World. Records
today indicate a human history here of 15,000
years or more. An accepted division of man-
kind's known activity is as follows:
I. INDIAN ERA
This is the period from the earliest
archaeological evidences of man to the ar-
rival of the first European explorers (15,000
(?) B.C.-1519 A.D.).
II. CONQUEST AND COLONIZATION
Cov ering about three centuries, this may
be subdivided into:
1. Early explorations and missionary ef-
forts (1519-1690).
2. Settlement of the missions and period
of Spanish dominion (1690-1793).
3. Spanish decline and filibustering era
(1793-1821).
4. Mexican sovereignty and Anglo-Ameri-
can colonization (1821-35).
III. REVOLUTION AND REPUBLIC
This is merely a decade, but falls into
two subdivisions:
1. Texas Revolution (1835-36).
2. Texas Republic (1836-45).
IV. TEXAS IN THE U.S.
Logical subdivisions of this era are:
1. Pre-Civil War (1845-61).
2. A Confederate State (1861-65).
3. Reconstruction (1865-74).
4. Early economic development (1874-99).
5. Period of industrialization and urbani-
zation (1899-1967).
Indians in Texas
Attractive climate and abundant plant and
animal life brought many Indians to the
Texas region before Europeans arrived. This
period includes these stages:
The Paleo-American Stage, which began
as much as 25,000 years ago, is represented
by several unique types of spear points,
among them Folsom and Clovis types.
Excavations in Lubbock, Llpscomb, Mid-
land, Taylor, Hale, Henderson, Dallas and
52other counties reveal the existence of human
life in Texas at least 12,000 or 15,000 years
ago. Texas' earliest Indians hunted the pre-
historic horse, camel, the mammoth and the
four-horned antelope.
During the Archaic Stage, starting about
4000 B.C., the native cultures of Texas took
on a much more diversified aspect. The great
animals of the Pleistocene had become ex-
tinct. Man turned to a variety of foods.
Grinding implements show that he utilized
nuts, roots, berries and whatever nature af-
forded. Bison, deer and antelope were hunt-
ed. Extensive refuse mounds accumulated,
composed of discarded bones, shells and
broken hearth rocks. The famous "rock mid-
dens," or "kitchen middens" of Central
Texas grew up in this way.
The Neo-American Stage began at differ-
ent times in different parts of Texas. It is
recognized by the presence of agriculture,
pottery-making and bows and arrows as seen
through the appearance of very small, thin,
light stone points. In East Texas, agricul-
ture, pottery-making and styles of arrow
points are closely connected with the Mis
sissippi Valley tribes and the Southeast
United States in general. In North Central
Texas and most of the Panhandle, these in-
fluences reached Texas from the southern
Great Plains. In some parts of the Panhan-
dle and the Trans-Pecos, they came from
the great Pueblo culture of New Mexico.
One Indian mound on the Neches River
west of Alto, Cherokee County, yielded 96,000
potsherds, numerous other artifacts and the
remains of thirty-four pole-and-thatch build-
ings. These evidence a meeting in East
Texas of the prehistoric cultures of Middle
America and those of the temple-mound
builders in the Eastern United States.
In the caves of the Trans-Pecos region
in the Guadalupe, Davis, Hueco, Chisos and
other mountain ranges are evidences of cul-
tures related to the Basket-Maker and
Pueblo cultures of New Mexico and Arizona.
* The Historic Stage witnessed a general
breakdown in native Indian culture when
European colonization was undertaken ser-
iously. Not only did European diseases wreak
terrible havoc, but the Indian tribes were
pitted against one another, and native crafts
were rapidly abandoned.
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Texas Almanac, 1968-1969, book, 1967; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth113809/m1/54/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.