The Handy Texas Answer Book

By James L. Haley

Texas is the second most populous state in the U.S., with nearly 29 million residents, plus it has a rich and varied history that is the source of broad interest and fascination. This primer on the history, culture, and people of Texas is ideal for student, educator, history buff, Texas resident, and visiting tourist alike. A great gift.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Visible Ink Press
• Release date: Nov 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781578596829

James L. Haley

JAMES L. HALEY is a critically acclaimed historian and biographer. His books have been praised by Publishers Weekly who called Passionate Nation: An Epic History of Texas "Outstanding." USA Today called his book Wolf: The Lives of Jack London "fascinating," and The Wall Street Journal said that Haley "surpasses Irving Stone."

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THE

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TEXAS

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About the Author

James L. Haley is one of Texas’s most distinguished historians. His first book, The Buffalo War, remains the definitive history of the last Indian war on the South Plains and has been in print for forty years. His biography Sam Houston won nine different awards, including the Tullis Prize of the Texas State Historical Association, the Spur Award of the Western Writers of America, and the Book Award of the Philosophical Society of Texas. His 650-page compendium of Texas history, Passionate Nation, won the T. R. Fehrenbach Book Award of the Texas Historical Commission. Most recently, after ghost writing the memoirs of famous Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson, he completed a history of the Texas Supreme Court for the University of Texas Press, and his latest books are in the Bliven Putnam Naval Adventure Series for G. P. Putnam’s Sons: The Shores of Tripoli (2016), A Darker Sea (2017), and the upcoming The Devil in Paradise.

Haley grew up in Fort Worth, graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Arlington, and attended the UT School of Law in Austin. He resides in Austin, Texas.

Contents

PHOTO SOURCES

TIMELINE

INTRODUCTION

TEXAS BASICS

Population & Demographics

EARLY TEXAS

Texas’s Native Indians

The Spanish Entradas

French Interlopers

Spanish Missions

Americans Arrive in Mexican Texas

European Immigration into Texas

Austin

Colonial Life

THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS

The Texas Revolution

Law and Politics

Frontier Economy

International Relations

Annexation Trickery

Noteworthy Characters of the Republic

TEXAS AS ANTEBELLUM STATE

Old South Meets New West

Cotton and Slavery

Texas Divided over Secession

Texas in the Civil War

Texas Characters of the Civil War

RECONSTRUCTION TO URBANIZATION

Defying the Occupation

The Indian Wars

The Cattle Empire

Texas as a Progressive Leader

MODERN TEXAS

The Twentieth Century

World War I and the Twenties

From Depression to War

World War II

Post-War Texas

Desegregation

Political and Social Turmoil

Modern Texas

TEXAS REGIONS

The Gulf Coast

The Piney Woods

The Brush Country

The Trans-Pecos

The Hill Country

The Panhandle-Plains

Blackland Prairies

BUSINESS, RELIGION, AND EDUCATION

Economics and Large Companies

Agriculture

Clothing Industry

Religion

Education

ENVIRONMENT AND NATURE

Physiography, Climate, and Weather

Natural Disasters

Geology

Plants and Animals

Parks and Reserves

THE BIG FIVE CITIES

Houston

San Antonio

Dallas

Austin

Fort Worth

GOOD TIMES, TEXAS STYLE

Sports

Chow Time!

Amusement Parks, Zoos, Aquariums, and Game Parks

Holiday Events, Musical Pageants, and Festivals

Odds and Ends

QUIRKY TEXAS

Regional Speech, Y’All

Points of Interest

Legends

TEXAN NOTABLES

Writers

Actors, Directors, Radio Personalities

Musical Talents

Artists

Inventors

Ranchers

Outlaws and Lawmen

Other Notables

GOVERNORS AND PRESIDENTS OF TEXAS

FURTHER READING

INDEX

Photo Sources

American Institute of Architects. Committee on the Environment, Top Ten Program: p. 165.

Chuck Andersen: 278.

Michael Barera: pp. 311, 340.

Bytor (Wikicommons): p. 61.

Walt Cisco, Dallas Morning News, p. 143.

Cmeide (Wikicommons): p. 21.

Coral Records: p. 336.

Ddal (Wikicommons): p. 222.

DTobias (Wikicommons): p. 17.

Federal Bureau of Investigation: p. 149.

Jay Godwin: p. 206.

Gail Hampshire: p. 224.

H. L. Hunt Press: p. 346.

Jason Helle: p. 288.

Independence National Historical Park Collection (Philadelphia, PA): p. 30.

Jillabus (Wikicommons): p. 12.

Jipwiki (Wikicommons): p. 188.

Jpo tx113 (Wikicommons: p. 23.

Elliot Landy: p. 146.

Library of Congress: pp. 85, 89, 98, 118, 123, 125, 128, 231, 268, 276, 296, 352.

Joe Mabel: p. 251.

Álvaro Montoro: p. 318.

Larry D. Moore: pp. 43, 287, 325.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios: p. 332.

National Archives and Records Administration: pp. 16, 100, 211.

Paramount Pictures: p. 329.

Portal to Texas History: p. 109.

Andreas Praefcke: p. 253.

Clinton and Charles Robertson: p. 167.

Ed Schipul: p. 63.

Shutterstock: pp. 2, 7, 34, 104, 112, 137, 147, 154, 155, 158, 160, 162, 169, 172, 174, 175, 181, 186, 190, 192, 197, 204, 217, 219, 226, 228, 236, 238, 240, 243, 245, 247, 249, 256, 259, 262, 263, 265, 266, 274, 280, 285, 289, 293, 294, 302, 305, 308, 312, 313, 316, 332 (inset), 337, 342.

Kelly Teague: p. 179.

Texas State Library and Archives Commission: pp. 41, 93, 257.

John Trost: p. 119.

University of Houston: p. 140.

University of Oklahoma Press: p. 344.

U.S. Air Force: p. 326.

U.S. Army: p. 136.

U.S. Farm Security Administration: p. 81.

U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: pp. 131, 215.

U.S. Navy: p. 134.

Vami IV (Wikicommons): p. 303.

W. M. Vanderweyde: p. 322.

Steven Watson: 270.

WhisperToMe (Wikicommons): p. 32.

Travis Witt: p. 300.

Steven B. Yount: p. 27.

Public domain: pp. 5, 14, 20, 39, 49, 50, 52, 55, 65, 67 (modified by Kevin Hile), 70, 72, 76, 79, 84, 91, 102, 195, 201, 202, 282, 284, 324, 328, 335, 349.

Timeline

Introduction

Each of the fifty American states has its unique aspects, but seen from an international perspective no state is more recognizable, or brings its cultural associations so instantly to mind, than Texas. Even when reduced to parody, Texans, with their drawling accents, braggadocio, cattle ranchers and cowboys, tasteless nouveau riche produced by oil wealth, and conniving politicians and social climbers, have long been stereotyped, and not always humorously so. Such images barely scratch the surface of a state beneath which throbs a cultural and economic dynamo of staggering richness and diversity.

No other state can surpass Texas’s geographical and biological diversity. From its stifling, alligator-infested swamps to its parched, trackless desert, and from a seacoast with the world’s longest barrier island to its majestic high plains, its landscape provides unmatched biological and botanical variety; no other state embraces more than five thousand different species of wildflowers.

Texas maintained itself as an independent nation for ten years by force of arms and by diplomatic wiles. Within its borders lives an extravagant diversity of people: from native Indians and Spanish settlers who came in the wake of armored conquistadores to a frontier populated by English, Irish, French, Alsatians, Czechs, Poles, Swedes, and perhaps fifty thousand Germans. Because of its Spanish legal heritage, Texas was far ahead of other states in the rights of women, who could own land, operate businesses, and leave marriages with community property, which was unthinkable in older states established under the English Common Law.

Texas was the only state where the Old South met the Old West, where cotton farmers had to keep lookout against Indian attack. Its vast expanses of land contributed to its cultural legacy, including the cattle drives up the Chisolm Trail and the railroads and telegraph wires that snaked their way west and finally united its far-flung corners in time to join the rest of the country in the twentieth century.

Such a raw-boned, hard-bitten heritage gave Texas a unique presence in the modern United States. Texans have never backed down from a fight. No other state boasts a state police force to rival the Texas Rangers’ history of being willing to charge hell with a bucket of water. It was no accident that Teddy Roosevelt set up headquarters in San Antonio to recruit his Rough Riders from among Texas cowboys. Texas contributed more volunteers per capita in two world wars than any other state, including Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier of World War II.

With their long history of tinkering and devising and making do, it is no surprise that Texans have contributed significant products and inventions to the American scene. From the ten-gallon hat to Fritos corn chips, and from Dr. Pepper to the electric typewriter and the silicon computer chip, such innovation has helped make the United States what it is today. From business empires to football dynasties, from actors to musicians to writers, Texans have left their bootprint on every aspect of American culture.

When introducing Texas in such a book as this—a rolling kaleidoscope of facts, figures, people, history, economy, quirks, and foibles—the object is to have fun. Encyclopedic completeness is not the goal. No people are quicker to take up for their own than Texans, and I can already foresee some small-town civic leader giving me grief for including the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup while ignoring, say, his town’s annual okra festival. (Well, rattlesnakes are rather more sexy as a topic than okra). One of the many sources I used, the Handbook of Texas, comprises six volumes, each of which is about twice the size of a classic Encyclopedia Britannica. The Handbook is a triumph of scholarship, but it cannot be enjoyed on a beach or in an airplane, and that was my job here.

People will also note that I did not dwell on negatives. I could have written about social injustice, school shootings, and the crooks, land shills, and ignoramuses in the gerrymandered legislature. They exist, and they are part of our daily reality, but they are not my subject here. Likewise, I have written Texana for more than forty years, which is long enough to know that one person’s fact is often another person’s error, and it likely comes down to a difference of opinion as to what source is used or how data is measured.

Bottom line is that The Handy Texas Answer Book in intended as a broad introduction to the Lone Star State, a fun and informative look into a culturally and historically unique slice of the United States of America.

TEXAS BASICS

Where in the United States is Texas?

Texas dominates the south-central portion of the lower forty-eight states of the United States. It is bounded on the southwest by the Republic of Mexico, on the west by New Mexico, on the northwest by just a touch of Colorado, on the north by Oklahoma, on the northeast by just a bit of Arkansas, on the east by Louisiana, and on the south by the Gulf of Mexico.

What are its latitude and longitude?

Texas extends from longitude 93°31' west to 106°38' west; and from latitude 25°50' north to 36°30' north.

What are Texas’s dimensions?

Texas’s extreme dimensions are, north to south (from Dallam County in the upper northwest corner of the Panhandle to Cameron County and Brownsville in the south), 790 miles (1,271 kilometers). From east to west (from El Paso in the west to Newton County on the Louisiana border), it stretches 773 miles (1,244 kilometers).

Just how big is Texas?

From 1845 until 1959, Texas was by far the largest state in the Union. When Alaska was admitted, Texans had to endure a good deal of teasing for no longer being the biggest—which left Texans to counter that, at least, Texas was not frozen nine months of the year. Texas covers 268,581 square miles (432,239 square kilometers). Compared to other American states, it is about the same size as the sixteen smallest states combined. Or, looking west, it is larger than Washington, Oregon, and Idaho combined (with Maryland left over). On an international scale, it is about twice the size of Germany. As nations go, if it were independent again, it would rank fortieth in size, after Chile (292,258 square miles [470,344 square kilometers]) and Zambia (290,584 square miles [467,650 square kilometers]), and ahead of Myanmar (formerly Burma, 261,228 square miles [420,406 square kilometers]), Afghanistan (251,830 square miles [405,281 square kilometers]), and Somalia (246,199 square miles [396,219 square kilometers]).

Has Texas always been this size?

No. At the end of the Texas Revolution, Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna signed the Treaties of Velasco, recognizing Texas independence with the Rio Grande River as the boundary between them from mouth to source. Although Mexico repudiated this treaty almost immediately, it gave Texas the claim to former Mexican territory east of the Rio Grande, which included much of the eastern area of the later states of New Mexico and Colorado and extended as far north as the Wind River Range of Wyoming.

Located in the south, central part of the United States, Texas borders Mexico and has a long shoreline along the Caribbean Ocean. It is surrounded by New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

What then accounts for Texas’s odd shape?

When Texas joined the Union, its economy was based on cotton, which needed the labor of slaves, and slavery in the United States was already an extremely divisive political issue. Once statehood was effected, Texas commissioners traveled west and organized El Paso as a Texas county, which it still is. However, an American army had occupied Santa Fe in New Mexico during the Mexican–American War. Popular sentiment in Santa Fe was against Texas and slavery, and the army refused to allow its incorporation as a Texas county. Texas governor George P. Wood was furious and threatened to pull Texas right back out of the Union. The matter was settled as one element of the Compromise of 1850: Texas was allowed to keep El Paso, and it accepted ten million dollars to pay off its national debt in exchange for New Mexico and its claims further north. The northern boundary of the Panhandle was fixed at 36°30" north, the exact same latitude that U.S. law had long since fixed as the northern limit of slavery.

Where is Texas’s geographical center?

The very center of the state is in McCulloch County, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of the town of Brady; 437 miles (703 kilometers) west to the Rio Grande beyond El Paso; 412 miles (663 kilometers) northwest to the corner of the Panhandle; 401 miles (645 kilometers) south to the Gulf of Mexico at Brownsville; and 341 miles (549 kilometers) east to the farthest bend of the Sabine River. The point was reckoned not by equal mileage to the state’s extremities, but by dividing the state into equal areas, and the spot is noted by a marker on U.S. Highway 377, 2 miles (3 kilometers) south of Farm-to-Market Road 502.

How diverse is Texas’s geography?

Because of Texas’s size, it embraces an astonishing variety of landscapes. Extensive coastal beaches include Padre Island, at 113 miles (182 kilometers) the longest barrier island in the world. Inland from them, broad, coastal marshes provide critical habitat for species ranging from shrimp to game birds. The thick Piney Woods of East Texas are an extension of the vast Southern Woodlands and include a relict forest of the last Ice Age called the Big Thicket. The Rio Grande Jungle is the northern limit of the Central American rain forest, and the Trans-Pecos contains thousands of square miles of the Chihuahuan Desert. The state’s highest point, Guadalupe Peak at 8,751 feet (2,667 meters), is in the Guadalupe Mountains, which is the southernmost spur of the Rockies. In the north, the table-flat Staked Plains and the Rolling Plains are the southern limit of the U.S. Great Plains. In the heart of the state lie 40,000 square miles (64,374 square kilometers) of limestone karst dotted with caverns and gigantic springs and occasional volcanic intrusions that include Enchanted Rock, the second-largest batholith in the United States. Its diversity is truly stunning.

When did Texas become a state?

As with many things about Texas, the answer is not simple. After nine years of effort and frustration, Texas finally won an offer from the U.S. Congress to join the Union in the spring of 1845. However, Texas was given only until the end of the year to draw up a state constitution, hold a popular referendum, and get word of the people’s agreement to Washington. This Texas did with two days to spare, and on December 29, 1845, Congress accepted Texas as the twenty-eighth state—the broadly agreed date. However, executive powers did not formally transfer and the flag of the Republic was not lowered, until February 16, 1846. Either date is acceptable.

How many counties does Texas have?

There are 254 counties in Texas, more than in any other state. They range in population from about 4.6 million in Harris County, which contains most of the city of Houston, down to 113 souls in Loving County, in the west Texas oil patch. The smallest in area is Rockwall County, near Dallas, at 127 square miles (204 square kilometers); the largest is Brewster County in the Trans-Pecos, whose 6,192 square miles (9,965 square kilometers) is larger than Connecticut.

What is the origin of the state’s famous Lone Star nickname?

The imagery of Texas as the Lone Star took hold during the Texas Revolution for independence from Mexico in 1836, but no one knows for certain how it originated. There are a number of possibilities. One of the stronger contenders is this one: When Santa Anna canceled the Mexican Constitution and assumed dictatorial powers, rebellions broke out in as many as eleven states. One of the most dangerous threats to him was the dual state of Coahuila y Tejas, and he sent an army to the state capital at Mónclova and broke up the legislature. Many Mexican federalists fled to Texas to continue the fight. The state’s flag had been the Mexican tricolor featuring two stars in the central stripe and one each for its two components, Coahuila and Texas. After Coahuila fell, the Texas star was the only one left holding out the hope of a democratic government.

Has Texas always had the same state flag?

No. During the revolution, different volunteer groups fought under a variety of different flags. In the early days of the Republic, the Texas flag designed by President Sam Houston (1793–1863) was a gold Lone Star on a field of azure. He was succeeded by his hated rival Mirabeau Lamar (1798–1859), who opened his campaign to remove Houston’s imprint on the government by redesigning it to its present white Lone Star on a red, white, and blue tricolor.

Why was this particular design of flag chosen?

Most likely, it was not just because Lamar wanted to erase Houston’s impact on Texas, but here again, there are a number of possible reasons. One was that this design, seen from a distance, was almost identical to the flag of Chile (which had been adopted in 1817), and Mexican warships still hostile to Texas would be reluctant to fire on vessels that might belong to a neutral country. And, of course, red, white, and blue were also the colors of the U.S. flag.

How did Friendship become the Texas motto?

Texans are famous for their hospitality, an ethic that became entrenched during frontier days, when traveling strangers often spent the night at roadside homes and were not usually allowed to offer payment. That fits the motto, but it is not the origin. In 1690, the first Spanish mission was established near the later site of Nacogdoches among the Tejas Indians, a name that meant friend or ally. So, Texas actually does mean friend.

The original Texas flag, which is known as the Burnet flag after interim President David Burnet, was the national flag from 1836 to 1839 (top; in color, it is a yellow star on azure). It was replaced in 1939 by what is now the state flag (bottom; in color, it has a white bar on top, red on bottom, and a white star on an azure background).

Does Texas have a state flower?

The legislature named the Texas bluebonnet as the state flower in 1901. Lupinus texensis is endemic to Texas, widely distributed, and became a cultural icon through the landscape paintings of Julian Onderdonk a century ago. Grayish-purple in dry years but an electric violet-blue with good rainfall, vast acreages of central Texas are carpeted with them in spring, usually peaking in mid-April, interspersed with scarlet spikes of Indian Paintbrush and the pale wash of Pink Evening Primrose. The sight of whole vistas of them is unforgettable. Since the 1960s, the Texas Highway Department has planted long stretches of right-of-way in bluebonnets, and their associated species both for their beauty and their effectiveness in erosion control.

Is The Eyes of Texas the state song?

No, it is the alma mater of the University of Texas, but so many people believe it is the state song that it has acquired a kind of informal standing. The actual state song is Texas, Our Texas, which won three different competitions for the honor and was recognized by the legislature in 1929. The lyricist was Gladys Yoakum Wright (1891–1956), and the composer was William J. Marsh (1880–1971) of Fort Worth, who was a music professor at Texas Christian University, and who served as an organist and choir director at different congregations in the city. He was English, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and recycled the tune from a patriotic march he had written during World War I. He was a devout Catholic, and many of his other compositions were sacred in nature; Texas, Our Texas bears an unnerving similarity to God of Our Fathers, but John Philip Sousa, the March King, praised it as the best state song he had ever heard.

TEXAS, OUR TEXAS

Texas, Our Texas! all hail the mighty State!

Texas, Our Texas! so wonderful, so great!

Boldest and grandest, withstanding ev’ry test

O Empire wide and glorious, you stand supremely blest.

(Chorus)

God bless you Texas! And keep you brave and strong,

That you may grow in power and worth, throughout the ages long.

God bless you Texas! And keep you brave and strong,

That you may grow in power and worth, throughout the ages long.

Texas, O Texas! Your freeborn single star,

Sends out its radiance to nations near and far,

Emblem of Freedom! it sets our hearts aglow,

With thoughts of San Jacinto and glorious Alamo.

(Chorus)

Texas, dear Texas! from tyrant grip now free,

Shines forth in splendor, your star of destiny!

Mother of heroes, we come your children true,

Proclaiming our allegiance, our faith, our love for you.

(Chorus)

What are other state symbols?

The pecan became the Texas State tree in 1919; the majestic trees, over 100 feet (30.5 meters) tall, can live for centuries, and Texas has long led the nation in production of native pecans, now augmented with bred varieties. The mockingbird, noted both for its peerless singing and for its fierce defense of its nest, was named the Texas State bird in 1927. That same year, the nine-banded armadillo became the state mammal.

In more recent years, various lobbying groups and industrial councils have leaned on the legislature to proclaim a silly number of additional state symbols: a state stone and state gem (petrified palmwood and Texas blue topaz, both in 1969), a state dish (chili con carne, 1977), a state fish (Guadalupe bass, 1989), a state folk dance (square dance, 1991), a state reptile (horny toad, 1993), a state fruit (Texas ruby red grapefruit, 1993), a state insect (monarch butterfly, 1995), and a state plant (as opposed to tree or flower, prickly pear cactus, 1995). Also in 1995, the armadillo was particularized to the state small mammal to make way for the state large mammal, the Texas longhorn, and the state flying mammal, the Mexican free-tailed bat. Then came a state vegetable (sweet onion, 1997), a state snack (chips and salsa, 2003), a state dog breed (blue lacy, 2005), and a state cobbler (peach, 2013), not to be confused with a state pie (pecan, 2013).

Enjoy some of the official Texas state delicacies when you visit, including (clockwise from top left): chili con carne, salsa and chips, pecan pie, and peach cobbler!

POPULATION & DEMOGRAPHICS

What is Texas’s population?

According to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, Texas’s estimated population in 2017 was 28,797,290, which ranks it behind California (39,506,094) to be the second most populous state in the United States and ahead of Florida (20,979,964), which recently overtook New York to become third.

What portion of the U.S. population is that?

Texas contains approximately 8.69 percent of the total U.S. population—as compared to California’s 12.14 percent and Florida’s 6.44 percent.

What is Texas’s ethnic composition?

Anglo-Americans are no longer the majority race in Texas. There are 11,779,132 Anglos, which is 40.90 percent of the total; 11,804,795 people, or 40.99 percent of the total, identify themselves as Hispanic and 3,289,228 people, or 11.42 percent of the total, identify themselves as African American. Other, which includes Asians of various nationalities, Native American Indians, etc., total 1,924,135 people, or 6.68 percent.

How accurate are these estimates?

The algorithms used to estimate population growth since the last census are quite sophisticated, but by definition, persons who are undocumented cannot be counted. As the United States continues to struggle to tighten its borders against illegal immigration, certainly several hundred thousand indocumentados, at least, are already living off the books in Texas.

What is the population breakdown of urban vs. rural in Texas?

For many decades, Texas was preponderantly rural, and its economy was dominated by agriculture. Today, however, 25,566,822 Texans, or 88.78 percent, live within metropolitan areas, and only 3,230,468, or 11.22 percent, live in the country or in small towns.

What are Texas’s major cities?

Twenty-six cities in Texas are large enough to have created Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas. In descending order of metro population, they are:

Major Cities Ranked by Population

*Dallas Division = 4,942,676; Fort Worth Division = 2,481,580.

Populations within city limits are smaller than this, are they not?

Yes, but Texas still boasts of three cities among the ten largest in the United States. Giving city population estimates only (not metro), they are: Houston is fourth at 2,303,482, San Antonio is seventh at 1,492,510, and Dallas is ninth at 1,317,929. In addition, there are three more Texas cities in the top twenty: Austin is eleventh at 947,890, Fort Worth is sixteenth at 854,113, and El Paso is twentieth at 683,080. (California, by comparison, places four cities in the top twenty nationwide; other states have only one each).

EARLY TEXAS

TEXAS’S NATIVE INDIANS

How long have native Indians lived in the area that became Texas?

Flint deposits along the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle, now known as the Alibates Flint Quarries, have been exploited for weapons and tools since at least 11,000 BCE. For many years, the calibration of human habitation in North America was the Clovis culture, named for stone tools quarried near present-day Clovis, New Mexico, west of the Alibates site.

What is the Gault site?

Starting in 1929, a huge number of stone artifacts were dug willy-nilly from the farm of Henry Gault along Buttermilk Creek, near the town of Florence, some 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Austin. He made extra money by turning it into a tourist pay-todig establishment. In 1998, professional archeologists took over the site and discovered that the Clovis artifacts lay atop layers of older artifacts. These discoveries pushed the estimated period of human occupation back at least another two thousand years and is still in flux. Proto-Indians are now believed to have lived in Texas for perhaps as long as twenty thousand years.

How many Indian tribes lived in the area that became Texas?

Altogether, the Spanish conquistadores named at least six hundred different groups of Indians in the land that became Texas. However, no one knows exactly how many tribes there were because those early explorers sometimes encountered the same groups but called them by different names, while others encountered different groups but called them by the same name. Later, many of the smaller groups were taken in by larger ones. Some tribes, such as the Jumano, simply disappeared, leaving scholars to wonder just who they were, while others who became wellknown, such as the Comanche, arrived long after the Spanish. At the time of the Anglo-American arrival, the general boundaries between the major native groups had been set and were much more simplified.

Located about 40 miles north of Austin, the Gault archeological site contains evidence of human habitation dating back sixteen thousand years.

Did any unbiased accounts survive of the native cultures?

Oddly enough, the very first European to find himself among Texas Indians, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (1490–1559), who was shipwrecked in 1528, wrote a book in which his observations of native life, while colored by his own religious viewpoint, were surprisingly even-handed. He and his companions, who were eventually reduced to three in number, escaped from the Karankawa and spent years making their way back to New Spain and civilization. One tribe with whom they sojourned were functionally homosexual: warriors formed conjugal relationships with eunuchs, and they captured women and children from other bands to increase their number. Instead of dwelling on his shock and disgust, Cabeza de Vaca wrote that the eunuchs became very strong from their camp chores and were capable of lifting heavy burdens. Today, his book is seldom read in detail, but in it, he bitterly denounced Spanish authorities and soldiers for brutalizing the natives in the name of Christianity.

Were any of the Texas Indians cannibals?

Scholars today typically de-emphasize, soft-peddle, or avoid this issue altogether. If cannibalism is acknowledged, it is usually framed in terms of its ritual or spiritual significance. The practice did have a ritual aspect but not in any polite sense of a communion wafer. Among a few tribes, there were orgiastic feasts upon the bodies of defeated enemies, while other tribes were horrified by such a thing. Early French traders from Louisiana witnessed Tejas Indians devouring the bodies of Hasinai (Caddo)