Welcome to Episode 67 of the Hidden History of Texas – I’ve been discussing the 1st peoples of Texas, those who were here when the Spanish arrived and today, I’m going to discuss The Comanche, Kiowas, Tonkawas.Remember how I discussed some of the differences between the Hunter-gathers tribes (mostly nomadic lifestyle) and the farming tribes (mostly stationary lifestyle). I brought up some of the religious beliefs and how the majority of tribes embraced the idea of a supreme being or multiple gods, and they had creation stories. For agricultural tribes, various ceremonies accompanied the planting and harvesting of crops. Hunter-gatherers often sought the help of spirits before searching for game, which served as food for the tribe.

One of the major tribes of hunter-gatherers was the Comanche. The Comanches started out in the Great Plains and began to migrate south due to pressure from other tribes such as the Blackfeet and Crow. It’s important to remember that throughout human history, groups of people have consistently been replace by other groups who were more powerful. Eventually the Comanche ended up in Texas, where there was abundant game, a warm climate, and an animal that would eventually become almost synonymous with them, the wild mustang.The Comanche inhabited most of the South Plains including much of North, Central, and West Texas, this part of Texas was known as Comanche country, or Comanchería. Once they arrived and settled on the Southern Plains the Utes called them Komántcia, which means "enemy," or, literally, "anyone who wants to fight me all the time." However, they called themselves Nermernuh, or "the People."

We know of as many as 13 different Comanche groups and most likely there were others that were never identified. Several major bands played important roles in recorded Comanche and Texas history. The southernmost band was called Penateka, or "Honey Eaters" and their range extended from the Edwards Plateau to the headwaters of the Central Texas Rivers.

A band named Nokomi or “Those who Turn Back” lived in an area north of the Penateka, they roamed from the Cross Timbers region of North Texas to the mountains of New Mexico. Their range was shared by two smaller bands, the Tanima ("Liver-Eaters") and the Tenawa ("Those Who Stay Downstream") and are often referred to as the Middle Comanches. The Quahadis ("Antelopes"), roamed the high plains of the Llano Estacado. One interesting fact about the Llano Estacado is that the Southern end of the plateau lacks a distinct physical boundary; it blends into the Edwards Plateau, (in Central Texas, where this program is recorded) and the Johnson Creek branch of the Colorado River, east of Big Spring, which is most likely its boundary. The Llano Estacado comprises all or part of thirty-three Texas and four New Mexico counties and covers approximately 32,000 square miles, a larger area than all of New England.

It is part of what was known to early explorers and settlers as the Great American Desert, a semiarid region with average annual precipitation of eighteen to twenty inches. The Comanche weren’t the only tribe that lived in that area, the Kiowa also shared territory that was mostly in the Panhandle and Oklahoma.

The Kiowas originally came from the Montana area around the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. As they migrated southward, they quickly learned to adapt to the South Plains by acquiring and using horses, especially in their hunting of buffalo. They gained their horses from the Spanish who also supplied them with slaves and guns and over time they became almost a completely nomadic group, and eventually they became one of the most feared and disliked of the Plains tribes. They entered into peaceful co-existence with the Comanche and with help from the Wichitas and Taovaya received guns and ammunition from the French and British.

The Kiowa camps were designed to be broken down and moved quickly, often within 30 minutes.

This is a more in-depth look at the First Peoples of Texas. Why” because there were people here long before the Spanish and any other Europeans set foot on the land, First, allow me to try and clear up some terminology especially one word and that word is “Indians”.  The people Columbus encountered when he first reached the shores of the continent where misnamed, because Columbus thought he had reached India and as we know, he was wrong.  That’s all I’m going to say about the subject.

The inhabitants themselves did not refer to themselves in any specific way, other than often using the term “the people”, they did refer to other tribes with names. For example, the early Spanish encountered a group of nomadic buffalo hunters, they called Querechos.  That group was later named Apache, which came from the Zuni word for enemy “apachu” which is what they were called by the Navajo.  While some tribes were “farmers” the Apaches were hunter-gatherers and didn’t do a lot of agriculture. 

When we speak of the tribes, it is important that we remember that those tribes that were hunter-gatherers had a certain lifestyle dictated by necessity as did those who were farmers.  There is no one broad brush we can paint all tribes with; however, there are certain characteristics that many tribes have in common with one another.

One area that was of particular importance to all tribes was in the area of religion or spirituality. Prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century, the tribes that lived in the area that is now Texas maintained a variety of religious practices.  The majority of them embraced the idea of some type of supreme being and they all had creation stories.  They were usually not monotheistic; many held a belief in a variety of powers often organized in a form of hierarchy. For agricultural tribes, there were various ceremonies that accompanied the planting and harvesting of crops. Hunter-gatherers often sought the help of spirits before searching for game which served as food for the tribe.

Most tribes saw the universe in three levels.  The upper level was one of predictability, lower level of chaos, and the level where humans lived which was a mixture of both of the other levels.  The world was divided into 6 regions, north, south, east, west, up, and down and the year had a cold period and a hot period.

All believe there is a spirit in everything, including animals such as buffalo, wolves, bears, etc.

Spiritual leader shaman,AKA medicine man while all shamans were medicine men, not all medicine men were shamans.

Shamans in addition to using plants and instructions from spiritual helpers, they also went into trances to visit land of the dead, where they gathered information on the sickness.

What were some of the Hunter-Gatherer Tribes and where did they live?

Comanches – North Central / Northwest Texas

Kiowas – Panhandle – shared territory with Comanche

Held a summer Sun Dance – to insure regeneration of the Buffalo

Tonkawas - Gulf Coast (Houston area)

Venerated the Great Wolf

Karankawas – Gulf Coast (shared territory with Tonkawas – inner gulf coast)

Apache – (Lipan) South and Southwest Texas – (Mescalero) West Texas – El Paso

Coahuiltecans (KOE-ha-HWEE-ta-kanz) Rio Grande valley in what is now southern Texas and northeastern Mexico

Farmers

Farming groups tended to revere the earth, corn, rain, sun, and developed their beliefs based on fertility, and crop cycles.

Spiritual leader priest –

The medicine man or woman, acted like Shamans even going into trances for healing help. 

Priests, who most often were men, were religious specialists, had a long period of training valued not for healing abilities but because they knew the rituals and ceremonies to ensure bountiful harvests and healthy people.

They also had witches who were evil.  Could change their appearance, become animals, or even sparks of a fire. They stole people’s lives and souls.

Previously I talked about the world in the 14 and1500s and how the early Spanish explorers while looking for a path to India bumped into Texas, and a little bit about the Native peoples they encountered.  Today, I will further explore some of the trials and Tribulations of The Early Spanish Explorers of Texas.  I’ll also touch on the geography of Texas because that plays a major role in how Texas was explored, and it affected the lives of those who lived here. 

There is an old Texas saying, “the sun has rose, the sun has set, and I ain’t out of Texas yet”  Texas is huge, if you are going to drive from Louisiana through Texas to New Mexico, you will travel at least 982 miles (or 1,580 km for our non-American listeners).  When you look at a map of Texas, you can see it does take up a whole bunch of the middle of the country; in fact, it takes up over 250 thousand square miles, and that’s a lot of real estate.  Texas has four distinct physical or geographical regions and, in my opinion, those regions played an important role in the exploration and early settlements in Texas.  How the early Spanish explorers dealt with the physical conditions and the people who were native to the various regions often decided if they lived or died.  The four regions are the Gulf Coastal Plains, the North Central Plains, the Great Plains, and the Basin and Range Province.

Not a complete trancript

(Partial Transcript) Episode 64 -Texas isn’t Texas, Mexico isn’t Mexico and Europeans go exploring and bump into a continent and are surprised to find people already there.

When Europeans first encountered Texas, the world was a very different place. Well, maybe not too different because countries were fighting over land, gold, religion, natural resources, and political power much like we do today.  However, it was still different; there were no cars, planes, trains, buses, electricity, fast food joints, and certainly no TV, Radio, and Internet. Moreover, without modern technology, it took a whole lot more courage to go exploring than it does today.

In the late 1400s, around 1488 Portugal became the first country whose sailors were brave enough to sail out into the Atlantic Ocean. Actually they weren’t, the Vikings were. Vikings sailed the  Northern Atlantic around 1100 AD; but for the sake of this story, we’ll give the Portuguese some credit. The Portuguese exploration was primarily along the coast of Africa.  Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was the first to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, which is the southern tip of Africa and made it to Asia.  OK, remember that most of the history you learned in school was originally written by Europeans and then turned into something that Americans could relate to so it is all very Americanized.

It turns out that the Chinese admiral Zheng He, sailed all around Africa and Asia around 1404. Still though Dias’ trip was important because otherwise, to travel to Asia for trading purposes to pick up all the goods that society wanted required a lengthy overland trip.   His success lead mariners from other nations to wonder if there might be a shorter way to Asia that did not encroach on Portuguese routes.  Even though people wondered about a shorter route, there were few nations with the capability to send ships out into the Atlantic to find an answer.  Things changed when Isabella of Castille and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon succeeded in driving out the Muslims who had ruled Southern Spain for over 300 years and united the country under a Catholic flag.  The conquest was complete by 1492 and it was at that time, Christopher Columbus convinced the monarchs that by finding a Western route to India, Spain would have increased military, economic, and just as important, religious power.  As many remember from American history classes in grade school children are taught that Christopher Columbus “discovered” America. In truth, while he was one of the first Europeans (right now I won’t talk about the Vikings who landed on the Coast of Canada 300 years earlier) to reach what, in his time, was the “New World”.  The islands he encountered are the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola in 1492 and in 1493; he landed in our current Puerto Rico.  All islands inhabited by people as they had been for thousands of years.  Columbus claimed all the land he encountered for Spain, and three years later in 1496, the Spanish put their first settlement in Santo Domingo in what is now the Dominican Republic.  From those early arrival points and settlements, the Spanish began to explore the region, usually going up and down the coast and mapping the shorelines, still looking for a short cut to India. 

By 1501, Spanish sailors had explored all the way, up to what is now Newfoundland and Labrador in present day Canada.  To reach North America from the islands, it was inevitable that the ships would bump into Florida, and they did. However, they thought that Florida was just another island.  In 1519, the governor of Jamaica, Francisco de Garay, sent out an expedition to explore what was considered an unknown country between the Río Pánuco of Mexico (which empties near current day Tampico, Mexico) and the "island" of Florida.  Lt. Alonso Álvarez de Pineda set out with four ships and 270 men to explore, and he sailed into the current Gulf of Mexico. Upon reaching the west coast of Florida and sailing nort...

This is Episode 63 – They were known as the “black Codes” . Remember now in the decade that followed the Civil War, Texas was in as much confusion and chaos as it had ever seen in its short history as a state. Not only were Texans faced with political, social, and economic issues that had been caused by the war but the issues that had caused the war in the first place were still around.

It is true, that emancipation freed the slaves and that act actually dramatically altered the labor system that many of the wealthy landowners and economic power brokers had come to rely on. It also forced a new dynamic between the white and Black populations. Not only did these changes have the potential to wreak havoc on the plantation owners’ economic power, but it also threatened both their social and political status.

If we’re being honest if you look around today, you’d swear there are people who want to take us back to those days, people who are still threatened by any and all minorities. Why do I say that, well, it’s because of two things that took place in America after the civil war and actually weren’t undone until the mid-1960s. And even though laws have been passed, the prejudice that existed before the mid-60s still exists today, because today’s boomers were raised and lived under what was known as Black codes and many of them passed their old prejudices down to their children.

So, what were Black Codes?  After the war, white southern leaders were in no mood to give their newly freed slaves any rights. Now they couldn’t just re-enslave them, so they did what legislators do, they passed laws that severely restricted the rights of their black citizens. For example, here in Texas the Eleventh Legislature produced a series of laws in 1866 whose sole purpose was to reaffirm the inferior position that slaves and free blacks had held in the south and to regulate black labor.

In Texas, the codes clearly reflected the unwillingness of White Texans to accept blacks as equals and also their fears that freedmen would not work unless coerced. To ensure this happened, the codes were written so that the state was able to continue legal discrimination between whites and blacks. One measure they took, was to amend the 1856 penal code in which they emphasized a definite line between whites and blacks by defining all individuals with one-eighth or more African blood as persons of color, subject to special provisions in the law.

The basic cornerstone of the codes was an "Act to define and declare the rights of persons lately known as Slaves, and Free Persons of Color" passed in 1866. Which some did declare that it was a ‘civil rights’ law, and while this law did give blacks, some basic property rights; for instance, they could make and enforce contracts; sue and be sued; make wills; and lease, hold, or dispose of real and personal property. The state further guaranteed blacks the rights of personal security and liberty and prohibited discrimination against them in criminal law. Some people then, and even some politicians today claim that what they passed was a civil rights bill, but was it?

Actually, no it wasn’t. Why? It specifically left in effect a multitude of legal restrictions that had been passed in earlier bills. For example, blacks were not allowed to vote or hold office, they could not serve on juries. Now they could testify in court, but only if the case involved another black person. Interracial marriage was specifically outlawed. In case, these restrictions weren’t enough to ‘as the saying went’ keep them in their place, other restrictions were added through different laws.

Railroads were required to keep blacks separate from whites and that gave an opportunity to create segregated facilities in almost all public buildings.

What about education, after all it is the cornerstone for a strong society. Texas created an education law that specifically excluded blacks from sharing in the public-school fund.

Well,

The Hidden History of Texas. Episode 62 – The civil war has ended part 1.

We are wrapping up talking about the history of Texas during the Civil war. As I’ve mentioned in earlier episodes there isn’t an exact count of how many battles and skirmishes were fought in Texas. Most of the Texans who fought for either the confederacy or the union took part in battles in Tennessee, Virginia, or elsewhere in the South.  Today I want to talk about Texas after the civil war, and folks it’s not a pretty picture. The Civil War is generally thought to have ended on April 9th, 1865, when General Lee surrendered the army of Virginia to General Grant at Appomattox Court House. However, it was not officially ended until over a year later when President Johnson on August 20th, 1866, declared "And I do further proclaim that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority now exists in and throughout the whole of the United States of America."  President Johnson’s belief that since the war was over then “peace, order, and tranquility” would be seen throughout the United States was soon to be dashed.

In the decade that followed the Civil War, Texas was in as much confusion and chaos as it had ever seen in its short history as a state. Not only were Texans faced with political, social, and economic issues that had been caused by the war but also by the issues that had caused the war in the first place.

It is true, that emancipation freed the slaves and that act actually dramatically altered the labor system that many of the wealthy landowners and economic power brokers had come to rely on. It also forced a new dynamic between the white and black populations. Not only did these changes have the potential to wreak havoc on the plantation owners’ economic power, but it also threatened both their social and political status. The period of Reconstruction provided a massive challenge to the old establishment.

Texans always took pride in their independence so when in 1865 the U.S. Army moved into the state, tensions arose. The Army felt it was their duty to ensure that the State government stayed loyal to the Federal government. Additionally, they were there to protect the rights of the recently freed slaves. Gen. George A. Custer, (later to die at the battle of the Little Big Horn) was stationed at Austin, declared that the army should have complete control of the state until such times, as the Federal Government was "satisfied that a loyal sentiment prevails in at least a majority of the inhabitants."

This was of course unacceptable to the locals and continued insistence upon loyalty was a threat and promised an indefinite loss of power among antebellum and wartime political leaders. To make matter worse, in September of 1865 the federal government created the Freedman Bureau. The bureau was led by Maj. Gen. Edgar M. Gregory.

The bureau’s primary responsibility was to take control and make certain that freedmen (that is former slaves) were able to transition from slavery to freedom. While this was a laudable goal Gregory, and his successors failed miserably in implementation. They believed that they had to make certain that former slaves were able to work were-ever they desired. Since the same people who had owned the slaves still owned the plantations, which were almost the only place work was available, that meant that many Blacks had to work in places they had once been slaves. Due to black codes, they were unable to own land, and were forced to sign contracts that paid low wages or gave them shares in the harvest. Even though many of the while planters complained about how hard their new employees worked most of them were privately happy with the new system, since it lowered their cost even below what owning slaves cost.

This also insured that their “tenants” remained in dept to them, much like peons or serfs.

The bureau also attempted to provide educational opportunities ...

This is Episode 61 – Battle of Galveston, the battle of the Sabine Pass, and the battle of Palmito Ranch - I’m your host and guide Hank Wilson

We are wrapping up talking about the history of Texas during the Civil war. As I’ve mentioned in earlier episodes there isn’t an exact count of how many battles and skirmishes were fought in Texas. Most of the Texans who fought for either the confederacy or the union took part in battles in Tennessee, Virginia, or elsewhere in the South. There were however four notable battles that did take place in Texas, well the first actually was in New Mexico, but it started in Texas. They are on March 28, 1862, Battle of Glorieta, which I talked about last episode, and today I want to look at the Battle of Galveston October 4, 1862. the battle of Sabine Pass, on September 8, 1863, The Battle of Palmito Ranch, was the last battle of the civil war on May 13, 1865.----

Next time I want to talk about Texas after the civil war, and folks it’s not a pretty picture. If you get a chance, please subscribe to the podcast. If you want more information on Texas History, visit the website of the Texas State Historical Association. I also have four audiobooks on the Hidden History of Texas, The Spanish Bump Into Texas 1530s to 1820s,  Here Come The Anglos 1820s to 1830s, Years of Revolution 1830 to 1836. And A Failing Republic Becomes a State 1836-1850. You can find the books pretty much wherever you download or listen to audiobooks. Just do a search for the Hidden History of Texas by Hank Wilson and they’ll pop right up. Or visit my website https://arctx.org. By the way if you like audiobooks, visit my publisher’s website there’s an incredible selection of audiobooks there. In addition to mine you’ll find the classics, horror, science fiction, mental-health, and much more. Check it out visit https://ashbynavis.com

Thanks for listening y’all

Episode 60 – –The Civil War and Texas – The Battle of Glorieta

I’m your host and guide Hank Wilson and as always, the broadcast is brought to you by Ashby Navis and Tennyson Media Publishers, Visit AshbyNavis.com for more information.

We are smack dab in the middle of telling about the history of Texas during the Civil war. There’s no exact count of how many battles and skirmishes that were fought in Texas. In fact, most of the Texans who fought for either the confederacy or the union took part in battles in Tennessee, Virginia, or elsewhere in the South. There were however four notable battles that did take place in Texas, well the first actually was in New Mexico, but it started in Texas. They are on March 28, 1862, Battle of Glorieta, the Battle of Galveston October 4, 1862. the battle of Sabine Pass, on September 8, 1863, The Battle of Palmito Ranch, was the last battle of the civil war on May 13, 1865.

What I want to talk about today is one of what many historians consider to be a key (while not necessarily a major battle) is known as the Battle of Glorieta, which occurred on March 28th, 1862. Now it actually took place, not in Texas, but in New Mexico at Glorieta Pass which is in Far West New Mexico.

The Confederate force, named Brig. Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley's Army of New Mexico, actually consisted primarily of men from Texas. The “army” invaded New Mexico, which was Union Territory and captured Fort Fillmore which was located close to the  settlement of Mesilla. The “army” then won another skirmish at Valverde in February of 1862. After that they moved northwest, moving along the banks of the Rio Grande, and by early March they occupied Albuquerque and Santa Fe. After their successful mini invasion, they stopped to gather supplies and rest while they planned their attack on Fort Union which was the Federal Supply Center. It was about 100 miles northwest of Santa Fe and was a major stop for travelers who were on their way to the gold fields in Colorado.

Meanwhile, Colorado attorney Colonel John Slough put together a group of volunteers from the gold fields and joined together with detachments of cavalry and infantry from Fort Union to create a force of about 1,300 men. Then on March 22nd, Slough led the group on a march to engage the Texans near Santa Fe.

Simultaneously, Sibley moved his main column of men towards Fort Union. Meanwhile, a confederate force of men led by Major Charles Pyron who stayed in Santa Fe, decided to move towards the east along the Santa Fe trail.in an attempt to find and engage with the union forces.

He led his troops from Cañoncito in the early morning hours of the 26th of March and almost immediately ran into Slough's advance guard. Slough guard had just about 420 men and was led by Maj. John M. Chivington.  The two forces see each other, the Texans decide to form a traditional straight ahead battle line that blocked passage. The Union forces simply outflanked them by climbing up the hills that bordered the trail. Seeing they were about to lose, the confederate forces retreated back towards a small valley that is known as Apache Canyon. This valley had multiple fields that had been cultivated for farming and it was there they decided to setup another similar battle line, much like the one they had abandoned.

Once again Chivington simply ran a flanking action and  this time, since it was more open, he also had his cavalry charge the Texans. As a result, at least 70 Confederates were captured, it is estimated that 4 others were killed, and about 20 were wounded. After this setback, Pyron retreated back to his main camp at Cañoncito from where he dispatched a messenger asking the main Texan force to send him reinforcements. Meanwhile Major Chivington, who also suffered some casualties, 5 men killed and 14 wounded, decided to return to the main Union camp which was 12 miles away at a station known as Koslowski's Ranch.

A couple of days later,

Episode 59 –Tejanos during the civil war

The Rio Grande, since it was the border between Texas and Mexico was important to both the Confederacy and the Union. The Confederacy wanted to use it to bring in supplies and the Union wanted to keep it bottled up. Regardless of their reasonings, both the North and the Sount did their best to recruit and draft Mexican Texans. The confederates set up camps in Laredo, Brownsville, Victoria, and Corpus Christi and trained approximately 2,550 Mexican Americans from Texas. They primarily served inside the state with the regular confederate army or with various companies of the state militia.

José Agustín Quintero, who was actually a Cuban American and hailed from New Orleans, joined the Quitman Guards of Texas. That group saw action in Virginia and Quintero was later appointed by President Jefferson Davis to serve as the confidential agent (a sort of ambassador) of the Confederate government in Mexico.

While the majority of those who joined were either in their teens or early twenties, there were some who were in their sixties. The majority did join the confederate army, still an estimated 960 joined the Union army. In many cases, their reasons for joining came about partly because they or their family members remember how they had been treated during some of the events of the Texas Revolution and in particular how Mexican were treated after the revolution. (Check out my books Years of Revolution 1830 to 1836. And A Failing Republic Becomes a State 1836-1850. For more about those time periods and what took place.)    

One such union group was the Second Texas Cavalry (U.S.), which was comprised largely of Texas Mexicans and Mexican nationals; not sure why, but this unit suffered a high desertion rate.   

Much like people everywhere Mexican Americans of Texas (Tejanos) were divided over the whole issue of secession. Before the war even started there were accusations of subversion and disloyalty being thrown about, which made many reluctant to even become involved.

Part of the reasons that almost everyone who signed up to serve in a militia unit, especially from South Texas or from the frontier,  was a healthy fear of being sent to serve in the deep south and thus away from their families. Several people avoided conscription simply by claiming that they were actually residents and citizens of Mexico.

There were at least 2,500 Mexican Texans who actually signed p to serve in the Confederate Army. Santos Benavides was perhaps the most famous of them, and he was eventually put in charge of the 33rd Texas Cavalry with the rank of colonel.

The 33rd Texas Cavalry was never defeated in battle even though they did not have the best equipment or supplies. In fact, Colonel Benavides, and his Refugio and Cristóbal, put together what can only be thought of as an incredible record in defending the border. In May of 1861, they became folk heroes to southern sympathizers, after they defeated a band of anti-Confederates who were led by Juan N. Cortina at Carrizo (Zapata) . They also led incursions into northern Mexico seeking revenge for Unionist-inspired guerilla raids into Texas. In March of 1865, they also succeeded in repulsing a small group of Union solders that attacked Laredo.

A few of the Tejano’s who joined Hood's Texas Brigade actually were sent into Virginia where they fought in the battles of Gaines' Mill, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Appomattox Court House. Some Thirty Tejanos from San Antonio, Eagle Pass, and the Fort Clark area signed up and joined Trevanion T. Teel's artillery company, and thirty-one more joined Charles L. Pyron's company, and ended up marching across West Texas to help in the fight to secure the Mesilla valley.

Some Tejanos from San Antonio served in the Sixth Texas Infantry and fought in several of the eastern campaigns, including the battles of Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Atlanta,