Before Fort Worth was a city, and before settlers moved in, there was violence, displacement, and an attempt to clean it all up with paperwork.

In Episode 5 of We Got The Funk, DonTheBarber breaks down the Treaty at Bird’s Fort—the who, the what, the when, the where, and most importantly, the why behind one of the most overlooked moments in North Texas history.

After the Battle of Village Creek in 1841, the Republic of Texas sought “peace” with Native nations through a treaty signed in the woods along the Trinity River. On paper, it promised peace and friendship forever. In reality, the frontier kept moving, the violence didn’t stop, and the treaty revealed more about power, fear, and expansion than reconciliation.

This episode explores:

• Why the treaty happened after violence, not before
• How slow communication shaped frontier decision-making
• The role of Edward H. Tarrant and other Republic officials
• Why Bird’s Fort mattered as a meeting place
• How treaties often managed consequences instead of preventing them
• Why Fort Worth could only be built after Village Creek and Bird’s Fort

This is not the textbook version.

This is the barbershop version—context, consequences, and honesty.

Episode 5 also sets up what comes next:

When the Army abandoned Fort Worth in 1853, civilians stepped into the space left behind—and that’s where the real city begins.

🎧 Subscribe to We Got The Funk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon, or wherever you listen, and don’t miss Episode 6 as we dive into the settlers who built Fort Worth after the soldiers left.

In this episode of We Got The Funk, DonTheBarber takes listeners to the moment peace collapsed in North Texas.

Episode 4 explores the Village Creek Throwdown, a pivotal and often overlooked event that helped clear the land long before Fort Worth was ever built. After episodes focused on community, family life, and coexistence along the Trinity River and Village Creek, this chapter confronts the collision that changed everything.

This episode breaks down:

• What Village Creek was before violence arrived
• Why settlers viewed organized Native communities as an obstacle
• The role of Edward H. Tarrant and the Texas militia
• How families were displaced and villages erased
• Why this moment matters to the founding of Fort Worth

This is not simplified history or textbook storytelling. It is context, consequence, and truth told from the barbershop chair. Understanding Village Creek helps explain why the land was clear in 1849 and how Fort Worth became possible.

If you want to understand Fort Worth beyond the Stockyards and surface-level stories, this is an episode you need to hear.

🎙️ Subscribe to We Got The Funk and stay locked in as the series continues.

🪒 Episode Overview

Before cowboys.

Before cattle drives.

Before the Stockyards.

Fort Worth had a heartbeat.

In the very first episode of We Got The Funk, DonTheBarber takes listeners back to a time long before Fort Worth had a name, when families lived, worked, raised children, and built community along the Trinity River.

This episode sets the foundation for the entire series—challenging the myths, correcting the record, and honoring the people whose stories are too often skipped.

Pulled straight from the barbershop chair, this is history told the way it was meant to be told: honest, grounded, and alive.

📍 What We Cover in Episode 1

🟫 The Trinity River Before Fort Worth

Why the Trinity River was prime real estate long before modern development

How water, soil, and wildlife supported permanent communities

What city and archaeological records reveal about thousands of years of habitation

🟫 The First People of the Region

The Caddo world and Wichita-related peoples

Organized villages, farming systems, and trade routes

A cultural crossroads where Native communities lived, traded, and raised families

🟫 Daily Life in Early Villages

Farming corn, beans, and squash

Hunting, fishing, family life, and spirituality

Why this wasn’t “survival”—it was intentional living

🟫 Why This History Still Matters Today

The danger of starting Fort Worth’s story in 1849

How erasing early peoples distorts the city’s identity

Why honoring the first residents is essential to loving the city today

🧠 Key Takeaways

Fort Worth did not begin with the Army or the Stockyards

Native communities were settled, organized, and thriving

The Trinity River was the original neighborhood

You can’t build a future without telling the whole truth about the past

📢 Call to Action

If this episode made you think differently about Fort Worth:

✅ Subscribe — Episodes 1, 2, and 3 drop together

✅ Share — Especially with someone who only knows Stockyards Fort Worth

✅ Review or Comment — Tell us what surprised you most

✅ Reflect — Take a walk along the Trinity River and imagine the families who lived there first

Episodes one and two showed peace along the Trinity River and Village Creek — families thriving, land providing, life moving in rhythm.

But in Episode 3, the energy changes.

In “Rising Tension, Before the Smoke Hit the Air,” DonTheBarber breaks down how North Texas went from calm to conflict in the early 1800s. As settlers began moving into the region, misunderstandings grew, fear spread, rumors ran wild, and government power stepped in.

This episode isn’t about one moment — it’s about how pressure builds, how neighbors become suspects, and how a place called home slowly turns into a battlefield.

Before the smoke hit the air… the tension was already thick.

🧠 What This Episode Covers

Why early Native communities at Village Creek were already rooted and organized

How increased settler migration in the 1830s–1840s changed everything

The role fear, rumors, and exaggerated reports played on the frontier

How Native families were blamed for violence they didn’t commit

The Republic of Texas government’s response to settler anxiety

Who Edward H. Tarrant was — and why his name still matters today

How tension shifted from social pressure to planned military action

Why violence didn’t come out of nowhere — it was built step by step

📍 Why This Story Matters

Fort Worth history doesn’t start with cowboys or forts.

This episode shows how real families, real homes, and real communities were pushed into danger long before a single fort was built. Understanding how tension formed helps explain why the violence that followed was so devastating — and why the land still carries that history today.

You can’t understand the explosion without studying the pressure.

⸻

▶️ What’s Coming Next

Episode 4: The Village Creek Throwdown

Dropping January 9, 2026

This is the moment it all erupts.

Militia rides in.

Families run.

And the land is changed forever.

You don’t want to miss it.

⸻

📢 Call to Action

•Subscribe so you don’t miss Episode 4

•Share this episode with someone who thinks Fort Worth started with cowboys

•Leave a review or comment and tell us what moment made you think, “Yeah… trouble was coming”

•If you’re near Village Creek, take a drive and look at that land with new eyes

⸻

Hosted by: DonTheBarber

Be smooth. Be safe. And by all means — keep it Funky.

🪒 Episode Overview

Before Texas had a name…

Before Fort Worth…

Before 1849…

There was Village Creek.

In Episode 2 of We Got The Funk, DonTheBarber takes listeners inside one of the most important—yet overlooked—places in North Texas history. If the Trinity River was the main highway, Village Creek was the neighborhood where people stopped, stayed, and built real lives.

This episode pulls you out of the textbook and drops you right inside the village, showing what daily life actually looked like for the Native communities who lived, farmed, fished, raised families, and called this land home long before settlers arrived.

This isn’t theory.

This isn’t myth.

This is lived history.

📍 What We Cover in Episode 2

🟫 Why Village Creek Was Prime Real Estate

Fresh running water, fertile soil, timber, and protection

Why Native communities chose this land intentionally

Archaeological evidence of long-term settlement

🟫 Who Lived Along Village Creek

Caddo-related peoples, Wichita, Tonkawa, and other bands

How multi-tribal communities shared space, traded, and intermarried

Why simplifying Native history erases real complexity

🟫 A Day in the Life of the Village

Morning routines along the creek

Farming corn, beans, and squash

Hunting, fishing, tool-making, family life, and community rhythm

Why these villages were organized—not temporary camps

🟫 Why This Story Still Matters

The danger of starting Fort Worth’s story in 1849

How erasing Village Creek erases real families and real homes

Why later conflict hit so hard—because this land was already loved

🧠 Key Takeaways

Village Creek was not empty land—it was home

Native communities were skilled, knowledgeable, and rooted

Fort Worth’s history didn’t begin with the Army

Understanding Village Creek changes how we understand conflict, loss, and legacy

📢 Call to Action

If this episode opened your eyes:

✅ Subscribe — Episode 3 is ready and the story only gets deeper

✅ Share — Especially with someone from North Texas who never heard this history

✅ Review or Comment — Tell us what you pictured during those Village Creek mornings

✅ Reflect — Visit the Village Creek area and look at the land differently

Fort Worth history ain’t what they told us in school.

We Got The Funk is a barbershop-style podcast uncovering the real story of Fort Worth—before the cowboys, beyond the Stockyards, and deeper than the textbooks.

Hosted by DonTheBarber, this podcast cuts into the past, present, and future of the city through culture, community, and conversation. From Indigenous roots and untold origins to neighborhood legends, leadership, trauma, pride, and resilience—if it shaped the Funk, we’re talking about it.

This is history with honesty.

Culture with context.

And storytelling with heart.

🎧 Subscribe now and take a seat in the chair.

We Got The Funk — where the history is real and the fade is always clean.