The Native American History of Texas

The indigenous peoples of Texas can be traced back at least 10,000 years into the history of the area. The first people to roam into Texas were nomadic Paleo-Indians that were following large mammals, which sustained their cultures with food and an array of items for their existence. The nomads were making and using sharpened stone points to hunt and slaughter the mammoths. As the climate changed, the so did the Native cultures. They hunted smaller animals and gathered edible plants to sustain their way of life. They were known as the hunter-gatherers.

Taysha, which means “friend” in the Caddo language, was mispronounced as “Texas” by early explorers, and is how the state got its moniker. The Caddo people were mound builders and sustained an agrarian society. Another early prehistoric culture was the Jornada Mogollon. Their culture was much like the Hopi and Zuni. This knowledge is supported by the ancient art the Jornada Mogollon left behind. By the 1500s, when Europeans were exploring Texas, Native American cultures in the area included the Caddos, Atakapan, Wichita, Apaches, Comanche, and over 20 other indigenous cultures.

As the white culture’s foray expanded deeper into the territory, indigenous cultures were exterminated or driven from their ancestral habitat by whites that wanted their land. By early to mid 1875, most indigenous tribes, bands, and groups had disappeared from Texas. In the Texas of the modern era, there are only three federally recognized tribes left: the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo of El Paso, the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Livingston, and the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas of Eagle Pass.