American Indian Heritage

In the first known chronicle of American Indian life in Texas by outside sources, the shipwrecked survivors of Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca's party report that they were confronted with a rhythmic entreaty of shouts, claps, and pebble-filled gourd rattling by indigenous peoples, perhaps members of who we now call the Karankawas or one of the many other hunter-gatherer groups of the Coahuiltecan region. This took place in 1535, a relatively recent date for a record of indigenous populations, particularly considering that the earliest evidence we have on hand so far of an occupied Texas takes us back about another 20,000 or more years.

Pictured: Comanche Chief: Quanah Parker. Photo circa 1890, Indian Territory.
Credit: William E. Irvin, Portal to Texas History

The First Texans

The European settlers and pioneers already residing in Texas during its transformation to statehood may have considered themselves the first true Texans in name but the territory surrounding them had already been populated for millennia. Archeologists continue to search for and study material clues of these first Texans such as discarded stone tools, cookfire remnants, traces of long-gone houses, plant and animal food remains, and artwork painted or incised on rock shelter walls. In the absence of written records, these material clues are all that remain to shed light on the prehistory of the peoples occupying Texas territory before the 16th century.

Read more about American Indians in the Handbook of Texas Online.

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Forest Trail Region
Pictured: Caddo grass house replica
Credit: Patrick Hughey / Texas Historical Commission

Caddo Mounds State Historic Site

More than 1,200 years ago, a group of Caddo Indians known as the Hasinai built a village and ceremonial center 26 miles west of present-day Nacogdoches. The site was the southwestern-most ceremonial center for the great Mound Builder culture. Today, three earthen mounds still rise from the lush Pineywoods landscape at Caddo Mounds State Historic Site, a Texas Historical Commission property. Visitors to the site discover the everyday life and the history of this ancient civilization.

Caddo Mounds is located on the original El Camino Real de los Tejas trail, dating before European exploration. The museum exhibits approximately 200 artifacts dating from A.D. 750–A.D. 1400, including pottery, tools, and weapons. Visitors can walk the 0.7 mile self-guided interpretive trail to see the Caddo’s burial, low temple, and ceremonial mounds. An additional trail along the El Camino Real is also available.

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The landscape surrounding Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site. 10,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers crossing the region found the huecos to be a reliable source of water, leaving designs painted on the rocks as they passed through. Many of these pictographs survive.
Credit: Carol Highsmith, Library of Congress Collection

A Story Still Being Written

More recent history, however, is more thorough thanks to the descendants of Native tribes like the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Alabama-Coushatta, Caddo, and Tigua, who can recall their heritage in oral histories and traditions, traditions that are enriched by the journals of de Vaca and other explorers, as well as ethnographers and anthropologists. Emerging archeological evidence, in fact, places the earliest known human inhabitants in North America right here in Texas. Depending on how we look at it, the term "Native Texan" takes on a whole new meaning.