W. W. Newcomb Jr - The Indians of Texas: From Prehistoric to Modern Times

THE INDIANS OF TEXAS

From Prehistoric to Modern Times

From Prehistoric to Modern Times

by W. W. Newcomb, Jr.

with drawings by Hal M. Story

International Standard Book Number
0-292-78425-2 (paper)
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 60-14312
Copyright 1961 by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America

Thirteenth paperback printing, 2002

Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, University of Texas Press, Box 7819, Austin, Texas 78713-7819.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

For Mary Elane

TO MOST AMERICANS the life and livelihood of our Indian predecessors is a romantic and fascinating subject but often a sketchily understood one. The peoples who inhabited present-day Texas at the dawn of historic times are even less well known by the public than most North American Indians and consequently there are probably more myths, absurdities, and falsehoods connected with them than with the natives of any other state. There is good reason for this ignorance and misunderstanding: most Texas tribes disappeared many years ago, some before Americans entered what is now Texas. This has meant that ethnographersthose anthropologists who describe primitive cultureshave not been able to gather firsthand facts about most Texas Indians. What is known about their habits has to be gleaned from the written accounts left by the soldiers, missionaries, and explorers who first visited them. Ethnographers have had their hands so full describing the surviving North American Indian tribes it is no wonder that Indians who can never be known in the flesh have been neglected. As a result no one has written a comprehensive book about the natives of Texas.

My own ignorance of Texas Indians and the conviction that as an anthropologist I should be able to answer questions about these bygone peoples started me on a search for this information. What I learned I have tried to put down in a nontechnical manner, yet this may sometimes be a difficult and unsatisfactory book to read. There are several reasons for this. The for example, that it is difficult to cram a balanced yet condensed account of their cultures into single chapters. Nor is this book in any sense an exhaustive, final study of Texas Indians. It is instead a first attempt to put together between two covers the fundamental facts about all Texas Indians. It is not a product of original research; it is a synthesis from many sources, including many modern authorities.

I must confess to having another reason for writing this book. It is the conviction, shared by other anthropologists, that by knowing and understanding tribes and nations far removed from ourselves in time or space, we can gain perspective and objectivity in evaluating ourselves and our age. Such knowledge also sets the stage for a more intelligent and rational appreciation of other peoples in the modern world. To some it may seem odd, even grotesque, that a knowledge of savage Karankawas or bloodthirsty Comanches can be of help in this respect. But it is. Knowledge of others forces us to realize that our ways, our beliefs and ideals, are only our own solutions to what may be common human problems. We come to see that there are many ways of thinking and acting, and that simply because other ways are different from our own does not inevitably make them inferior or wrong. In short, comparative studies of cultures help to lessen the provincial, parochial belief in the superiority of ones own culture. In a day when we are closer than ever before to the rest of the world, it is vital that we have the capacity to understand others and to appraise ourselves realistically.

It is all too obvious that in our shrunken, wrangling world the ways in which different groups of men live and die, think and dream, are tremendously varied. Men, insofar as they have been aware that there were other groups of men, have always attempted to explain these differences. But it has been only within the past century that a science seeking to investigate and appraise all of humanity in a relatively dispassionate way has developed. Since the Texas Indians are treated in this book from this special viewpoint it is necessary to explain briefly what it is. The special viewpoint and concepts are those of anthropology, the broad and inclusive science of human races and civilizations.

One possible answer to the question of why various groups of mentribes or nationscustomarily behave differently from one another (i.e., speak different languages, worship various gods, support different social systems, and prefer to eat different foods), is that they are innately different in their temperaments and biological being. Certainly men do differ from one another; some are short, some tall, some dark, others light, a few stupid, a few brilliant, ad infinitum. Moreover, various geographically distinct populations, such as the American Indians or the natives of Australia, often tend to be physically similar to one another and unlike others. These racial groups are real enough, that is, a number of subspecific, interfertile varieties of Homo sapiens can be distinguished (the number depending upon the criteria used to differentiate them). But the most significant fact about the varieties of mankind is that in important anatomical features (lungs, circulatory system, nervous system, etc.) all men are impressively similar. It is the minor detailshair form and color, skin color, nose shape, and so forththat distinguish them. The numerous differences in custom and behavior that characterize various groups of men have never been traced to differences in the innate capacities of the races involved. All races seem to have intrinsically about the same capabilities. When groups of men do differ in their customary behaviorwhen, for instance, some avoid their mothers-in-law, believe that disease is caused by witches, and consider the bloody, raw liver of a buffalo the finest delicacy ever to cross the human palateit is not attributable to their differing biological or racial affiliations. This does not necessarily mean that human races are exactly equal in inherent intellectual capabilities. The members of some races, on the average, may be inherently superior or better able to perform certain activities than the average members of another race. But even if this is so it is still of small moment, for the overlap between racial abilities, whatever they are, must be tremendous. If such differences do in fact exist, their nature is wholly unknown.

We are forced to assume that all groups of men, whatever their racial affiliations, have intrinsically about the same capabilities. Specifically, a Karankawa Indian acted, thought, and dreamed in a particular way not because he, as a representative Karankawa, was different in his biological or physical equipment from other men, whether German, Texan, Hottentot, or Comanche, but because he had learned to be a Karankawa from the moment of his birth. To state it another way, given the opportunity a normal child born of Karankawa parents could have grown up to beto think and actlike a normal individual of any human society on earth. The Texas Indians are particularly pertinent to this discussion since, racially or biologically speaking, they are a rather homogeneous entity. All are members of the Mongoloid race and belong to its American Indian subdivision. The physical variations of Texas Indians were minor, being confined to slight differences in stature and skin color. If the differences in the behavior of various peoples were rooted in their varying race or biology, we should expect all Texas Indians to have had similar, if not identical, customs and patterns of behavior. Nothing could be further from the actual case. The various tribes of Texas Indians were about as diversified in their behavior as Texans, Frenchmen, Chinese, and Bantus are in theirs.