Texas Archives – Page 35 of 52

I- Texas Indian Villages, Towns and Settlements

A complete listing of all the Indian villages, towns and settlements as listed in Handbook of Americans North of Mexico. Ilisees. Mentioned by Ker ( Travels, 98, 1816) as the native name of a tribe, numbering about 2,000, which he says he met on upper Red r. of Louisiana, apparently in the N. E. corner of Texas. Their chief village was said to be Wascoo. Both the tribe and the village are seemingly imaginary. Irrupiens. A village on a river of the same name, an affluent of Trinity r., Tex., at which St Denis and his party stopped in 1717. … Read more

H Texas Indian Villages, Towns and Settlements

A complete listing of all the Indian villages, towns and settlements as listed in Handbook of Americans North of Mexico. Hacanac. Mentioned by the Gentleman of Elvas in 1557 (Hakluyt Soc. Publ., ix, 132, 1851) as a province of which Moscoso was informed in 1542; apparently on the N. E. Texan border. Unidentified. Han. An unidentified tribe living on a part of the island of Malhado (Galveston id.), Texas, on which Cabeza de Vaca suffered shipwreck in 1528. The language of the Han differed from that of their neighbors, the Capoque (probably Coaque), but they had customs in common. They … Read more

G-Texas Indian Villages, Towns and Settlements

A complete listing of all the Indian villages, towns and settlements as listed in Handbook of Americans North of Mexico. Geies (or Geier). One of the non-Caddoan tribes reported by Father Damian Massanet, comisario for the missions of Texas, on the road from Coahuila (probably the presidio rather than the province) to the Tejas (Texas) country in the 18th century. Dictamen Fiscal, Mexico, Nov. 30, 1716, cited by H. E. Bolton, inf’n, 1906. Gueiquesales. A former tribe of s. Texas, probably Coahuiltecan, living near the Manos Prietas, Bocores, Haeser, Pinanaca, Escaba, Cacastes, Cocobipta, Codame, Contotores, Colorados, Babiamares, and Taimamares. Perhaps … Read more

F- Texas Indian Villages, Towns and Settlements

A complete listing of all the Indian villages, towns and settlements as listed in Handbook of Americans North of Mexico. Flechazos (Span: arrow or dart blows). A name applied by the Spaniards in the latter part of the 18th century to the upper village of the Tawakoni settlement on the w. side of Brazos r., near Waco, Tex. The one below it was called Quiscat. One or the other of these villages was the Waco village. (H. E. B.)

E- Texas Indian Villages, Towns and Settlements

A complete listing of all the Indian villages, towns and settlements as listed in Handbook of Americans North of Mexico. Ebahamo. An extinct tribe formerly dwelling on Matagorda bay, Tex. La Salle constructed his Ft St Louis within the territory of this tribe and of the Quelanhubeches, or Karankawa, who probably were a cognate people. Joutel (1687) states in his narrative (French, Hist. Coll. La., i, 134, 1846) that La Salle recorded a vocabulary of their language, which is very different from that of the Cenis (Caddo) and more difficult; that they were neighbors and allies of the latter people … Read more

C- Texas Indian Villages, Towns and Settlements

A complete listing of all the Indian villages, towns and settlements as listed in Handbook of Americans North of Mexico. Chayopin. One of the tribes named by Garcia (Manual, title, 1760) as living at the missions about Rio San Antonio and Rio Grande in Texas, and identified by Mooney as a division of the Tonkawa. In 1785 there was a rancheria called Chayopin, with 8 inhabitants, near the presidio of La Bahia (the present Goliad) and the mission of Espiritu Santo de Zúñiga, on the lower San Antonio (Bancroft, No. Mex. States, i, 659, 1886). Chilano. A village or tribe, … Read more

Tawehash Tribe

Tawehash Indians (Ta-we’-hash, commonly known in early Spanish writings as Taovayas.) A principal tribe of the Wichita confederacy, distinct from the Wichita proper, although the terms are now used as synonymous. By the middle of the 18th century they had settled on upper Red river, where they remained relatively fixed for about a hundred years. Rumors of a tribe called the Teguayos, or Aijaos, who may have been the Tawehash, reached New Mexico from the east early in the 17th century . The Toayas found by La Harpe in 1719 on Canadian river with the Touacara (Tawakoni), Ousitas (Wichita), and … Read more

Wichita Tribe

Wichita Indians, Wichita Confederacy. A confederacy of Caddoan stock, closely related linguistically to the Pawnee, and formerly ranging from about the middle Arkansas river, Kansas, southward to Brazos river, Texas, of which general region they appear to be the aborigines; antedating the Comanche, Kiowa, Mescaleros, and Siouan tribes. They now reside in Caddo County, west Oklahoma, within the limits of the former Wichita Reservation. The name Wichita, by which they are commonly known, is of uncertain origin and etymology. They call themselves Kitikiti’sh (Kirikirish), a name also of uncertain meaning, but probably, like so many proper tribal names, implying preeminent … Read more

Yscanis Tribe

Yscanis Indians. A tribe of the Wichita confederacy; they were entirely distinct from the Asinais (Hasinai), though the names of the two tribes have been confused. It is possible that the Ysconis, or Isconis, reported to Domingo de Mendoza in 1684 among the tribes awaiting him somewhere in central or east Texas, were the Yscanis . In 1719 LaHarpe visited them (the “Ascanis”) on Canadian river, where they were living a settled life with the Wichita, Taovayas (Tawehash), and Tawakoni. LaHarpe also reported another village of the Ascanis 60 leagues farther to the north west . Little more is heard … Read more

Tonkawa Tribe

Portrait of John Williams a Tonkawa Indian 1898 Wellcome

Tonkawa Indians. A prominent tribe, forming the Tonkawan linguistic family, which, during most of the 18th and 19th centuries, lived in central Texas. According to Gatschet they call themselves Titskan wátitch, while the name Tonkawa is a Waco word, Tonkawéya meaning ‘they all stay together.’

Yojuane Tribe

Yojuane Indians. A Tonkawan tribe of northern and central Texas, frequently mentioned in 18th century Spanish records. Since their general history, customs, and ethnological relations are outlined under Tonkawa, only a few characteristic facts concerning them need be given here. The Yojuane and Tonkawa tribes were unmistakably mentioned in 1691 by Francisco de Jesus Maria as the “DiuJuan” and the “Tanqua ay,” among the enemies of the Hasínai. It is probable that the Ayennis, spoken of in 1698 by Talon, and the Yakwal (‘drifted ones’) remembered, according to Gatschet, in Tonkawa tradition, were the Yojuane. That the Joyvan met by … Read more

Sioux Indians

Siouan Family, Siouan Tribe, Sioux Tribe. The most populous linguistic family North of Mexico, next to the Algonquian. The name is taken from a ‘term applied to the largest and best known tribal group or confederacy belonging to the family, the Sioux or Dakota, which, in turn, is an abbreviation of Nadowessioux, a French corruption of Nadowe-is-iw, the appellation given them by the Chippewa. It signifies ‘snake,’ ‘adder,’ and, by metaphor, ‘enemy.’ Before changes of domicile took place among them, resulting from contact with whites, the principal body extended from the west bank of the Mississippi northward from the Arkansas … Read more

Shoshonean Indians

Shoshonean Family, Shoshonean People, Shoshonean Nation. The extent of country occupied renders this one of the most important of the linguistic families of the North American Indians. The area held by Shoshonean tribes, exceeded by the territory of only two families – the Algonquian and the Athapascan, – may thus be described: On the north the south west part of Montana, the whole of Idaho south of about lat. 45° 30′, with south east Oregon, south of the Blue Mountains, west and central Wyoming, west and central Colorado, with a strip of north New Mexico; east New Mexico and the … Read more

Shawnee Tribe

Formerly a leading tribe of South Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. By reason of the indefinite character of their name, their wandering habits, their connection with other tribes, and because of their interior position away from the traveled routes of early days, the Shawnee were long a stumbling block in the way of investigators.

Shawnee Indian Chiefs and Leaders

Big Jim Big Jim. The popular name of a noted full-blood Shawnee leader, known among his people as Wapameepto, “Gives light as he walks”. His English name was originally Dick Jim, corrupted into Big Jim. He was born on the Sabine Reservation, Texas, in 1834, and in 1872 became chief of the Kispicotha band, commonly known as Big Jim’s band of Absentee Shawnee. Big Jim was of illustrious lineage, his grandfather being Tecumseh and his father one of the signers of the “Sam Houston treaty” between the Cherokee and affiliated tribes and the Republic of Texas, February 23, 1836. He … Read more

Hathawekela Tribe

Hathawekela Indians. A principal division of the Shawnee, the name of which is of uncertain etymology. They emigrated from the south about 1697, together with other Shawnee bands, and settled with them, partly on Susquehanna and partly on Allegheny River, Pennsylvania, where they are mentioned in 1731. Sewickley, Pennsylvania, probably takes its name from them. According to W. H. Shawnee, an educated member of the tribe, the proper form is Ha-tha-we-ke-lah, and they constitute one of the original 5 principal divisions of the Shawnee. Together with the Bicowetha (Piqua) and Kispokotha (Kispococoke) divisions they removed about 1793 to what was … Read more

Pueblo Family

Pueblo Indians, Pueblo Family – (towns, villages , so called on account of the peculiar style of compact permanent settlements of these people, as distinguished from temporary camps or scattered rancherias of less sub stantial houses). A term applied by the Spaniards and adopted by English-speaking people to designate all the Indians who lived or are living in permanent stone or adobe houses built into compact villages in south Colorado and central Utah, and in New Mexico, Arizona, and the adjacent Mexican territory, and extended sometimes to include the settlements of such tribes as the Pima and the Papago, who … Read more

Nacogdoche Tribe

Nacogdoche Indians (Na-ko-hodó-tsi). A tribe of the Hasinai confederacy of Texas. It has been said that their language differed from that of the Hasinai group in general, but there is much evidence to indicate that this is not true. For example, Ramón, who founded missions at the Neche, Hainai, Nasoni, and Nacogdoche villages in 1716, states in his report that “these four missions will comprise from four to five thousand persons of both sexes, all of one idiom” . On the same day the missionaries wrote that the Nacogdoche mission “N. S. de Guadalupe is awaiting people of the same … Read more

Muskogean Indians

Muskhogean Family, Muskhogean Stock, Muskhogean People, Muskhogean Indians. An important linguistic stock, comprising the Creeks, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and other tribes. The name is an adjectival form of Muskogee, properly Măskóki (pl. Maskokalgi or Muscogulgee). Its derivation has been attributed to an Algonquian term signifying `swamp’ or `open marshy land’, but this is almost certainly incorrect. The Muskhogean tribes were confined chiefly to the Gulf states east of almost all of Mississippi and Alabama, and parts of Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. According to a tradition held in common by most of their tribes, they had reached their historic seats from some starting point west of the Mississippi, usually placed, when localized at all, somewhere on the upper Red River. The greater part of the tribes of the stock are now on reservations in Oklahoma.

Kickapoo Tribe

Kickapoo Indians, Kickapoo People (from Kiwǐgapawa, ‘he stands about,’ Or ‘he moves about, standing now here, now there’). A tribe of the central Algonquian group, forming a division with the Sauk and Foxes, with whom they have close ethnic and linguistic connection. The relation of this division is rather with the Miami, Shawnee, Menominee, and Peoria than with the Chippewa, Potawatomi, and Ottawa. Kickapoo Tribe History The people of this tribe, unless they are hidden under a name not yet known to be synonymous, first appear in history about 1667-70. At this time they were found by Allouez near the portage … Read more