How the East Texas Indians Lost Their Homeland (Part One)

Most people do not know that during the final years of Indian history in East Texas there were two distinct native cultures living there, side-by-side.  One was the old Caddoan Tribes whose descendants had lived there since early man.  They were descendants of the mound builders.  Then, there were the immigrant Indians, who moved into the Caddo’s forests and their lands, beginning around 1718.

These new tribes, or immigrant Indians, included the powerful Cherokee, who lived above the El Camino De Los Tejas Road, (Highway 21), from the Angelina River west to the Neches River.  And there were other northern and southeastern tribes such as the Delaware, (who lived west of Alto, Texas), the Alabama, (who roamed and hunted below Nacogdoches), the Coushatta, (who lived on the Sabine River also below the Nacogdotsi (Nacogdoches) between Texas and Louisiana), the Shawnee, (who lived down the old Shawnee Road from Nacogdoches across the Angelina River at Shawnee Prairie, now Angelina County), and a group on the Red River.  Others ranged in the forests below present Lufkin, and the Choctaws (who lived between Nacogdoches and present Garrison[1]).  And, it surprises many that these “new” Indians had been invited by the Spanish officials to come and camp in this old East Texas territory which Spain considered theirs, but so did the native Tejas/Hasinai/Caddo, whose ancestors had lived upon this land for thousands of years before the Spanish “claimed” it.

The native Tejas/Hasinai/Caddo Indians complained to the Spanish of this intrusion, but their complaints landed on deaf ears.  The Caddoans never knew that the Spanish had extended this hospitality of inviting them into East Texas to occupy these lands and to block any French attempts at colonizing them (which they were trying to do.)  They had to promise to refuse to trade with the French and to ally their warriors with Spanish soldiers in the event there was war caused by any French encroachment.  By this time, the native Caddo and Tejas had become severely weakened from disease and death.  Their numbers had shrunk and there was nothing they could do but leave their old homeland and move westward near the Brazos River.

A little later, beginning in the 1830’s when East Texas began to be settled by Anglo farmers from the southern United States, several problems arose.  These land hungry whites had already caused deadly conflicts with these very same immigrant Indians back in the southern and eastern states and were the exact cause of the Indians leaving their traditional homeland and migrating to East Texas.  Now they were faced with the same Anglos again, especially after 1836 when Texas became an Anglo republic and the immigrant door was thrown wide open.  Now, the “whites” were trying to displace them again.  Deadly conflict was inevitable.

Prior to the 1845, all Indians of East Texas, native and immigrant were still free and would remain so until 1854, after which time they were placed on the new “Texas Brazos Reservations.”  As mentioned, in addition to the old native Caddoans, these newer immigrant tribes had been entering from other states since 1800, or earlier.  The European-introduced epidemics, (beginning in the 1690’s) such as small pox, measles, cholera, alcoholism, change of diet, murder, and sexual diseases, the two major groups of Caddoan (Caddohadache and Tejas/Hasinai), were becoming decimated.  They were still viable and remained free until 1855.  However, it was different with the newer immigrant Indians.

Some of these had taken up residency on the traditional Caddoan lands above the old El Camino De Los Texas Road, (Highway 21), particularly the Cherokee, Choctaw, some Shawnee and Delaware.  As stated, the Caddo did not know that they had actually been permitted to enter with the invitation of the Spanish.  On the other hand, these immigrants were led to believe that they had been given a claim on this new land – – this would cause bloodshed at a later date.

On the Indians’ side, there was hate because of their past treatments; causing fear and mistrust of the Anglos.  Indian depredations were constantly on the Anglos minds.  All too often Anglos were killed – including in some instances, women and children were massacred.

The Killough Massacre[2] was only one incident where eighteen members of this family clan were killed near Jacksonville.  Another incident was when a girl was attacked at the spring across the road from Old North Church in Nacogdoches.  And there would be many more.

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