Men was in South Texas 11,000 years ago

We know very little of the people who inhabited South Texas prior to Cabeza de Vaca’s time. Fortunately, De Vaca and other Spanish explorers were devoted note takers. Their accounts provide the earliest historic record of men in this part of the world.

Prehistory by definition means that no written reports are available from that time. What we know of the prehistoric era comes from archaeological studies. Governmental requirements for uranium mining permits as well as for the use of Federal government grants prompted most of these studies and thus they lack the depth of scholarship one would hope. Regrettably, the scientific language used in reports of these archaeological digs does not make them easily understood by lay readers. Still, they provide the only resource available for this period.

Fossil remains found in the Duval County equus beds are the earliest references to people inhabiting this area of Texas. The remains date to the mid Ice Age when mammoths roamed the Texas countryside. As the temperatures warmed, the mammoth and giant bison became extinct. The vegetation and animal life in the area changed but remained plentiful.

Archaeological digs in areas around Seven Sisters, San Diego, Rosita and north of Hebbronville have yielded artifacts mostly from the Archaic Age, or from 1,000 to 7,000 years before historic times. These artifacts point to a people that used spears to hunt big game.

From very earliest times, the people that lived in the Duval and Jim Wells counties were hunter-gatherers. They never established towns or communities but traveled about the countryside in family groups or bands, staying for short periods in campsites. Aboriginal people often used these temporary sites as work areas where they built tools or processed their kills. On other occasions, they were in fact kill sites, where the natives used spears to bring down their game food. The game was plentiful in vegetation that included lush savannas.

With plenty of game and plant foods to gather, the aboriginal people had no use for farming. This way of life continued through the next seven millennia. Cataclysmic changes in the environment began to occur as the Europeans began to arrive.

The Spaniards began to push the natives north and the Americans pushed the warlike natives south. Caught in the middle were the docile hunter-gatherers that belonged to the Coahuiltecan family of natives. Before long foreign dieases and intermarriage with the Spanish and the raiding by Lipan Apache and the Comanche exterminated these people

Just as the native people became extinct, so too did the fertile vegetation in the area give way to a more barren environment. Cattle and sheep raising, as well as European style farming caused the natural grasslands to give way to a semi arid environment where thorny brush dominated.

It was to this less inviting setting that the residents of modern day Duval and Jim Wells counties came. Like their predecessors, they had to fight off the Apache and Comanche; unlike their predecessors, they were successful in eliminating the menace. Moreover, unlike their predecessors, the ancestors of today’s South Texans found a way to live with the new desert like surroundings.

Alfredo E. Cardenas | September 29, 2015 at 12:31 am | Reply (Edit) Thanks David. Glad you found. Keep in touch. David Smith | September 29, 2015 at 12:30 am | Reply (Edit) Mr. Cardenas, eventually I did find a proper link to the map, not exactly in the form you have. It was the first map by what became the USGS, I think. http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3432167?image_id=1005187 it is very interesting! If you ever would like to discuss "san cajo", I would enjoy hearing any thing you know. I found this by way of an incredible map collection I would like to share with you: http://www.davidrumsey.com/view.html Thanks for your blog, Viva San Diego! Alfredo E. Cardenas | August 31, 2015 at 5:42 pm | Reply (Edit) Sorry David, but I no not have a link. This is from a copy in my research collection. The caption says the Barker Texas History Center so that is probably where I got the copy. It's now the Dol[ph Briscoe Center. You may want to browse through this collection: http://www.cah.utexas.edu/research/maps_gallery.php. The General Land Office has a good collection of maps, check this out: http://www.glo.texas.gov/cf/ArcMaps/ArcMapsWorkList.cfm?Customer=67231611-15243 David Smith | August 31, 2015 at 5:28 pm | Reply (Edit) always enjoy your posts, but this one a Very Special treat for me, you have shown me a map, the 1857 boundary survey, that I have lost the link too. Muchisimas Gracias!!! David Smith | August 31, 2015 at 5:28 pm | Reply (Edit) Mr. Cardenas, I have failed to find a direct link to your map , I have seen it before but years ago lost my link!! Could you send me a link or the raw file where you obtained it? It would be a BIG favor. I did not find anyonline links to the Barker Collection…. My particular area of interest, are the blurry hills by the Nueces marked " San Cajo , San Cajo Arribadeno, and S.(or N.?) Cajo Badeno" The latter two names, I have never found on any other map. They seem to be obvious hills that were used as markers by early travelers. David Smith smittypyro@gmail.com