Texas by Credo Reference: Native Americans

The original inhabitants of the American continent, who arrived during the last glacial period (according to some estimates, 14–40 000 years ago).

In Atlas of Indian Nations
The Native nations of the Southwest have long achieved amazing, seemingly impossible, accomplishments. The Anasazi, predecessors to the Hopi and Pueblo, built an astounding nine-mile-long city at Chaco Canyon, with more than 70 satellite communities and a central building constructed with more than 50 million sandstone blocks and 5,000 trees. All the major structures at Chaco align perfectly at the summer solstice. And the Anasazi did it without human slaves, beasts of burden, compasses, transits, or wheels. The climate in the Southwest is harsh, and the people could be just as tough as the weather. No matter how hot and dry the deserts, no matter how cold the highest peaks, the peoples of the Southwest found a way not just to survive but to thrive.

In Handy Answer: Native American Almanac: More Than 50,000 Years of the Cultures and Histories of Indigenous Peoples
At one time, Texas was home to several hundred groups of American Indians, but most were killed or removed before Texas became a state in 1845. Today, only three reservations exist in an area that historically was home to thousands, if not millions, of various peoples: the Alabama–Coushatta Indian Reservation (just east of Houston), Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (El Paso), and the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas (near Eagle Pass). Because of relocation policies, Texas cities have Native residents as far away as Montana and South Dakota.

In The New Encyclopedia of the American West
Owing to the varying climates of the area, the Indian people of Texas represented a wide range of cultures. Texas encompasses three culture areas, that of the Great Plains, that of the Southwest, and that of the Southeast.

In Encyclopedia of North American Indians, Houghton Mifflin
Of Muskogean stock and members of the Upper Creek Confederacy, the Alabamas and Coushattas have intertwined histories. Their languages are mutually intelligible, and there has been frequent intermarriage. Inhabiting the hospitable southeastern woodlands, they enjoyed a high standard of living.

Member of an American Indian people who migrated from Canada to Arizona, and parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and north Mexico, between AD 850 and 1400.

Member of a nomadic American Indian people who roamed parts of Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Mexico from the 1700s.

Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Algonquian branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock

The Kiowa, a nomadic people of the Plains area, had several distinctive traits, including a pictographic calendar and the worship of a stone image, the taimay.

In Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures
A Native North American nation of eastern Texas, whose name might mean ‘people of the wolf. They call themselves Titskan-watich, meaning ‘most human of people’.

In Atlas of Indian Nations
After the Pueblo Revolt in 1680, Antonio de Otermín, the former governor of Santa Fe, was much chagrined at his defeat. He tried to recolonize the pueblos in 1681, first approaching Isleta, which offered little resistance. Otermín attacked, killing many and capturing more. Fearing retribution from other pueblos, he rounded up captives and departed for El Paso.

In Encyclopedia of North American Indians, Houghton Mifflin
Quanah was the only Comanche ever recognized by the U.S. government with the title “The Chief of the Comanche Indians.”