T H E NATIVE TRI B ES ABO UT TH E EAST TEXAS M ISS IO N S H E RB E RT E E OLT ON , Ph . D . Adl u nct P rofessor of H isto ry in th e U n iversity of Texa s Re n ted from th e u arterl o f th e T e a s State His o ica Ass c a t n pri Q y x t r l o i io , Vol . ] N o . 4 1 908 X , (April , ) AUSTI N ; T E XAS T H E NATI VE T RI B E S AB OU T T H E E AST T E X AS M I SSI ONS . H E E T B OL TON RB R E . I N ODU C O Y TR T R . The history of the Spanish régim e in the Southwest is very n largely the history of an India policy in its military, political, i and religious phases, and to understand it ar ght it is manifestly necessary to know something of the people over whom the Spaniards extended their authority and upon whom they tried to impose their faith and their civilization . The purpose of this paper is to furnish a partial introduction — to the early history of the Spaniards i n eastern Texas the scene of their first systematic activities between the M ississippi and the — u pper Rio Grande by presenting some of the main features of the organization of the compact group of tribes living in the upper A Neches and the ngelina River valleys, the first and the most important group with which they came into intimate contact . These tribes furnished the early field of labor especially for the e Franciscans of the College of Santa Cruz de Quer taro, who worked for fifteen years in the region and founded in it five missions, while one was founde d there and maintained for more than half a century by the Colleg e of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de Zaca n tecas . It is hoped that this paper will throw ew light on the all n too obscure history of these i teresting establishments, particularly - 1 with respect to their location s. ” Th e N a m es T exas a n d i n io x s The tribes quest n commonly have been called the Te a , but more properly the H asinai . Concerning the meaning and ‘ The a uthorita tiv e presenta tion of the genera l history of the begi nnings of s a m a o a the e est blish ents is th t c nt ined in the excellent a rticles by Dr . - - R . a . a Vol . 1 7 1 205 a n d Vol . 1 2 6 . C Cl rk, published in this "ourn l , V, , VI , In their bea rings upon Indi a n orga niza tion a n d triba l na m es they a re m a rred t o som e extent by the u se of corrupt copies of the sources instea d of a a s m a m a the origin ls , will be seen by co p ring the with wh t follows . It b u t a to a a v a n d e of a is f ir st te th t in the re ision ext nsion these rticles, a o to a a a s a o v f U of a . a h a s b ut ppe r Bulletin the ni ersity Tex s, Mr Cl rk m of corrected so e the errors . Fo r fa cts concerning the indi v idua l tribe s mentioned in the course of d bo o m r / I a n s a a n ok e a n n d W . this rticle , see the H f A ic i , edited by F . m of a of a N o . 30 a Hodge ( Bulletin the Bure u A eric n Ethnology, , P rt I , 1 907 a ; P rt II in press ) . T exas H istori cal Associa ti on ua rt rl Q e y . usage of these terms I Shall only present here somewhat dogm ati cally part of the results of a rather extended study which I have of s 1 made these point and which I hope soon to publish . The testimony of the sources warrants the conclusion that before x r the coming of the Spaniards the word Te as , va iously spelled by w the early riters, had wide currency among the tribes of eastern Texas and perhaps over a larger area ; that its usual meaning was “ ” “ ” friends , or more technically, allies ; and that it was used by the tribes about the early missions, at least, to whom especially it later became attached as a group name, to designate a large num A ber of tribes who were customarily allied against the paches . x f In this sense, the Te as included tribes who spoke di ferent lan guages and who were as widely separated as the Red River and the - A Rio Grande . It seems that the Neches ngelina tribes designated did not apply the term restrictively to themselves as a name, but ' u n tech m cal i that they did use it in a very way as a form of greet ng, “h ” like ello, friend, with which they even saluted Spaniards after sa their advent . I may y, in this connection , that the meanings “ fl ” “ ” “ ” land of owers , tiled roofs , paradise, etc . , sometimes given x for the name Te as , I have never seen even suggested by early observers, or by anyone on the basis of trustworthy evidence . x The name Te as has been variously applied by writers , but it was most commonly used by the Spaniards, from whom the French E e . and the nglish borrowed it, to designat those tribes of the upper A n Neches and the ngelina valleys, and this in spite of their k ow ing full well that among the natives the word had the wider a ppl i - cation that has been indicated . There are many variations from this usage in Spanish writings , it is true, but this, nevertheless , is As the ordinary one . a tribal name the term was sometimes still to . further narrowed to apply a single tribe When this occurred , H it was most commonly used to designate the ainai , the head tribe s of the group in question , but ometimes it was applied to the Nabe As x ex dache tribe . a geographical term , the name Te as was first tended from these Neches - Angelina tribes to th eir immediate coun . T try hus for the first quarter of a century of Spanish occupation , “ ” the phrase the Province of Texas referred only to the country east of the Trinity River ; but with the founding of th e San Anto nio x settlements the term was e tended westward, more in harmony ‘ The presen t p a per embodies some o f the results of a n in v estiga tion of the history o f the Texa s tribes which the write r is m a king for the Burea u of m a A eric n Ethnology . i s n T h e N a ti ve T rfii es Abou t th e E ast T exas M s io s. 251 M wi th its native meaning, to the edina River, and then gradually x to all of the territory included within the present State of Te as . x . th e a e While the name Te as, as used by the tribes in e st rn por t tion of the State, was hus evidently a broad and indefinite term w a applied to many and unrelated tribes occupying a ide rea , it is clear that the n a tive group name for most of the tri bes about N ech eS A H the missions in the and ngelina valleys was asinai , or A 1 H sinai . Today the term asinai is used by the Caddoans on the reservations to include not only the survivors of these Neches A ngelina tribes, but also the survivors of the tribes of the Sabine and Red River country . It seems from the sources , however, that in the early days the term was more properly limited to the former . i n group In strictest usage, indeed, the earliest writers did not l d A s c u e all of these . tudy of contemporary evidence shows that at the first contact of E urope ans with these tribes and for a long time thereafter writers quite generally made a distinction between A 2 H . Ka doh a da ch o the asinai ( sinai , Cenis, etc ) and the ( Cad d oda ch o ) group ; these confederacies , for such they were in the I r ndian sense of the term , were separated by a wide st etch of unin habited territory extending between the upper An gelina and the Red River in the neighborhood of Texarkana ; their separateness s of organization was po itively affirmed , and the details of the inner constituti on of both groups were more or less fully described ; while in their relations with the E uropeans they were for n earl v a century dealt with as separate units . Nevertheless , because of the present native use of the term and some early testimony that can not be disregarded, I would not at present assert unreservedly that the term formerly was applied by the natives only to the - A .