The Conquest Of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing In The Promised Land, 1820-1875

505 Pages·2005·5.04 MB·English

by  Gary Clayton Anderson

THE CONQUEST OF TEXAS

The Conquest of Texas
Ethnic Cleansing in the
Promised Land, 1820–1875
Gary Clayton Anderson
University of Oklahoma Press :Norman
ALSO BY GARY CLAYTON ANDERSON
Kinsmen ofAnother Kind:Dakota-White Relations in the Upper
Mississippi Valley,1650–1862(Lincoln,Neb.,1984;St.Paul,1997)
Little Crow,Spokesman for the Sioux(St.Paul,1986)
(Edited with Alan R.Woolworth) Through Dakota Eyes:Narrative
Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862(St.Paul,1988)
Sitting Bull and the Paradox of Lakota Nationhood(New York,1996)
The Indian Southwest,1580–1830:Ethnogenesis and Cultural
Reinvention(Norman,Okla.,1999)
Publication of this book is made possible through the generosity of
Edith Kinney Gaylord.
Illustrations and maps are published with the generous assistance of the
Graduate College of the University of Oklahoma.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anderson,Gary Clayton,1948–
The conquest of Texas :ethnic cleansing in the promised land,
1820–1875 / Gary Clayton Anderson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-8061-3698-7 (alk.paper)
1.Texas—Race relations—History—19th century. 2.Racism—
Texas—History—19th century. 3.Violence—Texas—History—19th
century. 4. Forced migration—Texas—History—19th century. 5.
Mexicans—Texas—Social conditions—19th century. 6.Indians of
North America—Texas—Social conditions—19th century. 7.Texas
Rangers—History—19th century. 8.Texas—History,Military—19th
century. 9.Texas—History—To 1846. 10.Texas—History—1846–1950.
I.Title.
F395.A1A53 2005
305.8'009764'09034—dc22
2005041772
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of
the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council
on Library Resources,Inc.∞
Copyright © 2005 by the University of Oklahoma Press,Norman,Publishing
Division of the University.All rights reserved.Manufactured in the U.S.A.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
To Chas, a son-in-law of extraordinary kindness, wonderful humor, and absolute
loyalty—may he ever be an angel on the shoulders of his children

CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction:Demythologizing Texas 3
1. At the Dawn of the American Invasion 18
2. The Texas Creed in a Tejano and Indian Land 33
3. Mexican Politics and the Struggle to Settle Early Texas 43
4. The Muddle of Early Mexican Federalism 59
5. Centralists and the Struggle for Texas Land 70
6. The Americanization ofTexas 81
7. The Texas Creed and the Clouds ofWar 97
8. Revolution and the “Rumor”of Indian War 108
9. Indian Intransigence 127
10. Sam Houston,the Legislature,and a Failed Indian Policy 153
11. Lamar,His Generals,and Ethnic Cleansing 172
12. The Indians’Last Stand in Central Texas 185
13. The Failure ofWell-Intended Efforts 195
14. The Boundary Line Fiasco 212
15. Lines,Politics,Depredations,and the U.S.Army 226
16. General Persifor Smith and the Salvation ofTexas 246
17. Reservations or Concentration Camps? 259
18. The Plan 285
19. Anarchy and “Total War” 302
20. The Final Exodus 318
21. Indians and the Civil War 327
22. The Final Ethnic Cleansing ofTexas 345
Notes 379
Bibliography 459
Index 477

ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
following page 140
Juan Seguín
Stephen F.Austin
Thomas Jefferson Rusk
Sam Houston
Antonio López de Santa Anna
Mirabeau B. Lamar
David G. Burnet
Edward Burleson
Indian council at San Antonio,Texas, 1850s
Chief Bowles, Cherokee leader
Black Beaver
George Washington, Caddo chief
Caddo village
Kickapoo man,Anadarko, Indian Territory
Painting: Going to Town
A Tejano jacal, or hut
following page 276
Ranger company, late 1850s or early 1860s
John Coffee Hays
John Salmon Ford
John R. Baylor
Howeah, or Gap-in-the-Woods,Yamparica Comanche leader
Horseback, Naconi Comanche leader
Mowway, or Shaking Hand, Kotchateka Comanche leader
Young Buffalo Hump, son to Penateka Comanche chief
Mowway’s camp
Comanche family portrait
following page 361
J.W.Throckmorton
Edmund J. Davis
General Henry E. McCulloch
Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie