A New History of Old Texas

Post-script to Brandon Seale's podcast "A New History of Old San Antonio."This is the audio from my October 2024 SA PechaKucha talk, the video of which you can find on YouTube as well. As a summary of my thoughts after thinking deeply about San Antonio and early Texas history for the last decade, I'm pretty happy with it. But I'll admit that it's a little incomplete.BTW, the punchline (which you can't see in the audio version) is the picture of the Alamo that I throw on the screen at the end...the "two-sided tactical miscalculation that we turned into the most celebrated defeat in American history."www.BrandonSeale.com

We found another site. But so did someone else. And there's a rumored fourth site out there as well now? What in the name of Miguel Menchaca's ghost is going on?Image: Martin Gonzalez, Atascosa County Historical Commission. Photo by Jessica Phelps, , SA Express-News, April 29, 2024.www.BrandonSeale.com

Episode 10 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.No Native Texan captured Anglo-Texians’ hearts like Lipan Captain Flacco the Younger. His exploits as a Texas Ranger and his people’s defense of Texas’ borders against Mexico make him the darling of Texas newspapers. Texas newspapers fail to distinguish, however, between hostile native Texans and Lipanes living in their midst. And Lipan wealth becomes an irresistible target of Texian raiding and retaliation. Painting of Flacco the Younger by Jay Hester, available online.Selected BibliographyAlonso, Gorka. Apachería.Anderson, Gary Clayton. The Indian Southwest, 1580-1830: Ethnogenesis and Reinvention (1999).Anderson, Gary Clayton. The Conquest of Texas (2019).Baddour, Dylan. “Labeled ‘Hispanic,’” Texas Observer, May/June 2022, July 6, 2022.Britten, Thomas A. The Lipan Apaches: People of Wind and Lightning (2011).González Dávila, José Medina. ¿Qué significa ser apache en el siglo XXI?: Continuidad y cambio de los lipanes en Texas (2018).Lipan Apache Band of Texas – Lipan Apache Band of Texas Claim as a Sovereign NationMaestas, Enrique G. M. (2003). Culture and History of Native American Peoples of South Texas. University of Texas at Austin, PhD Dissertation.Minor, Nancy M. The Light Gray People: An Ethno-History of the Lipan Apaches of Texas and Northern Mexico (2009).Minor, Nancy M. Turning Adversity to Advantage: A History of the Lipan Apaches of Texas and Northern Mexico, 1700-1900 (2009).Opler, Morris E. Myths and Legends of the Lipan Apache Indians (1940).Robinson, Sherry. I Fought a Good Fight: A History of the Lipan Apaches (2013).Smith, F. Todd. From Dominance to Disappearance: The Indians of Texas and the Near Southwest, 1786-1859 (2005).www.BrandonSeale.com

Episode 13 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.The United States dispenses with the pretense of Native American sovereignty and adopts a policy of forced assimilation. Mexico waxes poetic about the “cosmic race” while sending airplanes to track down "Apaches broncos” living free in the mountains. The Lipan Apaches avoid the reservation by dispersing and using the reservation system to project their power and spread their religious ceremonies to the native communities of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Chihuahua, and Coahuila.Selected BibliographyAlonso, Gorka. Apachería.Anderson, Gary Clayton. The Indian Southwest, 1580-1830: Ethnogenesis and Reinvention (1999).Anderson, Gary Clayton. The Conquest of Texas (2019).Baddour, Dylan. “Labeled ‘Hispanic,’” Texas Observer, May/June 2022, July 6, 2022.Britten, Thomas A. The Lipan Apaches: People of Wind and Lightning (2011).González Dávila, José Medina. ¿Qué significa ser apache en el siglo XXI?: Continuidad y cambio de los lipanes en Texas (2018).Lipan Apache Band of Texas – Lipan Apache Band of Texas Claim as a Sovereign NationMaestas, Enrique G. M. (2003). Culture and History of Native American Peoples of South Texas. University of Texas at Austin, PhD Dissertation.Minor, Nancy M. The Light Gray People: An Ethno-History of the Lipan Apaches of Texas and Northern Mexico (2009).Minor, Nancy M. Turning Adversity to Advantage: A History of the Lipan Apaches of Texas and Northern Mexico, 1700-1900 (2009).Opler, Morris E. Myths and Legends of the Lipan Apache Indians (1940).Robinson, Sherry. I Fought a Good Fight: A History of the Lipan Apaches (2013).Smith, F. Todd. From Dominance to Disappearance: The Indians of Texas and the Near Southwest, 1786-1859 (2005).www.BrandonSeale.com

Episode 11 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.The Lipan Apaches become proxies for a Texian guerilla war against northern Mexico, until Texian policies cut them off from their lands and their livelihoods. Ever adaptable, the Lipanes flip the script, relocating to their old haunts in Mexico and raiding Texas property. The Texas-Mexico border itself – and the freedom it offers – becomes an artifact of enduring Lipan resistance during these years. The annexation of Texas, however, unbalances the playing field in an oddly legalistic way.Selected BibliographyAlonso, Gorka. Apachería.Anderson, Gary Clayton. The Indian Southwest, 1580-1830: Ethnogenesis and Reinvention (1999).Anderson, Gary Clayton. The Conquest of Texas (2019).Baddour, Dylan. “Labeled ‘Hispanic,’” Texas Observer, May/June 2022, July 6, 2022.Britten, Thomas A. The Lipan Apaches: People of Wind and Lightning (2011).González Dávila, José Medina. ¿Qué significa ser apache en el siglo XXI?: Continuidad y cambio de los lipanes en Texas (2018).Lipan Apache Band of Texas – Lipan Apache Band of Texas Claim as a Sovereign NationMaestas, Enrique G. M. (2003). Culture and History of Native American Peoples of South Texas. University of Texas at Austin, PhD Dissertation.Minor, Nancy M. The Light Gray People: An Ethno-History of the Lipan Apaches of Texas and Northern Mexico (2009).Minor, Nancy M. Turning Adversity to Advantage: A History of the Lipan Apaches of Texas and Northern Mexico, 1700-1900 (2009).Opler, Morris E. Myths and Legends of the Lipan Apache Indians (1940).Robinson, Sherry. I Fought a Good Fight: A History of the Lipan Apaches (2013).Smith, F. Todd. From Dominance to Disappearance: The Indians of Texas and the Near Southwest, 1786-1859 (2005).www.BrandonSeale.com