The Indians of Texas: From Prehistoric to Modern Times

by William W. Newcomb Jr.

This book covers the history of the Indian tribes who lived in Texas at the beginning of the colonial period.

Indians long vanished from the Texas scene arise from the pages of this lively book to roam again the land where once they lived.

Savage but paradoxical Karankawas, who devoured human flesh to acquire their victims' courage yet nursed a shipwrecked Cabeza de Vaca and his companions back to health, return to their nomadic life on the coastal plains. Bloodthirsty Comanches, who to most Texans are synonymous with Indians, once more gallop forth on forays, adorned in grotesque buffalo-horn headdresses, with faces stained a fearful red, carrying gaudily painted buffalo-hide shields. Wichitas, the short, stocky, dark-skinned, tattooed natives whose ancestors inhabited the province of Quivira, visited by Coronado in 1541, again practice their witchcraft, destroying an enemy by placing a lock of his hair in the mouth of a toad, then killing the toad.

In this, the most comprehensive and authoritative book ever written about the Indians of Texas, W.W. Newcomb, Jr., has pieced together scattered data to present a lively re-creation of all aspects of Indian existence within the present borders of the state. The tribes were not cast from the same mold, and in some cases they were not even vaguely similar. Moreover, most tribes disappeared many years ago, some before Americans entered what is now the Lone Star State.

404 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1961