TEXAS HISTORY – LEARNING FROM OUR PAST TO INFLUENCE OUR FUTURE
The Spanish Explorer Who Changed Life for the American Indian...
(From the 4th grade “Six Flags Over Texas” segment)
In 1598, fifty years after the initial settlement attempts and failures of earlier Spanish
Conquistadors, Don Juan de Oñate was ordered by King Philip II of Spain to colonize the
northern frontier of New Spain. He crossed the Rio Grande, proceeded northward up the river,
and claimed all of New Mexico for Spain. In 1601, he led a large expedition to the Great Plains of
Texas.
Four hundred soldiers, a small group of priests, and 130 families of the
soldiers accompanied Oñate on his journey north. The soldiers came to
subdue the Indian population; the priests came to Christianize them; and
the families came along to establish permanent colonies of Spanish
peasantry north of the Rio Grande. But Oñate unwittingly introduced a far
more important resource to Texas -- his expedition included a herd of
seven thousand domestic animals -- European cattle and Spanish mustang
colts and mares.
Why was this livestock so important? Quite simply because the animals introduced new mobility to
the Indians -- a critical factor in expanding their potential for finding food and in protecting
themselves against the European invaders. Earlier conquistadors had found the more pliant Indian
cultures easily subdued. As Oñate ventured further into northern Texas, he encountered the more
hostile Wichitas and Apaches, who ultimately gained access to horses as a result of the more
permanent colonization policies. When Oñate introduced the Spanish horses into the High Plains
area, he “recruited” the more docile Indians to tend the stock. The natives learned the details of
horsemanship, and took to it with a passion.
Naturally, some of these Indians escaped to the western mountains and high plains, taking their
considerable new skills…and stolen horses…with them. Oñate’s introduction of the horse and its
care, on a large scale, to the native culture completely changed the course of Texas history. In the
first half of the seventeenth century, the newly developed horsemanship skills were passed to the
Apache, and later, to the Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne-Arapaho and other plainsmen. For the first
time, the American Indians were equipped to meet their European masters on an equal, if not
superior, footing in their own homeland. This new mobility allowed the Indians to keep the
Spanish at bay…to aggressively and successfully defend what had been their homeland and
hunting grounds for centuries -- an advantage that would last until they were finally driven onto
Indian Territory reservations by the U. S. Cavalry some three hundred years later.
And like the horse, Oñate’s herd of several thousand Spanish Longhorns had a lasting impact on
Texas history far beyond anything the Spaniard could have imagined. When he arrived, there were
enormous herds of bison that freely roamed the midcontinent…herds the Indians were dependent
upon not only for their food, but for shelter, clothing, tools, and weapons, as well. In addition to
the tens of millions of bison, the Indians also had countless thousands of pronghorn antelope, deer,
rabbits, turkey, and an occasional bear for menu items. Because of this ample, readily available
food supply and the Indians’ easy exploitation of bison (they were stupid animals, easy to kill, even
on foot, but could be slaughtered at will by horse-mounted hunters); the hardy Spanish cattle
introduced by Oñate thrived on the virtually predator-free, Texas plains.
By the mid-1800’s, their numbers had grown from a few thousand to 3-5 million. Newcomers to
Texas…entrepreneurs from the eastern states... quickly saw the huge profit potential offered by the
“free” cattle. The availability of these abundant Longhorns resulted in the great, legendary cattle
drives of the mid-19th century -- along the well-known cattle trails called Chisholm, Western, Santa
Fe, and Goodnight-Loving -- into New Mexico and across Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) to
markets in Colorado and to railheads in Kansas…Topeka, Wichita, Abilene and Dodge City.
A booming cattle industry and beef market arose from the descendants of the little-known
Spanish explorer’s herd of European Longhorns. And major support industries required to truly
settle the dry and arid regions of north, west and southwest Texas thrived, as well: barbed wire,
which helped strangle the cattle drives, but which accelerated the development of pure breeds of
cattle; and the American version of the windmill that pumped water out of the ground, thereby
making possible the settlement of the more arid regions of Texas; and the expansion of the
railroad which transported settlers and entrepreneurs to the great State of Texas.