Texas

===Precontact era===
{{Texas History}}
{{main|History of Texas}}
{{further|Pre-Columbian Mexico|Native American tribes in Texas}}

[[File:Early indian west.jpg|thumb|Early Native American tribal territories]]Texas lies between two major cultural spheres of [[Pre-Columbian North America]]: the [[Southwestern tribes|Southwestern]] and the [[Plains Indians|Plains]] areas. [[Archaeologists]] have found that three major Indigenous cultures lived in this territory, and reached their developmental peak before the first European contact. These were:{{sfn|Richardson|Wintz|Boswell|Anderson|2021|p=9}} the [[Ancestral Puebloans]] from the upper [[Rio Grande]] region, centered west of Texas; the [[Mississippian culture]], also known as [[Mound Builders]], which extended along the [[Mississippi River Valley]] east of Texas; and the civilizations of [[Mesoamerica]], which were centered south of Texas. Influence of [[Teotihuacan]] in northern Mexico peaked around AD 500 and declined between the 8th and 10th centuries.

When Europeans arrived in the Texas region, the language families present in the state were [[Caddo]]an, [[Atakapa]]n, Athabaskan, [[Coahuiltecan]], and Uto-Aztecan, in addition to several language isolates such as [[Tonkawa language|Tonkawa]]. Uto-Aztecan Puebloan and [[Jumanos|Jumano]] peoples lived neared the Rio Grande in the western portion of the state and the Athabaskan-speaking Apache tribes lived throughout the interior. The agricultural, mound-building Caddo controlled much of the northeastern part of the state, along the [[Red River of the South|Red]], [[Sabine River (Texas–Louisiana)|Sabine]], [[Neches River|and Neches River]] basins.<ref name="Carter 1995">{{Cite book |last=Carter |first=Cecile Elkins |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1253386080 |title=Caddo Indians where we come from |date=1995 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=0-585-17049-5 |oclc=1253386080}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7560/711501 |title="The Caddo Nation" |date=1993 |publisher=University of Texas Press |doi=10.7560/711501 |isbn=978-0-292-79978-3}}</ref> Atakapan peoples such as the [[Akokisa]] and [[Bidai]] lived along the northeastern Gulf Coast; the [[Karankawa people|Karankawa]] lived along the central coast.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aten |first=Lawrence E. |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/254092448 |title=Indians of the upper Texas coast |date=1983 |publisher=Academic Pr |isbn=0-12-065740-6 |oclc=254092448}}</ref> At least one tribe of Coahuiltecans, the [[Aranama people|Aranama]], lived in southern Texas. This entire culture group, primarily centered in northeastern Mexico, is now extinct.

No culture was dominant across all of present-day Texas, and many peoples inhabited the area.{{sfn|Richardson|Wintz|Boswell|Anderson|2021|p=10}} Native American tribes who have lived inside the boundaries of present-day Texas include the [[Alabama people|Alabama]], [[Apache]], Atakapan, [[Bidai]], Caddo, Aranama, [[Comanche]], [[Choctaw]], [[Coushatta]], [[Hasinai]], [[Jumano people|Jumano]], [[Karankawa people|Karankawa]], [[Kickapoo people|Kickapoo]], [[Kiowa]], [[Tonkawa]], and [[Wichita people|Wichita]].{{sfn|Richardson|Wintz|Boswell|Anderson|2021|p=12}}<ref name="HoT bzi04">{{cite Handbook of Texas|id=bzi04|title=Indians|first=George |last=Klos|date=June 15, 2010}}</ref> Many of these peoples migrated from the north or east during the colonial period, such as the Choctaw, Alabama-Coushatta, and [[Lenape|Delaware]].<ref name="Carter 1995"/>

The region was primarily controlled by the Spanish until the [[Texas Revolution]]. They were most interested in relationships with the Caddo, who were—like the Spanish—a settled, agricultural people. Several Spanish missions were opened in Caddo territory, but a lack of interest in Christianity among the Caddo meant that few were converted. Positioned between French Louisiana and Spanish Texas, the Caddo maintained relations with both, but were closer with the French.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barr |first=Juliana |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1148108904 |title=Peace Came in the Form of a Woman : Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands. |date=November 2009 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-4696-0470-1 |oclc=1148108904}}</ref> After Spain took control of Louisiana, most of the missions in eastern Texas were closed and abandoned.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Galán |first=Francis X. |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1128731300 |title=Los Adaes : the first capital of Spanish Texas |year=2020 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |isbn=978-1-62349-878-8 |oclc=1128731300}}</ref> The United States obtained Louisiana following the 1803 [[Louisiana Purchase]] and began convincing tribes to self-segregate from whites by moving west; facing an overflow of native peoples in Missouri and Arkansas, they were able to negotiate with the Caddo to allow several displaced peoples to settle on unused lands in eastern Texas. These included the [[Muscogee]], [[Houma people|Houma Choctaw]], [[Lenape]] and [[Mingo|Mingo Seneca]], among others, who came to view the Caddoans as saviors.<ref name="ReferenceA">Glover, William B. "A History of the Caddo Indians". Reprinted from 'The Louisiana Historical Quarterly'; Vol. 18, No. 4. October 1935</ref><ref>Swanton, John R. Indians of the Southeastern United States (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1946) p. 139</ref>

The temperament of Native American tribes affected the fates of European explorers and [[settler]]s in that land.<ref name=Richardson2005/> Friendly tribes taught newcomers how to grow local crops, prepare foods, and hunt [[game (food)|wild game]]. Warlike tribes resisted the settlers.<ref name=Richardson2005>{{cite book |first1=Rupert N. |last1=Richardson |first2=Adrian |last2=Anderson |first3=Cary D. |last3=Wintz |first4=Ernest |last4=Wallace |title=Texas: the Lone Star State |edition=9th |publisher=Prentice Hall |isbn=978-0-1318-3550-4 |pages=10–16|year=2005 }}</ref> Prior treaties with the Spanish forbade either side from militarizing its native population in any potential conflict between the two nations. Several outbreaks of violence between Native Americans and Texans started to spread in the prelude to the Texas Revolution. Texans accused tribes of stealing livestock. While no proof was found,<ref name="Carter 1995" /> those in charge of Texas at the time attempted to publicly blame and punish the Caddo, with the U.S. government trying to keep them in check. The Caddo never turned to violence because of the situation, except in cases of self-defense.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

By the 1830s, the U.S. had drafted the Indian Removal Act, which was used to facilitate the Trail of Tears. Fearing retribution, Indian Agents all over the eastern U.S. tried to convince all Indigenous peoples to uproot and move west. This included the Caddo of Louisiana and Arkansas. Following the Texas Revolution, the Texans chose to make peace with the Indigenous people, but did not honor former land claims or agreements.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}} The first president of Texas, [[Sam Houston]], aimed to cooperate and make peace with Native tribes, but his successor, [[Mirabeau B. Lamar]], took a much more hostile stance. Hostility towards Natives by white Texans prompted the movement of most Native populations north into what would become [[Indian Territory]] (modern Oklahoma).<ref name="Carter 1995"/><ref name="ReferenceA"/> Only the [[Alabama–Coushatta Tribe of Texas|Alabama-Coushatta]] would remain in the parts of Texas subject to white settlement, though the [[Comanche]] would continue to control most of the western half of the state until their defeat in the 1870s and 1880s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gwynne |first=S. C. |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/968100096 |title=Empire of the Summer Moon. |date=2011 |publisher=Constable & Robinson |isbn=978-1-84901-820-3 |oclc=968100096}}</ref>