HomeMy WebLinkAboutPrehistoric and Historic Occupation in central Brazos CountyPREHISTORIC AND HISTORIC OCCUPATION
IN CENTRAL BRAZOS COUNTY
ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF TWO CITY PARKS:
VETERANS PARK AND ATHLETIC COMPLEX
AND LICK CREEK PARK
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS
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Patricia A. Clabaugh
Michael S. Crow
J. Phil Dering
Technical Report No. 4
Center for Ecological Archaeology
Texas A &M University
Texas Antiquities Permit No. 2305
November 2001
Edited by
J. Phil Dering and J. Bryan Mason
With contributions by
J. Bryan Mason
Andrea Stahman
Alston V. Thorns
z
Environmental Setting
Alston V. Thorns and J. Bryan Mason
The study areas are located on the divide between the
lower Brazos and Navasota River valleys. The
Navasota River flows through the interior part of the
West Gulf Coastal Plain, a major physiographic section
of the Coastal Plain Province that, in Texas, extends
inland to the Edwards Plateau (Fenneman 1938:100-
112) (Figure 2). Fenneman subdivides this section
according to the age of the geological formations that
roughly parallel the Texas coastline (1938). The inner
coastal plain is made up of the Eocene -aged geological
formations that form a series of low, but prominent
cuestas (Fenneman 1938) that compose what Jordan
calls Texas' undulating region (1980). Jacob de
Cordova, a Texas immigration promoter in 1858,
described the landscape between the Brazos and
Navasota Rivers: "The ascent to the divide between
the two rivers is an almost imperceptible rise through
a succession of beautiful sweeps or long slopes of
country, gradual in rise and declivity till you reach the
ridge that separates their waters" (cited in Jordan
1980:2).
The combination of cuestas and a moderate - relief
landscape provided traversable corridors between the
comparatively high relief Edwards Plateau and the low
relief, often boggy, coastal prairies (see Figure 2). This
group of highly traveled corridors serves as a link
between eastern North America and Mexico. These
compose a portion of what is known as the "Gilmore
Corridor," an area of interest in archaeology as the
possible route by which "cultigens and other Mexican
traits" may have "diffused" into eastern North America
(cf. Story 1985). The "Gilmore Corridor" may, in fact,
have been a two -way street due to new botanical data
indicating that a variety of squash (Cucurbita texana)
was present in North America well before it was used
in Mexico (Dering 1993; Smith et al. 1992:96 -97;
Decker- Walters et al. 1992).
CLIMATE, SOILS, AND
VEGETATION PATTERNS
The project area is located in eastern Texas, a humid,
subtropical climatic region (Jordan 1980:10). Average
precipitation in Brazos County is 38 inches per year;
peak rainfall periods are during the fall and spring and
summer droughts are common (Carr 1967:4, 7, 17-18).
Although snowfall is rare in the project area, freezes
are not uncommon and, in general, winters are cold
and wet. In December of 1721, Father Pena, a priest
on the Aguayo Expedition, passed near the project area
and noted that "due to heavy rainstorms and terrible
frosts, to the lack of pasturage, and the excessive
mortality that continued among the mules and horses,
each day we were able to advance only two or three
leagues, sometimes only one" (Forrestal 1935:59).
The Post Oak Savannah (Figure 3) encompasses
Brazos and the surrounding counties. It is described
as an "ecological area" that slopes from the southwest
to northeast and is defined primarily on the basis of
modern vegetation patterns (Frye et al. 1984). Claypan
sediments in the Post Oak Savannah tend to have a
thin veneer of sandy soils that support vegetation
ranging from grassland mosaics with less than 10
percent woody canopy, to parks with 11 to 70 percent
woody canopies, to woods (trees 9 -30 ft tall) and forests
(trees taller than 30 ft) with 71 to 100 percent woody
canopy (McMahan et al. 1984:2, 19). Common plants
within the Post Oak Savannah include blackjack oak
(Quercus marilandica), post oak (Quercus stellata),
eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), mesquite
(Prosopis glandulosa), live oak (Quercus virginiana),
hackberry (Celtis spp.), yaupon (Ilex vomitoria),
American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana),
hawthorn (Crataegus spp.), trumpet creeper (Campsis
radicans), dewberry (Rubus spp.), little bluestem
5
In: Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County: Archaeological Investigations of Two City Parks - Veterans Park and
Athletic Complex and Lick Creek Park - College Station, Texas, edited by J.P. Dering and J.B. Mason, pp. 5 -22. Technical Report No. 4.
Center for Ecological Archaeology, Texas A &M University, College Station.
6 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
Figure 2. Physicographic features of Texas and
the location of the "Gilmore Corridor" between
the Edwards Plateau and the Coastal Plain.
(Schizachyrium scoparium var. frequens), and silver
bluestem (Bothriochloa saccharoides) (McMahan et
al. 1984:5). Thicketization, or the increasing density
of woody species, has occurred throughout the Post
Oak Savannah and is most likely due to the suppression
of fires (Hatch et al. 1990:12) and the regrowth of
woody species since the 1830s in abandoned
agricultural fields, over - grazed areas, and cut -over
woods.
Although the Post Oak Savannah is the dominant
vegetation type in the area, other types are present,
giving the area a mosaic vegetation pattern. The Post
Oak Savannah is interrupted by a small strip of the
Blackland Prairie "ecological area" called the San
Antonio or String Prairie (Figures 3 and 4) that extends
along the northern border of Brazos County and beyond
to the southwest and northeast (Hatch et al. 1990:12;
Jordan 1980:19). The clayey Blackland Prairie
sediments support grasslands and scattered trees (Hatch
et al. 1990:12). Plants common in the Blackland Prairie
include little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium var.
frequens), sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula),
Texas grama (Bouteloua rigidiseta), buffalo grass
(Buchloe dactyloides), windmill grass (Chloris spp.),
tumblegrass (Schedonnardus paniculatus), Texas
bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis), live oak (Quercus
virginiana), post oak (Quercus stellata), and mesquite
(Prosopis glandulosa) (McMahan et al. 1984:19).
Various soils have formed in alluvium that covers the
bottomlands and valley walls along the major
watercourses supporting mesic forests of oaks,
hackberries, and pecans.
The Post Oak Savannah was recognized by the
early Spanish explorers as an obstacle to travel in Texas
that they called the monte grande, which roughly
translates as "a big brushland or thicket" (Buckley
1911:33; Gonzales 1983). Although the passage
through the monte grande seemed impossible, for those
familiar with the regional landscape the presence of
the San Antonio or String Prairie afforded travelers
with readily navigable passageways (see Figure 4).
One of the most unusual outliers of the Blackland
Prairie is the San Antonio or String Prairie, not over
five miles wide and reaching some one hundred miles
from near Bastrop northeast beyond the Brazos River
almost to the Trinity. It formed a natural routeway or
corridor leading through the post oak belt. The earlier
explorers found this prairie strip and used it as a
primary route between Bexar and East Texas, in which
capacity it became known as the Old San Antonio Road
(Jordan 1980:19).
The statement that Spanish explorers "found" the
San Antonio Prairie is not entirely accurate. In fact,
ethnohistoric information of the late 1600s and early
1700s in Texas demonstrated that the Spanish roads
followed well -worn Indian paths (e.g. Bolton 1908;
Hatcher 1932; Tous 1930; Williams 1979). It is more
historically accurate to say that the Indian people told
the Spanish about the ways through the monte grande,
and on occasion they led the Spanish through the
woods. In 1721, for example, Father Pena wrote that
the expedition's leader decided to follow a more direct
route through the monte grande on their return trip.
He decided to return by the old road [the
Indian road to the Tejas] through the Monte
Grande, for he had noticed that the Trinity car-
ried only about half a vara of water, and he
had learned from the soldiers whom he had
sent out that the Brazos de Dios [Brazos] also
offered a good crossing. With the help of an
Indian guide, and making its way through the
clearings and places sparsely timbered for a
distance of seventeen leagues, the battalion
op
be
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thi
tht
set
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AL
en v
Sav,
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at
Blackland Praries
Post Oak Savannah
Pineywoods
Gulf Praries and Marshes
4 Brazos County
Center for Ecological Archaeology
Texas AMM University
Modified from Gould et. al. 1960
2000
Figure 3. Location of Brazos County in relation to the ecological areas of Texas.
crossed the Monte Grande [between the Trin-
ity and Colorado rivers] (Forrestal 1935:590).
The French explorer Pierre Pages journeyed
between the Trinity and Brazos rivers, probably in or
near Brazos County, in 1767 and noted, "we went
through open country without following any path, but
the savage soldiers [a reference to half - Indians who
served as soldiers], who knew the country, arrived at
exactly the place they intended" (Pages 1985:13).
PAST CLIMATIC CONDITIONS AND
VEGETATION PATTERNS
Although a clear understanding of the paleo-
environmental conditions in and around the Post Oak
Savannah is not available, research has revealed broad
Environmental Setting 7
San Antonio
Prairie
0 200 Miles
patterns reviewed by Thorns in a previous
archaeological survey conducted in Leon County
(Thorns 1997). Since the Late Pleistocene, an overall
decrease in woodlands, except for oaks, and an increase
in grasses and herbaceous plants in the inner Coastal
Plain and the Texas Hill Country suggests that there
has been a general warming and/or drying trend in the
area (Bryant and Holloway 1985:52, 61). This trend
may have come to a zenith between 7,000 and 4,000
years ago. During the last 4,000 years, the oak
savannas may have increased in size and diversity
becoming oak - hickory forests in the drier, western
areas and oak - hickory-pine forests in the wetter, eastern
areas of the state (Collins and Bousman 1993;
Kenmotsu and Perttula 1993a).
Palynological data from bogs in the Post Oak
Savannah suggest that the present day vegetation
regime was established by 3,000 years ago (Bryant and
8 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
Wooded
Area
Present
Day Towns
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Q•
Lee
County
Bryan ••
College Station
Caldwell
Burleson )
County /
-- •
Independence
Washington
Coun
Madison
County
Robertson
County /
•
Hearne Brazos
County 1 Grimes
County
Navasota
ashington on
the Brazos
Waller
County
Figure 4. String prairies and Spanish roads
present within the Post Oak Savannah.
Holloway 1985:62). Stable carbon isotope analysis
from the Brazos River bottomlands indicate the
presence of grassland plants between 2,500 and 500
years ago, signaling a drier climate than that of today.
Beginning about 500 years ago, modern climatic
conditions would have allowed expansion of hardwood
forests in the region (Nordt et al. 1992:12).
AVAILABLE FOOD RESOURCES
Brazos and the adjacent counties fall within the eastern
portion of the Texas biotic province, which extends
north from the central Gulf Coast area of Texas beyond
east central Oklahoma. The Texas biotic province is a
broad ecotone between the comparatively mesic forest
regions of eastern North America and the more xeric
grasslands of the central part of the continent (Blair
1950:100). As in most ecotones (Odum 1971), species
diversity is high in the Texan province compared with
grassland and forest provinces to the west and east,
respectively.
The Brazos and other major river valleys support
mesic forests and serve as dispersal routes for forest
species from the east and subtropical species from the
south and the coast to enter the region (Blair 1950).
Upland species characteristic of regions to the south
and west could also move into the Post Oak Savannah
through the extensive strips of prairie habitat. Plants
and animals probably have used these same dispersal
or migration routes for tens of thousands of years
(Bryant and Holloway 1985:65).
The subtropical humid climate, the extensiveness
of the riverine habitat, the mosaic upland vegetation
pattern, and the overall ecotonal character of the
regional biota indicate a productive landscape for
hunter - gatherers, as well as for simple and complex
agriculturalists. The biodiversity in the area made it
an important historical and economic route as
evidenced by the "old San Antonio roads" (McGraw
1991). Spanish roads are especially important to the
present study because many of the people who traveled
them recorded their observations about the nature and
distribution of food resources (see Figure 4). For the
Anglo- Americans who were the first Old World
peoples to effectively colonize Brazos County and
vicinity, the region exhibited extraordinary potential.
In 1821, Stephen Austin commented on the prairie's
rich, black soils for fields and pasturage, the availability
of sufficient timber for construction, and the abundance
of deer for meat (cited in Doughty 1986:426).
Some of the more economically significant natural
resources for pre - industrial human populations in the
region are discussed in the remainder of this section.
Data from ethnohistorical and historical records are
emphasized, although information from contemporary
sources is used as well.
Game Animals
The ability of the Post Oak Savannah to support an
abundance of animals can be seen by the rapid influx
of European stock into the wild game population
(Weniger 1984:182 -186). In 1716, less than 30 years
after the arrival of the first European colonizers, wild
cattle inhabited the Brazos River basin southwest of
the project area; their presence was attributed to the
domestic cattle "lost by the Spaniards [de Leon in
1690] on their first visit to Texas" (Foik 1933:17).
Father Solis wrote in 1767 that this same area had
"large numbers of bulls, cows, [and] calves" and, in
the wooded uplands not far north of the project, "cattle,
horses, [and] mules" were reported (Forrestal 1931:25-
26). Feral hogs "of mixed ancestry, including European
wild boars," also lived in the marshy and timbered parts
of the Post Oak Savannah (Doughty 1986:437).
In the Brazos valley northwest of the project area,
Solis also observed many native game animals. He
noted that in the Brazos River there was a "good supply
of fish" and, between there and the Navasota River, he
reported "a great number of deer, bison, bears, turkeys,
partridges, and quail" (Forrestal 1931:25 -26). Judging
from the ethnohistoric and historic literature, white -
tailed deer seem to be the most widely and consistently
ss
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sighted game animal in Brazos County and the vicinity,
although it is clear that bison and bear were also common.
Environmental Setting 9
Bison. Early Spanish explorers in the region regularly
encountered herds of bison. Don Domingo Teran and
his expedition group crossed the San Antonio Prairie
in Burleson County in July 1691 on their way to the
Texas (Tejas) villages in the piney woods of what is
today east Texas. They traveled "over a level country
and camped on another arroyo, the water being filled
with buffaloes, because of their great number in the
vicinity" (Hatcher 1932:17). Father Damian Manzanet,
one of the clergymen traveling with the expedition,
noted the presence of "many buffaloes" and a "great
many alligators" in the Brazos River valley west of
present -day Hearne, Texas. Of the uplands between
the Brazos and Navasota rivers, he noted the mosaic
character of the woods and prairies and the "great
number of buffalo," adding that it was "a very fine
place for water and pasturage" (Hatcher 1932:65).
Bison, turkeys, other "wild fowl," fish, and alligators
were also reported in Brazos County and vicinity by
members of the Ramon expedition in 1716 (Foik 1933;
Tous 1930). During that entrada, the Spanish killed
bison in the uplands between the Brazos and Navasota
rivers. Ramon also wrote, "in the middle of the road
we met four Texas [Tejas] Indians with two women,
who were killing bison" (Foik 1933:17 -18).
Although bison were regularly sighted in the region
through the 1700s, by 1840, few bison were seen. Bear
probably lasted longer, but they too were soon
extirpated (Doughty 1986; Jordan 1973; Weniger
1984). According to William DeWees, who settled in
1822 on the Brazos River not far upstream from the
project area, bison were abundant near the mouth of
the Little River and "bear are very plenty, but we are
obliged to use great care when hunting them, lest the
havalenas (meaning the peccary) kill our dogs" (cited
in Roemer and Carlson 1987:142).
Jean Louis Berlandier (1980), a Frenchman
employed as a botanist with the Mexican boundary
commission in 1828, did not mention any bison in the
Brazos River basin along the Old San Antonio Road,
although he did encounter them west of the Colorado
River. Over - hunting during the nineteenth century is
commonly given as the reason for the bison's demise
in the Post Oak Savannah (e.g., Weniger 1984), but it
also seems possible that climatic changes may have
played a role, perhaps one that created habitats
favorable for grass species that are less tolerant of
sustained grazing (cf. Mack 1984; Mack and
Thompson 1982). In any case, there is ample evidence
that bison densities varied considerably in Texas
throughout the Holocene period, and that much of the
variation was probably in response to climatic change
(Bryson and Murray 1977; Dillehay 1974).
Considering the abundance of ethnohistoric
evidence for bison and bison hunting in the region, it
is surprising that bison remains are very rare, if present
at all, at excavated archaeological sites in the Brazos
River basin portion of the Post Oak Savannah. Even
though faunal preservation tends to be poor throughout
the region, most sites yield a few burned and unburned
mammal bone fragments. These are usually identified
as deer, antelope, or deer -sized or smaller animals,
including dog/coyote, rabbit, and other rodents. Bison
remains are almost never reported, not even from
comparatively well preserved sites dating within the
last few centuries. If bison were periodically present
during the prehistoric period in the same densities that
they were during the early historic period, one would
expect their remains to be reported regularly in the
regional archaeological literature.
It is possible that the paucity of bison remains in
the regional archaeological record is due to sampling
error, but with so many sites test - excavated over the
last 30 years, this explanation alone does not seem
adequate. An ecological explanation is more likely,
especially one that considers population dynamics and
climatic change. For example, geographers and
historians have argued that prior to A.D. 1500, human
predation prevented bison from occupying the
savannas and prairies within the otherwise forested
regions of the Southeast. With massive human
depopulation from Old World diseases, a major
ecological change occurred — loss of the primary
predator — and bison were able to extend their habitat
to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts (DeVivo 1990:307).
Similar processes might account, in part, for the
abundance of bison during the ethnohistoric period in
the Post Oak Savannah. Perhaps it was only during
brief time periods (e.g., Little Ice Age, A.D. 1350-
1850) that climatic conditions were conducive to
producing enough grazing - tolerant grass to support a
viable bison population in this region. If the vegetation
regime was only minimally adequate for maintaining
herds, sustained predation by comparatively densely
populated hunter- gatherers or simple agriculturalists
might then prevent the long -term maintenance of viable
bison herds. Seen from this perspective, it is less
surprising that only a very few bison bones are
preserved in the region's archaeological record.
10 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
Deer. As noted, white - tailed deer were very common
in the project area and vicinity during the eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries (Doughty 1986; Weniger
1984). Deer provided meat and hides for clothing and
other purposes, including armor. Spanish soldiers
operating in the Post Oak Savannah and adjacent areas
reportedly used "deer skin breast plates" as armor, and,
in some cases, "their bodies are covered with a coat
made from three or four deer skins, quilted together
with cotton and proof against arrows" (Pages
1985:6,22).
Comments made by Pierre Pages, a wealthy
Frenchman who traveled along one of the San Antonio
roads between the Colorado and Brazos rivers in 1776,
attest to the abundance of deer in places similar to the
project area: "the deer, hardly at all shy, graze there in
such numbers that at a distance I often took them for
our own horses which had wandered off" (Pages
1985:15). Amos Parker, a well -to -do Bostonian, who
traveled along the Old San Antonio Road in 1834, also
wrote about the abundance of game in the Post Oak
Savannah and adjacent regions. He described seeing
deer in great numbers, and observed,
I hardly supposed there were as many deer on
the continent, as I saw in Texas. They were
continually on my path, or were seen in flocks
feeding on the prairies. I recollect that from
an elevated spot, I counted five flocks of deer
in sight at the same time In some parts of the
country, a man may about as certainly kill a
deer if he choose, as a northern farmer can
kill a sheep from his flock. Their meat is ex-
cellent, and their skins valuable (Parker
1968:176).
The French introduced firearms and a market for
deer in the late 1600s and early 1700s, and the Spanish,
Mexicans, and Anglo- Americans continued this
practice. In a single year, the Indians were reported to
have traded 40,000 deerskins and 1,500 bearskins with
the Spanish at Nacogdoches (Yantis 1984:12). Judging
from comments made by Amos Parker in 1835, the
Nacogdoches deer market also flourished under
Mexican rule. Parker related that "the chief article
the Indians have to sell is deer pelts; and in the course
of the year, they bring in a large number. These are
done up in bales, and sent by land to the United States.
These skins are bought of the Indians by weight, and I
was told, the average amount was about fifty cents
apiece" (1968:152).
Undoubtedly, more than 100 years of market
hunting, in addition to subsistence hunting,
significantly depressed deer populations in the project
area and vicinity. It has been argued, however, that
deer were not extirpated as a result of this kind of
intensive hunting and that their populations probably
recovered by the early 1800s, in part because Indian
populations had decreased dramatically due to the
introduction of European diseases. According to this
argument, the demise of white - tailed deer in the Post
Oak Savannah is attributable more directly to
significant habitat loss that began in the 1830s as Old
World settlers cleared more and more of the landscape
for farming and pasturage (Yantis 1984:12 -13).
By the early 1900s, deer were effectively extirpated
from the region but, as a result of restocking efforts
and enforcement of hunting laws, deer populations
were near or exceeding carrying capacity in the Post
Oak Savannah, including Brazos County, by the late
1980s (Reagan 1992; Yantis 1984). In the early 1980s,
a few bottomland localities immediately upstream from
the project area are reported to have had as many as
200 deer per 1,000 acres. However, in the "mostly
cleared" upland areas there were fewer than 5 deer
per 1,000 acres, with the overall average being about
40 (Yantis 1984:10).
In fact, data from hunting surveys in Texas show
that the deer population is able to endure significant
predation. There is considerable annual variation in
the deer densities and kill rates in the project area and
vicinity. However, the data generally illustrate that in
the Post Oak Savannah, including Brazos County, the
densities and kill rates are moderate compared to
surrounding regions (Table 1). From 1993 through
1997, the estimated number of deer hunters each year
in the "reporting unit" defined by Brazos, Burleson,
Washington, Waller, Grimes, and Madison counties
ranged from a low of 8,715 hunters in 1996 to a high
of 11,735 in 1997. In 1997, 11,735 hunters spent a
total of 96,872 days between November 3 and January
6 in this area, during which they killed 3,000 deer.
Within the much larger area encompassing all of the
Post Oak Savannah and Pineywoods regions of east
Texas, a total of 68,009 deer were killed during
1,650,175 hunting days in 1997 (McCarty 1998:15,
21).
Collectively, the data reviewed here, as well as
the ecology of white - tailed deer in general (Halls
1978), illustrate that as long as there is a suitable
habitat, white - tailed deer are capable of sustaining
heavy predation. This, in turn, suggests that deer
Table 1. 1997 White - tailed deer densities and kill rates in different ecological areas of Texas
(McCarty 1998: Tables 4 and 5; Young and Traweek 1998: Tables 5, 7, and 8).
trket
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Hunting
Data
Category
Deer
range /acres
Est. deer
population
Acres/
deer
Deer/
1,000 ac
Hunter -
days
Total
kill
Kills/
Hunter
Kills/
1,000 ac
Hunters/
1,000 ac
Brazos & Post Oak Edwards Blackland Piney- Gulf
Adjacent Savannah Plateau Prairie Woods Prairies &
Counties Marshes
1,335,079 7,891,060 23,881,642 749,971 11,343,525 1,441,255
59,770 295,962 1,439,093 15,895 484,699 82,704
22.30 26.66 16.59 47.18 23.40 17.43
44.80 37.51 60.26 21.19 42.73 57.38
96,872 678,228 1,298,932 48,804 971,947 121,768
3,000 22.012 166,759 1,832 45,997 9,504
0.34 0.33 0.98 0.29 0.51 0.62
2.09 2.46 6.71 2.81 3.59 5.16
9.34 11.39 9.70 15.00 10.41 12.12
should have been economically very important to the
region's native hunter - gatherers, simple agriculturalists,
and Old World immigrants who replaced them. The
faunal record from archaeological sites throughout the
region is certainly consistent with this contention (see
Chapter 3). As the above statistics imply, deer hunting
in this part of the Post Oak Savannah continues to be
economically important.
NATIVE PLANT FOODS
Of the "commonly associated plants" in the Post Oak
Savannah, many have edible seeds, nuts, or berries,
including various oaks, mesquite, hackberry, hawthorn,
and dewberry. Pecans, mustang grapes, and greenbriar
are among the commonly associated edible plants in
the pecan -elm forests of the region's bottomlands
(McMahan et al. 1984:19, 23). A list of edible plants
that would have been available in the area can be found
in Table 2. A less scientific but informative statement
Environmental Setting 11
about edible plants comes from Father Solis, who
traversed the region in 1767. Of the vegetation in the
uplands adjacent to the left bank of the Brazos River,
not far north of the project area, he described the "great
number of fruit trees, pomegranates [persimmons ?],
grape- vines, strawberry- plants, blackberry- bushes,
sapotes, hazelnuts, chestnuts and sweet potatoes"
(Forrestal 1931:26). Although there is a paucity of
ethnographic data about the specific vegetal foods
consumed by the Indian people in Brazos County and
vicinity, they are commonly believed to have "utilized
a large number of plant foods, including herbs, roots,
fruit, and seeds" (Newcomb 1961:139).
Fortunately, historic journals contain references to
the specific kinds of vegetal foods eaten by the region's
native populations. For example, just after crossing
the Navasota River in 1691 on his way to the "Texas
[ Tejas] country," Father Manzanet wrote about finding
"a very good fruit which they call as" (Hatcher
1932:66). What as was is not clear, but in this same
area in 1721, Father Pena wrote about finding "an
12 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
Table 2. Plant foods available in and adjacent to the Brazos Valley (adapted from Thorns 1994).
ROOT FOODS
Arrow -root (Sagittaria spp.)
Blazing star (Liatris spp.)
Bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum var.)
Cattail (Typha latifolia L)
False garlic, crow poison (Nothoscordum bivalve)
Greenbriar, cat -briar (Smilax spp.)
Ground nut, American potato bean (Apios
americana)
Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus)
Milkweed, various (Asclepias spp.)
Prairie turnip, scurvy pea (Psoralea spp.)
Spring beauty (Claytonia virginica)
Water- chiquapin (Nelumbo lutea)
Wild hyacinth (Camassia scilloides)
Wild onion (Allium sp.)
Wild potato (Ipomoea pandurata)
Wme -cup (Callirhoe digitata)
SEEDS
Amberique bean (Strophostyles helvola)
Partridge pea (Cassia fasciculata)
Sunflower, common ( Helianthus annuus)
Yucca, beargrass (Yucca louisianensis)
NUTS AND FRUITS
American hop- hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana)
Black hickory (Carya texana)
Black walnut (Juglans nigra)
Elm, various (Ulmus spp.)
Oaks, various red and white (Querrus spp.)
Pecan (Carya illinoiensis)
Prickly pear (Opuntia spp.)
White ash (Fraxinus americana)
' Driver and Massey (1957)
2 Thorns (1989)
Wyckoff (1984:12)
4 Mahler (1988) 'Havard (1985:111)
'Reid (1977) 8 Film and Dyckerman (1990)
6 Prickryl (1990:13)
Roots eated raw, boiled, or roasted
Bulbs used for food [probably roasted]
Roots roasted
Roots dried, ground into flour; eaten raw, roasted
Bulbs eaten raw (this is one of the only references to
this plant as edible); [probably boiled -roasted as are
most lily bulbs
Roots boiled
Tubers eaten raw or boiled: dried and stored for
winter use
Tubers are edibles [probably roasted]
Tubers boiled and eaten
Tubers roasted and eaten•' [unclear if local species,
P. linearifolium and P. tenuiflorum, are edible: P.
tenuiflorum reported toxic to horses, cattle; most
information on edible P. esculenta]
Bulbs boiled or roasted
Tubers eaten fresh/dried; seeds eaten raw /roasted
Bulbs eaten, probably roasted
Bulbs eaten raw or boiled [also roasted 1•2,4]
Tubers dried and ground into flour
Roots eaten [probably roasted]
Seeds eaten raw or boiled
Seeds boiled and eaten
Seeds eaten after boiling or roasting'
Seed pods eaten, boiled or roasted [Mahler (1998)
notes genus but not species]; stalks peeled and eaten
[stalks of some yucca species are roasted]
Nuts eaten raw or roasted
Nuts from this and other hickories eaten raw, boiled
or leached; made into meal for eating
Nuts eaten raw; boiled for oil
Inner bark made into cakes and eaten [this implies
pulverizing and cooking]
Acorns varyingly eaten raw, boiled, leached;
processed into meal
Nuts eaten raw; mashed/dried, made into porridge
Tunas eaten raw or boiled; pads [nopalito] roasted
Cambium [inner bark] cooked and eaten
abundance of plums" in a clearing (Forrestal 1935:32).
Earlier, during the same trip but in or near northern
Robertson County, Pena noted "a woods covered with
thorny trees, which in these parts are called mesquites
and which produce fruit of which the Indians are very
fond" (Forrestal 1935:29). The journals also provide
information about the root foods used by the Indian
people, as well as by the Spanish and other Old World
peoples. That roots were an important winter food
resource is evident from an account about a Spanish
priest and several soldiers who camped along the
Navasota River during the winter of 1717 -1718.
Father Nufiez and four soldiers had taken sup-
plies eastward along Ramon's road intended
for the East Texas missions but they found the
Trinity impassable and moved back (west) to
the Navasota River (at Santa Ana Lake) where
they spent most of the winter. Indians sup-
plied them with corn until the supply was ex-
hausted and then helped them to subsist on
roots. The water in the Brazos was at flood
stage and the supplies could not be returned.
Leaving the supplies cached under his tent in
a dense wood near the Navasota, Father Nufiez
returned westward, evidently down Ramon's
road. He may have been the first person who
traveled Ramon's road westward. Alarcon [the
expedition's leader] met him on the road near
the site of present -day Devine (Williams
1979:135).
From the above account, it is not clear which roots
were eaten, but other sources provide additional
information about some of the root foods used by the
Indians. Only rarely, however, is it evident exactly
hich plant(s) was consumed. For example, all we
know about the wild "sweet potatoes" that Father Solis
served north of the project area is that they were
quite palatable" (Forrestal 1931:26). Berlandier
vided comparatively specific information about
me of the root foods used by a Tonkawa group that
visited in 1828 near present -day Austin. He
ed
among the other foodstuffs which I observed
among them I noted ground nuts with which,
I have been told, they make a drink similar to
orgeat. On our second visit I found they had
gathered many roots of the genus Nymphaea
[probably some kind of water lily] . After hav-
Environmental Setting 13
ing been ground, these produce a highly es-
teemed grayish flour, with which they make a
sort of cake (Berlandier 1980:313).
Father Manzanet, a member of the de Leon
expedition to east Texas in 1690, reported eating
"cooked frijoles, with ground -nuts and tamales" at the
Texas [ Tejas] village on San Pedro Creek (Bolton
1908:376). In 1767, at a "very large and populous
town inhabited by the Tejas tribe" located a short
distance east of San Pedro Creek, Father Solis recorded
there is another food which they use, known
as tuqui, and which is much like the cassava
of Havana. It is derived from the roots of a
certain tree, which are pounded in a wooden
mortar and then prepared with bear lard. Tuqui
is taken as a beverage and is very injurious to
the health, for it causes dysentery, skin abra-
sions, and other diseases (Forrestal 1931:28).
Of course, the native agriculturists also relied on
domestic vegetal foods. In particular, the Spanish
accounts attest to corn, beans, and squash, but at least
during the late 1600s and early 1700s, most of these
crops were grown east of the Trinity River. The few
fields in proximity to Brazos County seem to have been
just across the Navasota River, perhaps in southwest
Leon County. On June 20, 1716, soon after crossing
the Navasota, Ramon wrote "we arrived at a small
ranch, where we found seven Texans. They received
us with great pleasure and demonstrated their delight
by giving us green corn and watermelons. This is the
first time we saw corn in this province" (Foik 1933:18).
The use of pecans as a food source was widespread
throughout the southeastern United States and is
documented both ethnohistorically and
archaeologically (Hall 2000). Cabeza de Vaca noted
that pecans were a part of the diet and that, when they
were available, they "are ground with a kind of small
grain and furnish the sole subsistence of the people
for two months of the year — and not every year,
because the trees only bear every other year. The nut
is the same size as that of Galicia; the trees are massive
and numberless" (Covey 1993:69 -70).
OTHER NATURAL RESOURCES
Both the uplands and bottomlands of Brazos and
surrounding counties offered productive farmland and
14 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
ranchland. As noted earlier, herds of wild cattle,
horses, and mules became commonplace in the region
within a few decades after the Spanish introduced these
animals in the late 1600s. There is little to demonstrate
that agriculture was practiced in Brazos County prior
to the arrival of Old World peoples. The presence in
1716 of Indian farmlands just across the Navasota
River in an upland setting attests to the possibility of
prehistoric agriculture in the vicinity of the project area,
however. By 1822, corn was grown by DeWees and
other Anglo- American families on farms near the
Brazos River just upstream from the project area
(DeWees 1968, cited in Roemer and Carlson
1987:142).
The Anglo- Americans planted corn in both the
uplands and bottomlands, although the yields were not
always large. On June 2, 1828, while traveling in the
uplands between the Brazos and Navasota rivers (on
the Old San Antonio Road along the boundary between
Brazos and Robertson Counties), Berlandier
(1980:333) encountered an abandoned Anglo-
American farmstead "around which some stalks of corn
were still growing." In the bottomlands along the right
bank of the Brazos River, not far from the project area,
he observed other corn fields:
on the edge of the forest in a spot which had
been cleared we encountered the field where
the colonist [with whom Berlandier had
camped near the mouth of the Little Brazos
River] had sown his corn. It was his chief
hope for the maintenance of his poor family,
and it had been transformed into true sand
dunes (meganos), where we marched for a
long time without finding a single stand of
what had been sown there. Beyond that field
a lovely plain extended into the distance"
(Berlandier 1980:336).
The land was potentially more fertile than these
accounts indicate, as evidenced by the use of slave
labor to clear and farm upland and bottomland tracts
(Carlson and Kloetzer 1993). By 1828, Jared Groce
held a large tract of land along the left bank of the
Brazos River that was "well sown with cotton and
corn" and worked by 117 slaves (Berlandier 1980:324).
Slave labor was also used in the uplands, but, in some
cases, a significant portion of the labor was devoted to
raising livestock. For example, Richard Carter, who
lived in the uplands near the two parks, was more of a
rancher than a farmer. He paid taxes on one slave in
1840, but by 1860 the tax rolls showed he had 22 slaves.
At that time, 30 percent of the white families in Brazos
County owned slaves (Carlson 1983:9 -20).
The Old World immigrants also supplemented the
native productivity by burning the Post Oak Savannah,
the Blackland Prairies, and the surrounding regions to
create better pasturage (Weniger 1984:187 -199).
Burning encouraged the native environment by
effectively removing dense undergrowth and the mat
of dead grasses, thereby facilitating more palatable and
nutritious new growth. Browsers, notably white - tailed
deer, also benefited from regular burning, and, at the
same time, the productivity of other critical food
resources, including edible berries and possibly nuts
and root foods, probably increased as well (cf. Lewis
1982). While it is widely recognized that Indian people
purposely burned the prairies and woods of the Post
Oak Savannah to increase grass production, some have
argued that they "probably learned this use of fire"
from the Spanish (Weniger 1984). Assuming that the
Old World immigrants independently recognized the
beneficial effects of seasonal burning, it would be an
oversight not to assume the same for the region's native
inhabitants who depended on deer and bison as well
as the vegetal foods that have higher yields under more
open conditions (cf. DeVivo 1990). Jordan (1973:252),
more practically, suggests that the immigrant's practice
of burning was inherited from the Indian people who
knew that "preservation of the prairies meant that
grazing bison would remain in the area."
The mosaic character of the upland vegetation in
the vicinity of the project area is compatible with a
long history of regularly occurring grassland and shrub
fires. Historical accounts of the region prior to the
mid -1800s fail to show that either juniper or mesquite
was a consistently major component of the upland
vegetation in Brazos and surrounding counties, but in
many places today, juniper and mesquite are common,
often creating dense thickets (Gonzales 1983; Jordan
1973; Williams 1979). Since these species are not fire
resistant, their presence in comparatively low densities
prior to the mid -1800s is consistent with the idea that
the Post Oak Savannah was burned regularly.
The upland and bottomland forests provided
construction material for residential and other
structures built by the region's inhabitants. Anglo-
American settlers in Brazos County and the vicinity
typically built log cabins (Carlson 1983; Parker 1968).
Logs were probably the principal components of their
fences as well. Indian people living near the mouth of
the Little River in 1716 constructed a "hut" for
members of Ramon's expedition. It was described as
being made "of branches of trees and very spacious"
(Tous 1930:16). An 1828 Tonkawa village in the
Colorado Basin contained 21 vault - shaped "cabins,"
4.0 -4.5 ft in height, made of "branches covered with
verdure" (Berlandier 1980:312). Frameworks of
similar structures were probably the most obvious
remains of the "old huts" and "abandoned" Indian
villages, or rancherias, seen in Brazos County and the
vicinity during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
(e.g., Berlandier 1980; Forrestal 1935; Tous 1930).
There are outcrops of Eocene -aged sandstone on
Lick Creek Park property and within a few kilometers
of Veterans Park. Although the sandstone material is
not particularly hard, it is well- suited as a building
material, especially for footings and chimneys as were
recorded at sites 41BZ147 and 41BZ143 at Lick Creek
Park (see Chapter 5). The Eocene sediments in the
project area, as well as in much of the surrounding
uplands, are capped with a veneer of sandy and gravelly
Pleistocene -aged sediments (Barnes 1974). The
composition of the gravel is mostly chert, but quartzite
gravel is also common These gravels were once part
of the Edwards Plateau bedrock, but were subsequently
transported to their present location as part of the
bedload of the Brazos River; they presently cap most
of the higher terraces along the river (Nordt 1983).
Chert gravels occur on the surface throughout the
region as part of Pleistocene deposits (Barnes 1974).
Within both parks, this gravel lens is exposed at points
where the ground slopes, cutting into the Eocene
sediments (Figure 5). There are also gravel bars in
and adjacent to the modern Navasota River channel.
These materials did not go unnoticed by the
Spanish and other Old World travelers of the historic
period. For example, one member of the Aguayo
Expedition in 1721 reported "flint stones" near the
Navasota River (Buckley 1911:40), and Berlandier
(1980:327) observed "fragments of jasper and flint"
near the mouth of the Navasota River. He also
described a gravel -rich lens exposed in a Brazos River
cutbank near the mouth of the Little Brazos River, a
few kilometers upstream from the project area. The
'lens below the surface was a "layer about two or three
hes thick composed of rounded fragments of quartz,
t, chalcedony, etc., mingled underneath with pieces
rounded clay" (Berlandier 1980:334).
Chert gravel in the vicinity of the project area is
cant in its importance as a source of raw material
the stone tools made by the Indian people. Most of
stream -worn chert gravels are brown and grey in
Environmental Setting 15
color; black and red colors occur in much lower
frequencies. Typically, the chert pebbles and cobbles
range in size from less than a centimeter to 15 cm in
diameter (Nordt 1983:56 -64). Silicified wood that has
eroded from local Eocene deposits also occurs on the
surface in the project area; some of the pieces are more
than 20 cm long. This material was also used by the
Indian people to manufacture stone tools. Parker
observed silicified wood on the surface during his
travels through the region in 1834 and 1835, noting
that "it might probably be manufactured into good
hones, although it was coarser grained, and of a lighter
shade, than those usually found at our stores"
(1968:164).
LOCAL ENVIRONMENT
Archaeological sites are found throughout the Post Oak
Savannah, in the bottomlands along rivers and streams,
Figure 5. Chert gravel and bedrock
outcrops at Lick Creek Park.
16 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
as well as in upland settings a mile or more from
permanent water. They are especially common on
terraces and gentle valley slopes above tributary
streams. The location of the two parks in this survey
is on the uplands between the Navasota and Brazos
rivers. Both Carter Creek and Lick Creek flow east
into the Navasota River.
Veterans Park and Athletic Complex
Most of the proposed park is located in a flat -lying
area on the first terrace above Carters Creek, a
perennial tributary of the Navasota River, but a small
portion of the park (ca. 20 acres) is within the
floodplain (Figure 6). Since mechanical clearing has
disturbed much of the park, the native vegetation
patterns have been altered. Much of the terrace slope
and floodplain, located around the park perimeter,
remain undisturbed.
Vegetation today consists of bunch grasses, brush,
and small trees on the terrace where most of the
disturbance took place. Grasses and forbs are found
on the terrace tread along with yaupon and an
abundance of dewberry bushes. Oak and native pecan
woodlands occur on the Carters Creek floodplain, as
well as along a minor tributary steam in the northeast
part of the property.
The park is located on the Yegua geological
formation near an outcrop of Quaternary fluvial
deposited gravel (Fisher 1981) (Figure 7). The Yegua
formation is made up of sandstone, clay, and lignite
with some chert. The fluvial gravel in the area consists
mostly of chert and quartzite. Most of the park (the
terrace) has sandy soils from the Lufkin -Tabor series,
which are described as fine sandy loam or loamy fine
sand, with the floodplain composed of Gowen clay
loam (USDA 1958) (Figure 8). The terrace slope is
composed of Edge fine sandy loam (USDA 1958) (see
Figure 8). Soils on the terrace tread and scarp have
sandy A and E horizons, varying in depth from 10 to
200 cm, and a clayey sand Bt horizon, usually less
than a meter thick. The Bt horizon is underlain by
stratified, sandy and gravelly alluvium that forms the
C horizon. Archaeological materials found in similar
settings within the Post Oak Savannah are always
confined to the sandy mantle above the Bt horizon.
Lick Creek Park
Lick Creek Park can be divided into three main
landscape types: upland savannah, a floodplain, and
Figure 6. Location of the flat terrace and floodplain in the proposed Veterans Park, view to the north.
ast
cal
ial
a
to
ists
the
es,
me
lay
is
see
ave
0 to
less
by
the
'lar
ays
ain
and
Sew r =laa
College Station
Parke Planning
Pena, ain
I
Tabor fine
sandy loam
O'Malley Engineers
1306 N Pork 409) 836 -7937
Brenham, TX 77833 Fox (409) 836 -7936
Explanation
Qhg -Quaternary gravel terrace deposits
Qal - Quaternary alluvium
Qt - Quaternary terrace deposits
Mc - Catahoula Formation
EOw- Whitsett Formation
Em - Manning Formation
Ewb- Wellbom Formation
Eca - Caddell Formation
® Ey -Yegua Formation
Figure 7. Map of geological formations in the area.
sandy foam
ge ���
Gowen clay loam
City of College Station
Veterans Park and Athletic Complex
Archaeological Survey
Environmental Setting 17
Center for Ecological Archaeology
I _
Figure 8. Map of the soils present in Veterans Park and Athletic Complex (from USDA 1958).
18 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
PREPARED BY TAMU RECREATION & PARKS DEPT.
0 400 8000 AND PARKS PLANNING/CITY OF COLLEGE STATION
z.
41 BZ144
FLOOD
P.
EJ2
L Al N
418 142
41BZ14
9
LICK CREEK PARK
Shovel probe
Transect surface survey
Cutbank inspection
Site boundary
Treeline
Creek
41BZ141
terraces forming an intermediate border between
uplands and the floodplain (Figure 9). The park is
drained by both Alum Creek and Lick Creek, whose
waters flow into the Navasota River. Lick Creek Park
is mainly located on Quaternary alluvial and fluvial
deposits of clay and gravel, but some of the park is on
the Manning Formation composed of clay and
sandstone (Fisher 1981) (see Figure 7). The soil in
the uplands of the park is a Lufkin fine sandy loam;
the terraces are made up of Tabor fine sandy loam or
loamy fine sand; the floodplain of the park is a Gowen
clay loam (USDA 1958) (Figure 10). The park itself
is a preserved section of a natural Brazos County
landscape that has not been heavily used for farming
or ranching. Much of the information about the
vegetation in the park was compiled by personnel in
the Department of Biology Herbarium at Texas A &M
University and is available on their website (Reed
2000).
The vegetation in the upland savannah varies with
the amount of woody growth. Oak, elm, and native
pecan trees with an understory of yaupon make up the
vegetation in the upland woods (Figure 11), while
(
418Z147
4»
f
0 104 1•4
R
�» I
N
T E ra-ACE S ,41BZ145
ODE PRAM
Figure 9. Map illustrating the landscape types present at Lick Creek Park.
41E2146
prickly pear and little bluestem inhabit small, natural
clearings scattered throughout the timberland. Larger
open areas are characterized as sandy prairies (Figure
12). These prairies retain their natural vegetation and
are filled with brushy and little bluestem. The sandy
prairies also contain an abundance of lily and iris family
plants such as yellow star grass, blue -eyed grass, wild
onion, copper lily, spring beauty, and false garlic; all
these plants have nutritious bulbs or corms that are
known to be food sources for Native Americans.
Because of their use as pasturage and possibly some
agriculture, invader species such as bitterweed, Crown
capitatus, and silver -leaf nightshade are also present.
Leading to the floodplain, the terrace slopes of Lick
Creek and Alum Creek support both upland and
lowland trees and plants (Figure 13). The floodplain
forest contains trees and plants more suited to a wetter
environment, such as water oak, cedar, elm, and
orchids. It is dissected by small rivulets, old channels,
and oxbows that hold water during the wet season and
occasionally year round (Figure 14). Sedge meadows
occur in the wettest parts of the floodplain and consist
er
and
dy
y
wild
;all
are
ans.
me.
ton
nt.
Lick
and
lain
etter
and
els,
and
ows
nsist
LICK CREEK PARK
PREPARED BY TAME RECREATION & PARKS DEPT.
AND PARKS PLANNING/CITY OF COLLEGE STATION
•-/
v kf\>
/7%
dow0
ies Soils
0e.) 4,85.2CK PRARIERD.
,, 4
0 ('
ite"' ts:
Lufkin Series Soils
Tpkos Series SOTS
Environmental Setting 19
.4;
Figure 10. Map of the soils present in Lick Creek Park (from USDA 1958).
WASTEWATER
TREATMENT
PLANT
& PARK
MAINT.AREA
20 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
+t r
Figure 11. Upland vegetation characterized by dense understory, Lick Creek Park.
ks. Y Y
y �
3 �
f 4
Figure 12. Sandy prairies, Lick Creek Park.
Environmental Setting 21
Figure 13. Terrace vegetation, Lick Creek Park.
Figure 14. Floodplain vegetation with standing water, Lick Creek Park.
22 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
of an open carpet comprised almost entirely of
Cherokee sedge shaded by water oaks and cedar elms.
The type soil profile for Lick Creek Park is best
illustrated along Alum Creek, as seen in Figure 15.
This profile shows thin, sandy A and E horizons
underlain by a stratified C horizon of silty sand that
was alluvially deposited. The sandy sediments cover
a 2Bt horizon composed of clayey sand. A variation
of this profile can be seen along Lick Creek and in
Figure 16. A thinner sandy mantle covers a Bt horizon
of clay. Both of these profiles are typical in the upland
areas of the park and along the creek edges. The sandy
Figure 15. Soil profile at Alum Creek.
mantle can vary from 10 to 130 cm. Archaeologic
material in the uplands will be confined to the sandy
mantle above the Bt horizon as has been shown in
similar settings within the Post Oak Savannah. The
Bt horizon is usually underlain by a layer of gravel
and sandstone bedrock. Along the terrace edges, the
sandy mantle and Bt horizons become thinner and as
the terrace drops down to the floodplain, natural
outcrops of sandstone and chert cobbles, both prime
materials used by Native Americans, occur. The soils
in the floodplain consist of alluvial clays and silts that
potentially contain buried archaeological sites.
Figure 16. Soil profile at Lick Creek.
3
Cultural Setting
Alston V Thorns and J. Bryan Mason
Lick Creek Park and Veterans Park are located within
the Post Oak Savannah, which has been a travelers'
crossroads for thousands of years due to its prime
location on the landscape. Thorns (1993) argues that,
because of its location as a multicultural/multiethnic
crossroad between the forest and grassland, this area
has special research potential. In order to provide a
cultural context for evaluating the archaeological
resources in the project area, selected aspects of the
regional ethnohistorical and archaeological records are
reviewed here. This chapter draws heavily from a
previous overview of regional ethnohistory and
archaeology in the Post Oak Savannah by Thorns
(1993). The availability of ethnohistorical and
archaeological records affords the opportunity to study
the diversity of hunter - gatherer prehistoric land -use
systems, as well as elements of more recent agro-
industrial systems.
More detailed information about past land -use
patterns and cultural history in the Post Oak Savannah
and adjacent regions is available in reports by Black
(1989), Davis et al. (1987), Fields (1995), Honea
(1961), Johnson (1989), Kenmotsu and Perttula
(1993b), Kotter (1982), Patterson (1995), Perttula
(1993a, 1993b, 1993c, 1995), Perttula et al. (1993),
Peterson (1965), Prewitt (1974, 1985), Prikryl (1993),
Rogers (1992, 1993, 1995a, 1995b), Shafer (1977), and
Story (1985, 1990). These reports also include
discussions about paleoclimates, technological
changes, and cultural influences from the eastern Texas
Pineywoods and the central Texas Hill Country.
ETHNOHISTORIC ACCOUNTS
Native peoples lived and traveled along a broad
corridor of trails that traversed Brazos County and the
vicinity, connecting the Pineywoods of eastern Texas
with the Hill Country of central Texas and the
comparatively dry areas of southern Texas. In the
1690s, the Spanish followed some of the same trails
on their way to and from the major agricultural villages
in eastern Texas occupied by the Tejas and other Indian
groups. The Camino de los Tejas is generically used
here, in reference to both the crossing at the Brazos
River near the mouth of the Little River and the route
crossing near the northern boundary of Brazos County,
which follows the San Antonio or String Prairie. These
roads, part of the Caminos Reales corridor, connected
the eastern Texas missions near present -day
Nacogdoches with missions in the vicinity of San
Antonio (McGraw 1991; McGraw et al. 1991). The
route crossing the Brazos River near the mouth of the
Navasota River was known as the La Bahia Road; it
connected the eastern Texas missions with the southern
Texas missions near present -day Goliad (Williams
1979). For our purposes, the importance of these roads
is that Europeans who traveled them often recorded
their observations about the indigenous peoples they
encountered in the Post Oak Savannah. Figure 17
provides a more detailed view of the pathways that
were followed by several of the Spanish expeditions
that passed through Brazos County.
Ethnohistorical Accounts
of Hunter - Gatherers
Ethnohistorical data from the central and southern parts
of the Post Oak Savannah reveal that indigenous
peoples encountered by the Spanish lived in the
uplands, along the valley slopes, and in the bottomlands
(Foster 1995; Thorns 1993). In different seasons of
the year, they are known to have lived in encampments
with hundreds of people. At other times, only a few
families camped together, and at still other times, a
23
In: Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County: Archaeological Investigations of Two City Parks - Veterans Park and
Athletic Complex and Lick Creek Park - College Station, Texas, edited by J.P. Dering and J.B. Mason, pp 23 -39. Technical Report No.
4. Center for Ecological Archaeology, Texas A &M University, College Station.
24 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
- de Le6n 1690
Tern de los Rios 1691
reran de los Rios 1692 Raman 1716 - - --
Alarcon 1718 — • —
Aguayo 1722
.,Il�ullll\
North
0 10 20km
0 5 10mi
BRYAN
• \
Veterans 'i
io Park `c
3 •
CO
XI
cn
� 9
COLLEGE to ETC
STATION ,ice
Lick
Cre
ki
Figure 17. Location of Spanish roads passing
through Brazos County.
family camped alone. Houses were typically pole -
supported and covered with brush, mats, or hides, and
were large enough to comfortably accommodate a
family.
In June 1716, near present -day Cameron in the
lower Little River basin, members of the Ramon
Expedition visited a large temporary village inhabited
by at least 500 and possibly as many as 2,000 hunters
and gatherers who were probably there to hunt bison.
They represented several groups, including the
Yerbipiame (also spelled Yeripiano), Pamaya, Payaya,
Cantonae, Mixcal, Xarame, and Sijame people (Foik
1933:16; Tous 1930:17). Many of these people were
native to present -day southern Texas and northern
Mexico, and among them were both gentiles and
Christianized Indian apostates (A.J. McGraw, personal
communication 1992; Foik 1933:16; Newcomb 1961).
Soon after crossing the Brazos River below the mouth
of the Little River, the expedition came upon an
"abandoned rancher a or village" situated in a clearing
surrounded by an "open forest of oaks" (Tous 1930:17).
In the uplands, between the Brazos and Navasota rivers,
Ramon met several Texas [Tejas] men and women who
were "killing bison" (Foik 1933:17 -18; Williams
1979:152).
Father Pena, a member of the 1721 Aguayo
expedition, first reported seeing abandoned Indian huts
(possibly a farming village) in June as he was traveling
between the Brazos River and Navasota River. A little
farther to the east, but still in the uplands between the
two rivers, the expedition "came upon some old huts,
sheltered by very tall and beautiful trees" (Forrestal
1935:32 -33). A short distance after crossing the
Navasota River on July 8, the Marquis of Aguayo, the
expedition's leader and the Spanish governor of Texas
and Coahuila, and several of his men turned south "to
search for huts of Texas Indians" reported to be in the
vicinity:
Leaving the highway [the Camino de los Tejas
used by previous expeditions] and following
a path, these went south three leagues until
they came to some fields planted in the Texas
[Tejas] fashion. As they did not notice any
huts, they called out in the language of the
natives, and a response came back from the
direction of the woods ...The soldiers ad-
vanced to the aforesaid huts, which were
nearby, and observed there were assembled
with all those of the Rancheria Grande some
Indians of the Vidays and Agdocas tribes
[groups culturally similar to the Tejas people]
(Forrestal 1935:35).
After visiting with about 200 men, women, and
children, the Spanish Governor "admonished" the
Rancheria Grande people "to retire to their old homes
beyond the Brazos de Dios [Brazos River]" (Forrestal
1935:36). The region beyond the Brazos de Dios refers
to the lower Little River basin and the general region
around the confluence of the Brazos and Little rivers.
Although bison were important food animals in
the Post Oak Savannah during the late 1600s and early
1700s, there is little archaeological data to suggest they
were equally important in pre- contact times. Deer seem
to have been especially important game animals
throughout most archaeological time periods in the
inner Gulf Coastal Plain (Thorns 1993; see also Chapter
2). Ethnohistoric sources suggest that bison were not
present in the Post Oak Savannah in any significant
number during the early 1500s. Cabeza de Vaca, one
of the Spaniards who survived a shipwreck and
starvation to live and travel among the coastal and
inland groups of Texas (Trinity and San Jacinto basins)
for several years in the late 1520s and early 1530s,
reported seeing bison only a few times. From Cabeza
de Vaca's perspective, deer and roots were the most
iyo
uts
ing
the
the
uts,
stal
the
the
xas
"to
the
and
' the
Ames
estal
efers
gion
avers.
as in
early
they
seem
mals
n the
lapter
re not
ficant
a, one
and
11 and
asins)
1530s,
'abeza
most
important wild food resources among the peoples he
encountered in the Post Oak Savannah:
These people are invariably good archers and
well formed...Two or three kinds of root com-
prise their basic diet, and they dig for them
anywhere for a distance of two or three
leagues. Digging for them is hard work...The
roots have to be roasted for two days, but many
still stay bitter. Occasionally, these Indians
kill deer [antelope] and take fish...The women
work very hard and protractedly. They get
only six hours rest out of twenty-four, spend-
ing the wee hours heating the ovens to bake
roots. They begin digging at daybreak and
hauling wood and water to their houses, etc.
[Covey 1993:79].
Compared to the coastal and southern Texas
regions where he also lived and traveled, the Post Oak
Savannah was root -rich, deer - moderate, and fish- and
cactus -poor (Thorns 1996). It seems likely that the
food- resource productivity potential and general land
use practices that can be inferred from Cabeza de
Vaca's accounts were also characteristic of the hunter -
gatherers who lived in the vicinity of the city parks
during the Late Prehistoric period.
Historical Transition Period
Ethnohistoric data reveal that Indian people routinely
traveled through and lived in the uplands, along the
valley slopes, and in the bottomlands. The early
Historic period journals attest to the general importance
of deer; the wide variety of wild roots, berries, and
fruits, and the abundance of fish in the rivers and
bottomland lakes is also often noted (see Chapter 2).
While fish are frequently mentioned, St. Denis, writing
in 1717, was one of the few early historic figures to
state clearly that fishing was an important element of
the regional land use patterns (cited in Davis et al.
1987:201). Journals from the late 1600s and early
1700s report that Texans (i.e., the Tejas people)
practiced agriculture in the uplands between the
Navasota and Trinity rivers, and that there were
extensive fields along the lower terraces and in the
bottomlands of the Trinity River. None of the sources
`reviewed here reports agricultural fields near the mouth
f the Navasota River or in the uplands between the
avasota and Brazos rivers.
Large groups representing ethnically different
pulations often camped along the Brazos River and
Cultural Setting 25
in the uplands between the Navasota and Trinity rivers
during part of the summer. It seems likely that during
these times bison were locally abundant and readily
available. Seasonal population aggregations involved
groups that were considered native to Brazos County
and vicinity, plus groups previously native to northern
Mexico, to regions far north of the Red River, and to
areas east of the Sabine River (cf. Davis et al. 1987).
By the time of the earliest entradas, the ethnic make-
up of this part of present -day Texas was already a by-
product of expanding Old World immigrant
populations in the woodlands of eastern North America
and the plateaus of the southern part of the continent
(Murry 1992).
From the late 1600s to the early 1800s, expanding
Spanish and Mexican populations in the south put
pressure on the native inhabitants of Texas. Directly
and indirectly, this pressure pushed hunter - gatherers
from northern Mexico and southern Texas into the Post
Oak Savannah country. After about 1820, the pressure
came from the expanding Anglo- American system,
largely fueled by the number of enslaved African-
Americans. Native horticulturalists in east Texas were
pushed west and southwest, beyond the productive
agricultural areas and into competition with local
hunter - gatherer groups. Within a single lifetime,
almost all of the native people of the region had been
assimilated, squeezed out, or had died from European-
introduced diseases. In any case, the land -use systems
of the hunter - gatherers and simple agriculturalists were
no longer viable.
Davis et al. (1987) note that although the regional
ethnohistorical record mainly covers groups who
recently migrated to the Post Oak Savannah, the
records are still useful in constructing land -use models
because the nature and distribution of natural resources
was probably more important in conditioning
settlement and subsistence patterns than any one
group's ethnic affiliation. From this premise, they
argue that the ethnohistoric record for the Post Oak
Savannah illustrates that the hunter - gatherer land -use
system was that of "collectors," wherein family groups
resided in seasonal base camps, and from there
undertook logistical forays to procure more distant
resources (cf. Binford 1980).
In all probability, Old World diseases significantly
decreased the regional population density long before
the first organized entradas (Ewers 1973; Murry 1992).
One way or another, this probably led to a net increase
in habitable space. The unoccupied or under - occupied
but potentially productive areas probably would have
been settled quickly by displaced groups who were
26 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
"moving on," perhaps as an adaptive response to
demographic factors such as extra - regional population
growth or in- migrations. Within a few decades after
the initial depopulation by Old World diseases, and
continuing until the 1870s, the impact of the horse was
increasingly felt as mounted hunter - gatherers expanded
south from the Plains and effectively compressed
previous Indian homelands into and within the western
Gulf Coastal Plain (Prewitt 1985; Story 1990).
Mounted groups may have been preceded by bison -
hunting foot nomads who, by about 700 B.P., appear
to have begun to displace local, less specialized groups.
Local groups were possibly further displaced by less
mobile hunter - gatherer groups who had "appeared" in
the region about 1350 B.P., during the Austin phase
( Prewitt 1985:225 -228). Archaeological data have also
been used to support the contention that sometime
between 10,000 and 8,000 B.P. populations from the
eastern woodlands, or "plains interlopers," expanded
into what today are known as the cross timbers and
Savannah ecological areas of east and central Texas
(Johnson 1989). The inner West Gulf Coastal Plain is
an area where important research about the relationship
between ethnicity and the archaeological record,
focusing on cultural influences, migrations, population
expansion or other factors related to demographics and
cultural or ethnic differences, should be carried out
(Krieger 1948; Story 1985; see also Chapter 2; also
cf. Binford 1986; Sackett 1986; Wiessner 1983).
What role, if any, population pressure had in the
long -term regional population dynamics remains to be
explored systematically. It seems likely, however, that
there are many facets to population pressure, especially
considering that it depends partly on the landscape's
productivity potential (cf. Cohen 1977, 1989:140-141).
At one time and under one set of environmental
conditions, population pressure might exert its effects
on forest foragers, at another time on horticulturalists,
and at still other times on specialized bison hunters,
whether foot or mounted nomads. How we find
evidence for population pressure in the archaeological
record is yet another matter, just as is how we might
recognize archaeological evidence for in- migration or
external influences, and how to distinguish it from
evidence of local or regional population growth. How
we might provide the evidence for adaptational
differences resulting from long -term changes in
environmental conditions is another question yet to
be resolved.
Historic records show that the project area was
within an important interregional crossroads that,
within the span of only a few hundred years, was
occupied by several culturally and ethnically distinct
populations (Murry 1992). It is also evident that exotic
(i.e., extra - regional) goods and ideas regularly
accompanied travelers and traders as they traversed
the region. The pattern of ethnic diversity continued
in the historic period with settlement by Hispanics,
Anglo- Americans, African- Americans, and other Old
World groups. Written records and historical research
indicate that to some extent land -use patterns probably
vary with cultural and ethnic affiliations (cf. Carlson
1993a, 1993b; Carlson and Kloetzer 1993; Carlson and
Thorns 1993; Davis et al. 1987; Weissner 1983).
Efforts have also been made to find ethnic "signatures"
in the archaeological records of hunter - gatherers and
agro - industrialists, and there has been considerable
discussion about just how one may demonstrate ethnic
affiliations (e.g., Binford 1986; Carlson 1993a, 1993b;
Carlson and Thorns 1993; Sackett 1986; Weissner
1983). As a cultural and ethnic crossroads, the
archaeological record in the Brazos River basin portion
of the Post Oak Savannah zone has considerable
potential to yield information useful in the study of
ethnically distinctive material culture and land -use
patterns during the prehistoric and historic eras.
INDIAN GROUPS LIVING IN OR
NEAR THE BRAZOS VALLEY
The diversity of cultures present in the Brazos Valley
is evident in the ethnohistorical accounts of early
European explorers in the area. Many of the Indian
groups noted in ethnohistorical literature regularly
made the Brazos Valley their homes during prehistory,
while others were recent immigrants to the area, having
been pressured to leave their traditional homes by
Europeans or other Indian groups. One reason that
many Indian groups are known to have been near the
Brazos Valley is the presence of the Rancheria Grande.
An Ervipame chief, Juan Rodriguez, founded
Rancheria Grande in the early eighteenth century.
Located on the San Gabriel and Little Rivers,
Rancheria Grande became a gathering place for many
Indian groups that were displaced by Europeans or
Apache /Osage raids.
Each group encountered by the explorers had a
unique culture that was evident to the Europeans.
Although many accounts may be tainted with the
writer's bias, the Europeans did provide helpful guides
to understanding prehistoric life in the Brazos Valley.
was
inct
otic
irly
rsed
s ued
tics,
Old
arch
Ably
lson
and
83).
res"
and
able
hnic
?3b;
sner
the
Lion
a ble
y of
f-use
illey
arly
than
arly
tory,
v ing
s by
that
r the
ode.
►ded
fury.
H ers,
zany
is or
ad a
,ans.
the
tides
dley.
In this section, the cultures of some of the groups
mentioned by Europeans as they traveled through this
area are discussed. Information about Indian groups
in Texas has also been compiled by a number of
researchers for entry in The New Handbook of Texas
(Tyler 1996), which can also be accessed via the
Internet.
Bidai. The cultural affiliations of the Bidai are difficult
to determine. Europeans encountered them between
the Trinity and Brazos rivers in southeast Texas. They
have been associated with the Caddo, Atakapa, and
Orcoquiza Indian groups. The Bidai were a hunter -
gatherer group and de Mier y Teran (Jackson 2000:61)
notes that they claimed to be the only native Texans.
Although the Bidai are not usually associated with
farming, de Mier y Teran encountered a large mound
attributed to them which suggests that they were semi -
sedentary (Jackson 2000:74).
Caddo. The term Caddo refers to a group of twenty -
five affiliated groups living around the Red River in
Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. The
Caddo are related to the Fourche Maline or Woodland
Period culture groups that settled in small communities
and developed farming and pottery. Crops raised
include tropical cultigens (corn, squash, and later
beans) and certain native 'plants such as maygrass,
amaranth, chenopods, and sunflowers. Although corn
was probably the most important food source, the
Caddo also hunted deer, buffalo, and smaller animals.
Europeans divided the Caddo into groups: the Hasinai,
Kadohadacho, and Natchitoches confederacies. "The
Hasinai groups lived in the Neches and Angelina River
valleys in East Texas, the Kadohadacho groups on the
Red River in the Great Bend area, and the Natchitoches
groups on the Red River in the vicinity of the French
post of Natchitoches (Fort St. Jean Baptiste aux
Natchitos), established in 1714" (Perttula 2001).
Caddo culture was very complex and included a
hierarchical social structure, elaborate ceremonial
practices, and extensive trade. The Caddo lived in
dispersed villages with grass and cane covered houses
throughout northeast Texas. Small hamlets surrounded
larger villages, which were based around a large civic -
ceremonial center. "These centers had earthen mounds
used as platforms for temple structures for civic and
religious functions, for burials of the social and
political elite, and for ceremonial fire mounds"
(Perttula 2001).
Cultural Setting 27
Cantonae ( Cantona). The Cantona Indians were a
hunting and gathering group that lived throughout east
central Texas between the Guadalupe and Trinity
rivers. "They were most frequently reported along the
Colorado and Brazos rivers, where their skill and
success in bison hunting were often mentioned"
(Campbell 2001a). The Cantonas traveled with many
of the other Indian tribes in the region and, for that
reason, have been linguistically and culturally affiliated
with the Coahuiltecans, Tonkawa, and Witchita.
Cenis. The Cenis were encountered by the La Salle
expedition between the Brazos and Trinity Rivers.
They were most likely associated with the Caddoan
tribes and were primarily farmers. The Cenis lived in
small villages of about 70 people, each associated with
agricultural fields. The Cenis fed Europeans with
sagamite (a porridge of cornmeal boiled in salt water),
beans de bresil (beans of a reddish -brown color), boiled
corn bread, bread made of parched cornmeal and nuts
baked in the cinders, and another bread made with nuts
and sunflower seeds. Joutel also noted that the Indians
of this group had tattoos (Foster 1998:210).
Cherokee. The Cherokee were a large agricultural
tribe located throughout the southeastern United States
including parts of Virginia, Tennessee, North and South
Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Lipscomb (2001a)
suggests that the Cherokee probably originated further
north because of their migration legend and use of an
Iroquoian language. They called themselves Ani-
Yunwiya, which means the "Principal People."
Cherokee society was based on an elaborate social,
political, and ceremonial structure in which towns,
made up of thirty to forty households, were the basic
political unit. Matrilineal clan identity was also an
important part of Cherokee life. Regional councils
made public policy decisions for the members of a
group of towns. Lipscomb (2001a) describes the
houses as "square or rectangular huts constructed of
locked poles, weatherproofed with wattle and daub
plaster, and roofed with bark."
In the early 1800s, many Cherokees moved west
into present -day Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas.
Cherokees in Texas settled along the Red River and
requested permission from the Spanish government to
settle in northeastern Texas. Another group of
Cherokees led by Chief Bowl settled first on the Three
Forks of the Trinity River, near present day Dallas in
1820. They also asked for permission to stay in Texas
and were supposedly granted land from the Mexican
28 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
government. By 1830, the Cherokee population of
Texas was approaching 400 and, again, they were
granted land to live on, this time by the newly founded
rebel Texas government. Although Sam Houston
seemed willing to finalize the deal, the treaty was never
ratified. Mirabeau B. Lamar, on the other hand, wanted
the Cherokees removed from Texas "peaceably if they
would; forcibly if they must" (Lamar quoted in
Lipscomb 2001a). Commissioners were appointed to
pay the Cherokee for the land; however, they decided
to fight instead, spurring what is known as the
Cherokee War. The Cherokee were eventually driven
across the Red River into Indian Territory.
Chickasaw. The Chickasaw is a Muskogean- speaking
tribe from the American Southeast including land now
in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama.
They are seminomadic, mixing hunting and
horticulture for subsistence. The Chickasaw moved
west in 1830 due to pressure from European settlers.
They asked permission from the Mexican government
to settle in Texas and, although they were denied, some
families did settle near Nacogdoches along the Attoyac
and Patroon rivers. With the establishment of a
Choctaw- Chickasaw confederation in the late 1830s,
the Texas Chickasaws joined their tribesmen in Indian
Territory.
Ervipame. The Ervipame was a hunter - gatherer group
living in northeastern Coahuila and associated with
other Coahuiltecan speakers. At least some Ervipame
moved into east central Texas due to population
pressures and began what came to be known as
Rancheria Grande. Campbell (2001b) notes that their
cultural identity seems to have been lost and that they
may have merged with a Tonkawan group.
Karankawa. The Karankawa were a group of hunting,
fishing, and gathering tribes living along the coast of
Texas between Galveston and Corpus Christi Bay.
They regularly traded fish, seaweed, sea beans, shells,
feathers, shark teeth, oyster shell knives, and scrapers
with the people of the interior for maize, hides,
sandstone, flint, ceramics, red ochre, deer hair tassels,
and stone beads (Himmel 1999:17). The bulk of their
diet consisted of aquatic animals such as fish, turtles,
and shellfish, supplemented with plants and land
mammals. The Karankawa were a highly mobile
people, traveling over land by foot or along the coast
in canoes. Houses were portable and consisted of a
willow frame covered with reed mats or animal skins
(Lipscomb 2001b). Early explorers were amazed at
the number of body tattoos displayed by tribe members.
De Mier y Teran notes that the Karankawa were
dispersed and exterminated by European settlers
(Jackson 2000:152).
Kickapoo. Originally from the Great Lakes region,
wars split the tribe into three groups based in Kansas,
Oklahoma, and south Texas and northern Mexico in
the mid- eighteenth century. Nunley (2001) notes that
the remaining group in Texas, which numbers between
625 and 650, is one of the largest groups of Kickapoo
Indians and that they have successfully preserved much
of the traditional Kickapoo way of life. Cultural
elements that have been preserved include an emphasis
on the extended family, an informal educational
process, a semi - nomadic lifestyle, an informal
government that exists along with a recently (1937)
imposed formal government, their native language, and
religion. Today the Kickapoo in Texas are recognized
as citizens of both Mexico and the United States and
have been granted land in both countries.
Meyeye (Mayeye). The Mayeye was a Tonkawa
Indian tribe first encountered by the La Salle expedition
and known as the Meghey. They lived between the
Colorado River and the Brazos River probably near
Austin and Washington counties. Small groups of
Mayeye were also reported further north near Temple,
along the coast living with the Coco Indians, a
Karankawan tribe, and further west near the mouth of
the Guadalupe. It is assumed that the Mayeye lost
their specific culture, merging with other tribes in those
areas (Campbell 2001c).
Mixcal (Mescal). The Mixcal was a hunter - gatherer
group that lived in northern Coahuila and ranged as
far north as the Edwards Plateau. This tribe is known
to have spoken a Coahuiltecan language. Some of this
group migrated to the northeast and eventually joined
with other tribes at Rancheria Grande. Their name
comes from the mescal plant from which they collected
root crowns for food.
Palaquechare (Palaquesson). This tribe lived
between the Brazos River and the Trinity River near
Grimes County. They have been associated with the
Hasinai branch of the Caddoan tribes. Joutel mentions
that although they are a mobile group of hunter -
gatherers, they would, at certain times, plant corn and
Sij
lin
or
Tej
sp
to
wo
the
eve
Me
To
hu
hav
sev
and
the
In
18
Co
de
in
X
tha
so
are
Ltd at
hers.
were
tiers
;ion,
isas,
Ain
that
ween
1poo
wch
Ural
lasis
Dnal
mal
)37)
and
ized
and
awa
Lion
the
near
s of
�ple,
s, a
h of
lost
lose
Drer
ias
)wn
this
ned
line
.ted
4ed
fear
the
ons
ter -
and
beans (Foster 1998:183 -184). This is important as the
western-most evidence of agriculture in Texas.
Pamaya. The Pamaya Indians were a hunting and
gathering tribe recorded by a deserter of the La Salle
Expedition, Jean Jarry, as Panaa, "between the Rio
Sabinas and the Rio Grande in what is now northeastern
Coahuila" (Campbell 2001d). In 1716 they were seen
west of the junction of the Little and Brazos rivers at a
rancherfa with many other Indian groups. Although
they may have spoken a Coahuiltecan language, their
actual linguistic affiliation is unknown.
Payaya. The Payaya Indians were a Coahuiltecan-
speaking group of hunter - gatherers who originally
ranged an area that extended from San Antonio,
southwest to the Frio River and beyond. A group of
Payaya Indians is known to have settled at the
Rancherfa Grande.
Sijame. The Sijame was a hunter - gatherer tribe whose
linguistic affiliation may have been either Tonkawan
or Coahuiltecan. Some Sijame were noted at Rancherfa
Grande.
Tejas. It is generally understood that Tejas was not a
specific tribe, but a term used by the Caddoan groups
to refer to themselves and their allies or friends. The
word itself was applied to the northeastern reaches of
the Spanish government in the New World and
eventually became the name of a state under the
Mexican government.
Tonkawa. The Tonkawa were loosely affiliated, small
hunter - gatherer tribes whose original range seems to
have been in the high plains (Carlisle 2001). In the
seventeenth century they lived in north central Texas
and southern Oklahoma, but moved further south into
the Post Oak Savannah due to pressure from other
Indian groups (Foster 1998:51; Himmel 1999:7). By
1820 they were seen near the north edge of Brazos
County (Himmel 1999:7). Their houses have been
described as the traditional teepee, unless bison were
in short supply, then houses were made of grass
(Himmel 1999:7).
Xarame. The Xarame was a hunter - gatherer group
that spoke a Coahuiltecan language and lived in
southwestern Texas and northeastern Coahuila. They
are also known to have been present at Rancherfa
Grande.
Cultural Setting 29
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
A wide variety of archaeological sites have been
recorded in this part of the Brazos River basin, and,
while there are only a few radiocarbon ages on the
cultural remains, it is reasonable to conclude that the
region has been occupied for the last 10,000 years or
more (Bowman 1985; Haywood and Waters 1990;
Roemer and Carlson 1987; Shafer 1977). Large -scale
archaeological surveys, some accompanied by test
excavations, have been conducted in the following
areas: (1) the middle Yegua Creek basin, where
Somerville Reservoir was subsequently constructed
(Honea 1961; Peterson 1965); (2) the Gibbons Creek
basin, prior to beginning coal mining operations
(Fletcher 1980; Rogers 1991, 1992, 1993); (3) the
lower Navasota River basin, where a series of reservoir
projects was planned (Kotter 1982); and (4) the Walnut
Creek basin, in anticipation of coal mining operations
(Bement and Utley 1992; Davis et al., 1987). Moore
(1989) provides a review of more than a dozen
archaeological investigations in Brazos County. Most
of these studies were conducted in upland settings
during the 1970s and 1980s, and many of the survey
projects resulted in the discovery of low- density
scatters of lithic artifacts. Locations of the sites
discussed in this chapter can be found in Figures 18
and 19.
Consistent with the ecotonal setting of Brazos
County as a whole, the two city parks lie near the
intersection of three archaeological study regions that
compose the Texas Historical Commission's "Eastern
Planning Region" (Kenmotsu and Perttula 1993a): (1)
the southeastern region, with its northern border near
the Camino de los Tejas; (2) the northeastern Texas
region, to the east and across the Trinity River; and
(3) the Prairie- Savannah region. Table 3 provides a
summary of extensive and intensive archaeological
excavations in the central Post Oak Savannah.
In Brazos County alone, there are now more than
140 officially recorded archaeological sites,
representing every major cultural period of the historic
and prehistoric eras. Among the designated site types
attributed to Indian populations are the following:
multicomponent sites, temporary field camps, limited
activity sites, lithic scatters, lithic and ceramic scatters,
and cemeteries. Chipped -stone debitage and tools, fire -
cracked rock, and ceramic sherds are the most common
artifact types. The Late Prehistoric (ca. 1,300 -300
30 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
B.P.), Transitional Archaic (ca. 2,300 -1,300 B.P.), and
Late Archaic (ca. 3,000 -2,300 B.P.) time periods are
best represented, although projectile points
characteristic of the Middle Archaic (ca. 4,500 -3,000
B.P.), Early Archaic (ca. 8,000 -4,500 B.P.) and
Paleoindian (ca. 11,200-8,000 B.P.) periods are present
as well (time period designations from Turner and
Hester 1985). Table 3 summarizes the cultural
characteristics of these time periods.
Paleoindian (ca. 11,200 -8,000 B.P.)
Paleoindian sites are not common in the Post Oak
Savannah but, when they are found, they typically
occur along the "lower slope components of upland
interfluves close to small streams" (Rogers 1995a:11).
Diagnostic point types for this time period include
Dalton, San Patrice, Angostura, and Folsom. Points
and other tools are made of locally available chert
usually found in streambeds. Projectile points
representative of the Paleoindian period have been
recovered from Brazos County and surrounding
counties (Collins and Bousman 1993; Fields 1995;
Fields et al. 1993; Perttula 1995).
The most intensive archaeological fieldwork in the
vicinity of the project areas has been for the Gibbons
Creek Lignite Mine Project located in western Grimes
County (e.g., Rogers 1992, 1993, 1995a). Site
41 GM 166, recorded during excavations undertaken on
the Gibbons Creek project, contained a Late
Paleoindian component with Dalton and Angostura
points. The Late Paleoindian component was buried
by Archaic and Late Prehistoric components. Although
sandstone hearth features were found at this site, it
was noted that bioturbation in the sandy sediments had
disturbed the site so that features could not be
associated with the Late Paleoindian component.
Faunal and floral preservation tends to be poor at many
of the upland sites, such that archaeological
assemblages largely consist solely of chipped -stone
artifacts and fire- cracked rocks from cooking features.
Most sites of this period represent short -term
encampments by several families of hunter - gatherers.
As noted earlier, deer provided the bulk of the meat
diet throughout the Paleoindian period.
Archaic (ca. 8,000 -2,300 B.P.)
The Archaic period in the central Post Oak Savannah
is usually split into Early, Middle, and Late Archaic
subperiods. Sites from the Early and Middle Archaic
are rare in the entire Gulf Coastal Plain, however, Late
Archaic sites are plentiful (Story 1990:213). Site
Ali .■:..
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OIDO
CALDWELL
o o�
Millican Project Survey
• Archaeoloaical Site
115
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Di
Veterans O t rn
�. Park' N
116
75
9. MILLIGAN
Lick
Creek
Park
Figure 18. Previous archaeological
excavations discussed in the text.
166 •
281
stratigraphy is poorly preserved in most sites, but
several were found to contain isolated Late Archaic
components along the landforms adjacent to tributary
stream floodplains (Fields et al. 1993:71). Point types
diagnostic of Early and Middle Archaic occupations
include Hoxie, Gower, Bulverde, and Pedernales. Late
Archaic sites can be identified with points such as
Pamillas, Gary, and Kent.
Late Archaic sites are associated with the poorly
cemented sandstone hearths that became more popular
in the Early Ceramic period. The Late Archaic is also
known as a transitional period from a nomadic lifestyle
to a more sedentary lifestyle. Cemeteries found in
Austin, Wharton, and Fort Bend counties indicate that
people spent more time in one place (Hall 1981; Copas
1984; Walley 1955; Vernon 1989). Long distance trade
has also been documented for this time period (Hall
1981).
Transitional Archaic (ca. 2,300 -1,300 B.P.)
In comparison to the middle part of the Archaic, this
period is marked in the uplands by a substantial
increase in the frequency of sites with significantly
denser accumulations of artifacts and food remains.
Most archaeologists interpret this pattern as evidence
E.
pr " 1r71 15 yr g O . r!
�+ y
5' CD 0 g �G' VWi CD Vii H �C C7 • F
Site Tyyppee "
r. 1i storic 0 1 2 3 km
Prehistoric '
Figure 19. Map of the locations of previously recorded archaeological sites within 9.5 km of the two parks.
The circles indicate 9.5 km boundaries, while the numbers indicate sites and their respective locations.
32 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
Table 3. Selected characteristics of archaeological cultures for the central Post Oak
Savannah region (data compiled from Rogers 1993, 1995a, 1995b).
TIME PERIODS SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL
CULTURES
Paleoindian Diagnostics: Dalton, San Patrice, Angostura, Folsom projectile points
Pre-8,500 B.P. Population/Site Density: not discussed for this period
(pre-6,500 B.C.) Site Locations: lower slope component of upland interfluves close to small
streams, and most sites mixed with later period material
Subsistence: highly mobile groups hunting within large areas, similar to that
found in later Archaic cultures
Early Archaic Diagnostics: split stem dart points similar to Gower, Martindale, Uvalde; also
8,500 to 4,500 B.P. Angostura, Hoxie, Golondrina, Bell, Baird, Wells, San Patrice, Dalton, Meserve,
(ca. 6,500 to 2,500 B.C.) Plainview, and Lerma points; other tools include pitted stones, hammerstones,
and hand -sized mans; burned -rock features also present
Population/Site Density: increase in population based on an increase in
burned rock
Site Location: lower slope component of upland interfluves close to small
streams
Subsistence: loosely structured nonspecialized hunting and gathering; deer are
clearly present
Middle Archaic Diagnostics: expanding stem dart points Big Sandy, Evans, Williams; corner -
4,500 to 2, 600 B.P. notched points Marshall and Pedernales; other points Carrollton, Wells, Travis,
(ca. 2,500 to 600 B.C.) Bulverde, Yarbrough, Calf Creek; Clear Fork Gouge; burned -rock middens;
grinding stones
Population/Site Density: continued growth in population density
Site Locations: lower slope component of upland interfluves close to small
streams
Subsistence: move to nut harvesting and processing, increasingly specialized,
may include some bison (based on the presence of corner - notched points);
regional interaction increasing
Late Archaic Diagnostics: contracting stem dart points Gary, Kent, Wells; expanding stems
2,600 to 1,250 B.P. Palmilas, Ensor, Ellis, Edgewood; other points Dart, Marshall, Marcos,
(600 B.C. to 700 A.D.) Castroville, Frio; sandstone hearth features
Population/Site Density: increased population and site density; more sites than
during any other period; migration of plains people into region; population peak
Site Locations: sandy knolls and other high terraces along perrenial streams,
restricted and local in nature
Subsistence: exploitation of environment away from major rivers; walnut, soft -
shell turtle, beaver, possibly bison and more reliance on deer, less mobile
gathering
TIME PERIODS SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL
CULTURES
Early Ceramic
(Post Archaic)
1,250 B.P. to 950 B.P.
(A.D. 700 to 1000)
Late Prehistoric
950 to 350 B.P.
(AD. 1000 to 1600)
Table 3. Continued.
Cultural Setting 33
Diagnostics: arrowpoints Scallorn and Bonham; dart points primarily Gary and
Kent; introduction of ceramics, primarily sandy -paste bowls and jars, sonnetanes
incised or punctated, Goose Creek Plain, Leon Plain, and Doss Redware;
hearth features also found
Population/Site Density: not discussed for this period
Site Locations: sandy knolls and other high terraces along perennial streams;
restricted and local in nature
Subsistence: regionally oriented hunting and gathering (no change in settlement
pattern); hickory, walnut, pignut, deer, raccoon, tortoise, bison, and fish; no
evidence for long -term settlements that might support horticulture
Diagnostics: Gary dart points; Perdiz, Bonham, and Alba arrowpoints;
ceramics (mostly grog - tempered) Hickory Fine - Engraved, Dunkin Incised, Holly
Fine - Engraved; hearth features
Population/Site Density: population increase (higher artifact density); infusions
from adjacent regions
Site Locations: not discussed for this period
Subsistence: primarily hunting (especially deer) and gathering
34 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
for the onset of increased sedentism (Perttula et al.
1993). There is a documented overall decrease in land -
use activities that resulted in low artifact density, short-
term (e.g., a few weeks at most) encampments, and an
increase in the frequency of sites with high artifact
densities indicative of longer occupation terms. The
Transitional Archaic period is marked by the
introduction of ceramic technology and the use of
Scallorn and Bonham points. Kent and Gary dart
points are also found at sites from this time period.
Ceramics from this time period fall into the Goose
Creek or Leon categories and usually have a sandy
paste with some incised decorations (Story 1990;
Rogers 1995b).
As its name implies, the Transitional Archaic
period is manifested in the Prairie- Savannah, central
Post Oak Savannah, and Southeast Texas
archaeological study regions as a transitional period
containing aspects of both Late Archaic and Late
Prehistoric cultures in many sites. Late Archaic and
Late Prehistoric sites in the Gibbons Creek basin show
clear evidence of subsistence and lithic procurement
activities. Projectile points, thin bifaces, and end -
scrapers attest to the importance of hunting- related
activities. Evidence of plant food processing comes
in the form of pottery fragments and features containing
an abundance of fire- cracked rock. The fire- cracked
rock features are not usually associated with pits.
Prikryl (1993) noted that Transitional Archaic sites
were most common in the Prairie and Savannah regions
to the north and northwest of Brazos County.
Late Prehistoric (ca. 1,300-300 B.P.)
The Late Prehistoric time period is associated with an
increase in the number of sites and population density.
It has been argued that this trend may be a
representation of better preservation rather than a true
representation of population dynamics. There is,
however, evidence for an increase in long term
campsites that were revisited, including those with
residential structures. Point types common during this
time period include Gary dart points and Bonham,
Alba, and Perdiz points. An increase in ceramic
technology is also noted, with many ceramic types
emerging and an increased use of grog, bone, and shell
tempering. Decorated pieces become more common
and decorations are more intricate. In some areas of
the Post Oak Savannah, trade with agriculturalists such
as the Caddo has added different ceramic vessels to
the assemblage.
Trade also added agricultural products to the
subsistence base for some people living in the Post
Oak Savannah. For the most part, however, subsistence
patterns in the Late Prehistoric did not change much
from the Archaic. A high number of points at many
sites indicates that hunting remained important and was
supplemented by gathering wild plant foods. Bison
are known from ethnohistorical accounts to have been
popular game for people living in the area during the
latter part of this time period, although there is only
limited archaeological evidence for this claim (Fields
1995:319; see also Chapter 2).
PREVIOUSLY RECORDED SITES NEAR
VETERANS PARK AND ATHLETIC
COMPLEX AND LICK CREEK PARK
In keeping with the land -use perspective as well as for
heuristic purposes, it is useful to characterize and
analyze archaeological sites according to their
placement on the landscape. Sites in similar settings
probably afforded access to similar resources and,
generally speaking, they are expected to have been
subjected to similar site formation processes (cf. Butzer
1982; Jochim 1976; Waters 1992). For our purposes,
the regional landscape is subdivided into three
physiographic settings: bottomlands, valley slopes, and
uplands.
Sites in the Bottomlands
Most of the bottomlands are encompassed by the
floodplain, as delimited by the zone of periodic
flooding (Nordt 1983). Throughout the bottomlands
in the local basin, there are and probably always have
been high spots that were seldom inundated. These
are the kinds of places favored as campsites through
the millennia, while regularly flooded localities were
routinely used when conditions permitted. Other things
being equal, site preservation is expected to be good
in the seasonally flooded places where the rates of
sediment deposition were comparatively rapid.
As the major component of the riverine zone,
bottomlands afford the best access to the greatest
diversity and abundance of potential food resources
(Hester 1989). Fish, shellfish, beaver, bear, rabbits,
and deer should have been especially abundant, as were
pecans, other nuts, and most berries and fruits. It is
likely that a substantial proportion of the edible root
foods in the region grew well in bottomlands, but
reliable information on the relative productivity
potential of vegetal foods in different parts of the
landscape is lacking altogether. Some information on
the productivity potential of game animals is available.
For example, the highest deer population densities in
the Post Oak Savannah, about 200 animals per 1,000
hectares (ca. 2,500 acres), are expected to be in the
bottomlands (Yantis 1984). There are historic accounts
of bison in the bottomlands as well, but except for those
times when grasses dominated the bottomlands, bison
densities were probably highest in the prairie patches
along the valley slopes and in the uplands (see Chapter
2).
The earliest, albeit tentative, evidence for
occupation of the Post Oak Savannah comes from the
Duewall- Newberry site (41BZ75), where the remains
of a disarticulated mammoth were recovered (Steele
and Carlson 1989). The remains, presumably Late
Pleistocene in age (ca. 12,500-10,000 B.P.), were found
eroding from a steep cutbank (7.5 m below surface) of
the Brazos River several kilometers upstream from the
mouth of the Little Brazos River. Although chipped
stone was not recovered during excavations, impact
scars and breakage patterns on several long bones, as
well as the presence of a bone pile, were considered to
be strong inferential evidence for human activity
(Steele and Carlson 1989).
A variety of stone tools and several pieces of
pottery were recovered during excavations at Winnie's
Mound (41BU17) located in the bottomlands of east -
central Burleson County (Bowman 1985). Paleoindian
points, including Plainview and San Patrice, as well
as early Archaic points, including Hoxie, Bell, and
various stemmed, indented -base forms, were found,
as were Darl, Lange, Edgewood, Ensor, Frio, Gary -
Kent, Marcos, and Yarbrough types representative of
the middle or late Archaic periods. Scallorn points
and ceramics indicate occupation during the Late
Prehistoric period. Other bifaces, edge- modified
flakes, and cores were also recovered, along with
thousands of pieces of debitage that were analyzed
according to flake type and material type. Faunal
remains were abundant, but most were too poorly
preserved for identification to family or genus. Eleven
of the 15 identified fragments were deer, three were
turtle bones and one was a beaver tooth. The Late
Archaic and Late Prehistoric components were
associated with cemeteries (Bowman 1985).
Site 41BU16, located along the Burleson County
side of the Brazos River, yielded a wide range of
artifacts that represented occupation from the Middle
Archaic through the Late Prehistoric periods (Roemer
and Carlson 1987). Bulverde, Yarbrough, Fairland,
Gary, Kent, Darl, Alba, Perdiz, and Scallorn points
Cultural Setting 35
and pottery fragments were recovered. Other stone
artifacts included various biface forms, edge - modified
flakes, hammerstones, and cores. More than 10,000
flakes were analyzed according to size, flake type, and
evidence of thermal alteration. Faunal remains were
sparse and poorly preserved, but bison, deer, rabbits,
turtles, fish, freshwater mussels, and possibly turkeys
were represented. At different times, the site was also
used as a cemetery (Roemer and Carlson 1987).
Several radiocarbon ages were obtained on
charcoal from archaeological sites in the bottomlands,
but most of these were obtained during
geomorphological studies from features exposed in the
river's cutbanks and the results of the related
archaeological analysis are not yet available. Two sites
in Brazos County yielded 14 C ages indicative of
occupation during the Late Paleoindian and Early
Archaic time periods. An age of 8,390 ±330 B.P. was
obtained on a mussel shell feature containing chert
flakes (Haywood and Waters 1990). Charcoal from a
similar feature exposed farther downstream yielded an
age of 6,480 ±110 B.P (M.R. Waters, personal
communication 1992). A site near the mouth of White
Creek yielded Scallorn and Perdiz points and a
radiocarbon age of 880 ±50 B.P. (M.R. Waters, personal
communication, 1992).
The few radiocarbon ages obtained from features
exposed in the river's cutbanks and the geomorphic
studies illustrate that use of the bottomlands spans the
Holocene and probably the last part of the late
Pleistocene as well (Haywood and Waters 1990; Nordt
et al. 1992; Waters 1993; Appendix A). These features
also attest to a stratified and well - preserved
archaeological record. Sites such as 41BU16 and
41BU17, with artifact -rich deposits containing a wide
range of tool types and faunal remains as well as
cemeteries, suggest that for the last 3,000 years there
were fairly long -term encampments in the Brazos River
bottomlands. Projectile points, other thin bifaces, and
tools indicative of hide processing are comparatively
abundant, indicating that hunting was a major
subsistence activity. While faunal data are too limited
for reliable conclusions, the available information is
consistent with the concept that deer probably provided
the bulk of dietary meat, as has been suggested for
adjacent parts of central Texas (Black 1989).
Sites in the Uplands
Uplands, as used in the context of this report, are that
part of the landscape beyond the valley walls or slopes
36 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
of a river. Uplands comprise hills, divide ridges, and
cuestas, as well as tributary valleys containing
permanent and intermittent streams. Because much
of the uplands lie in zones of net erosion, site
preservation potential is lower than in the bottomlands;
however, sites are likely to be buried in alluvium in
some of the larger valleys and elsewhere by aeolian
and colluvial processes. The two parks are located in
upland environments in or near the tributary valleys
of creeks. The results of the surveys (see Chapter 6)
are comparable to the results of other surveys in this
type of landscape, especially the White Creek survey.
Food resources in the uplands are probably less
abundant and less diverse than those in the bottomlands
or along the valley slopes, although in some places
(e.g., tributary valleys) the productivity potential per
unit area may have been as high as in the bottomlands.
In general, root foods are expected to be locally
abundant in meadows and prairie patches (cf. Thorns
1989) and should have been readily available in the
uplands. The mosaic character of the oak woodlands
and prairies certainly afforded good deer habitat.
Many, if not most, of the accounts of Indians hunting
bison in the region take place in the uplands. Judging
from the general structure of the available resources,
hunting is expected to have been especially important
in the uplands.
Projectile points characteristic of the Late
Paleoindian and Early Archaic time periods (ca.
10,000 -4,500 B.P.) were recovered from a surface
context at the Thurmond site, located in the uppermost
part of the Thompson Creek basin within the city limits
of Bryan, Texas (Shafer 1977). Temporally diagnostic
point types from these sites include Plainview,
Meserve, Scottsbluff, Angostura, miscellaneous
lanceolate points characteristic of the Paleoindian
period, and various stemmed, indented -base Early
Archaic types. Other tool types from the site are a
perforator, thin bifaces, gouges, small end scrapers,
and grooved pebbles (Shafer 1977). A corner - notched
arrow point was also recovered from one part of the
site (H.J. Shafer, personal communication 1992).
There are also lithic scatter sites in the uplands
that have a much lower artifact density and fewer tool
types than the Thurmond site. Some areas have such
a low density of debitage that they are not recorded as
sites (e.g., Moore 1989). In other places, excavations
reveal that artifacts are also buried at shallow depths,
but there, too, the densities are low. An example is
41BZ74 (Richard Carter site), a site located in the
uppermost part of the Carters Creek basin (a secondary
stream in the lower Navasota River basin), just over
the low divide with the Thompson and White Creek
basins. It was tested to assess a mid- nineteenth century
Anglo- American homesite, however, a sample of
chipped -stone artifacts was recovered during
excavations and subsequently analyzed (Carlson 1983,
1987). The very low density of chipped stone (37 items
in 95.25 m test units: 33 flakes, two cores, one scraper,
one biface fragment) was argued to represent short-
term foraging activities, possibly "manufacture of
expedient flake tools, and/or raw material procurement
and some food processing; in other words, occasional
exploitation of widely scattered upland resources"
(Ensor 1987:79).
Four sites (41BZ114 -117) previously recorded
along White Creek were located on the tops and slopes
of low ridges. These sites had a low density of chipped
stone debitage on the surface and, in several cases,
flakes were recovered from shallow shovel probes.
Only one chipped stone tool — a thin biface fragment
from 41BZ112 — was observed in the narrow survey
area that stretched for several kilometers along the
creek (Whitsett and Jurgens 1992). Limited testing at
41BZ115 and results of additional survey work along
White Creek suggest that the paucity of tools is an
inherent characteristic of these particular White Creek
sites and that a very limited range of activities, mostly
lithic procurement and tool manufacture, is represented
(Clabaugh 1993; Dickens 1993; Olive 1993).
Of the four White Creek sites in an upland setting,
41BZ115 had the densest scatter of chipped stone
material and was recommended for test excavation
(Whitsett and Jurgens 1992). Test excavations revealed
that the cultural material usually extended no more
than 20 cm below surface to the top of the clay -rich Bt
soil horizon. Although features were not encountered
in any of the 11 excavation units, approximately 100
flakes, five cores, and six edge - modified, "expedient"
tools were recovered. The primary activity at the site
seems to have been the initial stages of tool
manufacturing, but some of the expedient tools were
probably used there as well, and the few pieces of fire -
cracked rock might represent some type of food
preparation (Dickens 1993; Olive 1993).
In terms of understanding how Indian people used
the upland landscape in the White Creek basin, the
most salient ecological characteristic is the cobble -
sized chert gravel scattered along the ridge tops and
slopes. Almost everywhere natural gravel was found
on the surface, along with chipped -stone artifacts made
from the gravel. The identified lithic scatters appeared
to be components of a widespread, low density lithic
procurement and manufacturing area that extends into
the uplands beyond the project boundaries. Although
reliable chronological controls are lacking, it seems
likely that these lithic procurement areas were used
throughout the period of Indian occupation (Carlson
and Thoms 1993:101 -102).
Similar sites have recently been described by
Jurgens (2000) in a survey of the Wellborn Special
Utility District. Site 41BZ148 is located two
kilometers north of Lick Creek Park on a toe slope
overlooking Carters Creek. Site 41BZ149 is located
just north of Wellborn on a toe slope overlooking
Hopes Creek. They are both described as shallowly
buried lithic scatters. Artifacts from the sites include
an edge- modified uniface, biface fragments, and
secondary and tertiary flakes.
Well- preserved Late Archaic and Late Prehistoric
period sites in the Gibbons Creek basin show clear
evidence of subsistence activities and lithic
procurement. Projectile points, thin bifaces, and end -
scrapers attest to the importance of hunting - related
activities. Pottery fragments and features containing
an abundance of fire- cracked rock, most of which is
not associated with pits of any kind, may be evidence
of plant food processing. Almost all of the radiocarbon
ages from well - preserved features in the Gibbons Creek
basin post -date 2,000 B.P. (Rogers 1991, 1992, 1993,
1995a, 1995b, personal communication 1993).
Judging from information reviewed here, the
uplands were used extensively as hunting grounds, and,
where gravel occurred, as source areas for lithic raw
materials. Plant foods, including berries, nuts, and
roots, were probably exploited as well but to date there
is little supporting archaeological evidence. While
many of the known sites in the uplands evidence only
a limited range of activities, several sites have been
interpreted as base camps used mainly during the
hunting season(s). Sites are surprisingly well preserved
and are deeply buried where rates of sediment
deposition are comparatively high (e.g., colluvial
aprons, fans, and floodplains). The types of projectile
points recovered from the sites suggest that the uplands
were used throughout the established period of the
region's human occupation, but that more of the
hunting - related occupations appear to have taken place
during the last three thousand years than during the
preceding millennium. Before assigning behavioral
significance to this kind of ostensible pattern, however,
the effects of natural and cultural site formation
processes must be better understood, including the
thousands of projectile points that have been removed
from the uplands by private collectors.
Sites on the Valley Slopes
Cultural Setting 37
Valley slopes occupy the space between the uplands
and bottomlands. In Brazos County, valley slopes are
formed mainly by the treads and scarps of Pleistocene
terraces, but also by the eroded edges of Eocene
formations (i.e., bedrock) adjacent to and overlooking
the bottomlands. As slopes in general tend to be
unstable, and rates of deposition are slow on the treads
of ancient terraces, most archaeological sites are likely
to have been subject to considerable pedoturbation.
Vegetation patterns and the immediate availability of
natural resources resemble the uplands more than the
bottomlands, but proximity to the bottomlands means
ready access to the riverine and floodplain resources
as well. In other words, the ecotonal setting of the
valley slopes afforded the opportunity to exploit two
different ecosystems (cf. Odum 1971).
Sites 41BZ112 and 41BZ113 are located near the
mouth of White Creek on the tread of Terrace 2, where
it is capped by a veneer of colluvium from the adjacent
valley slopes (cf. Waters 1993). A few pieces of
debitage were seen on the surface at both sites, but the
only observed tool — a thin biface fragment — was
at 41BZ112 (Whitsett and Jurgens 1992). Test
excavations at 41BZ112 yielded from three to 39 flake
and flake fragments per 0.1 m but the excavation units
yielded only edge - modified flakes and the mid- section
of a biface. A point fragment was found on the surface
during the testing phase. Artifacts were recovered from
as deep as 0.9 m below surface; however, neither
features nor lenses of artifacts were observed in any
of the backhoe trenches or test pits, and there was
considerable evidence of pedoturbation and
bioturbation (Olive 1993). Based on the results of the
lithic analysis, the initial stages of stone tool
manufacturing are well represented at 41BZ112, and
the use -wear patterns on some of the edge - modified
tools indicate they were used for cutting and scraping.
The small quantity of fire- cracked rock and the single
point fragment are also suggestive of food preparation
and hunting - related tasks (Dickens 1993).
Three small interior chert flakes were observed
on the surface of 41BZ105, a "small prehistoric lithic
scatter" located on the tread of a low Brazos River
38 Prehistoric and Historic Occupation in Central Brazos County
terrace about a kilometer from the mouth of the Little
Brazos River. None of the shovel probes yielded
cultural material (Bond 1991:9). Farther upstream
along the Thompson Creek basin, but still in the valley
slope section, there are two low- density lithic scatters
— 41BZ87 and 41BZ88 — on "sandy knolls adjacent
to the creek bottom;" neither site yielded temporally
or functionally diagnostic tools (Bond 1991:6). Low -
density lithic scatters are also on the low "sandy ridges"
farther down Thompson Creek (e.g., 41BZ31), but
there are sites that appear to represent more intensive
or repeated occupations of the valley slopes. At
41BZ32, for example, San Patrice, Bulverde, Gary,
Kent, and Ensor points were found, as were gouges
and sandstone net weights (Bond 1991:6).
Site 41BZ1 also yielded a wide variety of artifacts
on the surface (Collins 1955). The "site" is actually a
set of localities in close proximity, with each
component on a separate remnant of one of the terraces
that forms the lower valley slopes. Locality 6 occupies
a remnant of Terrace 1 and contained several dozen
decorated and undecorated sand - tempered pottery
sherds in addition to a variety of chipped -stone tools
and debitage. Locality 5 occupies a fairly flat surface
between the Terrace 2 scarp and the tread of Terrace 1.
In addition to two undecorated, sand - tempered sherds,
a stemmed scraper and drill were collected along with
several arrow and dart points, including Alba, Gary,
Kent, Yarbrough, Pedernales, and Bulverde types.
Localities 1 -4 yielded the same kinds of artifacts, as
well as sherd and shell- tempered pottery, Perdiz,
Scallorn, and Bonham/Alba arrow points, Travis/
Mon dart points, blades, knives, and a thumb scraper
(Collins 1955).
Previously recorded sites along the valley slopes
vary from those with a low density and range of artifact
types, suggesting limited activities, to sites with much
higher artifact densities and a greater range of artifact
types, indicative of more diverse and intensive land
use. Compared to the uplands and bottomlands,
relatively little work has been conducted at valley slope
sites, but the results suggest that lithic procurement
and hunting were important activities, as they were
everywhere else in the Brazos and Navasota River
basins. The kinds of projectile points indicate only
that occupation occurred throughout the Holocene.
Too little work has been done to detect meaningful
patterns. Yet, it is interesting that of the eight sites
with temporally diagnostic artifacts, six have Late
Prehistoric components, as evidenced by arrow points
or pottery sherds.
Sites within 9.5 km of Veterans Park and
Athletic Complex and Lick Creek Park
Review of the archaeological site files at the Texas
Archaeological Research Laboratory in Austin reveals
that 15 historic, 49 prehistoric, and six multi -
component (historic and prehistoric) sites have been
recorded within 9.5 km of the two parks (see Figure
19; Appendix A). Some of the historic sites (41BZ92
and 126, 41 GM 146, 147, 148, 152, 153, and 154)
closely resembled the historic sites recorded during
the present survey (see Chapter 5). At sites 41BZ92
and 126, historic artifacts, but no features, were found.
At sites 41GM147,152, 153, and 154, historic artifacts
as well as features such as cisterns, foundation piers,
and chimney falls were found. Remnants or remaining
structures were recorded at 41 GM146 and 148. All of
these sites are recorded as turn of the century or early
twentieth century homesteads.
Site 41BZ102 is located on the proposed Veterans
Park property. This site is a prehistoric "campsite"
that was discovered by a private citizen during the
infilling of the pond on the property. William Moore
recorded the site, but indicated that it was most likely
highly disturbed by earth moving activities (W. Moore,
personal communication 2000). Conversations with
Mr. Walter Schuster, who discovered the site, indicate
that the site was located just to the north of the location
of 41BZ136, near the southern corner of the old pond,
although CEA employees observed no evidence of the
site. Artifacts observed by William Moore at the site
included a beveled knife, "Caddoan- like" pottery
sherds, and an unidentified arrow point (W. Moore,
personal communication 2000). Recently, employees
of the CEA examined artifacts collected by Walter
Schuster from this site. In addition to the artifacts
mentioned by Moore, Perdiz points were recorded.
From this information, the site fits into the Late
Prehistoric period. Prehistoric sites of interest include
41BZ25 -27. All three of these sites were found along
the terrace edge overlooking the floodplain of the
Navasota River. Each site was identified by a surface
survey and was separated from the other sites by a
gully in the terrace. This is similar to the prehistoric
sites found at both Lick Creek and Veterans Park and
Athletic Complex (see Chapter 5). Artifacts at these
sites included flakes, biface fragments, ceramic
fragments, one arrowpoint, and one dart point. Site
41BZ130 is a prehistoric site just south of Carters
Creek approximately 4 km upstream from the proposed
location of Veterans Park. This site was found on the
terrace edge overlooking Carters Creek in sandy soil.
The site consists of a low density artifact scatter
represented by two flakes and a beveled, possibly
Archaic, dart point (Moore 1999).
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
From a review of the general nature, distribution, and
chronology of archaeological sites, it is reasonable to
infer that Indian peoples occupied the bottomlands,
valley slopes, and uplands of the eastern Post Oak
Savannah throughout the Holocene period and during
the last part of the late Pleistocene. Lithic procurement
and hunting activities are well represented everywhere
on the landscape, but we know very little about how
the type and intensity of land use may have varied
within and between zones. Long -term land -use studies
remain to be undertaken, but one gets the impression
that the Late Prehistoric period is better represented
than the preceding time periods. If confirmed, the Post
Oak Savannah pattern would be in contrast to the
pattern for the Edwards Plateau portion of central Texas
where there are significantly fewer Late Prehistoric
sites and projectile points compared to the Late or
Transitional Archaic period (Black 1989; Prewitt
1985).
Several of the previously recorded sites near the
two parks are known to contain buried cultural
materials (see Appendix A). Although buried cultural
deposits are common throughout the uplands in the
Post Oak Savannah, few of the sites appear to be well
preserved. However, well - preserved features are found
in upland, valley slope, and bottomland settings, but
Cultural Setting 39
all too little attention has been given to understanding
the formation processes that account for the
preservation of features in a few places and the paucity
of in situ deposits in many other places (Thoms 1995).
Although geomorphic processes, including erosion and
pedoturbation, are widely recognized as having adverse
effects on site preservation in the Post Oak Savannah
and adjacent regions, these effects remain to be
adequately defined, qualified, or quantified (cf. Black
1989; Story 1990; Thorns 1995).
We do know, however, that cook -stone raw
materials needed to build earth ovens and hearth
grills — primarily sandstone —are available, as are
quartzite cobbles especially useful in stone boiling
(Thorns 1993). This leads us to expect to find cook -
stone features in the project area. We also know that
it is not always easy to identify these features because
they are often impacted (i.e., partially disarticulated)
by natural site formation processes, especially along
slopes such as those along Carters and Lick Creeks.
Problems in identifying these features are also likely
to occur because of difficulties in distinguishing
between naturally occurring chunks of reddish - colored
sandstone and slightly redder fire- cracked rocks made
from local sandstone. Furthermore, pedogenic
processes, especially those related to leaching of the
well- drained soils on the valley slopes, are likely to
remove carbon and oxidation stains on the sediments
that might otherwise define pit features. As such, it
may be difficult to distinguish between "leached"
hearths and ovens on one hand, and on the other hand,
piles of used stone - boiling rocks that are not likely to
have been directly associated with carbon or oxidation
stains.