Funded Research Projects

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/189

An index of publicly funded research projects conducted by Texas A&M affiliated researchers.

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Browsing Funded Research Projects by Author "Alonzo, Armando"

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    Research Project
    CESU-Researching Indigenous Communities along El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail in Central and Southwest Texas
    History; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/373; DOI-National Park Service
    Project Summary The purpose of the project is to complete a well-documented narrative history of the indigenous populations that lived in the vicinity of the Camino Real de los Tejas from Coahuila to Central Texas from the era of the first entradas to the 1820s, when Spanish rule ended. Specifically, the research will identify the various groups of Native Americans, their locations and movement within Northeast New Spain and Texas corridor, and their interactions with each other and with the Europeans with whom they made contact. It will examine their impact on the Camino Real as their communities evolved over time. It will also assess how indigenous groups adapted to the changes brought about by the presence and interactions with Europeans, determining what folkways and traditions they may have incorporated as a result of those interactions. The research will also address the matter of whether these indigenous peoples persisted and in what locations after Spanish rule. Project Background In 2004 the Tejas Camino was designated a National Historic Trail. In recognition of the trail’s significance to both the U.S. and Mexico, the trail’s enabling legislation authorizes cooperation among the United States and Mexican entities “for the purpose of exchanging trail information and research; fostering trail preservation and education programs; providing technical assistance, and working to establish an international historic trail with complementary preservation and education programs in each nation.” Since Congress established this NHT in 2004, the NPS and its partners have done considerable work to document the role of Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans along this trail. Additional work is needed, however, to adequately ascertain the role that indigenous peoples played along this trail corridor. The Tejas Camino was blazed in the late 1600s and remained active for more than 150 years as the primary overland route between present-day Mexico and Louisiana. Routes used by Spanish explorers typically followed this route, which previously had been a series of Indian trails and trade routes. All along this route were once located Indian villages and other evidence denoting Native lifeways, but the various Spanish entradas eventually absorbed those populations, rendering them largely invisible by the mid-19th century. Project Goals The project seeks to fill a significant gap in our knowledge about the indigenous populations that lived along the Tejas Camino. Although researchers know a great deal about the indigenous groups in East Texas and Louisiana, there is a gap in knowledge about those that lived in the vicinity of the trail in southwest and central Texas, specifically between the Rio Grande and the Brazos River, as well as adjacent areas in what is now northeastern Mexico. In keeping with the national historic trail’s enabling legislation, the final narrative will be shared with trail partners in the US and Mexico to support current and future trail initiates.