Indians of the Big Bend
Evidence of Paleo-Indian culture dates back to about 9000 B.C. here. The Archaic and Neo-American culture sites date from about 6000 B.C. These occur near today’s water sources, so climate conditions then were probably similar to now. The Archaic people used the atl-atl, a dart-pointed throwing stick, to hunt game animals. The Neo-Americans used the bow and arrow. Spaniard Cabeza de Vaca encountered their descendants in his 1535 expedition through the area. In the 1640s the major Indians here were the Tobosas, Salineros, Chisos, and Tepehuanes, who fought Spanish encroachment and enslavement. Spanish horses enabled the Mescalero Apaches to expand their range and dominate the area by the 1740s. They became the Chisos Apaches. By the 1840s, the Comanches, also with Spanish horses, dominated an enormous range focused on the Big Bend. When Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845, the U.S. military became the Indians’ antagonist. Forts strung along the route to California goldfields after 1849 sliced the Indian territory in half.
Retreating far into the mountains, the last Apaches, under Chief Victorio, were defeated by Col. Benjamin H. Grierson and scattered into Mexico. There Victorio was soon killed by Mexican troops. Col. William H. Shafter continued the Army’s Indian pacification after March 1881. Not all Indians were hostile. The painting, by Capt. Arthur Lee, shows West Texas Indians trading at Fort Davis.
Chief Victorio
Col. William H. Shafter
Another lily of the desert is the yucca. Overabundance of this perennial often indicates abuse of a grassland, and yucca gradually thins out again once a good grass cover is reestablished. Several species of yucca flourish in Big Bend. Most widely scattered is the Torrey yucca or Spanish dagger. Seen from desert lowland to mountain top, it thrives at Persimmon Gap near the park’s north entrance.
One of six yucca species in the park, the giant dagger abounds in Dagger Flat. It blooms every two or three years from late March through April.