By: Dr. Richard Bruce Winders, Alamo Director of Education and Curation
Traditional history often presents areas of land yet unsettled by Europeans as vast unknown wildernesses waiting to be redeemed. This view is partially validated by the seemingly rapid conquest of lands occupied by nomadic people that depended on hunting, gathering, and simple farming for their livelihood. Within a span of less than 200 years, plows turned grassland into pastures and fields, while towns and factories rose from the prairies. One of those towns was San Antonio.
Rivers have always figured into human activity. They sometimes form a barrier that has to be crossed, a fact that aids in marking out borders and defense. A navigable river provides a ready-made transportation system that promotes movement and trade. In the case of the San Antonio River, which was neither wide enough to be an obstacle nor suited for large scale transportation, the fact that it provided a permanent source of water meant that it was important to the people inhabiting the region.
The source of the San Antonio River is a spring located on the Balcones Escarpment that forms the eastern edge of the Edwards Plateau. Rain that falls on the plateau filters through the soil and rocks into a large aquifer, which serves as an underground water reservoir. Gravity allows water to escape through springs. The rate of flow fluctuates and some springs even dry up in times of low rainfall. Other springs, like the one the one that forms the headwaters of the San Antonio River, flow more consistently, producing enough surplus to form a creek or river. Since all living things need water, wildlife and indigenous people naturally sought out these springs where grass, shrubs, and trees could be found. The people living nearby called the life-giving San Antonio River “Yanaguana.” The spring itself was known as the “Blue Hole” and was considered a sacred location.
Today, the spring that forms the headwaters of the river is located on the campus of Incarnate Word University. Located nearby is another spring that forms San Pedro Creek. Archeologists have found evidence that humans occupied around these springs early as 12,000 years ago. Bones found at archeological sites at Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo), reveal a local diet consisting or deer, fish, rabbit, and turtle. Moving away from the river, mesquite and cactus spread outward and provided additional sources of nutrition. Buffalo passed through the region on their annual migrations.
Historians have given the numerous scattered bands of people inhabiting this area the collective name “Coahuiltecan.” Seasonal changes regulated the life of the Coahuiltecan people, meaning food was more plentiful as certain times of the year. When food was scarce, families roamed, but they always returned to camps near the river. Existence as they had known it was about to change for the people living along the San Antonio River.
By the 17th century, two warlike bands were pushing their way into south central Texas. The Apache came from the west while the Comanche descended from the north. Both bands had cultures built on raiding and the Coahuiltecan lay in their path. Both the Apache and Comanche had already had contact with the Spanish in New Mexico where their acquisition of horses enabled them to quickly widen their traditional ranges. Soon the Spanish themselves would arrive.
Although some historians believe that the region around the headwaters of the San Antonio River may have been visited by Cabeza de Vaca during his wandering through Texas, it was not until 1691 that the Spanish officially visited the headwaters of the river and gave it its current name. Father Damian Massanet, the priest accompanying the expedition, wrote:
“On this day (June 13, 1691), there were so many buffaloes that the horses stampeded and 40 head ran away. These were collected with the rest of the horses by hard work on the part of the soldiers. We found at this place the rancheria of the Indians of the Payaya nation. This is a very large nation and the country where they live is very fine. I called this place San Antonio de Padua, because it was his day.”
The next day he recorded,
“I ordered a large cross set up, and in front of it built an arbor of cottonwood trees, where the altar was placed. All the priests said mass. High mass was attended by Governor Don Domingo Teran de los Rios, Captain Don Francisco Martinez, and the rest of the soldiers…The Indians were present during these ceremonies…Then I distributed among them rosaries, pocket knives, cutlery, beads and tobacco. I gave a horse to the captain [the chief of the Payaya].”
Rios, the head of the expedition, noted that the Indians he saw could likely respond to missionary efforts.
It was take twenty-five years before Rio’s claim was put to the test. In 1716, Father Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares passed through the area and was favorably impressed with the promise of the land and its inhabitants. He forwarded the following description of the people he found living near the headwaters of the San Antonio River to his superiors in Mexico City:
“They dress themselves in tanned deerskins, and the women the same, although they are covered to the feet. The men spend little concern on their dress, as some of them go about naked. . . .Their languages are different; only by means of signs are they understood among all the nations. They are governed, and conduct their trade, with signs. Their customs are generally the same. Some are more spirited than others. They are very warlike among themselves, and they kill one another with ease, for things of little consequence, as they steal horses or women from each other. Yet their presence is agreeable. They are of smiling countenance and are accommodating to the padres and Spaniards. When they came to their rancherias they freely give them what they have to eat. They are very fond of Spanish dress. Soldiers often give them a hat, cloak, trousers, or other garment in pay for the work they do….Learning is easy for them, and they acquire use of the Spanish language with facility.”
Olivares’ favorable recommendation resulted in the founding of Mission San Antonio de Valero on May 1, 1718, near the headwater of San Pedro Creek. Thus, the indigenous people of the area began their gradual transition from nomads to townspeople of San Antonio de Béxar.
Sources:
Carlos E. Castañeda. Our Catholic Heritage in Texas. (7 Vols.; Austin: Boeckmann-Jones Company, 1936), 1:365.
Mary Ann Noonan Guerra. “Indians of the San Antonio River: Yanaguana,” Journal of the Life and Culture of San Antonito, http://www.uiw.edu/sanantonio/IndiansofSanAntonioRiver.html.
Frank W. Jennings. “Naming of San Antonio in 1691,” Journal of the Life and Culture of San Antonito, http://www.uiw.edu/sanantonio/jenningsnaming.html.
