San Juan Bautista Mission Area, Coahuila and Texas

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12588/1717

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    Ethnohistoric Notes on Indian Groups associated with Three Spanish Missions at Guerrero, Coahuila
    (Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio, 1979) Campbell, Thomas N.
    One of the major goals of the Gateway Project was to undertake a thorough ethnohistorical study of the Indians that populated the missions of San Juan Bautista, San Francisco Solano and San Bernardo. The missions are located near present-day Guerrero, Coahuila. Earlier research had documented the presence at these missions of a number of Indian groups who were derived from what is now southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. However, the situation was a confused one, as many of the previously identified groups probably never existed, but had been "created" by well-meaning scholars who had not carefully scrutinized available ethnohistoric materials. Additionally, no intensive effort had been made to develop cultural information about any of the neophyte groups. The generalities about "Coahuiltecans" needed to be cleared away and replaced with facts about specific, identifiable groups: who were these groups? where did they come from? what do we really know about their cultures? Early in the project, it had been hoped that a link could be established between archaeological materials from the mission Indian quarters and particular Indian groups. This has not been possible to date, although we can attribute some distinctive tool forms found in the middens where some of these groups originally lived (see Lithic Technology, Vol. VI, Nos. 1-2, p. 11) to certain parts of South Texas. Dr. Thomas N. Campbell, emeritus professor in the Department of Anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin, carried out the task of compiling a comprehensive study of the Indians at the Guerrero missions. The present monograph consists of essays on 88 distinct Indian groups recorded at the mission at various times during the 18th century. Dr. Campbell has also synthesized these data for publication in a book on the Gateway Project now in preparation. Dr. Campbell has made a number of significant contributions to the ethnohistory of southern Texas in recent years, and through his exhaustive archival research, we are now able to speak more confidently about specific Indian groups in southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. I believe that archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnohistorians, historians, and all who are interested in the Spanish mission system will find this monograph to be a treasury of information to which they will continually refer. The Gateway Project was supported in large part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional funding was generously provided by the Kathryn O'Connor Foundation and the Sid Richardson Foundation. Research done in Mexico was under terms of a permit from the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia.
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    Crossroad of Empire: The Church and State on the Rio Grande Frontier of Coahuila and Texas, 1700-1821
    (Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio, 1979) Almaráz, Félix D., Jr.
    The monograph being published here is the first in a series of data-oriented reports derived from the archaeological and ethnohistorical project centered on the modern town of Guerrero, Coahuila, Mexico. To our gratification, the project produced a great deal of information. We have decided to meet the problem of adequate publication of the results in two ways. The first is by a volume of essays which aim at synthesizing the various aspects of the data and drawing conclusions from it. This single volume will be published elsewhere and is now (1979) in preparation. The other means of publication is by a series of technical reports which will present the detailed data and information upon which we have based the essays and conclusions. It is not that the report series will lack conclusions, but its primary aim is to present information. This study by Dr. Almaraz begins the report series. [...] In the 17th century, owing to native resistance and aggression and the relative weakness of isolated communities, Spanish expansion of the northeastern frontier in the direction of the Rio Grande progressed slowly. By mid-century, however, mainly due to mineral discoveries, the number of explorations and settlements increased sufficiently to warrant the creation of the Province of Coahuila. In 1687 the first governor, Alonso de Leon the younger, designated a presidio in the town of Monclava as the provincial capital.
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    Inventory of the Rio Grande Missions: 1772: San Juan Bautista and San Bernardo
    (Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio, 1980) Almaráz, Félix D., Jr.
    This monograph is the second in the series of data-oriented reports resulting from the archaeological and ethnohistorical investigations centered on the Spanish mission complex near the modern town of Guerrero, Coahuila, Mexico. Dr. Felix D. Almaraz of The University of Texas at San Antonio has now prepared two of the volumes in the series, of which this is the second. His translation of the 1772 mission inventories of San Juan Bautista and San Bernardo should be of considerable value to those interested in the Spanish Colonial history of northern Mexico and Texas. The Gateway Project was supported in large part by the National Endowment for the Humanities (Grant No. RO-21425-75-408). Additional funding was generously provided by the Kathryn Stoner O'Connor Foundation and the Sid Richardson Foundation. Research was carried out in Mexico under terms of a permit from the Instituto de Antropología e Historia. We are grateful for the opportunities and aid provided by all concerned. R. E. W. Adams, May 1980
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    Guerrero, Coahuila, Mexico: A Guide to the Town and Missions; Guía De La Ciudad y De Las Misiones
    (Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio, 1981) Eaton, Jack D.
    This guide to the town and missions at Guerrero, Coahuila, is based largely upon the research efforts of the Gateway Project, an archaeological and ethnohistoric study of the area conducted by the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio during 1975 to 1977. Because the project was dealing with historic mission buildings which housed native American inhabitants of the region, the project had both historic and prehistoric aspects. The Indians gathered into the missions where inheritors of the native cultural tradition began at least 11,000 years ago. Therefore, an archaeological survey of prehistoric sites in the region of the missions, on both sides of the Rio Grande, was included in the study. The excavations carried out at the missions located the buried remains of historic buildings which had been lost and forgotten for nearly a century. In addition, the sifting of the soils removed from the building remains provided both Spanish and Indian artifacts which were related to mission activities. Ethnohistoric research focused on old Spanish documents which provided valuable additional information about the missionizing program at Guerrero, and also aided to illuminate the archaeological findings. The results of the Gateway Project are beginning to appear in a series of publications issued by the Center for Archaeological Research. For several months during the Gateway Project, staff members lived in the town of Guerrero. The friendly relationship established with the towns' inhabitants was memorable and the aid provided by the Presidentes Municipal of the time, Sr. Victoriano Garcia P. and Sr. Ricardo Perez Trevino, is very much appreciated. Dr. Farias de los Santos and Sra. Jesusena Flores Rodriguez provided housing for the project staff in Guerrero, and Sr. Julio Santos Coy of Piedras Negras aided us in several difficult matters. To them we are grateful. There are many others to whom we express our appreciation for help, especially those citizens of Guerrero who were employed by the project to work at the excavations. The author of this guide, Jack D. Eaton, directed the field work at the missions and is therefore intimately familiar with the information he presents. Other project personnel included: Thomas R. Hester (Chief Archaeologist); Felix Almaraz, Thomas N. Campbell, and Thomas C. Greaves (Ethnohistorians); Anne A. Fox (Ceramic Analyst); and J, Parker Nunley and Fred Valdez, Jr. (Archaeologists). The project was performed under a permit issued by the Direccion de Monumentos Historicos del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. We are grateful to arquitectos Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, Sergio Zaldivar, Oscar Martinez, and Rene Villareal for their aid and collaboration. The project was funded by grants from the United States National Endowment for the Humanities, the Kathryn Stoner O'Connor Foundation, and the Sid Richardson Foundation. The University of Texas at San Antonio under President Peter T. Flawn provided administrative and logistical support. We are very grateful to all who have made the project possible.