Transactions of the Regional Archeological Symposium for Southeastern New Mexico and Western Texas: 1983 Page: 83
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Over an eignt year p from l to 281, Bullis and the Seminoles
averaged at least one border crossing per year. In almost every instance,
these pursuits ended in pitched battles with the hostile bands suffering
severe defeats. For example, in.July of 1876, Bullis and twenty Scouts
crossed the Rio Grande twenty-five miles above the mouth of the Pecos River.
They traveled southward into Mexico for six days. On July 30, they discovered
and attacked a Lipan camp, killing several warriors and destroying the village.
They captured four squaws and ninety-six horses and mules. They returned to
the border with casualties of three men with flesh wounds. Charlie Daniels,
a Scout who was a member of this expedition, recalls,
"Those Injuns was just de Lipans; they wuz mean fighters,
yes sah, they wuz. We struck 'em about five in de mornin'. .
and they wuz two hundred and sixty warriors right there.
Well, we got 'em anyhow. We whipped 'em out, but de killin'
were large, de killing' were large."
As mentioned before, the other tactic of the military policy was to
control the water of the region. Troops would often bivouac at Meyer's,
even in times of relative calm. The spring was crucially located along
one of the major Indian "war trails" that ran from the Great Plains into
Mexico. Control of a key spring such as this one would effectively cut the
trail.
The spring was important to another route. By the late 1870's, a
military road had been established along the Rio Grande between two vital
positions--Fort Clark and Fort Davis, primary staging points for military
operations throughout Western Texas. The military road along the river was
described as "passable but exceedingly rough." It was usable by horses,
pack animals, and, in some places, wagons. The first border route across
the Trans-Pecos, it established the general route all others would follow.
The sub-posts protected this tenuous connection.
An examination of the perpendicular intersection of the Indian and
Anglo-American paths at Meyer's Springs graphically illustrates the conflict
of culture and power. Loss of a strategic and military "place of power" by
Native Americans spelled the end of their civilization. By 1882, Indian
raiding on a large scale had been virtually halted. The use of the spring
as a center of military operations was declining. The Trans-Pecos would
remain a haven for bandit and hostis fr many yeoars, but Tndian domiinance
of the area s broken.
Though he would never return, cine Inalan who had lived for so many
centuries in the area left a record of their passage at the spring. In
a quite different manner, from the military ruins, this record is an equal
tribute to the power of water in Western Texas. The military saw the
springs as strategic positions in warfare. The Indians -- the Lipan, the
Comanches, the Mescaleros--saw them as points at which to celebrate the
song of the earth and their passage upon its face.
The ridges along Meyer's Canyon are rich in middens, flint chips, and
projectile points. Rock and ash talus spill down the slopes below many of
the area's shallow caves. Metates are cut intro the rocky ledges near the
spring.83
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Transactions of the Regional Symposium for Southeastern New Mexico and Western Texas: Index to Volumes 1-57 [1965-2024] (Book)
Index to the proceedings of the regional archeological symposium including separate lists by subject, title, author, and volume along with subject categories, a map of regions, and Texas county abbreviations.
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Transactions of the Regional Archeological Symposium for Southeastern New Mexico and Western Texas: 1983, book, 1984; United States. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1661464/m1/91/?q=+date%3A1945-1972&rotate=180: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Southwestern Federation of Archaeological Societies.