Header Image: Archaeological survey at Blair Woods.
November is Native American Heritage Month, and there is much rich Indigenous history and culture to celebrate in Central Texas. Travis Audubon has been lucky enough to have some excellent teachers in this field, and we’ve recently been exploring the importance of Native American communities and influence around the area of Blair Woods on East MLK.
First, in 2020 we partnered with Sergio and Melinda Iruegas of GTI Environmental, as well as Steven Gonzales, Executive Director of El Camino Real de los Tejas, on an archival and archaeological study near the area of Blair Woods where Fort Colorado was located from 1836-1838. The Centennial Marker on MLK claims that the Fort was built to protect the Anglo colonizers from the “savage Indians,” and this racist narrative has been passed on for almost 200 years. But the Iruegas’s research illuminates a more complex story. The Fort was built near Coleman Springs, and even today you can see the swale that people have been creating/ following for hundreds of years to get to the water. The Camino Real de los Tejas is also nearby, and the way to the Springs and the Fort formed an ancillary path known by the Coahuiltecans, Sana, Apache, Comanche, Waco and other peoples in the area. And we know that Indigenous people interacted with Anglo, Mexican, and Spanish colonizers in many ways that were not about conflict and violence. We can easily imagine and document activities related to commerce, trade, language exchange, and more. And all of this in what is now East Austin!
Artifact found at Blair Woods.
Second, in 2021 we partnered with scholar, geographer, and member of the Caddo Nation Amy Heath on a story map project that explored even more connections between local tribes and the landscape in Austin. We now know a lot about Indigenous people’s use and understanding of El Camino Real de Los Texas, and Blair Woods fits into this story. This project, called To Relate and available online, helps explore more of this unique history of cultural collaboration and the geographic evidence we can see of it today. You can also watch a documentary created for the project—the section on Blair Woods starts at about 26 minutes in.
From To Relate project, location of Fort Colorado and Coleman Spring. Map Created by Amy Heath.
And what does the future hold? We continue to reach out to historians and experts in Native American culture to be sure we are including these stories and voices in the signs, interpretation, and re-contextualizing information we are planning at Blair Woods. We are working with the National Park Service to become connected with the El Camino National Historic Trail. And in everything we do at the Preserve, we wish to honor those original stewards of the land who cared for the trees and the Springs long before Travis Audubon, or Dr. and Mrs. Blair, or any of us. We will continue to honor this land and the stories of these ancestors who first cared for it.
By Nicole Netherton, Executive Director.
