Unknown Peoples

The temperature here in Rockport is 69˚ and sunny. Whoa, wait, what?

We are on Goose Island in Rockport TX. My cell phone tells me the temperature in Rockport is -1˚. Ah, the other Rockport, in Maine. (For those who haven't visited, our mainland house is in Rockport ME and overlooks the little island/ledge in the Goose River.) 

A few days ago we visited the Witte Museum in San Antonio, a beautiful, well-funded museum focusing on science and Texas cultures. 

The first "unknown" people exhibit was about Black cowboys. Movie cowboys are almost always white Marlboro men, regardless whether the movie was spaghetti Western or American.

Yet about 25% to 30% of all US cowboys were black after the Civil War. The exhibit told stories of dozens of black cowboys, both on the trail and in rodeos. The rodeos often had discrimination ("black cowboys aren't allowed to compete with white cowboys"), but on the trail, competence was far more important than skin color. One remarkable black trail boss led many cattle drives, often with white riders as well as black-only. Quite a few black cowboys were able to save enough money and start their own ranch. Very engaging exhibit, closes April 22.

Until recently I had a (embarrassing) mental image that "good" cowboys were white and "bad" cowboys (cattle rustlers, "banditos") were Mexican. Actually the Mexican vaqueros taught both the Anglos and Blacks how to manage unfenced cattle. There weren't any unfenced cattle on forced labor camps or in New England and Europe.

I never studied cowboy history, so my sources were the occasional movie. I'm sure I'm not the only ignorant one. Think about the huge romantic mythology of the independent cowboy and spirit of Texas that still exist in the popular imagination and pickup truck advertisements.  Black cowboys hardly exist in popular knowledge, and so are "unknown".

Another striking exhibit was about the ancient people in the lower Pecos River canyons. The steep canyon walls have dramatic art painted on them. They settled there about 13,000 years ago, and seemed to have mostly disappeared about 500 years ago without any contact with Europeans or other indigenous people.  They are not thought to be the predecessors of any modern tribes.  The museum has a very good display of artifacts - arrowheads, baskets, sandals, etc., and reproductions of the rock paintings.  The very dry conditions and protection provided by the rock overhangs preserved item exceptionally well.

These are an un-named people. They arrived before the well known groups, such as Navajo, Apaches, etc. Even with some Google-fu I could not find their name. We may not know what a group calls themselves, but other groups have names, such as Neanderthals.  

There is disagreement on the origins of the indigenous peoples in the Americas. The only agreement is they all came over the Siberian-Alaskan land bridge thousands of years ago. Who, when, how many, where to, and what technologies they had are disputed, both from an anthropology point of view, and politics. The politics is who was first, who were "noble" and who slaughtered who, who deserves rights to certain pieces of land, who killed all the megafauna, who built which archaeological ruins, etc. Bitter fights all.

I have not studied enough archaeology to have an informed opinion about these issues. Here are some on the Pecos people if anyone is interested 

https://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/pecos/

https://sanantonioreport.org/ancient-human-echoes-in-the-rock-art-of-the-lower-pecos-canyonlands/

https://marfapublicradio.org/blog/nature-notes/in-the-lower-pecos-new-research-on-a-13000-year-record-of-texas-prehistory/

So, two unnamed/unknown (to me) peoples in the same day. Learning something new everyday, I hope.

Texas has been very friendly, just about everybody waves as they go by. The only somewhat  disagreeable aspect are the apparent "muffler optional" drivers. When I was a kid, salt was blamed for rusting mufflers and loud noise. Can't really use that excuse down here: modern mufflers don't rust, and there isn't any salt on the roads anyway. Amazing how noisy some vehicles are here.

The weather has been perfect for the last few days, clear days in the 70s and cool nights to snuggle under the covers. Of course this is winter so in this coastal town some commerce is seasonally shut down, fair amount of spaces available in campgrounds, very few people on the shore. More accurately, the weather has been perfect for us, but way too cold for the natives.

The big H-E-B supermarkets are quite different from New England. The spice department has a large selection of Mexican mole sauces and spices. The Cajun/Creole spice section is about the size of the baked beans section in Massachusetts. Hummus? A few. Heavy cream, very little. Some chicken, but almost never boneless skinless chicken thighs, a staple for us. Ribs, a 30 foot freezer full. Whole wheat bread is rare; the white bread aisle is huge. Tried to find harissa, preserved lemons, plain couscous in bulk, dolmades (all for an upcoming fish tagine dinner); nope.  Makes shopping challenging but fun; how do I restructure a recipe using what I have, not what I am used to. We certainly are not going hungry.

Happy Trails,

Krem and Barbara