Indigenous Peoples
Before the railroad, before the German farmers, even before the European explorers, there were the Native Americans, the Orcoquisac Indians – hunters and traders who found deer, bear, and buffalo in the Spring Creek woods. The Indians’ presence has been noted by archaeological studies that verify the existence of Orcoquisac camps on the banks of the Spring and Cypress Creeks. Carmine Stahl, forester with the Jesse H. Jones Park and Nature center, which is located near these creek areas, describes fragmented evidence of Indian villages alongside the waterway and tells of Indian trade with French and Spanish explorers as they exchanged “everything from canoes to catfish.” Stahl declares that seventeenth century Spanish explorers left “very careful logs and other documents detailing their relationship [with these Indians].”
Remembered for their craftsmanship, the Orcoquisac, numbering about one-thousand members in the tribe, received praise for creating large, dugout canoes and fine, tanned bearskins. Some records indicate that Europeans arrived as early as 1745 when the Orcoquisac were visited by Spanish missionaries. During this time, French traders supposedly came regularly to get bearskins and buckskins from the Indians. By 1756 the Spanish had laid out the Atascosito Trail, an important military and trade route near the area known as Spring, perhaps stimulating the association between Europeans and the Native Americanas in this area.
Excerpt from Spring: Through the Seasons by Margaret Mallott Smith, which is available for purchase in the museum for $16.95.
THE FIRST “CITIZENS” OF SPRING: THE ORCOQUIZA INDIANS
When we look at Spring’s history, we recognize names of specific traders and business folks that contributed to the town’s origin and caused the vivid events that took place on the streets of this little developing hamlet. We neglect to remember the truly first traders of the area, the Orcoquisac Indians, one tribe of the Attacapan group of native Americans located in vaguely defined areas of the lower Trinity River region. Finding complete information about Spring’s Native American population, first specially dated as 1545, requires detailed research because we believe these people occupied the Houston area, and all of Texas, for thousands of years. According to Carmine Stahl, a Spring historian and forester, French and Spanish explorers from as early as the 17th Century kept careful records that tell of Indian artisans and traders in our area. The Orcoquisac that we speak of lived on the banks of Spring and Cypress Creeks.
In terms of shelters, the Indians sometimes built a variety of seasonal structures that accommodated their lives, but they usually lived in huts with thatched, rounded tops made from grass and palmetto, ruins of which have been found in the area. Some reports are that these tribes were fierce and warlike, but most sources claim that the Orcoquisac were quiet and shy, yet friendly. Mainly remembered for their craftsmanship, they traded everything from fish to canoes. French traders traveling the Atascosito Trail regularly bartered with the Indians for bearskins and buckskins, stimulating the positive association between Europeans and Native Americans during the 17th and 18th century.
As the area became more populated, relationships between the Indians and European immigrants of the 1800’s seem to have been peaceful, but according to legend, the Whites brought a deadly disease to the secluded Natives, an epidemic of smallpox, reducing the Spring tribe to a handful of members, about twenty-four right after World War I.
No trace of the Orcoquisac can be found today. Death from disease, intermarriage with those who chose to come here after the Civil War, and relocation to the reservation near Livingston soaked up the Orcoquisac culture. We grieve that the Native Americans of Spring are gone, but we rejoice that they are part of Spring’s early life.