Brazos River Indian Reservation

Under Robert S. Neighbors, Capt. Shapley P. Ross served as the Brazos agent, with J. J. Sturm as agriculturist. Supplies cost $80,000 a year, and ranchers contracted to deliver beef, on average thirty-four cattle a week. Federal control covered the reservation and a ten-mile zone to keep liquor out, while Texas kept jurisdiction over non-Indians. The Handbook of Texas says the main agency building stood three miles east of the site of Graham, where a few scattered stones mark its remains. Ross, a Kentuckian who had built Waco's first hotel, resigned after seeing his charges settled.

What the plaque says

In February 1854 the Texas Legislature designated 12 Spanish leagues (or 53,136 acres) of land to be maintained as Indian Reservations by the Federal government. In August 1854, Major Robert S. Neighbors, United States supervising Indian agent, and Captain Randolph B. Marcy, of the United States Army, made surveys in both Spanish and American measurements; American dimensions were platted, totaling 69,120 acres. In the 8-league tract here in Young County--on either side of the Brazos River --were placed tribes of Anadarko, Caddo, Tehuacana, Tonkawa, Waco and others, together with splinter groups of the Cherokees, Choctaws, Delawares, Shawnees and some other remnants. The southern Comanches had their 4-league reservation about 45 miles to the west. Under the guidance of United States agents, the Indians of the Brazos River Reservation made much progress in agriculture, stock raising and other arts of civilization. Drouth and other adversities, however, led to closing of the reservations. Emptied in 1859 when the Indians were removed to vicinity of present Anadarko, Oklahoma, lands of the reservation reverted to the state, and were opened to the pre-emption of Texas citizens in 1873. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Post Office Museum and Art Center — 0.4 mi
  Graham's 1936 Art Moderne post office, with a New Deal mural by Alexandre Hogue inside, now the free museum of Young County in the town where the Texas cattle raisers first organized.
• Fort Belknap — 9.5 mi
  The 1851 northern anchor of the first Texas frontier forts, on the Brazos below Newcastle, a Butterfield stop and the post beside the Brazos Reservation until its people were driven out in 1859.
• Fort Richardson State Park and Historic Site — 27 mi
  The northernmost post of the Texas frontier line, outside Jacksboro, where a stone hospital and six other buildings stand from 1867 and a later Guard unit became the Lost Battalion.

More markers nearby

• Brazos Indian Reservation School — 0.2 mi
• Morrison Funeral Home — 0.4 mi
• First National Bank in Graham — 0.4 mi
• Site of Third County Courthouse — 0.4 mi