Native Peoples of La Junta de los Rios

La Junta forms a rough triangle reaching about twenty-five miles along each river from their meeting, and it may have been farmed longer than any other part of Texas. Winters fall below freezing and summers pass 120 degrees, but low humidity and long seasons allow more than one harvest a year. People hunted here with atlatls in the Paleo-Indian period, and by A.D. 700 many had settled down, adopting pottery under Mogollon influence. One later village, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, had more than 1,000 residents and a complex political structure.

What the plaque says

Native Peoples of La Junta de los Rios AT THE JUNCTION OF THE RIO CONCHO AND RIO BRAVO IS A FERTILE FARMLAND THE SPANISH NAMED LA JUNTA DE LOS RIOS ("THE JUNCTION OF THE RIVERS") OFTEN ABBREVIATED "LA JUNTA." NATIVE PEOPLES HAVE OCCUPIED THE AREA FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS. THIS LANDSCAPE PROVIDED THE BEST FARMLAND FOR HUNDREDS OF MILES, AND, DUE TO THE PRACTICE OF FOLLOWING THE RIVERS TO TRAVEL, WAS A NATURAL TRADING HUB. WHEN ALVAR NUÑEZ CABEZA DE VACA VISITED IN EARLY 1536, HE MET TWO PRIMARY GROUPS OCCUPYING THE AREA: THE PATARABUEYE (LATER CALLED JULIMES), AN AGRICULTURAL PEOPLE WHO GREW MELONS, CORN, SQUASH, BEANS AND PUMPKINS, AND THE JUMANOS, NOMADIC TRADERS WHO MAY HAVE ALSO RESIDED IN LA JUNTA PART TIME. THE NATIVE AMERICANS LIVED IN JACAL HOMES AND PIT-HOUSES, CONSISTING OF A FLOOR DUG ABOUT 18 INCHES BELOW GROUND LEVEL AND WOODEN BEAMS, SOMETIMES FILLED OUT WITH GRASS, MUD, CLAY OR ADOBE BRICKS. IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, SPANISH EXPLORERS TEMPORARILY VISITED LA JUNTA SEVERAL TIMES BEFORE MOVING ON TO AREAS WHERE THEY COULD PROCURE MORE WEALTH. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH CAME NEXT, ATTEMPTING TO ESTABLISH MISSIONS IN THE AREA BY 1687. THE MISSIONS ONLY ENJOYED A MODERATE DEGREE OF SUCCESS. THE SPANISH SETTLERS EMPLOYED THE LA JUNTA PEOPLES, WITH SOME NATIVE AMERICANS LOSING THEIR TRADITIONAL CULTURE TO EUROPEAN-STYLE DRESS AND THE SPANISH LANGUAGE, ULTIMATELY FOLDING INTO THE LARGER SPANISH CULTURE. SPANISH SETTLERS ALSO ILLEGALLY ENSLAVED A LARGE NUMBER OF NATIVE AMERICANS. AS LA JUNTA EXPERIENCED POPULATION LULLS IN THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, NEW TRIBES SUCH AS THE LIPAN APACHE AND THE COMANCHE MOVED IN. BY THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, WHETHER THROUGH ASSIMILATION, SLAVERY OR MILITARY FORCE, MUCH OF THE INDIGENOUS CHARACTER OF LA JUNTA HAD BEEN ERASED, THOUGH DESCENDANTS OF THESE NATIVE PEOPLES CONTINUED TO LIVE IN THE AREA. (2017)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Leaton State Historic Site — 6.2 mi
  The adobe trading post on the Rio Grande below Presidio, where digging has rewritten the stories told about it and a self-guided walk leads through its rebuilt rooms.

More markers nearby

• Captain Henry Skillman, C.S.A. — 3.3 mi
• Mission del Apostol Santiago — 6.3 mi
• Presidio del Norte — 6.3 mi
• Home of Ben Leaton — 6.3 mi