SAN ANTONIO MISSIONS Indian Groups Associated with Spanish Missions of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park

This volume represents a segment of research undertaken by the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio under a contract with the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. The studies under that contract focused on the "Research Into the Origins and Implementations of Indian Crafts and Spanish Technology in the Daily Lives of the Inhabitants of the Four Spanish Colonial Missions in San Antonio." In order to achieve the goals of such a project, it was essential that we ascertain the extent of present knowledge about the Indians who were in the San Antonio missions and the kinds of data that were (or were not) available on their material culture and technology.

Frontispiece. A Cohuilteco Indian of Southern Texas. Drawing by Frank A. Weir; reproduced from Campbell 1979.

As we have done in past research projects involving the ethnohistory of Texas Indians, we turned to Professor Thomas N. Campbell of The University of Texas at Austin. Professor Campbell has conducted detailed studies, using original documents, of the early historic Indian groups, especially those in central and southern Texas and in northeastern Mexico. He had earlier published, through the Center for Archaeological Research, a comprehensive analysis of the ethnohistoric records on the Indians of the San Bernardo and San Juan Bautista missions in Coahuila, Mexico. These missions were excavated by the Center in 1975-1976. Professor Campbell had also published, through the Southern Texas Archaeological Association, a summary of extant data on the Payaya Indians who lived in the south-central Texas region. And, in collaboration with his daughter, Tommy Jo Campbell, a study of the Indian groups in the Choke Canyon Reservoir vicinity, southern Texas, was published by the Center in 1981. The team of Campbell and Campbell was eminently qualified, then, to undertake a full review of the Indian groups associated with the Spanish Colonial missions of San Antonio. The document that they have produced will long be a major research source for scholars, planners, and the interested public.

We are very grateful to the Campbells for this significant contribution to Texas Indian studies. The Center for Archaeological Research also extends its thanks to Jose A. Cisneros, Superintendent of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park and to Dr. Gilbert Cruz, Historian for the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. We appreciate their support and encouragement in the publication of this volume.

Thomas R. Hester
Director
Center for Archaeological Research
June 25, 1985