Adobe Walls

by Baker, T. Lindsay; Harrison, Billy R.

• ISBN13: 9780890962435
• ISBN10: 089096243X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1986-02-01
• Publisher: Texas A & M Univ Pr
• More Book Details

Summary

In the spring of 1874 a handful of men and one woman set out for the Texas Panhandle to seek their fortunes in the great buffalo hunt. Moving south to follow the herds, they intended to establish a trading post to serve the hunter, or "hide men." At a place called Adobe Walls they dug blocks from the sod and built their center of operations.
After only a few months, angry members of several Plains Indian tribes, whose physical and cultural survival depended on the great bison herd that was rapidly shrinking, attacked the post. Initially defeated, the attacking Indians retreated. But the defenders also retreated, leaving the deserted post to be burned by Indians intent on erasing all traces of the white man's presence. Nonetheless, tracings did remain, and in the ashes and dirt were buried minute details of the hide men's lives and the battle that so suddenly changed them.
The authors of this book, a historian and an archaeologist, have dug into the sod and into far-flung archives to sift reality from the long-romanticized story of Adobe Walls, its residents, and the Indians who so fiercely resented their presence. The full story of Adobe Walls now tells us much about the life and work of hide men, about the dying of the Plains Indian culture, and about the march of white commerce across the frontier.

Author Biography

Billy R. Harrison was curator of archaeology at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. vii
List of Maps	p. xi
List of Tables	p. xiii
Foreword	p. xv
Introduction	p. xvii
History
The Hide Men Come to Adobe Walls	p. 3
Seeds of Unrest Flower into Violence	p. 39
The Battle of Adobe Walls	p. 50
Who Was Really There?	p. 75
Adobe Walls after the Fight	p. 93
Adobe Walls since 1874	p. 110
Archeology
The Setting	p. 125
Overview of the Site and Field Work	p. 130
Structures	p. 137
Building Furnishings	p. 174
Tools and Equipment	p. 182
Transportation	p. 232
Containers	p. 238
Personal Artifacts	p. 251
Unclassifiable, Geologic, and Zoological Artifacts	p. 279
Conclusion	p. 289
Notes	p. 295
Bibliography	p. 343
Index	p. 393
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