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  • Land of the Tejas: Native American Identity and Interaction in Texas, a.d. 1300–1700
  • Timothy K. Perttula
Land of the Tejas: Native American Identity and Interaction in Texas, A.D. 1300–1700. By John Wesley Arnn III (Austin, University of Texas Press, 2012) 300 pp. $55.00

This book is primarily concerned with identifying and understanding the cultural interactions between Native American groups in much of what is now Texas during the late prehistoric and early historic periods. In particular, the author is intent on establishing the existence and character of the Tejas alliance, “a large political, economic, and social alliance” of many Native American groups in Central, South, and East [End Page 492] Texas (3), and correlating its existence with the archaeological phenomenon labeled the Toyah phase. The Tejas alliance is distinguished from the Tejas nation, one of the names for the Nabedache Caddo, who were part of the Hasinai confederacy in East Texas.

The majority of the Native American groups in the Tejas alliance were relatively mobile hunter-gatherers in a geographically and culturally diverse world. In Chapter 1, Arnn examines their social identity and cultural variation at multiple scales, from marriage/linguistic groups and residential bases to broad and integrative social fields (that is, long-distance social networks), cross-cutting individuals, communities, and groups. In Chapters 2 and 3, he discusses how to identify socio-cultural identities among hunter-gatherers in the archeological record through the actions and practices of individuals living in residential base camps, alongside relevant ethnographic and historical data about hunter-gatherers around the world.

In Chapters 4, 6, 7, and 8, Arnn provides the archaeological contexts in which the identity of, and the interactions among, Native American groups in Texas are presented, as well as a detailed consideration of the character (material culture, subsistence pursuits, and settlement patterns) of Toyah-phase archaeological sites in Central and South Texas. These sites resulted from the occupation of “dozens of indigenous culture groups in the Toyah region” (60). Arnn views Toyah peoples as mobile broad-spectrum foragers that were opportunistic bison hunters. These different peoples and communities—multiple marriage/linguistic/culture groups—were integrated through long-distance social fields. He also reconstructs hypothetical marriage groups and community territories among the Toyah, although the evidence adduced from artifacts and features in different site clusters is equivocal.

Chapter 5 is an insightful investigation of the historical sources responsible for framing the discourse about the existence of the Tejas alliance and listing the groups that comprised the alliance. Arnn makes the case that this alliance likely came into existence prior to the appearance of Europeans in Texas. His suggestion that the alliance “is represented archaeologically as Toyah” does not comport with the argument that the Caddo tribes of East Texas were an important part of the alliance (137). The material-culture assemblage of the Caddo peoples is a far cry from that of the Toyah.

The last chapter in the book summarizes the main findings, namely, that there were prehistoric (the Toyah social field) and early historic (Tejas alliance) social fields that integrated diverse groups of Native Americans in Texas. These social fields arose from “a long in situ cultural development in Central Texas, combined with extensive and intensive regional interaction” (248).

Land of the Tejas is an outstanding book. It represents an effective melding of archaeological, ethnohistorical, ethnographic, archival, and historical information to develop an intriguing picture of the varied relationships [End Page 493] between many Native American groups in a wide swath of Texas both before and after European contact. Arnn’s central focus is on the archaeological and historical character of the groups that comprise what archeologists call the Toyah phase, situating them within the Tejas alliance.

Timothy K. Perttula
Archeological & Environmental Consultants, LLC Austin, Texas
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