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Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas, and the McWhiney History Education Group of Buffalo Gap have joined forces to promote Schreiner’s first interdisciplinary minor in Texas Studies. Classes in Texas Studies will begin in the spring 2015 semester with a lower division offering called Introduction to Texas Studies; classes in the program will be offered via distance learning and are open to all students at any SACS accredited college or university within Texas. Students who successfully complete the minor will be required to take this foundational class and complete five additional classes over the following seven topics : Texas history; Texas fine arts; Texas economic and corporate development; Texas culture, music, and song; Texas political development; Texas natural sciences; and Texas ethnic studies. Public school teachers in the disciplines of history, music, English, government, economics, and other fields of certification will be able to earn continuing education units (CEUs). For those interested in Schreiner University’s Texas Studies program, please contact Dr. John D. Huddleston at jhuddles@schreiner.edu.

The 15th annual San Jacinto Symposium will be held on Saturday, April 18, 2015, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the United Way Community Center at 50 Waugh Drive in Houston, Texas.

The 2015 San Jacinto Symposium will examine the American Indian tribes who lived on the land we now call Texas, and how their various interactions with the Spaniards, Mexicans, and Anglo Americans who made their way onto—some say “invaded”—this land over the course of three centuries affected the development of Texas under Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, and the United States. Six scholars will speak on various aspects relating to this topic.

Juliana Barr’s introductory presentation will cover the broad range of cultural, linguistic, and political groupings of the people already here when Europeans arrived. Dr. Barr, associate professor of history at the University of Florida, specializes in the history of early America, the Spanish Borderlands, American Indians, and women. She is the author of Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands (University of North Carolina Press, 2007).

F. Todd Smith, professor of history at the University of North Texas, focuses on the crisis of independence faced by the Texas Caddo tribes as their numbers waned while Anglo Texans became the dominant force on the Louisiana–Texas frontier. Dr. Smith’s writings have won numerous awards, and among his books is The Caddo Indians: Tribes at the Convergence of Empires, 1542–1854 (Texas A&M University Press, 2000).

Sheri Shuck-Hall’s presentation, “Immigrant Tribes of Texas and the Fight for Land,” discusses the process of resettlement of southeastern tribes to East Texas, their roles in the Texas Revolution and the Córdova Rebellion, and how the Alabama-Coushattas received a permanent claim to land in Texas while other tribes were expelled. Dr. Shuck-Hall is associate professor of history and director of the Public History Center at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia, and is the author of Journey to the West: The Alabama and Coushatta Indians (University of Oklahoma Press, 2008).

Thomas A. Britten focuses on the attempts of the fiercely independent Texas Apaches to balance their need for autonomy as Anglo Americans moved into their territories on the eve of the Texas Revolution. Dr. Britten is associate professor of history, University of Texas at Brownsville. He is the author of The Lipan Apaches: People of Wind and Lightning (University of New Mexico Press, 2009).

Brian DeLay, associate professor of history, University of California at Berkeley, discusses the Comanche–Texas relationship and how it affected the fates of three nations and the region’s other native peoples. Dr. DeLay was awarded a Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship for the 2013–14 academic year. He is the author of War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.-Mexican War (Yale University Press, 2009).

Cynthia Ann Parker and the Legacy of the Indian Wars of Texas is Paul Carlson’s topic. Dr. Carlson is professor emeritus of history at Texas Tech University and holds fellowships in...