jornada mogollon culture

“Pottery associated with the Jornada-Mogollon culture, such as El Paso Polychrome and Chupadero black-on-white were found at the site.” This quote came from a State of New Mexcio document that outlined research problems that future archaeological research in Southeast New Mexico should examine.  It discussed an archaeological report of a site on the southern Llano Estacado on private land in Texas, and that the landowners did not allow the researchers to give the site’s location in the report.

 I was vaguely familiar with the Jornada-Mogollon culture – I knew that from 1000 A.D. to 1300 A.D they lived in pithouses and farmed corn, as well as hunted game and harvested wild plants. Archaeologists have decided that the artifacts of the people of that time that lived in the area from Chupadera Mesa in central Mexico, down to near Casa Grandes in Mexico, and from the Arizona border to the Texas-New Mexico border had enough similarities to be lumped together in what is named the Jornada-Mogollon culture.

A week or two later, while browsing in the Midland Archaeological Society’s (MAS) library, I picked up another journal with an essay by Polly Schaafsma, whose book “Indian Rock Art of the Southwest” is a comprehensive review of the artistic expressions of the prehistoric cultures of the region.

 In this essay, I found, “The site in the Hondo Valley near Roswell has two painted, horned, and feathered serpents painted on the walls of a rectangular room. Nearby were rounded pithouses. It was as if a mission of one culture was in a village of another culture.” This ignited my imagination – did one prehistorical Indian group proselytize another Indian group in the manner of the Spanish missions in historical times?   

I returned to the MAS library and found a special issue of the El Paso Archaeological Society authored by a Dr. Kay Sutherland. Within a few minutes I wondered if what I found might be “cuckoo science,” so I quickly googled her. I found that she and Schaafsma believed that the Jornada-Mogollon adopted elements of Mesoamerican (the cultures of the Toltec, Maya, Olmec) and began what is now known as the kachina religion of the Pueblo Indians in northern New Mexico. I also found that their theories were not widely accepted by academic archaeologists. They were not the first to propose the theory. Elsie Parsons first proposed the idea in the 1930’s.

Trade existed between the ancestral Pueblos and the city-states of Mexico without a doubt. Macaw feathers and copperbells from Mexico have been found in many Anasazi sites. Turquoise and obsidian from New Mexico have been found in Mesoamerican sites. 

Sutherland bases her theory on the multi-colored pictograph masks found at Hueco Tanks 30 miles east of El Paso. She believes them to be representative of Tlaloc, a Mesoamerican diety of rain. Twenty-four such masks are found there. Masks with similar design elements, but not the colors, are found throughout the Jornada-Mogollon region, and variations of the theme are found throughout the Pueblo region of  Northern New Mexico.

Both Sutherland and Schaafsma consider feathered and horned serpent images to be derived from Quetzalcoatl, another Mesoamerican diety associated with underground waters, springs, and irrigation. Rock art horned serpents are found near water throughout the region. Another image in common between the rock art of the Jornada-Mogollon and the Pueblo peoples is that of the “stepped cloud,”  which has two steps on both sides of the blocky image.

It is my understanding that both Sutherland and Schaafsma believe that as the Anasazi culture began to decline because of drought, war, and environmental degradation in the 1100’s the Chaco Canyon complex lost its role as the major trading center of the items mentioned above, and that Casa Grandes (Paquime) in northern Mexico began to flourish in that role. They believe that priest traders began traveling the region, not only bringing macaw feathers and copper bells but also better strains of corn. As they traded the items they talked of their gods and their associated rituals.

The western Jornada-Mogollon had learned irrigation techniques of the Hohokam of Arizona, who had already adopted some of the religious elements of the Mexican city-states. The Jornada-Mogollon retained their egalitarian social structure (whether this was in response to the decay of the elitist Anasazi societies or the continuation of lifestyles of the hunter-gather is unknown.) Over time the Jornada-Mogollon developed the kachina religion and when it was introduced to the Northern New Mexico Anasazi refugees  the new pueblos along the Rio Grande adopted it because they remembered the abuses of the priest-kings of the Anasazi. They also adopted the irrigation techniques of the western Jornada-Mogollon.

The pueblos there remained politically independent, and religion became part of every individual’s life. Every member of every pueblo participates in rituals throughout the year, portraying the kachinas as masked dancers, and in the dance trance enter the spirit world. The elitist priest kings were the only ones that entered the spirit world of the Anasazi (and the Mesoamerican cultures.) No pueblo became all powerful. 

It makes for a good story – it sounds logical. It probably can never be proven, and archaeologists will probably debate the theory for years. The eastern Jornada-Mogollon towns along the Pecos disappeared by 1300. The Jumanos of the 1500’s and 1600’s might be descendants of the eastern Jornada-Mogollon. Buffalo increased on the Llano Estacado during the 1300’s, and some of the farmers might have become hunters again, and traded buffalo meet to the Pueblo peoples, while others began living near Presidio del Norte, the Concho River Valley, and Gran Quivira where the Spanish found them. 

How has the landscape changed over time? Who were the people that lived and visited here? How did they comprehend the world? What were some of the issues they dealt with as interacted with other people?  Envisioning a trader from Casas Grandes wandering onto the Llano Estacado promoting a new religion makes a filled-in pithouse under a mesquite come alive!

the camp of 7 Comanche women...

“The women with Sanaco included Santa Anna’s widow, who still mourned her loss, always dressing in black. She formed a band of seven women, widows like herself, and separated from the tribe. A haughty woman, she owned a large herd of horses and was a most successful hunter.”  This quote (paraphrased) from Thomas Kavanaugh’s “Comanche Political History” captured my imagination.

Santa Anna was one of three Panetekha Comanche chiefs (along with Old Owl and Buffalo Hump) during the 1830’s and 1840’s who all died from smallpox in 1849. Sanaco and Ketumsee then became the Panetekha leaders through the early 1860’s. By the late 1860’s the Panetekha people either settled on the reservation in Oklahoma or had become Quahadis living in the breaks and canyons of the Llano Estacado.

I like the image of seven women (with kids) roaming about West Texas on their own. As a result, I had to make up a story!

Summer Sun always awoke before the dawn. Every morning she relieved the night herder as the sky began to brighten in the east. It was her favorite time of day. Morning brought possibility and hope after a night of sad dreams after which she would awaken and reach for her husband and find only emptiness. Mornings were beautiful. The horses would begin to stir and graze. The youngest horses would play, cantering and galloping, their manes and tales flowing behind them with youthful and unconscious grace.

The night herder was her youngest son, the only son left of three. He was old enough to join raiding parties against the Tejanos to the east or the Mexicanos far to the south. He did not feel the need to earn honor by joining the raiders, for everyone already knew of his valor. The previous summer he had acted as a decoy and led a column of soldiers from Camp Cooper (led by Robert E. Lee, but the name meant nothing to him)  away from his mother’s camp. The soldiers had suddenly entered the watershed of the Double Mountain river from the south, but they came from the plains between the head of the Colorado and the hills to the east, dropping down into the hidden valley that Summer Sun favored for a summer camp. The soldiers had almost caught him. It took months for him to heal from the five bullet wounds that he had collected.

The hidden valley had only a few groves of hackberries and soapberries not far from a series of low rock cliffs. Below the rock were a few large pools of water that never dried in the hottest of summers. Downstream at the confluence with another draw another pool never dried, but no other water could be found for over fifteen miles, not until the major course of the Double Mountain river. The soldiers and Texas Rangers normally never came to the hidden valley for their Tonkawa and Lipan Apaches scouts had never been told of the valley’s existence. Her son had prevented the soldiers from learning of its existence by his brave actions.

One morning Summer Sun was troubled.  Sanaco had promised that he would send a supply of gunpowder and bullets to her. She had held her end of the bargain and had supplied two dozen horse-packs of medicinal herbs. Her sister had returned with only Sanaco’s promises, and now he was more than a month overdue. The other six women of the camp were angry. None of them could use the bow and arrow like Summer Sun. They were decent hunters when using a rifle, but had never learned the methods of stalking needed for archery.

“Sanaco has not lived up to his promise. We should go to his camp and shame him. As a leader, it is his fault. We will never receive what we have been promised. They will keep it for their own needs, or they wish to force us to return to their camp.  We should leave right now! He has to pay. He has to do as he said, and he has to do it now!” Summer Sun had heard the same refrain for days but she had refused to break camp.

“The others believe we are being disrespected,” she mused. “Is respect only earned by being angry? Is that truly our only course of action? Or, if we react and let our feelings be known, will we lose the respect of Sanaco and the rest of the Panetekhas? If we stormed into his camp, he might find reason to not share what he has promised. That might happen. What do I do?” She paced along the ridge above the horse herd, deeply troubled, not watching where she stepped.

“We banded together out of grief. We wanted to be left alone, but we have grown beyond that. We are raising the younger children out of harm’s way. We are away from the politics of dealing with the Tejanos or the soldiers. We are living a good life. We will join with the others of our tribe when the oldest girl is of age to marry and make sure she is wise in her choice. Maybe my son will wish to marry her, so we can stay separate even longer. The soldiers have built forts along the wagon road, and they chase the young men when they raid the travelers on the road. Sanaco thinks he can fool the soldiers and Tejanos by acting friendly and saying he can not control the young men, but someday he will pay the price.” Summer Sun stopped her pacing and stared at the horse herd.

“Our primary job is our children. I can teach the methods of stalking. We can eat horseflesh. Gunpowder and bullets makes our job easier, but our job is not reliant on them.  This summer we are hosting four girls from our relatives in other camps and we have taken in five orphans in the last two years. We even have a Kotsoketa Comanche child from far to the north. All Comanches respect how we honor our ancestors and teach our stories to the young.

If you were Summer Sun, what would you do? Is it best to react with anger? Or is it best to keep doing the job one is called upon to do, and trust that promises will be fulfilled?

     

magoosh the Lipan

I have previously written of Magoosh, a roadrunner was named for a man who visited here many times on his travels from Central Texas to the mountains of New Mexico.

           Once when Magoosh was in his mid-40's, he visited here to hunt buffalo. A week before arriving here, he and a few others visited the Border Survey wagon train of Charles Bartlett.

           In drier years, buffalo drifted off the southern Llano Estacado at the Big Spring and meandered down the Colorado watershed to its confluence with the Concho. But that year, fall rains filled the local playas and buffalo could be found grazing in scattered bands throughout the area. Magoosh chose the large playa southeast of present-day Midland for his hunting grounds. He camped far from the playa, so as not to disrupt the natural rhythms of the buffalo. To the west lay the grazing grounds of pronghorn. 

           At his campsite, two large hackberries with ground-sweeping branches shaded a shallow rain-water pool. To the north was a ridge that overlooked the present day site of Midland. In rainy spells, sheetwash was funneled to the hackberry pool. Today, tobosa grass grows among mesquite at the site, but back then the hackberries were surrounded by alkali sacaton, a waist tall pampas grass look-alike. The soil there is dark gray Midessa clay loam and both sets of plants are associated with that soil type. No hackberries can be found at the site today and the rainwater pool now covers several acres, since buffalo no longer wallow and deepen the catchment area.

           Four other people accompanied Magoosh and his wife. They slept under the hackberries. If they killed buffalo, the meat could be hung to dry in the trees, which also served to hide the virtually smokeless buffalo dung campfire of the previous evening. A few miles to the east were 15 square miles of shinoak-covered sand dunes, a maze that offered a retreat if unwelcome visitors came too close. Water could be dug out of the mostly wooded draw on the north side of the dunes.

           "When arriving at a hunting range, act like the shiest deer," Magoosh told his companions. The two young couples were proud to be traveling with Magoosh to procure supplies for the folks just arriving at the wintering camp down in the Pecos canyons. Old people awaited the luxuries provided by buffalo, which they had not been afforded in several years, because of the treachery of Bigfoot Wallace and other settlers on their old grounds along the Nueces.

           Magoosh knew the Comanches were busy at their fall camp at the Big Spring, with dozen of hunters harvesting tons of meat to supply the elderly people and children while the men raided deep into Mexico. He had originally headed west, but ran into Ciboleros around the Mustang Springs. He knew the leader, but did not want to infringe upon their hunting grounds. A camp of Mostenas utilized Mustang Ponds, so Magoosh headed for the playa further south and found the two hackberries near the ridge.

           "Wake up!" hissed a voice in Spanish. "All you baghairs speak Spanish, so you know what I am saying."

           Magoosh wore his hair short on one side and long on the other. The long side was never cut, but was often coiled, wrapped and hung at the name of his neck. Magoosh felt a knife at this throat and his blood welling.

           "Listen! I could have killed all of you but my helper told me to introduce myself and go. I am Mow-way, and we will meet again when I have a son with wife and child. I was on the ridge when you came, and I was told you are part of the vision of my spirit quest. My helper said you would help me in the future. Remember my name!" To the south and southwest of Midland is a large area usually without surface water. Once upon a time, it was an empty quarter, perfect for vision quests during four-day fasts.

           The young Comanche quickly disappeared through the low hanging branches of the hackberries. The other members of his group had awakened but remained motionless at the wave of Magoosh's hand. Odd things often happened around Magoosh; it was if his presence broke old balance, the resulting upset rippling through everyday reality. And, he always seemed to know the way to a new balance, leading without seeming conscious of his role.

           Near daybreak, low dark clouds thickened and fell. Dawn brought thick fog, drenched grass, and the further lowering of the hackberry branches with the weight of the fog-water. A cow buffalo and yearling calf came silently out of the fog and made their way to the pool. Magoosh, the only one awake, grabbed his bow and with two quick shots sent the dying buffalo running back into the fog. Their grunts and thumping hooves awoke the others in time to see Magoosh trotting around the pool. By the time they had stood and stretched and rubbed their eyes he had returned. In his hands were two large pink tongues -- for breakfast, of course.

           Three hours later, the buffalo had been completely butchered by the women. Magoosh instructed them to leave some of the guts at the butchering. At midday, the fog lifted and all could see a large wolf sniffing at the morsels. The wolf became aware of their watching. He sat down and stared at each one in turn, lastly at Magoosh. After two full minutes of staring at Magoosh, he stood, stretched, yawned and wagged his tail. He then trotted to the south, where now could be heard the deep, shaking rumble of buffalo running.

           Anyone and everyone is a storyteller. We all communicate through stories. The specific information  comes from both reading and researching publications about the Llano Estacado and from shared oral stories. To create a more complete regional mythology -- roughneck and oil-field stories, cowboy, ghost town, cotton farming, and hunting stories should be told along with such historical and natural history stories.  Stories of adaptation to the rigors of life on the Llano Estacado by members of every ethnic group that has settled here should also be gathered and shared as well.

           When a Navajo travels within the four mountains of his homeland, there is always a landmark visible that has a story. Stories both pass on knowledge of the land and animals, and also impart a shared world view. Character traits that are respected by a given society appear in each of its stories. Gary Barsho wrote a book about a group of Apaches who chasten a wayward tribal member by merely saying the name of a landmark where a tribal member or culture hero had acted outside of the best interests of the tribe. The errant one remembers the story of the landmark and realizes he and she has been acting in an inappropriate manner. Because of the transience of our society, we can never hope to approach this level of sophistication, but we should tell the stories of our homelands. It is essential for the health of our society.

magoosh and the lion

I have written of Magoosh before – a Lipan Apache born and raised along the Balcones Escarpment near San Antonio, then lived on the Nueces, and later near Nasciemento, Mexico, and finally dying on the Mescalero Reservation. In August of 1875 some rangers caught up to him and some other Apaches near Big Lake. After one or two of his fellow tribesmen had been killed, the rest scattered to meet up again later.

What follows is a reconstruction of Magoosh’s personal journey before he arrived at the meeting place – the little waterhole north of Castle Gap that Crane historian Joe Allen found by retracing the daily report of an Army patrol. When Magoosh skedaddled, he had gone north, hoping that the rangers would follow. He knew of very little water past the last draw filled with junipers (present day Centralia Draw.) If they would follow him beyond there he would pull them into the Lacy Draw region (near present day Garden City) and then hide the tracks of his horse the best he could and slip off to the west where the southernmost salt playas are (north of present day Midkiff.)

They did not follow – the Ranger Captain D.W. Roberts did not want to chance it. When the two met many years later it was not a particularly friendly meeting – Roberts would not shake his hand. He remembered Magoosh as a treacherous renegade who would not “stay put” on a reservation. Magoosh traveled quite a bit in those days, trying to convince more of his people still living in Mexico to move to the reservation in New Mexico. 

On this particular trip the group had decided to kidnap the pubescent German immigrants Willie Lehmann and his brother. The brother got away but Willie did not – in fact, Willie hid from the rangers during the brief attack and later traveled alone to the meeting place, as well. Willie believed all of his relatives dead, didn’t speak English, and was confused about what he was supposed to do and was just “going along” with everything. Carnoviste, the party’s captain, had formed a bond with him. Chiwat liked the kid, too and Chiwat was Magoosh’s acolyte as a shaman.   

Magoosh stopped on the north side of Centralia Draw to wait for the Rangers to catch up. They didn’t ever show up, so he dropped back down in the draw later that night, and stole a fresh horse from the stage station in the quietest hours of the night, when the dogs were sleeping. Magoosh, a man in his late fifties, had the most amazing skills of being “invisible.” When he wanted to have it happen, his presence was not “remarked upon” by the animals and birds that usually react to a human that is too close – no squawks or barks of surprise.

He reached a salt lake north of present-day Midkiff about noon. In a little rocky draw on its southeast corner was a spring. It was a blistering hot day, so Magoosh decided to rest until at least dark, and maybe even well into the night – he would just see how he felt. The watershed of the playa had received an isolated thunderstorm a week before, so about half of the floor of the lakebed had a skim of water on it. He could see hundreds of migrating sandpipers poking around in the mud.

After he and his horse felt saturated, and the horse had rolled a few times in the saltgrass, Magoosh led it to the big bluff on the south side of the lake. Above him was thirty or forty feet of chalky clay soil – and since when it erodes the substrate “melts” from saturation, little caves, strange hoodoo spires capped by big clumps of Alkali Sacaton, saltbush, and pickleweed made the surroundings just a little bizarre.

Magoosh chose a fine spot with a carpet of saltgrass and pulled out a stake out of his roll of blankets, pounded the stake in the ground, and tied the horse to it. He looked out across the water. Heat waves coming off of the flats and the water made the distant sandpipers wink in and out of view. He made a tunnel with both fists and looked through them – it helps with long distance viewing, you know. After isolating an upside down mirage image of a blacknecked stilt with its red legs and feet running on the sky, he yawned and stretched out. Within minutes he was asleep. 

Near sundown, and in a cave on the bluff to the northeast, another creature woke up. When it spotted Magoosh’s horse, it began to feel a hunger pang. As the sun set, the mountain lion gazed across the playa, contemplating its chances. Normally, when the lion stopped on his hunting circuit at the playa, he could find a band of wild horses and several small herds of pronghorn coming in daily to water at the spring. None had come all day, not even before Magoosh arrived. The lion had arrived late in the night and had headed directly to the cave after getting a drink.

 After dark, the cougar jumped from ledge to ledge to the top of the bluff and headed north to the top of the ridge above the playa. About half way up, he found the reason game had not come – he sniffed at the base of a big old mesquite (part of its trunk is in the Sibley Nature Center) and investigated the scent of three young lions just weaned and still traveling together. He could detect in the smell of the urine that they were hungry. The three had probably tried to make a kill and failed, spooking the game.

With that knowledge, he set out an easy lope around the playa, covering the two miles in just a few minutes. He eased along the bluff above Magoosh and the horse, analyzing the situation, plotting out how to kill the horse. The heat from the playa still radiated up and away, out of the basin of the salt lake, so the horse could not smell him.

Magoosh awoke while the lion was still thinking. It might have been a dream that filled him with a need to be on his way, or it might have been the fact that Magoosh admired mountain lions, wore a necklace of lion teeth, kept his arrows in a lionskin quiver and just woke up knowing what was happening. Without wasted movement he rolled up the blanket he’d been sleeping on, yanked the stake out of the ground and swung up on the horse in less than a minute and was kicking it into a trot.

The lion watched Magoosh ride off. It sat back on its haunches and screamed its otherworldly cry, which echoed back and forth across the playa.  

       

test on west texas.... with answers

1.     The land form that we reside on is;   c                                                                                                                a. Permian Basin  b. High Plains c. Llano Estacado d. west Texas

2.     We live on the drainage of the;     d                                                                                                                       a. Pecos River b. Rio Grande River c. Brazos River d. Colorado River

3.     We live in a;         d                                                                                              a. desert b. semi-arid grassland c. brushland d. semi-arid grassland turned semi-arid brushland

4.     Until the 1870’s millions of what animal lived here; a, b, c                                            a. buffalo b. pronghorn c. prairie dogs d. cows

5.     What groups of Hispanics visited here from the 1650’s until the 1870’s;  a,b, d, e                        a. Ciboleros b. Comancheros c. Conquistadores d. pastores e. mesteneros

6.     Put the native Americans that visited here in historical order;     b,a,c                                       a. Apaches b. Jumanos c. Comanches and Kiowas

7.     The first U.S. Army commander that explored in Midland County is;    c                              a. Colonel McKenzie b. Colonel Grierson c. Captain Marcy d. Lieutenant Nolan

8.     To fight the Indians, the Army relied on what groups of scouts; a,b,c,d                                                  a. Tonkawa Indians b. Delaware Indians c. Lipan Apache Indians d. Seminole-Negroes

9.     The first roads here were b                                                                                  a. “buffalo bone roads” b. Comanchero trails c. army trails d.  ranch supply roads

10.  What invention allowed settlement of this area;   a                                                                a. windmills b. railroads c. oil wells d. cars

11.  The first barbed wire fences here were;       a                                                                            a. drift fences b. enclosed farms c. enclosed ranches d. enclosed towns

12.  Droughts of several years duration occur here every;  c                                        a. fifty years b. ten years c. twenty years d. forty years

13.  Our rainiest months are;   a                                                                                  a. May and September b. June and July c. October and November d. August and September

14.  Sandhill cranes come here every;  b                                                                                    a. spring b. fall c. summer d. winter

15.  Put the progression of spring wildflowers in order;        d,c,a,b                                           a. huisache daisy b. goldenwave daisy c. bladderpod d. draba

16.  The black witch moths come through this area in;  c                                                   a. April b. December c. July d. May

17.  The big dog day cicadas;  b                                                                                  a. were always here b. came with elms in the 1920’s c. came with mulberries in the 1950’s d. came with live oaks in the 1970’s

18.  A hundred years ago 40 species of birds nested here, now how many species have been recorded;  b                                                                                                             a. 20 species b. 80 species c. 50 species d. 30 species

19.  How many species of foxes live here;       c                                                                            a. 1 b. 7 c. 4 d. 2

20.  What are our native species of trees in Midland County;   a,b,c,d                                             a. juniper(cedar) b. soapberry c. hackberry d. shinnery

21.  Mesquite is the most common shrub here, and it;  c                                                             a. came with Spanish cows b. came with Spanish sheep c. has always been here        d.  was planted here by Indians for food

22.  Which of the following animals emigrated here in the last 40 years;      a,b,c,d             a. ringtail b. javelina c. mountain lion d. porcupine

23.  Which of the following birds emigrated here in the last 40 years; a,b,c                                    a. white-winged dove b. blue jay c. great-tailed grackles d. mockingbird

24.  Horny toads shoot blood from;     b                                                                                    a. their mouth b. right above their eyes c. their horns d. their eyes

25.  Which species of rattlesnake live in Midland County;   b,c,d                                              a. Mojave rattler b. Massassauga rattler c. diamondback rattler d. prairie rattler

                                               

            My role in life has been to help people learn about the local flora and fauna, and the local history and geography, as a propenent of place-based education. Knowing about one’s own bioregion is truly the deepest roots of patriotism.

Everyone should be intimately familiar with his or her environment. A person learns to be proud of their homeland by connecting with its history and the local natural world. We are a "LLANERO”, a citizen of our home ecoregion, the Llano Estacado. A Llanero is familiar with the stories, history, and folktales of the Llano Estacado, as well as the natural history. All regional residents should know what Indian tribes lived here, and how they lived, as part of knowing the ecological history of the area. A Llanero also knows the stories of the settlement by people of all cultures.

Can you name 200 species of local animals, insects, and plants? Can you name 50 geographical places within 100 miles? Can you write a full page on that many organisms? Can you tell the period in the "natural calendar" in which they are active? Can you tell how each interacts with others? Can you tell which habitat they prefer? I believe everyone should be able to do that, no matter where they live!

pop quiz on west texas

1.      Winter storms on the Llano Estacado are called? A. howling westerlies B. blue northers C. banshees of the baldies D. scuzzy sandstorms

2.      John Bullis led which group?  A. Lipan scouts  B. Tonkawa scouts C. Seminole Negro scouts D. Texas Rangers

3.      The Indian tribe that preserved the customs of the sweat lodge is? A.  Apache B. Cherokee C. Lakota Souix D. Pawnee

4.      Dodder is a wildflower that looks like? A. a clump of yellow string B. a mass of green thorns around a waxy flower C. a yellow daisy D. a brillo pad

5.      Cotton picking is? A. picking the flowers B. removing the boll of cotton at the stem C. removing the lint from the boll D. weeding a cotton field

6.      Endemic plants are A. plants that only live in one small area of the world B. plants that carry disease C. plants with medicinal uses D. are plants used by animals

7.      The river that runs through Coke County is? A. Brazos B. Concho C. Colorado D. Pecos

8.      The camps of the Comanche Indians were usually found? A. on the west side of the Llano Estacado B. on the Pecos River C. On the San Saba River D. along the eastern side of the Llano Estacado, below the caprock

9.      The Llano Estacado became the world’s most prolific cotton producing region in? A.1937 B. 1957 C. 1947 D. 1967

10.   The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute’s arboretum is? A. in Chihuahua Mexico B. in Alpine C. in Presidio  D. in between Fort Davis and Alpine

11.   German settlers created orderly towns throughout Texas, and the nearest to Midland is                        A. Fredericksburg B. Nazareth C. Windthorst D. New Braunfels

12.   At the Davis Mountains State Park, a person can see? A. Pinetrees and nightjars B. Cactus and cactus wrens C. Oak trees and phainopeplas D. Mesquite trees and painted buntings

13.   Which institution of higher learning “southwest collections” is producing a photographic exhibit of the Llano Estacado? A. Angelo State? B. UTPB? C. Texas Tech D. College of the Southwest in Hobbs

14.   Chihuahuan ravens are? A. the noisy black birds with long tails B. the big black birds that most commonly perch on telephone poles to the northwest of Midland C. the small black birds that whirl in flocks of 10,000 around livestock feeding areas D. the black birds that get iridescent speckles on their chest in their breeding plumages

15.   Landfarms are places where?  A. road materials are dug out of the ground B. where topsoil is produced for sale C. organic material recycling and composting facilities D. where petroleum or salt contaminated soil is remediated        

16.   The wonderful drought adapted ornamental plants Bouvardia and esparanza are found growing wild in which mountain range? A. Davis Mountains B. Guadalupe Mountains C. Delaware Mountains D. Sacramento Mountains

17.    The South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is in? A. Midland B. Odessa C. San Angelo D. Lubbock

18.   Halophytic and gypsophilic plants grow in? A. sanddunes B. draw bottoms C. clay playa basins D. salt playa basins

19.   Killdeer and nighthawks are among the creatures that prefer the habitat of? A. the urban forest B. oil well pads C. the pocket forests of the Llano Estacado draws D. Mesquite brushland

20.   Frank Buckalew was a captive in 1866 of which Indian tribe? A. Kickapoo B. Comanche C. Tonkawa D. Lipan Apache

21.   Lubbock Lake Landmark preserves? A. the site of the Yellowhouse Canyon fight between buffalo hunters and Comanches B. Francisco Coronado’s winter camp in 1541 C. fossils of Triassic age dinosaurs D. fossils of Pleistocene animals

22.   Caprylic acid is produced by? A. stink beetles B. oak leaves C. ants D. skunks

23.   In the Monahans State Park a person can find? A. gum bumelia trees B. pinyon pine C. willow trees  D. live oaks

24.   The Texon Scar is? A. where a meteorite hit B. a practice bombing range of World War II C. where windblown sand collected during the Pleistocene D. where salt water from early oil wells ruined land

25.   Which of the following does not happen after a rainstorm in west Texas? A. red rainbugs walk on the ground B. millipedes come out of ant holes C. termites swarm by the billion D. lady bugs appear by the thousands

26.   Jane Gilmore Rushing wrote books about life near? A. Snyder B. Lubbock C. Monahans D. Pecos

27.   Ethie Eagleton started which town’s historical museum? A. Stanton B. Midland C. O’Donnell            D. McCamey

28.   The individual that serves as the sentinel in a coterie of prairie dogs is?  A. the oldest male B. the oldest female C. the female with the most babies D. a female without babies

29.   Select the one predator of the following that does not attack bird nests in trees? A. Kingsnakes B. Gray foxes C. Grackles D.  Red foxes

30.   Which is the improper translation of the following Spanish words? A. Trompillo – purple nightshade B. Popotillo – Mormon tea C. Mimbres -- mesquite D. Alamo -- cottonwood

31.   Lagunas Sabinas is the Comanchero name for which salt lake? A. Shafter Lake B. Tahoka Lake         C. Pleasure Lake D. Cedar Lake

32.   Gomez Peak at the northern end of the Davis Mountains was named for? A. the first person to dig irrigation canals along the Pecos River B. a Texas Ranger C. a Mescalero Apache chief D. the first Hispanic member of the Texas State Legislature

33.   What business establishment in Girvin, Texas was written about in Texas Monthly? A. the new post office B. the old school that is now a community center C. the power plant D. the social club

34.   Muchaque Peak is near ? A. a favorite winter camp of Quanah Parker B. on the famous black rancher 80 John Wallace’s land C. Horsehead Crossing D. Rath City – a buffalo hunter’s depot in the 1870’s

35.   The name of the railroad built by Andrew Fasken was? A. The Midland-Hobbs Railway B. Midland and Northwestern Railroad C. Texas and New Mexico Railroad D. Midland to Smackover Railroad

36.   The best wildflower viewing area in Texas this spring was? A. near Llano B. near Austin C. at the junction of 1788 and SH 176 in Andrews county D. near Kerrville

37.   Which of the following  is not one of the reasons Hispanic settlers came to west Texas before 1940?   A. to build railroads B. to work in cotton fields C. to work in the oilfield D. to build the brick streets of the towns of the region    

PLACES LEFT UNFINISHED AT THE TIME OF CREATION -- JOHN PHILLIP SANTOS

            

           There are a number of contemporary books available that can enrich our awareness of the history and culture of our homeland, the Llano Estacado.  Places Left Unfinished At The Time of Creation (first published in 1999) is one such book.  In relating the stories of his extended family on both sides of the political and physical border of the Rio Grande, author John Phillip Santos tells of the struggles of immigration, assimilation, and pursuit of the American dream.  Evoking the roots of his ranchero background, Santos’ stories create a highly detailed mural in which new connections are made with every viewing. 

Until recent years, Hispanics have been greatly under‑represented in English print.  Texas has a long history of conflict between Anglo and Hispanic members of the community.  Anglo culture of the last 150 years has often been cruel in its drive to establish dominance over the multicultural mestizo traditions of Aztlan (a Nahuatl term meaning Paradise, which is often used in Chicano folklore to describe that portion of Mexico that was taken over by the United States after the Mexican-American War of 1846).  As this country matures and learns to respect other traditions, a number of voices have begun to speak out with pride.

Santos’ "magical realism" style (reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude) transports the reader to "el inframundo" -- that mystical limbo in which all that has been forgotten lives on in the subconscious of culture.  According to Santos, "The ranchero life is as old as the New World itself.  Out of its origins in the fierce horsemanship of the Españoles, and the Indians' knowledge of the terrain, a rich culture emerged, built with mesquite, leather, rope, corrugated tin, and an infinitude of barbed wire.”

           Along with Santos’ work, a substantial body of literature by Hispanic residents of the southwest border region of the United States has arisen to express the viewpoint of the disenfranchised, indigenous peoples of this country.  Gloria Anzuldua’s fiercely defiant Borderlands in which the concept of "borders” (which are set up to “...distinguish us from them”) is compared to “borderlands” (“…a vague undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary…which can be either psychological or rhetorical in nature…”), and Aristeo Brito’s The Devil In Texas” (which describes modern‑day tensions in Presidio), though coming from a different perspective, offer a hope similar to that of Rudolfo Anaya's wonderful stories of the Llano Estacado to go beyond the mere cataloguing of tragedies and suffering.

As Santos says, "The strength of our democracy will rest on our collective understanding of the innate worth of each other's oldest stories. This is our true manifest destiny."