Historic Walker County

C H A P T E R
NATIVE AMERICANS AND AMERICAN
PIONEERS, PREHISTORY TO 1846
B Y J E F F R E Y L . L I T T L E J O H N
I
T H E L A N D S C A P E A N D N A T I V E P O P U L A T I O N
Walker County is a scenic, sprawling territory of 801 square miles located in the southeastern region
of Texas. Situated along the edge of the Coastal Plain, the county lies roughly one hundred miles north
of the Gulf of Mexico and midway between the Louisiana state line and the Texas capital at Austin. The
local landscape is beautiful and rustic, with rolling hills, open prairies, and piney woods. The north and
eastern sections of the county are drained by the Trinity River and its tributaries, including Bedias,
Nelson, Harmon, and Caroline creeks. In the southwestern section of the county, the San Jacinto River
carries water from Mill, West Sandy, East Sandy, and Robinson creeks due south to the Gulf of Mexico. 1
Despite its popular image as part of the Texas frontier, Walker County boasts an ancient history. The
first inhabitants of the area arrived during the Paleo-Indian period before 7000 BCE. Archeological finds
in Walker, Montgomery, and Polk Counties suggest that early native peoples lived in small mobile bands
that moved through broad geographical zones to hunt, fish, and forage for food. During the Archaic Period
from 7000 BCE to 100 CE, Native American groups became larger and returned to hunting sites
repeatedly, leaving clearly discernible projectile points in each hunting zone they inhabited. These trends
toward complexity and distinctiveness continued during the Late Prehistoric period from 100 CE to 1600
CE, as Native American populations in the Walker County area participated in a regional phenomenon
that archeologist Dee Ann Story termed the “Mossy Grove tradition.” This set of cultural patterns linked
“a number of ethnically distinct groups in southeast and east Texas,” including the Atakapa, Akokisa and
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Huntsville State Park’s Lake Raven in
the mist, December 2009.
COURTESY OF ALEXEY SERGEEV.
C h a p t e r I ✦ 3