Becoming Texas Audio Guides

Competing Interests of the American Indians, Spanish and French Colonists in Texas

Sixty-one fifth-grade students at St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Austin researched the competing interests of the American Indians, Spanish, and French Colonists in Texas. Their research was compiled into an audio guide to complement the Museum's first-floor gallery, Becoming Texas.

The audio guide can be accessed via QR codes in the first-floor gallery on Texas History Day, April 15, 2023.

Every year in April, hundreds of students come to the Bullock Museum and the University of Texas at Austin to compete in the Texas History Day. These junior high and high school students show their research skills by creating projects like exhibits, documentary films, websites, papers, and performances.

The Bullock Museum wanted to extend the Texas History Day spirit of celebrating students being excited by history and partnered with elementary students at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School to showcase another project that highlights students engaging in researching historical topics, using primary sources, and creating innovative projects with their findings.

02:37 | View the transcript

 

Introduction

Welcome to St. Andrew’s Episcopal School’s Early Texas History audio guide project. We are in fifth grade and worked in small groups to research questions based on the Museum’s first-floor gallery: Becoming Texas. Our overall compelling question was: As Texas was becoming Texas in the 18th century, what were some of the competing interests between the Indigenous tribes and the Spanish and French colonists?

03:03 | View the transcript

The Story Begins Here

Our story begins with a stone point made at least 16,000 years ago by humans. But how did the humans get to the Americas? Once they arrived, how did they live, hunt, and trade?

03:02 | View the transcript

Arrival of Europeans

As Europeans sailed over the Atlantic Ocean, they took with them plants, animals, and diseases that affected not only lives but landscapes on both sides of the ocean. But what were their reasons for coming here in the first place? 

03:25 | View the transcript

Spanish Colonists and Conquistadors

Conquistadors were people who came from Spain and traveled by boat to the Americas in the late 1400s. They brought with them an animal that would change the lives of thousands of people: the horse. 

03:03 | View the transcript

French Interlopers

Although the French flag is one of six over Texas, the French never had any real political control or official claims. In places where they did settle, what was their relationship with Indigenous people and the land?

03:49 | View the transcript

Spanish Expansion and Missions

Before the Spanish and French colonists came to the land that is now the United States, they had a rocky relationship. This influenced their interactions in North and South America as well and led to the start of the Spanish missions.

02:19 | View the transcript

Slavery

Slavery has been embedded in Texas history from the start. Colonists subjugated native people as well as brought enslaved Africans to North and South America. Archaeological evidence as well as the earliest European accounts also suggest that Indigenous Americans enslaved rival tribes.

04:04 | View the transcript

Diplomacy, Treaties

Colonization began many conflicts between Europeans and Indigenous people, as well as between different tribes. While there was plenty of conflict between the native people and colonists, there were also examples of diplomacy.

01:40 | View the transcript

Territory Maps

Territory changed hands quickly in the 1600s to the 1800s. As tribes and colonists were displaced by disease, conflict, and the search for resources, they wandered into other groups’ territories. Sometimes they did this by force, trying to take over a territory.

05:57 | View the transcript

Different Legacies in Texas

Learn more about the legacies of French, Spanish, and Indigenous people from the end of colonization to the present day!

00:43 | View the transcript

Conclusion — The Story Does Not End Here

The story doesn’t end here, but our research does! We hope you’ve enjoyed it.