In the Present County of Cherokee
Alto, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Was the home of the exalted grand xinesi - chief priest and custodian of the sacred fire of the Hasinai Confederacy of Indians. If fire was allowed to die out, it was his duty to carry more fire with proper ceremony to their homes to be rekindled. It was to the Hainai -- the principal tribe of this Confederacy, that the word "Texas" was generally applied. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This part of present-day Cherokee County lay at the heart of the Hasinai Confederacy of Caddoan peoples, whose principal tribe, the Hainai, gave rise to the very word "Texas." Here lived the grand xinesi, the chief priest charged with guarding the sacred fire; should it ever die, custom demanded he carry new flame with solemn ceremony to rekindle the community's hearths. The 1936 state marker records a spiritual and political center of Indigenous life in the region.
Why it matters
The Hasinai and their sacred fire remind visitors that Texas takes its name from a Native word for friendship, and that sophisticated Indigenous societies shaped this land long before Europeans arrived.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of the Delaware Indian Village
Alto, TX
The Delaware (Lenape), long displaced westward from their Atlantic homelands, settled in East Texas where they earned wide respect as interpreters and diplomats among the region's many peoples. In 1843 they were chiefly responsible for persuading other tribes to come to the General Treaty at Bird's Fort, a peace council held during the days of the Republic of Texas. This site marks one of their village locations, commemorated by the state in 1936.
Ellis P. Bean
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Peter Ellis Bean led one of the most improbable lives on the early Southwestern frontier. Arriving with Philip Nolan's mustang hunters in 1800, he was captured by Spanish troops, imprisoned in Mexico, then freed to fight—first for royalists, then for the Mexican rebels under Morelos. He even joined Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans before returning to Mexico, later serving as an Indian agent in Texas and settling near this site.
Site of Lacy's Fort
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Before 1835, Martin Lacy—an Indian agent for the Mexican government—built this home and trading post on the East Texas frontier. When the Killough family was attacked on October 5, 1838, in what became known as one of the largest such incidents in the region, settlers fled to Lacy's Fort for refuge amid the turmoil between Anglo colonists and Native peoples during the young Republic of Texas.
Chief Bowles' Last Homesite
Alto vicinity, TX
In 1836 Sam Houston negotiated a treaty recognizing the Cherokees' right to the East Texas lands they occupied, where their leading figure was Duwali — known also as Bowl or Chief Bowles. But after the Texas Revolution the Senate of the new Republic voided the treaty, and in 1839 President Mirabeau B. Lamar ordered the Cherokee expelled. Learning of the order near this site, Bowles rallied his people to resist and was killed at the Battle of the Neches on July 16, 1839.