Site of Waco Indian Village
Waco, McLennan County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On this site stood the village of a semi-civilized tribe, the Waco Indians who made a treaty with Stephen F. Austin in 1824 but were driven out by Comanches about 1837. From them the city of Waco, laid out by Major George B. Erath in 1849, takes its name. Erected by the State of Texas 1936, marker added in 2014: This marker, placed by the McLennan County Historical Commission on October 10, 2014, corrects an error on the original centennial marker. Further research has shown that it was the Cherokees, rather than the Comanches, who besieged the Wacos/Huacos Indians in 1829-1837, causing them to disperse gradually and move on to other areas.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Here once stood a village of the Waco people, who made a treaty with empresario Stephen F. Austin in 1824 during the years of Mexican Texas. Pressed by conflict with other tribes, they gradually dispersed by the late 1830s, and when George B. Erath laid out a new town in 1849 it took their name. A 2014 addition corrected the original 1936 centennial marker, noting that it was the Cherokees, not the Comanches, who had besieged them.
Why it matters
It preserves the Native origins of Waco's very name and shows how communities have worked to correct the historical record about the Indigenous peoples who shaped early Texas.
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Related people
- · Stephen F. Austin
- · George B. Erath
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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