126 An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
buffer with competing French, British, and Russian imperialism.
After two centuries of dominance in the Americas, the Spanish state
was crumbling politically and economically. Having experienced a
depression in silver production in their American colonies and grow
ing competition from other European powers, the Spanish settled
on maintaining and expanding its northern holdings to hold back
French and British encroachment into the mining areas of the inte
rior of New Spain (Mexico).
In what is now the state of Texas, Spain built forts and expropri
ated land from the local Indigenous people, granting it to Spanish
settlers to farm and ranch. The first Spanish town in Texas, San An
tonio, was established in 1718, and Franciscan missionaries founded
the Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo). Spanish forts, mis
sions, and settlements dotted the territory, especially along the Rio
Grande from Matamoras to Laredo. The Indigenous peoples of
Texas included the Lupin Apaches, Jumanos, Coahuiltecans, To nka
was, Karankawas, and Caddos, all of whom were more vulnerable
to colonization than the more mobile Comanches and Wichitas in
West Texas. By the time of Mexican independence, the Indigenous
population of the province was around fifty thousand, while Span
ish settlers numbered around thirty thousand.
During the first decade of Mexican independence, some ten thou
sand Cherokees, Seminoles, Shawnees, and many other Indigenous
communities east of the Mississippi avoided forced removal to In
dian Territory and escaped the iron heel of the United States, tak
ing refuge in Mexico. One such community was the people of the
Coahuila Kikapu (Kickapoo) Nation, forced out of its homeland
when Wisconsin was opened for settlement. The Tohono O'odam
Nation did not move anywhere, but the redrawn 1848 border split
their homeland. The independent Republic of Mexico provided land
grants for their various communities. With Texas's independence
from Mexico, then US annexation, many moved south of the im
posed new border. 17
The Republic of Mexico opened a door to US domination by
granting land to Anglo immigrants. During the first decade of Mexi
can independence, some thirty thousand Anglo-American farmers
and plantation owners, along with their slaves, poured into Texas,