Back in the Saddle II

Thursday: 

Back in the car, we program the GPS for the Panhandle Pioneer History Museum.  Only fifteen minutes away we find the site with little problem.  As we approach the big oak and glass doors about 50 fourteen year old students tumble out and ride the handrails to the sidewalk.  Following closely are two teachers, complete with ID badges.  Ah-h-h to be in the classroom again.

Not the usual dusty museum with small artifacts identified in tiny, faded print.  This museum tells the story of the Kiowa, Paiute, Apache, Comanche, Kiowa-Apache and other regional tribes.  Another story is that of Coronado’s discovery, or invasion, depending on your point of view, of this region and the subsequent Spanish rule that ultimately led to the independence of Texas.  A Kiowa legend foretold the decline of the buffalo warning the tribe that when these vital animals were gone, their own history would soon be over.  By the last quarter of the 1800s piles of buffalo bones lined the railroad track for miles.  Commercial buffalo hunters had eradicated the mighty bison.  The legend had come to pass as the tribes, who appeared on this landscape some 14,000 years ago, fought and lost many battles with the early pioneers and the U.S. Army.  These tribes were collectively relocated to reservations in Oklahoma.   Their lifestyle gone, they became dispirited and suffered from lack of food and loss of culture.