A New History of Old Texas
Explore the history of early Texas as you’ve never heard it before. The most recent season ("Lipan Apocalypse") unveils the legacy of the Lipan Apaches on modern Texas. Season 6 recounts the outsized impact of José Francisco Ruíz on the state's history. Season 5 traces the roots of Texans' unique psychology - their "Texanity" - to the technological innovations that shaped its people. Season 4 relates the largely unknown story of the Republic of the Rio Grande. Season 3 tells the remarkable tale of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his journey across the North American continent. Season 2 covers the Battle of Medina, the largest, bloodiest battle in Texas history...and the narrowing search for the battlefield itself! And Season 1 traces the identity of modern-day Texas to the first 160 years or so of San Antonio's history. -- As seen and heard on Texas Standard, KSAT12, Texas Public Radio, the San Antonio Express-News, the San Antonio Report, the Austin Chronicle, and more! --
Episodes
121 episodes
Triumph and Tragedy, Tolerance and Toughness
Post-script to Brandon Seale's podcast "A New History of Old San Antonio."This is the audio from my October 2024 SA PechaKucha talk, the video of which you can find on YouTube as well. As a summary of my thoughts after thinking deeply a...
The Battlefield(s) of Medina?
We found another site. But so did someone else. And there's a rumored fourth site out there as well now? What in the name of Miguel Menchaca's ghost is going on?Image: Martin Gonzalez, Atascosa County Historical Commis...
Emergence
Episode 14 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.Contrary to popular usage, an “Apocalypse” isn't an ending. In Greek it means an “unveiling," an "uncovering," a “revelation.” But what have we really revealed about the most po...
Bronco Apaches
Episode 13 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.The United States dispenses with the pretense of Native American sovereignty and adopts a policy of forced assimilation. Mexico waxes poetic about the “cosmic race” while sendin...
El día de los gritos
Episode 12 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.All pretense of accommodation with Native Americans disappears in the 1870’s. Lipanes are pursued equally and openly by American and Mexican forces on both sides of the border. ...
Grass Will Not Grow on the Path between Us
Episode 11 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.The Lipan Apaches become proxies for a Texian guerilla war against northern Mexico, until Texian policies cut them off from their lands and their livelihoods. Ever adaptable, th...
Fidelity to the Texian
Episode 10 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.No Native Texan captured Anglo-Texians’ hearts like Lipan Captain Flacco the Younger. His exploits as a Texas Ranger and his people’s defense of Texas’ borders against Mexico ma...
Unshared Sovereignty
Episode 9 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.In the turmoil of the War for Mexican independence, Lipan Captain Cuelgas de Castro emerges as a beacon of stability in Texas. Perhaps no one saw the Texas geopolitical checkerbo...
The Unbroken
Episode 8 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.Pressed on all sides by European and native rivals, the Lipanes never should have survived into the nineteenth century. Yet not only had they survived, they had done so with thei...
Indios Bárbaros
Episode 7 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.Spanish army officers prove reluctant to change their mindset, however, even as the Lipan alliance under the great Captain Picax-Andé brings to a definitive halt the advance of S...
San Sabá
Episode 6 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.In the course of a single generation, Spanish policy toward Lipan Apaches shifts from alliance to extermination. But a generation of alliance-making by Lipan Captain Bigote...
Lipanes at Last
Episode 5 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.Following the great peace of 1749, San Antonio becomes the great outlet for native North American trade and for the mediation of Native Texas culture into Spanish society. In tur...
Changing Woman
Episode 4 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.A new Spanish outpost on the San Antonio River represents an opportunity and a threat to the Apaches' Texas plains trade. The great empires test each other with equal turns gener...
Apache Empire
Episode 3 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.Thanks to the horse, Plains Apaches expand their influence over an increasingly broad swath of the Great Plains and Northern Mexico. In the course of one remarkable generation, t...
Alliance and Advantage
Episode 2 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.Proto-Apaches, Jumanos, and Puebloans vie for control of the Texas Plains in the face of Spanish entradas, epidemics, and slaving expeditions.Selected Bibliography...
The Whirlwind
Episode 1 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.Killer-of-Enemies teaches the proto-Apaches, the “Nde,” how to treat with the peoples they meet as they descend into the Texas panhandle: the Puebloans to the west, the Jumanos t...
The Last Lipanes
Intro to Brandon Seale's podcast on the Lipan Apaches.Despite centuries of conflict with Spanish, Mexican, Texan, United States, and native rivals, the Lipan Apaches managed to do what perhaps no other native community in the United Sta...
The Conscience of a Republic
Episode 6 of Brandon Seale's podcast (in collaboration with Art Martínez de Vara) on the life and times of José Francisco Ruíz.José Francisco Ruíz's reputation and personal relationships went a long way toward preserving Tejanos' status...
The Die is Cast
Episode 5 of Brandon Seale's podcast (in collaboration with Art Martínez de Vara) on the life and times of José Francisco Ruíz.For the fourth time in his life, José Francisco Ruíz had to decide where his loyalties lie: to his flag or to...
Immigrants and Indians
Episode 4 of Brandon Seale's podcast (in collaboration with Art Martínez de Vara) on the life and times of José Francisco Ruíz.1820's East Texas was a melting pot of native Texans, old time Tejanos, Indian immigrants pushed out of the U...
The Impossible Peace
Episode 3 of Brandon Seale's podcast (in collaboration with Art Martínez de Vara) on the life and times of José Francisco Ruíz.If there was anything more improbable in Texas history than the Lipan-Comanche alliance orchestrated by José ...
Comancheros in Exile
Episode 2 of Brandon Seale's podcast (in collaboration with Art Martínez de Vara) on the life and times of José Francisco Ruíz.José Francisco Ruíz would remain a focus of Spanish royalist vengeance after the Battle of Medina. For good r...
Blood in the Sand
Episode 1 of Brandon Seale's podcast (in collaboration with Art Martínez de Vara) on the life and times of José Francisco Ruíz.The Battle of Medina left José Francisco Ruíz the highest-ranking Tejano revolutionary in the state...and its...
