It is a well-known fact.....

      I was going to tell you what I believe is a well-known fact when I realized that particular fact may not be so well known.  It may not even be a fact.  It may only be a figment of my imagination which I assumed was fact, or it may be a mistaken belief of mine that I have accepted as fact.  Some people may believe it and some may know it for a fact, but many others will doubt it, and look askance at me when I state it as a well-known fact.

     I like to read history, any history, but especially Texas history.  If you think history is a collection of facts, I have news for you.  History is a collection of stories.  Some are true, some are partially true, some are based on fact, and a lot are simply the product of a historian’s imagination, based solely on how the historian would like it to have been.

     Some of these “historians” have a viewpoint, an agenda, which they can’t keep out of their writings.  Their stories are constructed to conceal parts of history that they’d rather not talk about.  A good example of this is the treatment of American Indians in our history books.  My history books led me to believe that the U.S. Government treated the Indians humanely, like missionaries dealing with orphan children. 

      I hesitate to use the word “fact” here, but there is documented proof our government lied, stole, cheated, starved, separated, killed and otherwise decimated the tribes who occupied this country because we wanted their land.  This treatment began with the purchase of Manhattan Island for $24.00 worth of beads and systematically worked its way west as the country was settled.  Treaties were broken almost as soon as they were signed and were always broken first by the white man.

     Another crop of “historians” tell the same story from the Indian’s point of view.   According to these folks, the brave, noble Indians were tip-toeing through the tulips, peacefully smelling the roses and hunting buffalo with bows and arrows when the mean old U.S. Calvary came along and attacked with Gatling Guns.  Untold numbers of innocent, simple, child like beings were victims of officially sanctioned genocide, mainly because they were in the way, but also because they were of a different color and culture.  It was easier, and cheaper, to put the Indians on a reservation and starve them to death than it was to spend the time and effort to educate and assimilate them into our society.

     Did we, as a nation, with malice aforethought, set about to eradicate or enslave the native people on this continent?  Absolutely, and so did Spain in Central and South America, France in Indo-China, the Soviet Union inside its own borders, and England in an empire where the sun never set.  Are these well known facts?  Perhaps, but they were not stressed in my history books.

      Were the Comanche sweet, innocent red men, living in teepees on the High Plains, following the buffalo and minding their own business? Absolutely not.  Reams of documents plainly show the Comanche were the meanest sum-bitches in the valley, no matter which valley we choose.  All by themselves, they kept the white man out of the high plains for over four hundred years.  Their culture was such that all their captives suffered unspeakable torture and without fail, every female captive was raped.  Are these well-known facts?  I don’t remember them from my history classes.

     Enough of history—I intended to do a piece about outstanding women in Texas.   I have already done something on Emily Morgan and the two Electra Waggonners, but I have not even scratched the surface of this richly diverse subject.  Dozens of  intelligent, captivating, intriguing ladies enrich the history of Texas, starting with Panchita Alavez, the fallen Angel of Goliad, and Jane Long, who claimed she was seriously courted by Sam Houston, Mirabeau Lamar, and Ben Milam. 

      Moving on through the years, we have our first woman governor, Miriam (Ma) Ferguson, who was the twenty-ninth and also the thirty-second governor of Texas.  Bonnie Parker was notorious, and she was a Texas gal.  The impossibly sweet-looking and perfectly formed Candy Barr came from Edna, near Victoria.  We can’t skip Ann Richards, Cyd Charise, Janis Joplin, or Farah Fawcett.  Glenna Goodacre grew up in Lubbock.  Who could overlook Molly Ivins?  She was born in California, but grew up in River Oaks in Houston.  Though I disagreed with most everything she said, I could not wait to see how she was going to say it.

     That’s why people look askance at me—sitting here at this electric machine wondering about the difference between fact and fiction in our history books.  I had planned to start the Texas Women piece by saying, “It is a well-known fact that one writer’s courageous, strong-willed, independent woman is another’s uppity broad,” and I got mired in the idea of whether or not that statement was factual, generally accepted, or even true.  Either way, it sure is a catchy phrase.  I’ll find somewhere to use it.