DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says, standing right where it stood. Now gather close, because this spot right here — this ground beneath your wheels rolling through Waco, Texas — this ground has got a longer memory than most people give it credit for. A semi-civilized tribe called the Waco Indians once had their village on this very site.
Not nearby. Not down the road a piece. Right here.
And they weren't strangers to the wider world around them — in 1824, they sat down with Stephen F. Austin himself and made a treaty. That's the kind of thing that gets written into history books, and it ought to.
But history doesn't always stay tidy. What came next for the Waco Indians was a long siege — and here's where the story gets a correction worth tellin'. The original marker, put up by the State of Texas in 1936, said it was the Comanches who drove the Wacos out around 1837.
Stood that way for decades. Then further research came along and changed the record. The McLennan County Historical Commission placed an addition to this marker on October 10, 2014, to set things straight: it was the Cherokees, not the Comanches, who besieged the Wacos — the Huacos, as they were also known — and that siege ran from 1829 all the way to 1837, causing the tribe to disperse gradually and move on to other areas.
Gone, but not forgotten. Not even close. Because in 1849, Major George B.
Erath laid out a city on this land. He needed a name for it. And the name that fit — the name that already belonged to this place, carried in the memory of the ground itself — was Waco.
The people moved on. The name stayed. And now a few million folks a year drive through a city that's still, in its own quiet way, saying the Waco Indians were here.
What the marker says
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.