Angelina

Subject: Angelina Tue 17 Jul 2007, 10:20 pm

This little angel had a claim to the name long before did Brad Pitt's lady, though she continues as just a whisper in the history of our state.

Tradition relates that Angelina first made her presence known to the missionary party led by Franciscan Father, Damien Massanet, in 1690 .... as it ambled its way though the dense, long-leafed forests of present-day East Texas. A daughter of the Hassinai Confederacy -- yet perhaps born far away to the south, in the arid wilds of Coahuila -- this young woman initiates her appearance in the writings as 'Angelique.' She was said already to be fluent in the Spanish language in 1712. Her interpretive abilities were afforded in that year to Louis Juchereau de St. Denis and his trading company. By 1718, Fray Francisco Celiz -- chronicler of the Alcaron expedition -- was writing:

"Later the governor proceeded to all of the family of those baptized, among whom is found the sagacious Indian woman interpreter who at the persuasion of the said governor came to live with her entire family near the center of the said village."

Where was this village? Other than its location in the east, we are not told with specification. But by 1721, Angelina resurfaces in Spanish documents, this time serving as an interpreter at Mission La Purisma Concepcion, in Bexar .... able to speak both the tongue born of Europe and those (?) of 'Tejas.'

It remains to us that the Spanish padres, or others following in their wake, left a remembrance of this linguistically accomplished Indian woman in a river, which flows yet through the timbers of deep East Texas. Perhaps she -- emerging as a young girl from the brush country -- was especially appreciative of such an assured sating of thirst?

Holly

Source: "Angelina," by Diane H. Corbin, in 'Legendary Ladies of Texas, F. E. Abernathy, editor, 1981

http://www.angelinacounty.net/about.html
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Subject: Re: Angelina Wed 18 Jul 2007, 11:04 am

Correction: Anelina apparently was associated with Mission Nuestra Senora de la Purisma Concepcion, which had been established in present-day East Texas -- not far from Mission San Francisco de los Tejas, Texas' first Spanish mission to the Indians.

Piecing the story of this prominent woman together requires a specialist's touch, as the friars (and this is just one reason) seemed not (always) to have described the Indian languages specifically .... rather referring to them generally as the 'tongue of Mexico' or of 'Tejas.'

That Angelina may have been reared in Coahuila -- baptized and educated at Mission San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande, as Father Morfi later wrote -- is possible, however. She may have traveled with the friars and their party from East Texas on one of their returns southward, and then herself returned to her people -- the Hassinai -- at a later date. In addition, Fray Damien Massanet (though not mentioning Angelina in his accounts; who may not yet have been born ca. 1690) wrote of "'un Indio ... who was then with the Tejas but came from the country beyond -- from Coahuila -- and who spoke Mexican.'"

This information again is taken from Diane H. Corbin's excellent article.

Holly
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves