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HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
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WHEREAS, Few states have so captured the popular imagination |
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as Texas, and the roughly quarter of a century following the Civil |
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War gave rise to one of the most defining images of the Lone Star |
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State: that of the epic cattle drives, when rugged cowboys trailed |
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vast herds of cattle across hundreds of miles of open range; and |
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WHEREAS, Those legendary drives were inflected by a watershed |
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event that marked the end of the Civil War in Texas: the issuance of |
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an order on June 19, 1865, by General Gordon Granger, commander of |
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the Department of Texas, announcing the abolition of slavery; |
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Juneteenth, as the state's emancipation day became known, delivered |
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from bondage approximately 250,000 men, women, and children; and |
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WHEREAS, In 1866, one of those former slaves, Bose Ikard, |
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made history when he joined his employer, Oliver Loving, and his |
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employer's partner, Charles Goodnight, in trailing a herd of cattle |
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to New Mexico and Colorado; the route they followed subsequently |
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gained renown as the Goodnight-Loving Trail; and |
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WHEREAS, Mr. Ikard was far from being the only African |
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American cowboy on the Texas range; in the last half of the 19th |
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century, most cowboys working on the Coastal Plain, between the |
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Sabine and Guadalupe Rivers, were black, and it is estimated that |
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one-third of those participating in cattle drives were |
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minorities--African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans; and |
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WHEREAS, If the end of slavery transformed the social and |
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political landscape of Texas, the rise of the cattle industry had a |
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profound impact on its exhausted economy; when hostilities ceased |
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in 1865, cattle were one resource the state had in abundance; by the |
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close of the war, there were an estimated 8 to 10 head of cattle for |
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each individual in the state; and |
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WHEREAS, Because Texas had no rail connections with the north |
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and east before 1873, and then because freight rates were so |
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expensive, cattlemen relied on trail drives to get their herds to |
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distant markets; most of those drives were conducted by contract |
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drovers, with crews of about 11 persons handling herds that might |
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number as many as 3,000 head; and |
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WHEREAS, In addition to the Goodnight-Loving Trail, the |
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primary Texas cattle routes between 1867 and 1891 included the |
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Chisholm Trail and the Western Trail, which led to the railheads at |
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Abilene and Dodge City, Kansas, respectively; those cattle not |
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destined for rail shipment to the east and north were trailed to |
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Indian reservations, military outposts, and mining camps; and |
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WHEREAS, For much of the trail-driving period, Indian raids |
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remained a potential danger; countering that threat were units of |
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the U.S. Army, many of them composed of African Americans; known by |
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the Indians as Buffalo Soldiers, these men forged a record of |
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outstanding service; and |
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WHEREAS, Before fenced ranges and quarantine laws brought the |
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trail drives to a close, Texas cowboys had driven northward some 10 |
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to 12 million cattle, whose sale realized a total of $250 million; |
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and |
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WHEREAS, Occurring at the same historical moment, the |
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emancipation of Texas slaves and the commencement of the great |
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cattle-drive era afforded new opportunities for a number of Texans, |
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whose labors contributed immeasurably to the development of this |
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state; now, therefore, be it |
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RESOLVED, That the 80th Legislature of the State of Texas |
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hereby designate June 2007 as Juneteenth/Frontier Cowboy Month and |
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commemorate the fortitude and achievements of Texas cowboys of |
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every ethnic background. |