When Grandpa Fought the Indians, Part I (1934-5)

Duration: 54:35:00

Year Published: 19341935

Sound: silent

Description: Produced by the Austin Chamber of Commerce, this 1930s educational film travels around central Texas to highlight the region’s pioneer history. Members make stops in Bastrop, Smithville, Johnson City, Burnet, Marble Falls, Lockhart, La Grange, Fredericksburg, and San Marcos, visiting historic sites and recounting early Anglo settlers’ confrontations with Indigenous tribes. The opening title card describes the film’s purpose as “enlightening Central Texans that they may be proud of their inheritance, and learn more of those historic places that surround them which are steeped in the sweat and blood of those pioneers.” The film consequently tells the story of Texas pioneers from the perspective of white settlers, casting the Indigenous people who originally lived on the land as uncivilized aggressors. The Texas Archive of the Moving Image does not condone this framing, but presents the film as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as to claim this racist historical narrative never existed.