Pastores presence on the Southern High Plains of Texas

The pastores were a little-known Hispanic sheep herding group who moved their sheep (and later their families)from north-central New Mexico into the Canadian River Valley of the Texas Panhandle from the early 1870s to the middle 1880s. Use and occupation of the adjacent Southern High Plains was thought not to have occurred. Local historians, however, placed pastores occupations both along the eastern escarpment and on the plateau of the Southern High Plains. Three archaeological sites far to the southeast of the pastores primary area of occupation were examined based on survey data for authenticity and implications for a better understanding of pastores land-use patterns and role in the settlement of this area.