San Antonio’s most iconic landmark deleted a Monday social media post honoring Native Americans in tribute to Indigenous Peoples Day after pressure from Republican Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham.
The now-deleted post honored the Indigenous history of the historic building, stating “Today, we honor Indigenous Peoples and their communities, recognizing their history at the Alamo.”
After being tagged in a tweet by Texas Scorecard publisher Michael Quinn Sullivan complaining about the post, Buckingham responded on the social media platform that she “did NOT authorize this post.”
Buckingham continued: “This is frankly unacceptable and it has been deleted. Woke has no place at the Alamo.”
In the deleted post, the Alamo also announced that its Visitor Center will feature an Indigenous Peoples Gallery “celebrating the bands, clans and tribes that shaped the region.” The gallery is scheduled to open in 2027, according to Alamo officials.
News about the gallery comes after local Indigenous activists spent years requesting more nuance and representation in the Alamo’s overall footprint as an attraction, rather than what they decried as a one-sided version of the Battle of the Alamo that glorifies white settlers and erases Indigenous people.
Ramon J. Vasquez, executive director of American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions, has served on the Alamo Citizens Advisory Committee as a mayor’s appointee since 2014. He’s served five mayors in the role, attempting to broaden the narrative of the Alamo.
“We have been working very diligently to get the whole story told since 2014,” Vasquez told the Current.
Vasquez, who’s also a part of the Alamo Museum Planning Committee that’s been working on the museum galleries since 2022, doesn’t think the Alamo should have deleted the tweet. But he also sees little choice for staff, since the landmark falls under the Office of Land Commission. However, Vasquez said, whether she realizes it or not, Buckingham is perpetuating harm enacted against the Indigenous people of this land for centuries.
“Archaeology has already demonstrated that there have been 13,000 years of American Indian occupation of this site, where the Alamo is at right now,” Vasquez said. “And for Commissioner Buckingham to make such a statement about wokeness at the Alamo is also very irresponsible. And to erase people’s history from a physical location is cultural genocide.”
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