loria Austin recalls feeling uneasy during her history lessons in grade school on the heels of the Civil Rights movement, while attending school in Brownwood, Texas. Despite receiving cultural education and enlightenment from her mother (who encouraged education and self-awareness), the area churches, and the community in which she grew up, she noticed that there was only one era or subject in which people whose skin tone resembled hers were prominently mentioned during those mid-’60s lessons — the Civil War. However, there was no mention of African Americans or people of multicultural descent involved in the settling of the western United States. No acknowledgement of rodeo or
