🪒 Episode Overview

Before cowboys.

Before cattle drives.

Before the Stockyards.

Fort Worth had a heartbeat.

In the very first episode of We Got The Funk, DonTheBarber takes listeners back to a time long before Fort Worth had a name, when families lived, worked, raised children, and built community along the Trinity River.

This episode sets the foundation for the entire series—challenging the myths, correcting the record, and honoring the people whose stories are too often skipped.

Pulled straight from the barbershop chair, this is history told the way it was meant to be told: honest, grounded, and alive.

📍 What We Cover in Episode 1

🟫 The Trinity River Before Fort Worth

Why the Trinity River was prime real estate long before modern development

How water, soil, and wildlife supported permanent communities

What city and archaeological records reveal about thousands of years of habitation

🟫 The First People of the Region

The Caddo world and Wichita-related peoples

Organized villages, farming systems, and trade routes

A cultural crossroads where Native communities lived, traded, and raised families

🟫 Daily Life in Early Villages

Farming corn, beans, and squash

Hunting, fishing, family life, and spirituality

Why this wasn’t “survival”—it was intentional living

🟫 Why This History Still Matters Today

The danger of starting Fort Worth’s story in 1849

How erasing early peoples distorts the city’s identity

Why honoring the first residents is essential to loving the city today

🧠 Key Takeaways

Fort Worth did not begin with the Army or the Stockyards

Native communities were settled, organized, and thriving

The Trinity River was the original neighborhood

You can’t build a future without telling the whole truth about the past

📢 Call to Action

If this episode made you think differently about Fort Worth:

✅ Subscribe — Episodes 1, 2, and 3 drop together

✅ Share — Especially with someone who only knows Stockyards Fort Worth

✅ Review or Comment — Tell us what surprised you most

✅ Reflect — Take a walk along the Trinity River and imagine the families who lived there first