Lunch and Learn: How the Tonkawa Indians Saw (and See) Round Rock
August 11 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Guest Speaker: Bob O’Dell, writer/producer of the upcoming documentary film: Tonkawa They All Stay Together
The Tonkawa are the only federally recognized Indigenous tribe that traces its origins to Central Texas. How did the Tonkawa first “see” this land and its earliest founders? And now, two centuries later, how does the tribe see Round Rock today?
Bob O’Dell is a high-tech entrepreneur turned writer and filmmaker who specializes in “bridge-building” stories that connect diverse communities and overlooked histories. His work includes the role of Austin’s Black community in the naming of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Orthodox Jews in Israel, and the history of the Tonkawa Tribe. He is the writer and producer of the feature-length documentary Tonkawa: They All Stay Together. Since 2020, Bob has conducted extensive research into the Texas history of the Tonkawa people and assembled one of the largest private collections of historical sources on the tribe. He holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from The University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Sciences from the University of South Florida.
Free
