What was the relationship between Texian colonists and their environment?

Texas is a rugged state. It is arid and mostly desert with a lot of scrub. The colonists who started living in Texas had to adapt to this harsh living and scrabbled out a living, with a significant business being in cattle, which of course requires a significant amount of labor. In addition, in the early development of Texas, the citizens had to defend their territory of the Mexican population who had settled parts of these lands. Texans are tough because their environment requires that they endure significant hardships to survive.