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Karankawa people "played a pivotal role in early Texas history" - Didn't explain what role, links separately to Texas and "Texas history"

Confusing order of headings, sparse information in each section. Citation is needed on many statements. "Traditional tribal religion" is not a real religion.

Some references, notes, and external links work, but few references are specific to the Karankawa people. A magazine with dubious credibility is cited. There is a permanent dead link in the external links.

Only two submissions to the talk page, one concerning Encounters with the Spanish, and the other, Cannibalism. There seems to be no talk of reorganizing or rewriting the article thus far.

Looks like you have an outline/guideline made for your article. At least your headed in a general direction towards the final draft.

"Karankawa." In Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures, edited by John Mackenzie. Cassell, 2005. https://libproxy.usc.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/orionpnc/karankawa/0?institutionId=887

• "former" native nation
• name perhaps "dog lovers"
• seasonal nomads
• common language and culture
• french and spanish compete for territory largely unsuccessfully
• epidemics, loss of resources, comanche raids
• 1790s accept spanish missionairies
• 1820s - influx of american settlers; not recognize concept of private property
• raid livestock to survive
• campaign of extermination in 1825
• support mexico in texas-mexican war
• surviving karankawa => mexico
• massacre of returning group in 1858, cease to exist as a nation

Gatschet, Albert Samuel, Charles Adrian Hammond, and Alice Williams Oliver. The Karankawa Indians : The Coast People of Texas. Archaeological and Ethnological Papers of the Peabody Museum ; v. 1, No. 2. Cambridge, Mass.: Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, 1891.

• Karankawa / Carancahuas
• Believed to be extinct by 1891
• Mrs. Alice Williams Oliver - witnessed language + customs (1938-1948)
• carefully control/repress their breath while conversing
• at end of sentence, escape breath in sigh- giving speaker air of ennui
• conversational expression - stolid/slightly contemptuous
• never looking at person who theyre speaking to
• very exact in pronunciation, ridiculed poor elocution by whites
• voyaged from place to place in their canoes (dug-outs); made from large trees w/bark left on
• women, children, & household goods - hold; father stand on stern and poled boat
• upon alighting, women set up wigwams & father haul canoe upon shore
• site of camp was always close to beach
• willow branches set in a circle; tops bent toward centre, interlocked in wickerwork, fastened w/deerskin
• upon this light framework, lay deer skins, bear skin, wildcat/panther; fastened w/deerskin thong
• made fire (beg for matches or fire from settlers, if not, resort to creating w/friction); always carry firesticks packaged in deer thongs
• act of making fire always performed by men; fire always made in centre of hut built on the ground, always kept burning
• never sleep regularly, but whenever they please
• lodge-furniture = skins; skins to sit on and pile to sleep on
• food - venison, fish, oysters, turtles, etc - always boiled in earthen pots or roasted in ashes of fire
• baked in ashes cakes of flour and meal obtained from white people
• gather berries, persimmons, nuts, wild grapes, sea-birds eggs
• Indians take fish w/bow and arrow, along w/other game
• Incredible skill w/bow & arrow; whether in canoe or standing in water & no matter if turbulent or calm
• weapons consist of bows & arrows they made themselves, clubs and tomahawks, long/double-edged knives obtained from whites held in sheaths of deer-hide; hatches and axes for everyday use
• utensils few & simple - wooden spoons, few clay vessels of different sizes w/rounded bottoms; needles of fishbone with smooth nicely-made eyes; threads of fine deer sinew manufactured skirts of dressed deer skin; no covering for feet or head
• bows of red cedar conformed to certain rule of length, according to stature, reaching from the foot to the chin or eye; beautifully made and kept well oiled & polished; at the middle, bow ~ two inches wide, ~1.5 inches thick; bow-string made of twisted deer sinews of many fine strands aggregating 1/4 inch diameter, making line perfectly smooth & hard. kept in perfect repair. arrows about a yard long; sharp steel head about 3 inches long, set in shaft by wounding w/sinew; arrows feathered with 3 wild geese wing-feathers equidistant around the shaft, set in slots and then wound
• in shooting, arrow held w/1 feather on top, other 2 pointing downward and outward; bowstring drawn to left cheek by 2 fingers of the right hand
• cannibals?
• slowly fought on side of texas in texas-mexico war; suffered greatly in the battle of the alamo
• "not very dark"; slender hands and feet, tall, many of them had "delicate features" and all had splendid teeth. long black hair seldom combed; frequently braided & adorned with bits of colored flannel, sometimes terminating in the rattle of a rattlesnake, which made a faint ringing sound as the wearer moved about
• around left wrist was small strip or bracelet of undressed deer skin, worn by women + men
• the women rarely ornamented; generally "plain, short, stout, disagreeable looking and exceedingly dirty"
• almost no young girls among them and very few children or infants; caresses or fond expressions were almost never used.. but evidently an affectionate recognition
• waist cloth worn by the men, with skirt of deerskin of exquisitive softness for the women
• addition of a blanket, thrown over shoulder sometimes
• children unclothed until ~10yrs old
• surly in their general aspect, averse to conversation, and the deep guttural of their language, as they occasionally talked with each other, always with averted faces, left the impression of extreme fatigue
• the odor of the shark's oil with which they habitually anointed their entire bodies as protection against mosquitoes
• at the fll moon and after a very successful hunt/fishing expedition, held some sort of ceremonial. assemble tent enlarged for the purpose, small fire, boil a strong and black decoction made from the leaves of the youpon tree. stirred with whisk till the top was covered thickly with a yellowish froth. this "tea" was handed round and all indians drank freely. very bitter and said to be intoxicating, but if so it could only have been when drunk to great excess as it never seemed to produce any visible effect on the indians. one tall indian stood within the circle and passed round and round the fire, chanting in a monotonous tone. he was a grotesque figure, being wrapped up to his head in skins, and his face concealed; his long, black hair streamed over his back, and he bent nearly double as he moved about
• chant rose and fell in a melancholy sort of cadence, and occasionally all the indians joined in the chorus which was ha-i-yah, ha-i-yah,; hai, hai'yah,hai'yah,hai'yah
• the first two words were shouted slowly, then a loud hai', then a succession of hai'-yahs very rapidly uttered in chromatic ascending and descending tones, ending in an abrupt hai!! very loud and far reaching.
• three instruments of music: one; large gourd filled with small stones, or shot, was frequently shaken; another was a fluted piece of food, which was held upon the knees of the player and over which a stick was quickly drawn producing a droning noise; the third was a kind of rude flute, upon which no air was played, but which was softly blown in time to the chant
• this "fandango" was always kept up all night, and as the hours went on the chanting became louder and more weird, and the fire illuminated the earth and sky
• the following was always a quiet one and the indians slept or moved languidly about. if, as sometimes happened, they had obtained some whiskey, then the indians became intoxicated, very quarrelsome and oft dangerous, begging continually
• in regard to any sacredness of feeling, or particular rites in reference to the burial of the dead, they seemed entirely indifferent; buried dead wherever they died
• distinctive marks of the tribe : circle of blue tattooed over either cheekbone, one horizontal line extending from the outer angle of the eye toward the ear and three perpendicular parallel lines, about one-fourth of an inch apart, on the chin from the middle of the lower lip downward, and two others under each corner of the mouth
• their method of communicating w/ea other @distance was smoke; smoke of small fire could be made to ascend in many diff. ways, as inteligble as spoken language to them. 2 night horizon oft. dotted w/these fires; messages conveyed seemed to determine the movements of the indians
• strictly silent upon the subject of their marriage ceremonies, though they certainly did not practise polygramy, but b/w husband and wife there was always a perfect indifference in manner
• earliest report - naufragios composed by alvar nunez cabeca de vaca, one of 4 men who were saved from the unfortunate expedition of pamfilo de narvaez
• from 1527 he subsisted for seven years among the coast tributes, destitute of every thing, even of garments, but made a scanyt living as trader and medical practitioner
• among the coast tribes - caoques, han, corruco, doguenes, mendica, quevenes, mariames, guaycones, quitoles, camoles, los de los Higos
• none can be identified w/tribes known in later times as the karankawas
• joutel, the companion of robert cavelier de la salle on his last expedition ~1687, left a journal of hist travels in which he mentions the koienkahe among the tribes living north of the maligne river, and also the kouyam and quouan in the same tracts; in another edition, koienkahe are called korenkake, and placed b/w st. louis bay and the maligne river
• in the korenkake and the misspelt koinekahe we recognize the karankawa indians
• joutel observations - peaceable and rather timid than obstrusive, the male sex went about in a perfectly nude state, while the females wore skins reaching from the belt to the knees; had baskets and made some pottery for cooking their food; they possessed horses, which they could have only obtained from the spaniards; dogs seen among them were voiceless, ears were straight and their snouts were like those of foxes. when upon the maligne river, te horses were alsways sen fleeing whenever indians were approaching.... whether indians had any idea of religion, joutel was unable to ascertain; when questioned they pointed to teh sky, and the frenchmen were regarded by them "almost as spirits"
• when robert cavalier de la salle returned to these parts early in the year 1687, he stole from the clamcoet indians some canoes to sail up one of the rivers enmptying into the st. louis bay, and to establish a settlement. indians enraged at this act. when they heard of la salle's departure and assassination, attacked french left in the fort surprised & massacred all but five (1687)
• those who were spared underwent painful tattooing and compelled to follow the indians on their hunts and war expeditions; rescued by spanish expedition in 1689 by don alonso de leon
• after spanish succession war, govt of spain resolved to put a stop to french encroachments upon territories by occupying Texas, est. colonies, forts, and missions; Sabine river was to be the limit between French Louisiana and the new Spanish possession, which went under different names (provinicia de las tecas, provincia de las Nuevas Filipinas were the names for the portion east of Medina river,) and governors were installed in two fortified places, nacogdoches and san antonio de bejar
• since 1716, # of mission est. to christianize the natives and from that time onward we possess some historical though scanty information upon the texan tribes
• french officer, simars de belle-isle, was explorer western countries and captured by the indians; lived fifteen months in slavery among a people of anthropophagist (cannibals) residing in the bay of st. bernard, one of the scats of the karankawas, from 1719-1721
• ~1780, french commander Milfort met a tribe called atacapas, who were anthropopaghists
• "they do not /eat/ men, but roast them only, on account of the cruelties first practised against their ancestors by the Spaniards"
• "authentic and documentary proofs that all the original (not all the intrusive) Texan tribes were man-eaters are too numerous to permit any doubt of this fact
• dated 1793; mentions foundation of missions among the karankawas on colorado river, among the cocos (perhaps near Sabine river), the horcoquisas on lower trinity river, and among the comanches "it is impossible to christianize the carancahuazes of the colorado on account of the close friendship which they entertain with the lipans . . .
• the carancahuazes originated and came from the coast and during summer continually live upon the islands, in winter in the surroundings of Refugio
• the mission of nuestra senora de refugio was est. 1790 and had 67 indians in 1793. 1814 census shows 190 individuals settled there
• another mission; la bahia del espiritu santo, on southern bank of san antonio river
• reports differ considerably from the earlier ones by the constant references made to the unparalleled ferocity and cruelty and the desultory, unforeseen attacks of these "barbarians"
• cannibalistic atrocities practised upon the whites + intertribal contests with the comanches, whom they greatly feared, called the karankawa warriors to arms and inflicted heavy losses upon them before texas => independent commonwealth
• ferocity of the karankawas is easily accounted for, when we consider the brutalities which they experienced at the hands of the white people who came to deprive them of their fishing grounds and coast tracts, and moreover interfered with their family connections
• when galveston island was occupied by the pirate Lafitte, some of his men in 1818 abducted one of the karankawa women. to revenge this injury, about 300 of these indians landed on the sandbar. 200 adventurers, armed w/2 pieces of artillery, proceeded down to the island to confront the indians, who after a stubborn fight and the los of about 30 men withdrew to the mainland
• after lafitte left, dr. parnell visited it to hunt for treasures suposed to have been buried there by the freebooters. he found some indians, attacked them and put them to fligt. the historian yoakum believes that it was through these attacks that the karankawas subsequently became so hostile toward the colonists following in the wake of stephen austin
• in 1822 these indians put to death four men left in charge of 2 vessels loaded with immigrants and goods and destroyed the goods
• encounters between the settlers and the karankawa indians occurred not only on the coast, but also in the upper parts of the texan tide-water section
• in 1823, when san felipe de austin was founded on the lower brazos river by stephen austin, one of the settlers reported that a number of karankawas had come up the colorado river and encamped at the mouth of skull creek, a northwestern affluent of the colorado in colorado county, 15 miles below hi settlement. from their ambush they killed loy and alley, two of his young friends who were just returning in their boat with a load of corn; a third man, clarke, managed to escape, though severely wounded. alarmed the settlers on the day following; they gathered, ambushed the indians and killed nine of them on one spot and ten more upon the prairie. more fights occurred on bay praire. these indians are described by him as tall men of a stout, magnificent exterior, as excellent bowmen and fierce cannibals, who dwelt between the brazos and brazos santiago
• while surveying lands in 1824, captain chriesman had several skirmishes w/karankawas on the st. bernard river and gulf prairie
• severest encounter was sustained by a company under capt randall jones on a creek in brazoria county, since called Jones' creek. 15 indians reported killed and the whites lost 3 men
• the destinies of this nation began to take a decisive turn in 1825, when the anglo colonists, banded together to rid themselves of these predatory indians who had become exasperated by their frequent losses of warriors and revenged themselves by stealing and murdering
• col. austin requested capt. abner kuykendall to gather a corps of volunteers and to expel the indians from his land grant, which extended west to the La Vaca river. the indians were routed and while the troops pursued them, they were met at the manahuila (or menawhila) cree, six miles east of goliad city, by a catholic missionary of la bahia, who took the refugees under his protection. conveyed the promise of these indians that they would never again show themselves east of the la Vaca river
• portions of them re-appeared in the colorado river, committed "new depredations" and were scourged by the colonists
• crimes committed by the Karankawa on isolated farms and "inoffensive" hunting parties were widely believed to factually been instigated by mexican population
• karankawa + other indians formed part of the Mexican army during the war
• after the battle of the alamo, americans retaliated heavily for perceived crimes and they were made into submission and made to perceive the necessity of being on good terms with their new "rulers"
• gulf coast of texas once harbored many indig. tribes, called autochthonic because they forgot former ancestors' and congeners
• analogies in their habits: wear no moccasins, protected themselves with dress or skins in cold weather only, lived in the pure hunter/fisher; painted and tattooed themselves, were cannibals and engaged in continual warfare among each other; atakapa, assinai, karankawa, tnkaweaya nd the pakawa
• intruders from the north who differed in many customs
• Spanish authors: Carancaguaces, Carancahuazes, Carancahuases, Carancahuas, Caranchuhuas, Carancowasos
• American/English authors: Caranhouas, Carankahuas, Carankawaes, Carankoways, Carankouas, Charankoua, Corankousa, Coran-canas, Coronkawa, Crancuas, Karankaways, Karankoas, Karank-koo-as, Koronks (or Coronks).
• French authors: Carancouas, Cranakouas, Carankonas, Clamcoets, Koinekhkae
• The majority of American tribal names now in use were given to respective tribes by neighboring indians, whereas each tribe calls itself simply: men, people ,bodies, indians, indigenous or native people, genuine people
• Karankawa obtained their name from cognate peple, dwelling south of them, who called the dog b the term klam, glam. In the Comecrudo language the dog is called so formerly this was also the term animal or quadruped
• Karankawa and Shetimasha call the dog: kiss and the Cotoname has kissa for fox. The second portion of the name is kawa, to love, to like, to be fond of, or when a plural of the object is referred to, kakawa. Thus Karankawa means dog-lovers, dog-raisers, and this refers to the fact reported by Mrs. Oliver as well as by an author of the seventeenth century that these Indians kept dogs, which were of a fox-like or coyote-like race. It is possible that plural form kakwa is preserved in the name Korenkake. Kawa also reappears in the Karankawa language itself, where ka means to love, to like.
• It is of importance to know that the tribe called themselves by this same name Karankawa, for thus we are entitled to assume that they understood this appellation, and did not object to apply it to themselves, though it belonged to another language
• With others I think that the nam e of the Kironaonas or Kikanonas, a tribe living in the very districts held by the Karankawas, is but an orthographic distortion and misspelling of the name Karankawa
• Tonkawe called them Wrestlers from this art in which they excelled: Keles or Killis. They also named them Yakokon kapa-i, "barefooted" "without moccasins" an appellation also applied to other groups
• Lipan- Apaches called the Karankawa: people who walk in the water, Nda kun dadehe - this evidently refers to their peculiar mode of fishing and turtle-catching
• A promontory of the mainland in the west bay, fifteen miles southwest of Galveston city, is called "Caronkaway point" to this day. one of their fishing and stopping stations and also formed one end of the shallow ford which allowed them to cross over to teh sand bar opposite in good weather. easternmost place in their possession
• west of these the karankawas held or claimed both sides of the mouth of Colrado river, Texas, the map in Yoakum, History of Texas (1856) has placed them there correctly
• One of their main points of repair was undoubtedly the bay of Matagorda, its northern inlets, as Trepalacios bay, and its western part, also called La Vaca bay
• Furher west they lived upon the bays of Aransas, Espiritu Santo and Kopano, onn the outlet of the rivers there and of Nueces river, on both sides of the Laguna Madre down to Brazos Santiago, a place at the southern end of the sandbar, called Isla del Padre
• They regarded the tide-water portions of the Texan rivers as their hunting grounds, but probably did not occupy them for any long season of the year
• They appear to ihabitated the coast exclusively
• They wandered in bands of thirty to forty people and remained perhaps four weeks at one place, generally where there was fresh water and firewood, to appear there
• As long as the MExicans had control of Texas, they are allowed to go their own ways; for the easy-going colonists did not exclude them from their lands, which tye claimed probably for no other use than for horse and caattle-pastures
• with the arrival of the more active Anglo-American race all this underwent a change
• the more enterprising among the latter obtained "headrights" and or land grants from the MExican authorities, stocked them, set out orchards, ploughed and sowed the agricultural lands, and built houses, towns, fences, and roads
• The fertility of the coast tracts attracted settlers in ever increasing numbers, and Indian depredations could no longer be tolerated
• The clandestine larcenies and murderous attacks of the Karankawas had to cease as well as the open robberies and truculent raids of the Comanches and their savage allies
• The destiny of the Karankawas "was sealed" thorough the increas of American population
• The heaviest blow that fell upon the Karankawa was their flight to the La Bahia Mission after experiencing several defeats at the hands of Texan volunteers. if we are correctly informed, this event occurred in 1825, but we do not know how large a proportion of Indians was affected by this surrender of compromise
• The remnants of these Indians after this event were constantly wavering between the influence of the Americans and that of the MExicans, and the Indians were hated by both parties
• Two chiefs are mentioned at this epoch: Jose Maria, killed by the Mexicans during the war of Texan independence, and his brother Antonio, who succeeded him and was married to a owman of Comanche origin. Chieftainship was hereditary in the male line, and has the son of Jose Maria not been killed by the MExicans, he would have succeeded his father
• Concerning this chief , letter sent by an old Texas settler to Mrs. Alice Oliver. missive furnishes the proof that these Indians were not always harshly treated by the colonists, and it also gives an insight into condition of affairs then (before 1830) prevailing upon the coast. I reproduce also the orthography of the letter (which is wrriten in a regular hand)
• Friend .. In reguards to Indians you ask me about, the most of the old settlers have died since you left here and it is hard matter to learn much about them; in the first settling of Texas, the old settlers told us, they were quite a large tribe of Indians here, and the knowing they were always at war with the other tribes and whites, they were reduced down to a very small band when I first knew them. I will relate a story that an old settler of Caney told me not long since. When she was but a child, they live at the afore said place and the Indians were camped on lower Caney and were then hostile. her father Mr Hunted took this opportunity to make a treaty with them them, bein a very long cold spell of weather - he knew that indians would suffering - so Mr Hunter took his wagon and loaded it with corn, potatoes and pumkins. and took his rifle and kll two or three deer as he went along, and proceeded to the camp; as the indians heard approaching they mustere to arm, thinking the whites were a going to make an attack on the, Mr Hunter rode a horse back on a head of his wagon. and waved a white handerkchief, and cried megus - megus - muncher megus (amigos, amigos, mucho amigos), then Hozzie Merear the Chief, laid down his bow and arrow, and came to him, when Mr Hunter told him what he wanted. The treety was made and never broken by them, he assured them that he are any of his family should never broken by them, he assured them that he are any of his family should never be molested by them. Years afterward the Indians were camped on the Trespalacios bay, the Chief took several of th eIndians with them . and proceeded up the Trepalacios River, when he came to her stepfathers Mr Lacy there they saw her and recognized her as Mr Hunters daughter, he asked where Mr Hunter, and she told him that he had been dead for several, and he sighed and said the best friend to poor Indian was gone, then he returned to his canoes and proceeded down the river, and that she said was the last she saw of old Hozzie Merear. I will have to close. as we eare in great haste, preparing to leave this lower. I do not know any thing concerning the Indians myself and my brother Clements memory is so very bad from old age he has forgotten all he knew about them"
• Chief Jose Maria, whose Indian name is unknown to us, was at that time regarded by the colonists as a bellicose, daring, and bloodthirsty man. During the war of Texan indpendence his son Walupe (Span. Guadalupe) had been captured by the Mexicans and in spite of his youth (he was but nineteen years old) they put him to death. The infuriated father then came with about twenty warriors on board of Mr. Bridges' vessel to announce to him that bloody revenge would be taken upon the Mexicans for the deed. But in their attack upon the enemy the Indians were routed, and the chief with almost all his men killed by the Mexicans.
• A man named Antonio, who passed for Jose Maria's brother, succeeded him in the chieftaincy. Mrs. Oliver became acquainted with him and his Comanche wife after 1839, and on that occasion he showed much tenderness for his children, who had fallen sick. He was killed by an accident. During his life and after his death the tribe diminished rapidly through consumption and other distempers, and also through frequent brawls caused by intoxication
• E. Kriwitz, whose article upon the Texas tribes was published in 1851, but was composed much earlier, knew of ten or twelve Karankawa families of poor fishers, who then lived upon Aransas bay & Nueces river. Odin and Estany made endeavors in 1842, to unite the remnants of the Karankawa with those of other tribes into a mission. Perhaps this, in connection with the report that a priest brought some of that tribe to Isla del Padre to educate and protect them there from the revengeful blows of the colonists, started the rumor that all Karankawas left the mainland of Texas at that time.
• That following occurrence is sufficiently substantiated by contemporaneous evidence to be regarded as true. Sme of the tribe were encamped near Kemper's bluff on the Guadelpue river, 15 miles south of Victoria, the Kemper famly being then the only whites living near that camp. One day three or four Karankawas demanded of Mr. Kemper a beef which he had just killed. He threatened to shoot them if they did not vacate his premises. Then one of the Indians shot an arrow at Kemper, which caused his death within a few hours. The Indians anticipating an attack, fled down the Guadalupe river in their canoes and coasted along the shores to the mouth of the Rio Grande, passing over to Isla del Padre. John Henry Brown, an old Texan settler, states the murder of Mr. Kemper took place in November 1844 and that after this these Indians never seen east of Aransas river again, but is wrong when he states "they became entirely upon the lower Rio Grande and on Padre Island in 1845 or 1846"
• Another report of a contemporary states that about 1843, the remnant of the Karankawa tribe, about forty or fifty people, applied to the MExican government for permission to settle south of the Rio Grande and this having been granted, emigrated to these parts
• It appears that Karankawas who fled into Mexico about that time consisted of two bodies. One settled upon Padre Island, probably its southern end, and the reports upon their fate or extinction are sensational and conflicting; the other went directly into Tamaulipas, and the following piece is an extract of the Reports of the Mexican Border Commission upon this subject, which was the result of the investigations concluded at Reynosa, Tamaulipas, on Dec. 10, 1872
• The Carancahuases, Indians from Texas, were mentioned at Reynosa, by the some witnesses who in 1872 testified that this tribe had been driven into Mexico by American troops since 1848, and he had obtained an asylum. In 1688 this tribe lived on the bay of Espiritu Santo, where it was found by the governor of Cahuila, Don Alonso de Leon when by order of the Viceroy of Mexico, he marched with troops to that point to drive away the French, who had gained a footing there. It was found that these Frenchmen had already been massacred by the Carancahuases, who remained in the same region even after the colonization of Texas by Don Jose Valdivieso, Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo, who in 1719, penetrated as far as Red river, boundary between TX and Louisiana. The colony brought soon after by the marquis from the Canary islands did not disturb these Carancahuases, other called Tampacuases.
• These Indians, few in number when Texas ceased to belong to Mexico, were driven thence and were in 1852, located within the jurisdiction of Reynosa at 'La Mesa' and other points. Yielding to the habits of their vagabond life, they soon manifested their inclination to plunder, obliging the authorities of that town to organize troops and reduce them to order. General Avalos interfered in the case by virtue of instruction from the general government, took them under his protection, and remove them to the center of Tamaulipas, not far from Burgos. There they gave occasion to dispute between the government of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, which led to their being carried to their former place of residence near Reynosa. Being again attackedon account of robberies, the tribe removed o Texas, and teh 26th of October, 1858, the judge of Rosario sent the following report to the mayor of Reynosa:
• "In pursuance of your orders of the 23d instant, for the arrest of the Carancahuases, I took measures for that purpose, but finding that they are now on the left bank of the Rio Grande, beyond the limits of my authority, at the place of "Urestena" I informed the authorities at Rosario and Banon, to the end they on the American side and we on this side may combine for their arrest since, besides the horses they have carried off, they committed other robberies at La Mesa. With the inhabitants of this district, I have explored all this region in their pursuit"
• "The history of these Indians terminates with attack made upon them in the said year, 1858, by Juan Nepomuceno Cortina, then a citizen of Texas, along with other rancheros, when they were surprised at their hiding place in Texas,, and were exterminated
• These Carancahuases were undoubtedly the 'other Indians' referred to by the American commission in connection with the Lipans, Kickapoos, Seminoles, Carrizos. They were the only ones known in Tamaulipas of whom information could be had at Brownsville and the accuracy of such information may now be readily inferred"
• That the Karankawas were called there Tamacuas, is possible, because their remnants had settled at the place so called, which now exists as a rancheria in the southernmost part of Texas, Hidalgo county, about twenty miles north of Rio Grande. THe name signifies "place of Pakawas" and points to the fact that it had been a settlement of the Paikawa, Pakawa or Pinto ("Tattooed") tribe, which is mentioned among other cognate tribes upon the title page of Garcia's Manual (1760). That they were congeners of the the below. It is natural that when the Karankawa had to quit their own country, they refuge with a people related to them and they were themselves tattooed also, not only in the face, but on other parts of their body besides, and so they could possibly be called by that name as well
• The ethnographic material I have subdivied into 2 parts: One of these will consider the nation from its physical or natural (bodily consitution, food, implements, dress, etc); the second describes its mental aspects (Government, customs, religion, etc). The whole is preceded by a few words n the country and its climate, for these are at the foundation of every ethnographic peculiarity
• Geography/Climate
• Tide-water section of Texas inhabitated by the Karankawas present but little variation in its configuration. The shore line from Galveston to the Rio Grande is formed throughout by sand bars the mouths of Texan rivers are protected from clogging and to some extent also from the river furious tempests blowing from the Gulf side. The quiet waters of the lagoons, closed in between the mainland and the sand bars, make it possible to catch fish, oysters and turtles at almost any season of the year and enabled the Indians to start out upon their mariscadas at regular periods. The shore line was partly wooded, especially along the river courses, and therefore gave shelters to large number of game, of which the supply was almost inexhaustible. Other portions of the shore were prairie lands, studded with prickly pears, fragrant weeds and flowers, and in de la Salle's time, and probably up into the nineteenth century, the buffalo was seen in herds upon the coast
• The geological feature of the coast. From Sabine river to Carancahua bay in Jackson county of red alluvial loam mixed with sand. From Carancahua bay to the Mission river and Rio Medio, its affluent in Refugio county, of a dark calyey pairie soil of good agricultural qualities. From there southward to the Rio Grande of a calcareous loam, forming the best of pasture lands. At distance varying from thirty to over one hundred miles from the coast there are oval tracts of land called hogwalows running parallel to the coast line. This name was given them on account of the uneveness of the surfae, caused by cracks during drought; they consist of black tenacious clay slightly mixed with vegetable mould
• The coast lagoons are shallow the water so low that in many of them people may wade out for a mile without losing ground. The large or dangerous fish and mollusks do not come very near the beach and this enabled the Indians to walk far out into the water to shoot the fish with their arrows. It is a remarkable fact that most of these lagoons have a triangular shape; the base is formed by a line forming the continuation of a river entering the bay, the second side by the sand bar and the third ireggular one by a series of inlets and the mouths of smaller rivers, bayous, and creeks.
• We assume with a fair degree of certainty that ehse lagoons with all their sidewaters were once the haunts of the skillful fishermen and intrepid hunters of the coast tribe which occupies our attention
• Dr. Sibley mentions a "bluff" upon an "island or peninsula occupied by Karankaws, containing a combustile substance, which had then been on fire for several years, emitting smoke and shining at night into great distances. From this burning ledge particles are detached by the action of the waves and a substance like gum or pitch is thrown ashore, which is called "cheta" by the Spanish people. The Indians are fond of masticating (chewing it) it." Mrs. Oliver stated that asphaltum was often washed ashore and used by the Indians for black paint after mixing it with oil; but where that "burning will" was, in unceratin. There were many mounds in the pairie, looking like graves and always over ten feet apart. Nothing was found in them, but they seemed made by man and not nature's products. Salt deposits were to be found in the neighborhood, which were conspicuous on the shore by the lack of grass and vegetation. They originated by teh floods breaking over theh shores and leaving deposits of salt. The Indians made no use of the salt, as they prepared chile to season their food.
• The climate is much cooler than that of the interior of Texas, which often becomes unbearably hot where th country is bare of trees underbrush. This result is produced by the gulf breeze which every afternoon begins to blow from south to north from about three o'clock until after dusk. This gulf breeze is sweeping the country almost up to the middle course of Red river, which forms the northern boundary of Texas. Sudden squalls are not unfrequent upon the coast lagoons, and hrricanes are rare but very destructive when they occur. In 1853 or 1854, a terrible tornado dismantled and destroyed the house where my informant and killed cattle in large numbers by driving them into the waters of the bay. Scarcely could the inmates save their own lives, as the wind blew furiously during a whole night. The northers are heavy periodical winds, blowing from the north and northwest and sweeping the whole interior of Texas and of Mexico from the Louisiana border to Tampico. THey check the growth of vegetation and are much dreaded by the population. In Matamoros, the northers are blowing thirty-seven days in the year for an average. The fauna and the flora of the Texan coast: buffaloes came down to the coast in de la Salle's time and probably much later. Prairie-wolves were frequent on Matagorda bay as late as 1850. Deer were so plentiful that some could be shot form the windows of the settlers' houses. Many birds of brilliant plumage lived in the prairie, but few songsters. Water-fowl, such as brants, geese and ducks were plentiful. Wild turkeys were common in the woods. The turkey buzzards were regarded as useful birds and never killed by the Indian population. The octopus, or squid, did not come so near the shores of the lagoons as to endanger the lives of the coast Indians, who passed their lives more upon the water than on terra firma.
• The vegetation around the coast lagoons mostly consists of weeds and flowers, as but a small part of these regions is wooded. Grease-wood, however, is frequent. A great variety of flowers embellished these prairies in spring and summer. As early as February the prairies around Trespalacios bay appear so full of white flowers, that the green grass can no longer be seen among them; in March everything appears red from a profusion of red garaniums, with a glutinous spa. In May the colors became more varied, and the blue rivals with white, pink and yellow-colored flowers, while in the autumn purple and yellow will predominate. In places where the grass is removed, a species of daffodil opens its petals after dusk. All these prairie grwowths were often destroyed by ravaging prairie-fires, when these became dangerous by approaching the camps and settlements, the Indians and whites fought them by slapping the fire with brushwood. Nevertheless houses were sometimes destroyed by their fury.
• Physical character
• The appearance of the Karankawa men and women can now only be described from the impression it made on persons who lived in their country, as we have no accurate anthropologic data or measurements to determine it scientifically
• All witnesses from earlier and later epochs are unanimous in describing their men as very tall, magnificently formed, strongly built and approaching perfection in their bodily proportions. Many southerners regarded them as giant and Mrs. Oliver ventued the opinion that they measured about five feet and ten inches. No skeletons or skulls are known to exist. THeir hair was as coarse as that of horses, and perhaps owing to their being bareheaded, it often assumed a reddish hue. THey were not prognathic nor showed they more than ordinary Indian proportions in their cheekbones or in the thyroid cartilage (Adam's apple); but their foreheads were mostly low and broad, and the heads larger than those of the Anglo-American race. All had splendid white teeth, even in their older years.
• A considerable difference was perceptible between the deportment of males and that of females. THat of the men was, even when their bodies were of a heavy exterior, free, lithe and graceful. Their complexion was rather light-colored than of the cinnamon hue, since they ate more venison than fish. Although their jaws looked heavy, their chin was small and their lips thin, which agreed well with the long and slender hands and feet observed in many individuals. In some cases, the fingers tapered off most gracefully and ended in delicate-looking nails, the palm of the hand showing no callosities. Many men wore the hair so long as to reach the waist, and while sitting gon their mats of skin they were in the habit of crossing th legs.
• The exterior of the women was in many respects just the reverse of the male companions. Weighted down by the drugery of domestic toil they looked sullen, morose and univiting. Being shorter than the men they surpassed them in embonpoint, were quite plain and even in youth not pretty. They showed no fancy for wearing ornaments. Very few children could be seen about their lodges and of young girls almost none, and it is very probable that the men in the tribe exceeded the women numerically. The blood was kept pure, since but a few mied bloods could be noticed.
• Children not able to walk were carried by the mother on the back wrapped in the loop of the skin worn by her. THey used no cradles, but baby-boards. The babe was fastened to one of these which had the outlines of a child's body and was suspended to the ceiling of the knlodge by the thongs of a deerskin. While thereby its body became straight, the forehead of the baby was subjected to the flattening process. The children were rather quiet and cried but rarely. The boys very probably had their initiation trails like those of other Indians, but ceremonies connected with the puberty of girls have not been noticed among them by the white settlers.
• The physical condition of the people appears from the fact that our informant never saw any deaf, mute, nor any case of squinting, though one lame man and two blind women came to her notice. The Karankaws were blessed with a sound appetite for they were seen eating and drinking at all times of the day; after the settlers had finished their meals they appeared around the houses to ask for food.
• Food
• The duty of procuring food for the family devolved upon the men exclusively, and that of preparing it for the meals upon the women. There was no difficulty of procuring deer-meat and ducks, for they were as plentiful as could be wished. Of the latter, Captain Bridges once shot ninety before breakfast time. The other animals hunted by the Indians were the bear (at some distance from the lagoons) and the rabbit; of birds, the brant and other geese with their eggs; of shellfish, the oyster, which they ate on the shell
• Of fish, it was only the larger species which tehy caught, like the salt-water trout and the "red fish," which resembles the codfish They never used nets or angling lines. of turtles, the great green turtle, hai'tnlukn, often 3.5 feet long, was brought by them to the shore alive and then killed and eaten. The lagoons teemed with porpoises, but the Indians did not hunt for him. The shooting of fish by means of arrows is founded with other tribes as well.
• Not agriculturists, had no maize; their vegetable food was as varied as that obtained from animals for which they cared much more. The soil contains a bulbous nut, without shell, which they dug and ate without cooking; other bulbs were utilized also, and berries were eaten. Though salt was so near at hand, they used chile for seasoning, like the Mexicans. The tunas or cactus-figs grow there abundantly, but the Indians valued them but little though in Cabeca de Vaca's time it was a staple on the coast, and one tribe was named after these succulent fruits. The Karankawas, after obtaining a quantity, laid them in the sand and rolled them with their feet until the sharp prickles were removed. The white settlers made pies of them. The Indians also ate the persimmon, this being the only fruit growing there on trees.
• The cookery of these natives was a rather simple affair. Every lodge had but one iron kettle, but several made of poettery, all unwashed. Instead of mortars the women used cylindric low stones for mashing and grinding fruits or seeds, a larger stone being used upon these for crushing. They prepared but one kind of poettry from clay, the vases having a globular bottom, so that they had to be placed into a hole in the sand. THey had no handles and measured in diameter about twelve inches. Mrs. Oliver observed their manufacutre but once; their it was a man who made some pots and ornamented them on the outside with little designs, faces, scrolls, scallops, etc., in black paint
• When the Indians could beg bread enough from the settlers, or molasses and other food, they mixed flour with water, laid the dought upon a flat stone and thus set it the fire for baking. Meat was boiled or roasted on the coals, oysters were cracked in the fire and ten eaten. They liked coffee very much and wanted it sweet.
• The species of fish eaten by the Indians and their method of killing. THey often caught more fish than they could dispose of, and then brtered them to the whites for household articles.
• In that part of the coast the Indians always managed to get pure, fresh water, though the whites did not know where they obtained. They colonists had wells, no cisterns; the water of these wells was always of a brackish taste.
• Of domestic animals they kept only the dog, who was of the coyote or wolf-like species as mentioned above. They kept many of these, but since they were an erratic people and performed their wanderings by canoe, they never had cattle nor horses, and when he mounting horses showed themselves a poor sort of cavalry.
• Canoes were of two kinds, both being called "awa'n" by them: the aboriginal dugout, about twenty feet long, narrow, yet capacious 2) old skiffs obtained from the whites, much broader than the dugouts and flat-bottomed. A mast with a little sail was occasionally set up, but for want of space they were never seen paddling or rowing them. Mrs. Oliver states that neither of the two was used for fishing, but served for transportation only; and these embarkations were so frail and untrustworthy that they could never have ventured to go out upon the open waters of the gulf. The dugouts were not made smooth upon the outside, but had the bark still on.
• Dress: their articles of wardrobe were exceedingly few in number and before the advent of teh whites they were probably moved about in a perfectly adamitic state, except during ht ecolest time of the year. Hats or head-covers were unknown. The men wore a breechclout of skins, the women a skirt of deerskin; from the knee downward nothing was worn, children under 10 years went nude. Blankets (kwi'ss) obtained from the colonists were worn only during cold weather, but skirts and all other garments used by he Texan were disliked. Women sometimes begged for dresses (kwiss, kadla, calico), wore them once or twice, then tore them to pieces or had them on for some time for the fore parts on. their backs. The blankets were fastened upon their bodies guisache- thorns serving as pins. The sharks' oil which they rubbed on their bodies to keep their skins smooth and supple, emitted a most disagreeable odor, so that the horses and cattle ran away from them, sometimes for three miles from the stable, and this oil would have ruined the best dresses within a short time. Men sometimes fastened some yards of calico on their bodies, and trailed it behind them when not engaged in hunting. The skins of panther, bear, wild-cat, raccoon and cow, which they had in their lodges were like mats to sit and to sleep upon, but not clothes
• Ornamental attire: the females wear no ornaments , males did. males with their uncombed though braided hair and unwashed faces, loved to have ornaments dangling about their bodies. their braids consisted of three strands and were rather long they never knotted the hair to make it shorter, but sometimes inserted bright object, as ribbons, bits of colored flannel, etc. the women never braided their coarse hair nor combed it, althoughsome combs were seen in their lodges. the men generally arranged their with their hands. on the throat (not on chest) they wore small shells, glas beads, fruits of the pistachio tree, and little disks of tin, brass, or other metal. mother-of-pearl was not utilized for the purpose. rings were worn also, when obtainable. they made bracelets, one inch in width of deerskin with the hair left upon it and tied them by little strings fastened on each end. the fact that both sexes wore them on the left wrist only, makes it plausible that they also served as wrist guards to hunters. the custom of head flattening, cosnidered as a mark of bodily improvement among so many southern tribes, was much in favor among them. the babies of both sexes had to undergo the process, and their foreheads only were flattened. a piece of cloth was first applied, then a thin board, then a cloth inlaid with moss or some other soft substance to wake a wad, all of these being tied around the head with a bandage and left to stay there about one year, day and night. even after twenty years te effect of this proceeding was perceptible.
• tattooing: more conspicuous than head-flattening are the tatooing marks observed upon the majority of the tribes who walk around wholly or partly naked. many indian comunities are distinguihsed by peculiar tattoo-marks which they claim as belonging exclusively to themselves. thus the karankawas had the face-marks described by my informant as their own, and they must have made a strong impression at first sight if not on the Texan Indians, at least upon the white people. These lines and figures were all of blue colors, and though the sbustance used is unknown we are acquainted with the black substances, as soot, charcoal burnt plum seeds, become blue when placed subcutaneously. tattooing was applied to face only, and only one man was remembered about forty years old, whose chest showed tatoo-marks. boys were not tattooed before their tenth yr, and young women marrying into the tribe on their arrival already bore the same style of tattooing, as the women of the band frequenting the inlets of matagorda bay.
• Dwelling: lodges or wigwams of these migratory people were far from being substantial, as they could be erected and taken down again within an hour or two by the women, to whom this manipulation devolved in this and the majority of other tribes. their mode of the construction having been specified in the two articles preceding this, I have to add a few particulars only. These primitive tent-like huts were round, or intended to be so, and were called ba-ak; they contained about seven or eight people and afforded no protection against the rain which would pour through the roof (by courtesy so called) of the structure. For want of smoke-hole the smoke had to escape gradually through the willow-sticks or anywhere it could. Very tall persons had to bend their heads in coming in, when inside would touch the top. There were no seats going around the lodge walls; all the property of these people, weapons and cooking vessels, were lying on the ground, and they sat, ate and slept on their fur-skins on the lodge-floor, using them as mats.
• Tribal government: what we know about their tribal rulers is, that they were ruled by two kinds of chiefs: they had chiefs for civil gov, whose succession was hereditary n the male line, and war-chiefs, appointed probably by the civil chiefs. no women were known to have acted as chiefs. 100 yrs ago their territory had a considerable coasttfront and must have harbored a large population. but whether this was ever united into confederacy, like that of the creeks or caddos, is doubtful, the we have no reports of any alliance for offensive or defensive purposes under one head chief. if such a confederacy or symmachy ever existed, it must have been powerful and wide-reaching. it is more probable that this coast people formed a disconnected national body living under separate chiefs, which was united by the tie of a common language, by war expeditions undertaken under a common war chief and perhaps by phratries and gentes having the same names throughout. the caddos and tonkawe have the gentile system, and the mention of vendetta or blood-revenge among the karankawas also seems to point to the xistsence of a system of totemic gentes. After marrying, the Karankawa often took their fathers-in-law and mothers-in-law into their lodges and lived with them.
• Moral character: dificult to sketch the moral qualities of a nation of which only a few bands were known to the whites and under circumstances which make us doubt the veracity of the informants; they were filled with hatred against spaniards on account of their cruelty and haughty demeanor, but were not hostile to the french, who knew how to treat them in a friendly manner. but their warlike qualities and anthropophagy always made them an object of terror to the travellers and settlers of the white race, and by the Anglo-Americans they were regarded as selfish, mean, cruel, crafty and treacherous. ignorant of any rights of property in our sense of the word, they showed their thievish inclination by purloining food, knives, clothing, and such household articles as they could use themselves, but were not burglars. their lazy habits prompted them to continual begging and rarely were the ywilling to perform the slighest labor, no matter what reward was offered tto them. but these are qualities inherent to almost every savage people. indolence is charged even to many so-called civilized commuities. why should a primitive tribe, which had always lived upon the liberal gifts of nature, suddenly change their habits to please some settlers who came to squat upon their domain?
• to the texan settler, these indians appeared as a ferocious type of unmitigated savager, untempered by the milder influence of agriculture; mrs. oliver sketches the people of the band near her home as "surly in their aspect, averse to conversation, apparently feeling no interest in anything that was said; they spoke to each other and to the whites in guttural, indifferent tones and with faces averted" they sometimes tried to deceive her in giving words of their language, and most of these in her list were obtained from women. A "witty" joke rather characteristic of their mode of thinking, was perpetrated by a young man called Kwah or "Fire" and is related by her as follows:
• Kwash was at times employed by her father, Mr Bridges, to do household work, and at one time, Mr Bridges, wishiing to treat his northern guest to some genuine prairie venison, sent Kwash out to kill a deer. n due time Kwash returned apparently successful. He shook his head mournfully to all eager inquiries, and wore an air of extreme disappointment. Nearly an hour later, after having eaten his dinner, he said to her "let me have the horse, i have killed a deer"
• When judging about people, their wicked qualities preponderate over good. unjust not to make mention of the latter . not obstrusive; dignified and reserved; entered their houses attentively examined the pictures hanging on the walls. when ask to work for money, always frank enough to say "we do not want to work" (Karankawa kom ta takina). Gratefulness, devotion or kindred feelings could certainly not be expected from these natives, for these qualities are rare enough from individuals of cultured nations; hospitality, however, is found among almost all nations of the earth and may not have been wanting altogether even upon that distant coast of the tx
• b/w husbands and wives no sign of fondness or intimacy could be observed and they rarely spoke to each other, but between parents and children affection was sometimes noticed, especially on the mother's side. the wmen were not examples of chastity; hence but few children were born and our informant never saw over two in one family. widows remarried as soon as opportunity offered itself. children were not often visible and those seen were mostly babies. adult or half grown girls were scarce in all their bands.
• karankawas suffered no interference of outsiders in their marital affairs and strongly resented any attempt at such.
• Manners and customs: among their games and pastimes, shooting with the bow was prominent. they often shot at the mark or shot the arrows up perpendicularly into space, and their shooting matches were rather lively. arrows shot at the mark and sticking in it were sometimes split in two the long way by another indian shooting at the notch; many young men were able to do this at a distance of eigty feet at least. they also threw hatchets at the mark with wonderful precision, and rivals often engaged in brawls or fights with knives to settle their "rights." they also had ball plays and wrestling matches, one of their names being derived from the latter practice. no gambling or guessing games seem to have existed among these people at that time. tobacco was smoked in great quantities in cigars or cigareettes made with maize husks, mexican fashion.
• as to the disposal of their dead it isnot definitely known which mode they followed. cremating was out of the question, since there was no timber or bushes in the neighborhood of trespaiscios bay, and no place of sepulture was ever known to exist or was alluded to by these indians. neither did they burn the lodges in case the owners died; if so, the white colonists would have heard of it. an indian had been failing in hail through phthsis and became too weak to move about. his tribe concluded to leave him behind. they were dissuaded from doing this and prooised to take him away. but after this boats had left the shore, and it was supposed they had all gone, four men brought the sick man back, deposited him in a bush and ran away. the colonists made a tent for him and his son, and he lived 2 weeks longer. two days after his death his brother came to claim the boy who was three years old and had been given to captain bridges by his father.
• when a baby died belgonging to the chief, the indians remained quiet in their lodges, the parents were much afflicted and a gloom reigned over the camp. two days after they left for other parts, they appeared otherwise entirely indifferent as to sacredness of feeling or particular rites in reference to losses by death.
• probably did not observe couvade, kept no prisoners of war as slaves, and did not manufacturate any mats or baskets, but made coarse pottery and knew how to dress skins. there were two men in the tribe greatly despised by the others, so that they probably knew "hermaphrodites"; cabeca de vaca also mentions the amarionados seen byy him
• mental attainments: cooking pots with rude ornaments; block of wood with roughly-wrought human face served as a doll to the children of a family; plastic arts-appliance of a paint, which was either red or black, and of clay producing a black color. with these they painted figures of animals and human faces upon their skins and upon pots and articles of wood. these paintings were far remote from any artistic finish and were but seldom seen. the dugouts were not painted, as the bark remained upon the outside. their tatooing has been referred to already. of their mode of counting the numeral series would give us some idea, if we had more of it than the numbers from one to ten. counted upon the fingers, commencing at the small finger and endin with the thumb. to say twenty, thirty, etc., they held up both hands twice or three times.
• other material helps were used whenever computations had to be made extending over days or weeks, reaching high figures. most indians use sticks from one to three inches in length when days have to be counted from a certain period, and after this period throw away one stick every day.ok
• one of the medical practices of these indians was to suck the disease from the patients body, and welts could often be seen on their skin. oft. called on captain bridges for his medicines and so they must have been, in critical cases, distrustful of their own conjurers
• karankawas did not communicate their indian names to the whites. but everyone had a english or spasnigh name and many men went by the burlesque military and other epithets in use among americans, as "captain" "major" "colonel" etc., these being placed before their baptismal names the latter they changed frequently, thus captain jim e.g, might be known in a few weeks under the new name of captain jack. this reluctance of acquainting people outside their tribe w/indian names is frequent among pacific and sw indians. they believe that when somebody calls an indivudal by his or her name after death, the spirit of the deceased may hear it and be prompted to take revenge pon those who disturbed his rest; but if called in another language this would have no effect upon the spirit. thus after having stepped into hades' domain, an indian seems to remember his own language only
• karankawa possessed a gesture language for conversing with alien indains by otions of the hands or body. mrs oliver remembered one gesture of it, to express "nothing"; stretching both arms forward horizontally with fingers extended, and then making the hands or arms diverge suddenly.
• for signalling to a distance they had several methods. they called each oters' attention by whistle , much shriller than ours. on clear days, generally at noon, signalled news by columns of smoke from their camp fires, which were started from small pits in the ground, every Indian having a fire in front of his lodge . the column of smoke was made to ascend in more than 20 different ways, sometimes diverging or curling up in spirals, sometimes rising up in parallel lines. the shape of thee smoke signals was intelligible as spoken language, and the messages appeared to det. their mvmts; some looked like the letters V and Y, others spiral lines, or two parallel zigzag lines moving upward, or twin columns standing close to each other. how these columns could be made to go up in the directions intended for them was not known, and it is possible that the numerous fires burning at night at all points of the horizon were used by them as signals also . it is especially incomprehensible how smoke could be made to diverge laterally
• religion: nothing is known except in their "fandango" which was evidently a misnomer for a religious ceremony and took place when the moon was full. ... etc
• religious act when they sent the smoke of tobacco through their nostrils first to the north, then to the east, west and south in an apparently unconcerned and careless manner
• their staring at the sun, when it disappeared into the sea, has been observed with other indians as well
• karankawas frequently heard to whistle, but at certain times only and with some apparent object. thus we do not know whether this was founded on some superstition or not. the tribe or tribes frequenting matagorda bay had never been visited by any missionary; of former migrations of their own people they were entirely unconscious
• Karankawa language
• Phonology - Karankawa dialect embodied some sounds rarely occurring in European languages. Syllabic structure was remarkably vocalic, like that of the majority of languages spoken within the limits of the United states
• Doubling of consonants and vowels
• Radical syllable is the accented one
• Vocalic & deep gutturals
• Utterance monotonous and indistinct
• Took neither the trouble of speaking aloud nor distinctly and often abbreviated the terms
• The "extreme fatigue"or "anxiety" I have often remarked in the utterance of Indians on the PAcific coast, who had not more gutturals in their language than we have in English
• The cause of this apparent "fatigue" lies in their laryngeal utterance, while the glottis is left open and in their habit of protracting their sentences beyond the supply of breath which they can command
• Morphology
• Nouns do not appear to have had any inflection for case
• Verbs were inflected by auxiliar verbs
• Reduplication-iteration, repetition, severalty
• Pronoun - personal pronoun was identical with the possessive pronoun

Native transgressions

• unsavory reputation of this native tribe may partially reflect the rationale of white people who infiltrated their lands to first, demonize them, and then, annihilate them into extinction
• Karankawa natives captured the original Spanish explorers who accompanied Cabeza de Vaca and kept them as slaves in the 1500s
• destroyed the last inhabitants of the state's first French settlement, Fort Saint Louis, in 1689
• deadly quarrel with the French pirate, Jean Lafitte in Galveston in 1818
• soldiers under Sam Houston's command were ordered to kill them on sight
• newspaper account from Rockport honors a tree where the Karankawa allegedly gathered to feast on their human victims
• Karankawa natives have been traditionally maligned in history books, trade books, and in the corresponding textbooks that were made available to the precollegiate public school student in the state of Texas since the late nineteenth century
• Progressive educators and historians view the Karankawa as a highly resourceful group of people who successfully adapted to the harsh living conditions on the Gulf Coast
• Karankawa (or Carancahua) designation applies to a specific populationthat was divided into a number of small bands of natives who spoke a distinctive language and had a unique culture
• Mutually supportive of their tribe and collaborative in their efforts, the Karankawa spent most of their waking hours committed to the quest for basic survival in a harsh climate
• for several hundred years the nomadic Karankawa people lived in the coastal region of the land now known as Texas
• range extended from the East to Galveston, and as far west as Corpus Christi
• Recent archeological records that utilized radiocarbon dating of artifacts indicate that these aboriginal people inhabited the coastal region as early as 4,500 years ago. Evidence of their prehistoric inland wanderings has been found as far away as Eagle Lake in Colorado County, which is approximately one hundred miles north of the Gulf coast
• Extremely tall, scantily clad, physically adept, and dramatically decorated with tattoos, piercings, and seashells
• deerskin attire scarcely concealed athletic bodies that were tanned by excessive exposure to the sun and ornately decorated with elaborate tattoos
• noted for their beautiful white teeth
• Among the many idiosyncrasies of the Karankawa was their propensity to weep upon greeting one another
• In the first meeting with La Salle and his men, Henri Joutel reports that the Karankawa "demonstrated their friendship by putting their hands over their hearts, which meant that they were glad to see us" (Foster 1998, p. 88).
• the Karankawa tribe welcomed pets in their midst
• descriptions of domesticated dogs that would accompany the warriors on hunts, and then wait patiently on the fringe of the campfires for their share of the meat in the evening after a kill
• ran beside them as they hunted, swam, and played
• extraordinary athletic prowess on land and in the water as they skillfully hunted, fished, and scavenged for edible plants from their sparse habitat. They fished with bows and arrows and nets, and hunted with bows and arrows and spears. They supplemented their diet with wild berries, fruits, and cactus
• banded together in groups of about 30-40 members
• dragged their homes; collapsible huts, often referred to as ba-aks, that were made of willow branches with them as they roamed and set up small camps with their group
• During the winter months, the tribe stayed closer to the water, and moved inland as the weather warmed, in response to the seasonal storms
• Resources for research about this extinct tribe are mostly limited to people who were blatant enemies of the tribe
• early French and Spanish explorers, settlers, and pirates needed to access the coastal land from their ships, and the Karankawa were perceived as barriers to access the inland domain
• when Stephen F. Austin wanted to distribute parcels of land to his followers, known as the "first 300 families," he ordered the genocide of the coastal tribe who occupied the land that he claimed for Texas
• facilitated the initial survival of the Spanish explorers and the members of Fort Saint Louis, the first French settlement in (what was to become) the state of Texas
• From the settlers who ambushed small bands of Karankawas as they congregated around their campfires, to the Texas Rangers who chased them on horseback and shot them with rifles as they fled on foot, legend has it that the last remaining member of the coastal tribe was extinguished by approximately 1855
• Anna Pennybacker published and coauthored the first textbook for schoolchildren in the state of Texas. Originally released in 1888, A History of Texas for Schools features photos and illustrations of the white men who dominated the traditional narratives of history, but scant mention of the indigenous natives. In fact the Karankawas are not mentioned by name, but rather in general terms, as The Coast Tribes, whose existence was described in a brief, disparaging account:
• "... They all lived in very poor, small dwellings made of poles covered or partly covered with skins or reeds ... Some of these coast tribes were regarded as cannibals." (Pennybacker 1888)
• Since the Pennybacker (1888) textbook was revised and reissued so many times, her portrayal of the Karankawa as a hostile coastal people remained a constant image of the tribe throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Later texts were consistent with the portrayal of the savage tribe.
• Changes wrought by the Civil Rights movement during the sixties resulted in a heightened sensitivity for the way that non-white people were portrayed in literature, and the Karankawa image was affected by this national trend
• By 1993, the textbook portrayal of the Karankawa had improved dramatically. In Texas, Lone Star Land, the mothers of the tribe are praised for their devotion to their children: "European visitors noted that the women were good mothers and very gentle with their children" (Crawford et. al. 1988, p. 89). Further details about the familial structure, customs, and primitive way of life lend a personable feeling to the description of this early Texas tribe (Crawford et. al. 1988, pp. 89-90).
• "The Karankawa gave their children two names, one of which was known only to close family members. The Karankawa believed that the secret name carried magic that protected children from danger"
• "ferocious" people who annoyed the settlers by "begging and stealing whatever fell in their way" (Adams 1955, p. 146).
• after General Austin commanded an expedition that resulted in "the slaughter of half the tribe", the remainder took refuge in the Mission at La Bahia, and some of the surviving members of the tribe were "distributed, as servants, to families on the frontier"
• "Lovable was not a term applied to this irresponsible, vagabond, tribe of early Texas Indians. Their cruel heathenistic customs gave little advantage in meriting friendship or favor from any of their acquaintances"(Adams 1965, p. x).
• Fortunately, the award winning juvenile trade book Raising La Belle proffers a more balanced view of the Karankawa natives in the context of their relationship with the French settlers at Fort Saint Louis. Intended for the upper elementary and middle school aged readers, Raising La Belle tells the story of the discovery and subsequent excavation of the small ship, often referred to as a barque longue, which was a member of the La Salle fleet in 1685 (Mitchell 2002). In this book, the emphasis is on marine archeology and the excitement that was generated by the discovery of the La Belle in 1995 (Mitchell 2002). Although he does refer to them as the "dreaded Karankawas" (Mitchell 2002, p. 35) in reference to their nocturnal visits to the fort, his account generally avoids any derogatory terms. In fact, he credits the Karankawa women for saving the lives of the children (Mitchell 2002, p. 74).
• The old settlers universally asserted that the "Cronks" were cannibals, and certainly their looks strongly corroborated the assertion. Their great stature, their hideous physiognomies besmeared with splotches of red and white paint and their peculiar guttural language agreed perfectly with my preconceived ideas of man eaters." (Wilbarger 1899, 1985, p. 199)
• Another primary source from the same era that provides information from firsthand accounts is The Karankawa Indians: The Coast People of Texas. Also published in the late nineteenth century, and reproduced as a facsimile in 2005, it is a compilation of narratives that was collected for the Archeological and Ethnological Papers of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. Ethnologist Albert S. Gatschet collaborated with Charles Hammond and Alice Oliver to provide a report about the tribe, which was already considered to be extinct. Importantly, this text contains information about the language from Mrs. Oliver, who provided a list of 140 words and phrases from the Karankawa language (Gatschet 1891, 2005). As a young child, Alice Oliver lived with her parents on a ranch in South Texas and frequently interacted with a band of Karankawa natives. During their seasonal encampments, Alice would visit with them, and was especially fond of a woman, who was the wife of the tribal chieftain. Young Alice learned the Karankawa language from her initial contacts with this tribal faction, and was able to communicate with subsequent visiting groups, who were surprised to be greeted in their native language by a white person (Gatschet 1891, 2005). Once, when Alice Oliver was deathly ill, a representative from the tribe offered her family a special tea that alleviated her symptoms. Thereafter, she credited them with saving her life. Her account is significant because it directly contradicts the prevailing notion of the savage Karankawa at that point in time. From her depictions of substantial communication with the Karankawa, the reader can easily surmise that the Oliver family felt safe in the presence of the Karankawa, and that Alice was quite confident in her ability to coexist with the native tribe (Gatschet 1891, 2005).
• T. R. Fehrenbach was the former head of the Texas Historical Commission, and is considered the foremost authority of Texas history (Roberts 1994). Fehrenbach describes the Karankawa as savage and states that "no Amerind tribe was ever described in worse terms or exterminated with greater relish or sense of justification" (Fehrenbach 1968, p. 13). Yet, he also leaves room for doubt about the legends when he frankly admits that his sources were questionable, and that in reporting about the Spaniards who described the Karankawa tortures and cannibal feasts, "none of these men were eyewitnesses." (Fehrenbach 1968, p. 13)
• Furthermore, in the popular book, The Indians of Texas, historian William W. Newcomb provides additional perspective on the plight of the Karankawa: "Some of the atrocities attributed to these Indians are undoubtedly rationalizations growing out of the inhuman, unfair treatment the Spaniards and Texans accorded them. It is much easier to slaughter men and appropriate their land if you can convince yourself that they are despicable, inferior, barely human creatures (Newcomb 1961, p. 78).
• Independent scholar William Foster demonstrates his respect for the Karankawa tribe in Spanish Expeditions into Texas: 1689-1768. In this treatise, he describes their practice of "ritual cannibalism" (Foster 1995, p. 202). Foster notes that the remarkable physical feats of the Karankawa such as continuing to fight after being wounded in battle, and of breaking ice with their bodies and swimming in freezing water were interpreted as weakness by the Catholic priests who disdained their "preference for independence, freedom, and liberty over the protective security of the Catholic church (Foster 1995, p.202).

Landar, Herbert. "The Karankawa Invasion of Texas." International Journal of American Linguistics 34, no. 4 (1968): 242-58. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1264198.

• Karankawa belongs to the Cariban linguistic stock
• Data, inc. vocab dated about 1828 that indicate Karankawa spoken by Caribs
• If we take a tribal name from the old Spanish Main, Kalina, and a suffix from the Bakairi, a Northern Carib tribe which fought its way south of the Amazon, kxura people, we get a more plausible compound, something like Karinkxura Carib people
• Berlandier was a Swiss naturalist who helped to explore northeastern Mexico as part of a government commission. Later he became a Mexican citizen
• Vocabulary of ~158 items collected ~1828: Vocabulaires de diverses peuplades nomades des parties septentrionales du Mexique, Lipans, Comanches, Tancahueses, Carancahueses, Carissos.
• it remains to identify which cariban subgroup to which the Karankawa belong, and to speculate on the path of their northward migration
• These thoughts are best guesses
• Migration resulted from very early, possibly a late 15th century Kalina naval raid. Raid antedated the loss of Kalina grammatical core in the Antilles and possibly the Kalina conquests in the Antilles. Annual raids by sea in August, when the summer calms made navigation less hazardous, were a Kalina custom. These raids made in all directions with Santo Domingo, a major naval base. Puerto Rico, for example, is known to have been attacked in August, 1553.
• The migration route was from the homeland north of the Amazon to the coast and Lesser Antilles to parts of Central America to Tamaulipas and Texas. The center of dispersion of the Karib family seems to have been the region included between the upper Xingu and the Tapajoz, between 10 and 12 degrees of latitude. From there, its diverse tribes spread fanwise toward the north, the northwest, and the northeast, over the northern half of the continent and part of the Antilles.
• Migration accomplished in several installments
• Came in successive years? after bases had been secured in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama
• Carib invaders of Texas and Tamaulipas lost contact with the Caribs to the south, first with the Kalina and later with the Paya and their closest congeners

Trigger, Bruce G, and Washburn, Wilcomb E. "Entertaining Strangers: North America in the Sixteenth Century." In The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, 325-98. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

In Texas, some Native groups described by Cabeza de Vaca during his trek were not recontacted until the late 17th or early 18th centuries, by which time many had vanished or amalgamated into new ethnic groups

Fatal stomach ailment -reduced Karankawa population by 1/2

Elsewhere widespread blindness

Pathology may be linked to a pandemic or to localized phenomena, such as an outbreak of influenza that spread with Cabeza de Vaca but did not infect the entire region

Trigger, Bruce G, and Washburn, Wilcomb E. "The Greater Southwest and California from the Beginning of European Settlement to the 1880s." In The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, 57-116. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Cabeza de Vaca - shipwrecked 1528

Beach of Galveston Bay, encounter Karankawas

Men went about naked-women wore only skirts of Spanish moss and deerskin

Both sexes were tattooed and lavishly painted

Lower lips, nose, and other parts of the body were pierced w/pieces of cane

Observed through the eyes of most Europeans, appeared "savage" and "primitive"

Judgment strengthened by seminomadic nature; traveled seasonally through an area extending from present-day Galveston Bay to Corpus CHristi, Texas - a varied landsdcape of shallow lagoons, coastal prairies, and forested valleys

During some parts of the year, took canoes out along the shore and shallow bays to gather seafood, turtles,a and alligators for food

At other seasons, they moved inland to hunt antelope, javelina (collared peccary), deer, bison, and bear with long bows and arrows or clubs and lances

These subsistence strategies reveal intricate relationships between Karankawa culture and the natural world the Spanish saw Karankawa mobility and the lack of material culture it demanded as evidence of a "primitive" economy, one which contrasted with the more sedentary, urban, and technologically elaborate economy of Europe

Diversity of Native peoples reflected multitude of envrionments of Texas; regional differences were underscored by territorial or ethnic boundaries

Little is known the political organization of the Karankawas, for instance, we do know that some of these Indians asked Cabeza de Vaca to become a trader to help avoid war with neighboring groups

The interfaces between Native Texas populations provided pathways for social and economic exchange

Many of these groups connected thru trade networks which occasionally stretched the entire length of the present-day United States

Cabeza de Vaca noted that the Karankawas traded extensively with inland groups thereby exchanging the resources of the coastal ecosystem for those of the drier regions to the west

Especially after the arrival of the horse, these trade networks came to play an important role in connecting peoples and resources across the southern borderlands

Wolff, Thomas. "The Karankawa Indians: Their Conflict with the White Man in Texas." Ethnohistory 16, no. 1 (1969): 1-32. doi:10.2307/480941.

Dramatic struggle for the control of Texas included the protracted efforts by Spaniards, Frenchmen, and Texans to subdue and "civilize" its many Indian tribes

Lacked complex political organization

The tribe included the following groups of Indians: Cujanes, Guapites (Coapites), Cocos, and Copanes

Although Indians were reputed to practice cannibalism, it should be noted that this was neither a unique nor even a particularly shocking thing for Indians of this region and for other peoples living elsewhere in the world

Unfortunately, all historical material on the Karankawa depicts them in a prejudiced manner

Published data concerning the Karankawa comes from writers among their enemies

Cabeza de Vaca-

Indians were friendly to visitors

Spaniards, ill-equipped for the climate and exhausted, threatened with starvation and driven to cannibalism

According to Cabeza de Vaca, "At this the Indians were so startled, and there was such an uproar among them, that I verily believed if they had seen this at the beginning they [the Indians] would have killed them [Spaniards] and we would all have been in great danger.."

The initial meeting was not marked by violence

Karankawa were upset by the Spaniards' actions

Whites never witnessed an actual act of cannibalism

Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, tried to establish a colony at the mouth of the Mississipii River but passed the river delta and founded it instead of Texas in 1685 at Matagorda Bay

When 7 or 8 tried to construct a canoe the Karankawa seized a few of the Frenchmen, whereupon La Sale was forced to retrieve them

The Indians stole blankets from the wrecked vessel Aimable

Later the Karankawa killed two colonists after they had regained some of the stolen blankets

La Salle built a fort which he named Fort. St. Louis constructed with timber from the Aimable. He often went on exploring missions and left Joutel in charge

Joutel related how Karankawa would at night "range about us, howling like Wolves and Dogs, but two or three Musquet SHots put them to Flight"

La Salle - found another seettlement further inland on La Vaca River at the head of Matagorda bay

Joutel ordered to recover timber from the first site; upon returning Indians had stolen some to pick out the nails which they valued to point their arrows

When Karankawa heard of La Salle's departure for New France and his death they attaacked the 20 or more men and women at the French settlement, massacring all but 5. they tattooed the surviving frenchmen and forced them to follow the karankawa on their hunting and war expeditions.

the La Salle vnture stimulated the Spaniards into active exploration and led to a more pronounced interest in colonization

Search for Fort St. Louis, found it in 1689

Captain Alfonso de Leon - return to Mexico, 1690, sent to texas to discover if any french had returned to their texas colony and to burn fort st. louis

learned Karankawa living near burnt fort were holding 2 french boys robert and lucien talon and their sister marie madelaine.

a few spaniards return to the coast, found the kids and bargain for their release

karankawa reluctantly released them for ransom

meanwhile the spaniards had annoyed the indians by peering into their "ranchitas" and by committing other ungracious acts

Skirmish-2 arrows stuck Leon in the side; 4 indians killed and 2 wounded, 2 horses of spain lost

1691-Captain Domingo Teran led combined land-sea expedition to Texas to strengthen the recently established missions and to look again for the French. Both expdeitions were mismanaged and forced to return to new spain. after this expedition spanish interest temporarily lapsed.

1721-Bernard de La Harpe and St. Denis led a combined land-sea expedition to reoccupy Matagorda bay (in 1719 a war between France and Spain began in Europe). La Harpe landed at the bay but the Karankawa greeting forced him to leave quickly. This was the last french atttempt to occupy the Texas coast.

Continued French action encouraged the Spaniards to occupy permanently the area of Matagorda bay. in 1722, the Marques de Aguayo, as a symbol of the renewed Spanish interest, led an expedition to Texas and the coast, and on April 6 of that year, his subordinate, Captain Jose Domingo Ramon established the presidio of Nuestra Senora de Loreto on the site of the French fort.

1722-construction of the mission Espiritu Santo de Zuniga (La Bahia)

Karankawa not at first antagonistic to the Spaniards

A few Karankawa and neighboring tribesmen moved near the newly founded mission-presidio complex

Tranquility soon dramatically disrupted

In 1723, a skirmish occured between the Karankawa and some presidial soldiers, in which Captain Jose Domingo Ramon was killed

Afterward the Indians left the area and became hostile to the Spaniards

Father Morfi noted that it was a "misfortune brought upon himself [Ramon] by his pride, cruelty and ignorance"

Karankawa often returned and made reprisals and they continued these tactics for the next 25 years

In 1726 the Karankawa outrages and their danger to the Spanish settlement forced the spaniards to move the mission and presidio inland to the Guadalupe river where they remained until 1749

Karankawa once again scored a victory over their adversaries and reduced Spanish claim to the Texas coast.

Spanish empire cost a lot $$$ - viceroy commissioned general pedro rivera to tour the Texas area and to recommend methods of cutting expenses

Rivera visited La Bahia Mission and presidio in 1727 and commented that he regarded the Cujane, Coco, Guapite, Karankawa and Copane tribes a sincapable of being reduced to mission life. He therefore agreed to the transfer of the mission and presidio.

By the 1730s the Karankawa and other Indian tribes of the Texas area had proven to be the principal obstacle to control of that northern outpost by Spain

Fear that the British would seize the TX coast b/c fear of war w/England

1746- Jose Escandon appt'd to conquer and settle northern Mexico and the vicnity of Texas; made governor and representative of the Viceroy; to survey and map the region and acquaint himself with te Indians

Spaniards hoped to reorganize the Gulf coast & renew efforts to bring the Karankawa tribes under missionary control

Escandon believed that in areas where the reduction of natives was being carried on, civil pueblos were preferable to presidios. Escandon's expedition of 1746 and 1747 whent to the Rio Grande. Meanwhile Capt Joaquin Orobio y Battera, commander of La Bahia, went along the coast from the Guadalupe to the Rio Grande thus becoming the first Sapniard to explore that particular portion of the coast.

Escandon's results given to Viceroy on Oct. 26, 1747, Escandon believed that soldiers should be given lands to settle. He recommended that only missionaries of tested ability should be called to work with the Texas natives, and families should be induced to settle the areas, for they would defend it with more vigor than paid garrisons.

Of the fourteen mission settlements, Escandon recommended that one should be established on the banks of the San Antonio river at Santa Dorotea, and to this site the mission and presidio of La Bahia should be moved. Their recent location on the Guadalupe River was unsuitable because of Indian hostility and the unhealthful climate. He noted that the cost of the mission's transfer would be slight since its construction had been only temporary.

Authorities approved the mov ebut not the utilization of colonists

In 1749 the presidio and mission were moved to their new location

The effect of new mission on Karankawa behavior was nil

As the Indians continued to thwart the desires of the Spaniards the missionaries (new mission: Mission Rosario est. 1754) were in constant fear of revolt and often appealed to the soldiers of La Bahia presidio for aid

Ineffective as spiritual and "civilizing" center

On 1758 they were granted the long desired military protection

When subjected to any corporal punishment they fled

Karankawa were victorious and continued to enjoy the benefits of the Spanish civilization only in times of need

1760s-Spanish possessions now needed administrative reform and an improved system of defense

Marques de Rubi was sent in 1767 to visit the northern provinces and the presidio of La Bahia

He recommended a cordon of 15 missions and presidio strongholds at regular intervals between La Bahia, Santa Fe, San Antonio, and the Gulf of California

New Frontier policy of sept 1772, which acknowledged rubi's plans for abandonment of east Texas in favor of the coast and west Texas. Spaniards activated a new Indian policy which called for winning the alliance of all Louisiana tribes, keeping all tribes hostile to foreigners, especially to the British, cutting off foreign suppliers; excluding from Indian villages undesired persons, stopping the trade of horses, mules, and Indian slaves; preventing intertribal warfare as well as preventing the scape of apostates form missions to unchristian areas, terminating the taking of Christians for captives and holding them for ransom; and civilizing all the indian nations. A last point in this program was to stop the raids of Karankawa on shipwrecked sailors and seamen on the Texas coast. Indians were the key to the continued control of the vast Spanish empire in North America. Without their subjugation the Spaniards would be helpless in making their empire strong.

While Spaniards sought to Christianize and reduce the Karankawa to mission life, other white men dealt with the Karankawa on a strictly economic basis

in the 1770s, these Indians entered into trade with the French and English. After 1769, the presence of English seamen and traders on the coast with the Indians once again placed the Spaniards in a precarious position. By gaining indian alliances, these English could undo all previous Spanish successes with the Indians. In 1771 a party of English seamen was picked up and taken to La Bahia.

fall 1772 -Captain Luis Carzola, commander of La Bahia, was ordered to investigate the English reportedly in the vicinity of the Trinity River and to have cut wood for houses and traded with the Karankawa there.

Evidence of trade-muskets-killing deer in order to get skns for trading for powder, balls, and muskets as well

Carzola noted the Karankawa possessed musket whose English mark was on their barrels

Spaniards learned that the English and the French had worked to undermine Spanish ascendancy over the Karankawa

By the mid-1770s the Spaniards were therefore motivated to control the coast for three reasons: to exclude the English, to stop illegal French trade; and to control the Karankawa.

Another factor was that the northern provinces of New Spain was the site of constant re-organization of the area on a political basis-Inspectors general frequently visited the area and reported the condition of the province.

Teodoro de Croix led an expedition to inspect, w/Fray Agustin Morfi - noted theologian and preacher

Morf dscribed Karankawa as "vile, cowardly, treacherous and very cruel". Wrote that Karankawa warriors numberd 150 men. Found hat Indians resided on the islands of Matagorda Bay when weather permtted and on the mainland during the storm season.

Noticed Karankawa often gathered on islands at the mouth of the Brazos and COlorado rivers where they found anchors, bells, pots, artillery, and wreckage from vessels frequently dashed on the shores

Many of them speak Spanish with great fluency, being in many cases, apostates from our missions

believed Karankawa were cowards and known to lack courage for which reason, they will be unable to start hostilities that cannot be quickly detected by vigilance.

Friar Morfi became the author of History of Texas 1673-1779 and Memorias for the history of texas. in the latter he described Karankawa cannibalism. This spanish priest, although not personally a witness to the following ceremoy, wrote abut Karankawa cannibalism thusly:

excced all other nations in cruelty to captives as they also surpass them in cowardice and vileness. unpardonably take the lives of the old of both sexes, whom they capture, eat the children, sell the boys, and keep the warriors for the dance ans acrifice to their false divinities, which they do in this manner: they drive a big strong stake into the ground, secure the prisoner, build big fire, sound funeral instrument, dance in circle carrying knives of iron/flint or a piece of shell. when they see fit they go up to the patient, cut off a piece of his flesh, pass it over the fire and dripping with blood they eat it in sight of the victim, accompanying this by horrible gestures and incomparible voices. in this way they go on tearing the victim to pieces until he dies. some do not put this flesh near thef ire but eat it raw, making themselves festive, b spotting their faces with the blood.

The Andry affair:

Captain Luis Andry was dispatched to map, survey, and draw plans of Matagorda Bay and the Texas coast. ran out of supplies. sent 5 sailor. who disappeared. Karankawa aboard Andry's vessel, offered him meat. Andry thanked the Karankawa, inquired bout men, ordered more meat should be brought. 2 karankawas really planning to kill all the spaniards and to reduce their number so that they could take over the vessel. meanwhile, more and more indians had come on board. the spaniards were massacred. Karankawa, with much glee, then danced over the dead bodies, took off their clothing, and threw the mutilated bodies overboard. from the vessel karankawa raiders took six swivel guns, two barrels of powder, three boxes of gunshot evelen guns, ad the foodstuffs. they then set the vessel adrift and sailed for land in two canoes. upon reaching land they divided the booty.

Andry affair-important factor in stimulating another phase of Karankawa-Spanish relations

Plan presented by Commandant General, Don Nicolas de La Mathe - construction of canoes to be built at the mouth of the Rio Grande where they would be used to attack the Indians on their home islands. Other canoes would be constructed at Opelouses. Indians would be driven from Espiritu Santo Bay and forced to take refuge on the beach where troops from Espiritu Santo Bay would "be waiting to kill thm.

In the late 1770's, the Karankawa dared even to threaten the mission and the presidios At one o'clock in the morning in 1778 they raided the mission of Rosario, ending in a stalemate.

The era of the 1770s was -readjustment to increased Indian violence and revival of Indian strength. Mezieres helped Spaniards to maintain and hold their ground against Indian raids.

one of his ideas-Forbid them trade b/c would give them encouragement when most decidedly they should be treated as an 'odious organization'

another scheme was to use the neighboing tribe and friends of teh Karankawa to help exterminate the Karankawa. Mezieres hoped that if he distrbuted presents to the Orcoquias the Karankawa would come to an assigned meeting place.

none were carried out

By 1785 had closed. Lopez added that these coastal indians spoke spanish and "insinuated their way into the flexible, indiscreet, and contemptible minds of the mission Indians and stir them up until they ran away." The inspector warned that these coastal Indians might do likewise to the other missions.

In 1790 re-established by Captain Manuel de Espada of Espiritu Santo. Mission Rosario and Mission Espirtu Santo were to be centers from which missionary work would be carried on with the coastal Karankawa.

Karankawa, although interested in the mission, were not always predictable. - continaully resisted

Missions of Espirtu Santo, Rosario, and Refugio were not destined to be permanent institutions. In 1806 Rosario was merged Refugio. 1830 Refugio and Espiritu Santo were secularized in accord with long-standing Spanish-Mexican policies. Karankawa who had withstood teh efforts of the Spaniards and Frenchmen to settle the coast area were now to encounter a new threat.

PIRates

1817 - 1821 - Jean Lafitte - settled on the northeast end of Galveston Island.

On Galveston Island, his men faced a new challenge from the Karankawa. 4 men abducted Indian "rpincess". Karankawa killed four in return. Reciprocal insults called for war. Laffite heard that 300 Karankawa encamped on the west coast of the island and were preparing for a raid. With 200 of his men and two cannons, he attacked the indians. 2 pirates and 30 karankawa were killed. many men in both armies were wounded. 2 days later the indians fled in their canoes to the mainland with the pirates in pursuit. here a few more karankawa were killed.

the pirates commemorated their fight with the indians by calling it "The battle of the three trees"

In 1821, moses austin received his grant to bring 300 famliies to settle in tx b/w galveston bay and colorado . when settlers came the karankawa sought to impede their progress as they had done earlier with the La Salle expedition. under the immediate auspices of his son, Stephen Austin, the ship John Motley landed at the mouth of the Colorado with settlers and supplies. The supplies were unloaded and four men were left on guard. Karankawa killed the guards and carried the goods away. The terrified setlers moved up river where they suffered from lack of provisions.

In 1823, karankawa ambushed 3 tx colonists and killd 2.

followin day settlers retaliated by killing ten indians.

1824-captain chriesman had several skirmishes w/karankawa on st. bernard river - 15 natives, 3 white men killed near jones' creek

tactics of the Karankawa forced the colonists in 1825 to band together to rid themselves of the Karankawa

Austin commissioned Captain Kuykendall to lead volunteers to expel the Karankawa from theAustin grant which extended to La Vaca river

Texans chased the Indians to Manahila Creek where aCatholic missionary interceded for the fleeing Karankawa

THe padre guaranteed the Texans that the Indians would never again appear east of La Vaca; promise was not kept

Portion of the tribe returned to the colorado, committed new depredations, and subsequently "punished"

Fredonian revolt of 1826-1827 brought in Mexican troops to re-establish order in Texas. the mexican general anastacio bustamante reslved to annihilate the Karankawa. the tribe ewas forewarned of impending doom, and with other tribes the made peace with the Mexicans. new Indian boundary was fixed at La Vaca River and the aborigines temporarily observed the peace treaty.

KARANKAWA DEMISE

1835 Fredonian Revolt Texas gained her independence but during the revolt Texans tried to control Karankawa raids on livestock in the coastal area near guadalupe river. Chief Jose Maria and 20 of his warriors were killed during the war. Texans also attemptd to negotiate with teh Karankawa. James Kerr, in a letter written in 1835 to the Committee of Safety and Correspondence, noted that he had been appointed to negotiate a treaty with teh Indians whose chiefs had expressed a ddesire to enter a lasting peace with teh texans. he was to meet the whole nation the following day. the karankawa acknowledged the texans as rulers of the area, while ker argued that the treaty would free the thirty to forty soldiers who had been engaged in protecting the locals. kerr expedition had been noted to be successful on 1835.

during the war some of the Karankawa with other indians served in the mexican army. after battle of the alamo in 1836, the texans retaliated by punishing these Indians for their crimes.

jose maria was the karankawa chief at this time. his son walupe (guadalupe) was capturd by the mexicans and killed in spite of his young age. the infuriated father then came on board the ship of a tx settler w/20 of his followers and announced to the white man that he would take revenge. jose maria attacked but he and teh majroity of his men were killed.

antonio, who claimed he was the brother of jose maria, became chief othe tribe. durin gantonio's life and afterward the karankawa diminished thru the effects of consumption and other diseases. brawls which occurred when the indians were intoxicated further reduced the tribe.

by 1840 10-12 indian fishmern families lived on aransas bay and the nueces river. at this time, the tribe included 100 men, women, and children. noting the paucity (few number) of these indians 2 french missionaries, Odin and Estany tried to establish a mission for the Karankawa and other coastal tribes. One report states that a priest brought some to Padre Island to educate them and to protect the natives from the Texas colonists.

1844: portion of the tribe was encamped on the Colorado River 15 miles south of Victoria near a site named Kemper's bluff where the Kemper family lived. After killing one beef, Kemper was approached by 3 or 4 Karankawa who demanded the carcass. Kemper refuse and was shot w/an arrow, dying shortly afterward. the fear of recrimination forced the Indians in 1845 or 1846 to flee with their canoes down teh Guadalupe River and along the coast to the mouth of the Rio Grande where they crossed the bay to Padre Island.

by 1843, a portion of the tribe, which then included a scant 40-50 people, applied to settle in mexico. upon being granted permission, they fled across the border.

karankawa by the 1840s consisted of two groups: one was settled on padre island while the other, as already mentioned, fled into the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The latter group resided in the neighborhood of Reynosa. they lived in a vagabond fashion, plundered, and mexican govt organized troops to subdue them. A ggeneral avalos was ordered to move the Indians to the vicinity of the border of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon. The karankawa gave rise to a dispute between the two states. The argument was resolved when the Karankawa was returned to Reynosa. After committing more robberies the tribe removed to Texas. on Oct 26, 1858, the judge of Rosario, Mexico, sent a message to the mayor of Reynosa that he had tried to arrest the Karankawa but that they had fled to the north side of the Rio Grande beyond his jurisdiction. He added that the Mexicans and Americans should work together for the Indians' arrest.

1858 - Later that year, Juan Nepomuceno Cortina led a group of Texas ranchers against the recently returned Karankawa. the texans surprised the Indians and annihilated the remaining members of this tribe.

--> Introduction

The Karankawa were a Native American people concentrated in southern Texas along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.^[1] They consisted of several independent seasonal nomadic groups who nonetheless shared the same language and much of the same culture.

-Origins

--Migration

---"The Karankawa Invasion of Texas"

---"Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico"

--Geography

---The Karankawa Indians: The Coast People of Texas

--Ethnicity and Language

---The Karankawa Indians: The Coast People of Texas

--- -History

--Ethnohistory

--Contact with Europeans

--Decline

-Environment

--Geographical extent

--Climate

--Ecological economy

-Culture

--Language

--Trade

--Social roles

--Dress

-Contemporary views