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Karankawa

The Karankawa Native American Indians

The Karankawa or Auia in their own language (also Karankawan, Clamcoëhs) were a group of Native American peoples from the Texas Coastal Area, now extinct as a tribal group, who played a pivotal part in early Texas history.

The term Karankawa is popularly applied to groups of Native American tribes having a common dialect and culture. These people are specifically identified as the Capoques (Coaques, Cocos), Kohanis, Kronks, Kopanes (Copanes), and Karankawa (Carancaquacas) tribal bands. They inhabited the Texas Gulf Coast from Galveston Bay in the present-day Greater Houston area, and south to Corpus Christi Bay.

Disease, “land acquisitions”, conflicts with newcomers, wars, and typical genocide led them to extinction before 1860.

Karankawa Language

Only about a hundred words are preserved from their language of which is also called Karankawa. Researchers cannot be certain but Karankawa may have been related to the Coahuiltecan. Generally the name Karankawa is held to mean “dog-lovers” or “dog-raisers,” which seems creditable, since the Karankawas had a fox or coyote-like species of dogs. The Karankawas lived a nomadic-type culture and seasonally migrated between the mainland and the gulf coast barrier islands.

Environment

The many indigenous peoples that lived along the coast from Galveston Island to a an area southward far past Corpus Christi endured hardship from the elements. The tribal hunting and harvesting grounds along the coast were the bayous, bays, back bays, and lagoons . Shallow waters in the bay areas allowed them to wade out into the deep pools using lances or bows and arrows, to hunt fish as the older men, women and children search the waters for blue and stone crabs, sea turtles, mussels, oysters, shellfish, and other edible crustaceans. They also would hunt for deer and turtles.

They would eat oysters, clams, shellfish, redfish, black drum, spotted seatrout and the other abundant species of fish while they wintered around the coastal bays,  During hot weather and summer months, the oysters, clams and other shellfish are not safe to eat, and the fish make their yearly migration out of the coastal passes. This in turn would send the bands migrating inland. Hurricanes and summer tropical storms would have a great impact on their decision to move further inland as well. There are accounts that Karankawas temporarily migrated as far inland as Colorado County at Eagle Lake, close to 100 miles from the coastline.

They would traverse the bays in wooden dugouts while living in round thatch huts. Some of the campsites show a band populations of several hundred. Discarded clam and oyster shells made huge mounds around these camp sites. Their major land game animals were the deer and American Bison, as the discarded remains of these animals has been found at these camp sites. The long bow was their most prized hunting tool, some well over six foot long with arrow shafts as long as three feet. These made it easier to spot and retrieve them from the shallow waters. Karankawas also harvested local plants including berries, nuts, and roots. The Ilex vomitoria or the Yaupon Holly, was made into a tea, for it’s psychoactive effects from caffiene found in the leaves (Newcomb 79).

Spanish Conquistadors

The Karankawa peoples encountered Spaniards, led by Alvarez de Piñeda who was surveying the Gulf Coast in 1519. The Governor of Jamaica, Francisco de Garay, had commissioned him to explore the Gulf Coast from Florida to Veracruz.

The heavily tattooed, pierced, and painted nomadic Karankawa tribe held the islands for the most part in south Texas. Their territory was perhaps from the west end of Galveston Island down the coast to the mouth of the Rio Grande, and inland about 25-65 miles depending on the region. Superb hunters, fisherman, warriors and longbow archery experts, they were a powerful enemy to anyone wishing to take their prime hunting grounds away.

The impression they left on those that wrote of encounters with the tribes were monumental. The men were strikingly tall, described to be between six and almost seven feet (180-205 cm). They were tattooed and wore shell ornaments and many greased themselves down with shark liver oil to ward off mosquitoes and other biting insects. Additionally, the men pierced each nipple as well as the bottom lip of the mouth with small pieces of cane.

Karankawa encounters with Jean Lafitte

Lafitte relocated to the island of Galveston, Texas establishing another “kingdom” he named “Campeche,” after being run out of New Orleans around 1817. Lafitte either purchased or set his claim to a lavishly furnished mansion in Galveston used by French pirate Louis-Michel Aury, which he named “Maison Rouge”. The building’s upper level was converted into a fortress where cannon commanding Galveston harbor were placed. In 1819, a brief encounter between the Karankawa and Lafitte’s men proved to be a great loss for the natives. Three hundred Karankawa warriors tried to retrieve one of their women from Lafitte’s men. The cannons were used to defeat the natives inflicting a great loss to this group of fighters, and resulting in a further step toward tribal extinction.

Around 1820, Lafitte reportedly married Madeline Regaud, possibly the widow or daughter of a French colonist who had died during an ill-fated expedition to Galveston. In 1821, the schooner USS Enterprise was sent to Galveston to remove Lafitte’s presence from the Gulf after one of the pirate’s captains attacked an American merchant ship. Lafitte agreed to leave the island without a fight, and in 1821 or 1822 departed on his flagship, the Pride, burning his fortress and settlements and reportedly taking an immense treasure with him. All that remains of Maison Rouge is the foundation, located at 1417 Avenue A near the Galveston wharf. When Lafitte left Galveston Island in 1820, he made Jao de la Porta a full-time trader. [1]

Karankawa Cannibalism

Ritual cannibalism was common among the coastal tribes of Texas and Louisiana which was undertaken only upon one’s blood enemies. A Spanish Padre provided details of the ritual flesh eating ceremonies of the Karankawa in 1768. He noted that the Karankawa are portrayed as believing that eating the captive’s flesh would transfer the captive’s power and strength to those who consumed the flesh. The “savages” would tie down a captive to a stake and, dancing around the stake, they would shoot in, slice off a piece of flesh with a sharp blade, then cook it in front of the victim. Then the Karankawas would devour it, as their victims watched their own consumption.

Some recent authors have theorized that, at times, the Karankawa were mistaken for the Atakapa people, Gulf Coast tribes whose lands stretched from Galveston Bay to Vermillion Bay in Louisiana. The people of these tribes were known for their body tattoos and cannibalistic retribution upon their enemies.

Some scholar have cast doubt upon claims that the Karankawa were cannibals and have instead drawn attention to the original impression of the Karankawa given in the record of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1528. Finding Cabeza de Vaca, lost and frightened, washed ashore on Galveston Island with the few survivors of the ill-fated Pánfilo de Narváez Expedition, the Karankawa sat down and wept with them.

Karankawa Housing and Location

The Karankawa used animal skins on poles to make huts. They often built by the Gulf Coast. The Caddos among others were their regional neighbors.

External links

  • Newcomb, W. W. (1961). The Indians of Texas, from prehistoric to modern times. Austin, University of Texas Press.