Mondo's NAT #249 - Karankawa

Native American Tribes series.

Karankawa

A term that seems to have the Brazos in 1823 began the decline of been given originally to a small tribe near the tribe near Matagorda bay, Texas, but its application has been extended to include a number of related tribes between Galveston bay and Padre Island. The signification of the name has not been ascertained.

The first positive notice of them is found in the accounts of La Salle's ill-fated visit to that section. It was on Matagorda bay, in the country of the tribe at that time, that this French explorer built his Ft St Louis. Joutel (1687) mentions them under the name Koïenkahé probably a misprint for Korenkake, which is also given.

It appears from documents in the Texas archives that in 1793 a part of the Karankawa had become Christianized and were then living at the mission of Nuestra Señora del Refugio, established in 1791 at the mouth of Mission river emptying into Aransas bay. The pagan portion of the tribe lived at that time contiguous to the Lipan. Later a number of the tribe were living at the mission of Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga.

With the settlement made by Stephen Austin on the Brazos in 1823 began the decline of the tribe. Conflicts between the settlers and the Indians were frequent, and finally a battle was fought in which about half the tribe were slain, the other portion fleeing for refuge to La Bahia presidio on San Antonio river. They took sides with the Americans in the Texan war of independence, in which their chief, Jose Maria, was killed, as were most of his warriors, amounting, however, to only about 20.

The men are described as very tall and well formed, the women as shorter and fleshier. Their hair was unusually coarse, and worn so long by many of the men that it reached to the waist. Agriculture was not practiced by these Indians, their food supply being obtained from the waters, the chase, and wild plants, and, to a limited extent, human flesh; for, like most of the tribes of the Texas coast, they were cannibals. Travel among them was almost wholly by the canoe, or dugout, for they seldom left the coast. Head flattening and tattooing were practiced to a considerable extent. Little is known is regard to their tribal government, further than that they had civil and war chiefs, the former being hereditary in the male line.