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The Karankawa Indians

by R. Edward Moore


| Just the facts | Sources | The map |

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NEW, Karankawa names / language!!!!


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The Karankawa Indians lived along the Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico. See the map . Their territory was from the west end of Galveston Island down the coast to where Corpus Christie is today. There were several bands, or maybe even several tribes. We are not sure, because much of the history of the Karankawa is lost. No one bothered to study them in any detail while they were still around to study. Making things worse, the Karankawa were favorite targets of many false myths and made up stories.


One false myth is that they were cannibals. Yes, they sometimes ate the captured enemy warriors and leaders after a battle or war. They did not do this for food. They did it to get the magic power of the dead warrior or leader. Almost every other Texas Indian tribe did the same thing. This cannibalism is presented as one of the most important things about the Karankawa. That is not fair. Even though other Indian cultures did the same thing, it is not the first or most important thing you find out about them.

When Cabeza de Vaca told the Karankawa his starving companions had eaten the bodies of other expedition members the Karankawa were shocked. Why would so-called cannibals be shocked if they really were cannibals?

They were pretty good fighters and European settlers feared them. The Europeans also wanted the Karankawa's land. This may be why they made up so many bad myths about them. Many of the Karankawa warriors were over 6 feet tall. People were shorter back then and 6 foot tall Indians were really big. They had bows almost as tall as they were and shot long arrows made from slender shoots of cane. It is said they would suddenly show up in their canoes, seemingly out of no where, to attack. They would run away and retreat or escape the same way. They would go into the swamps and swampy woods were Europeans had a hard time following. There was a good reason why they were such good fighters and why they were so unfriendly to American settlers.

By the time American settlers came in contact with the Karankawa the Karankawa had already had some pretty bad experiences with Europeans. Early on, Spanish slave traders cruised along the coast of Texas and they would kidnap Karankawas by force or trickery and make slaves out of them. Later, the French, under the explorer LaSalle, were very unfriendly. The French stole two canoes without asking. They just took them. When the Karankawa asked that the canoes be given back the French refused and a shooting war between the French and Karankawa started. The French lost and LaSalle's small colony was destroyed by the Karankawas. From the Karankawa's point of view, every time the Europeans came around, the Europeans would try to steal from, kidnap, or kill the Karankawa. No wonder they were not very friendly. Seems like this happened to all the Indians in Texas and America. This was not always the case.

The Friendly Karankawa

When the Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca was shipwrecked on Galveston Island in 1528, the Karankawa treated him very well. They gave de Vaca and his companions food, shelter, and support. Cabeza de Vaca gives us the first recorded, and one of the better, accounts about the Karankawa. De Vaca lived with one of the Karankawa bands for several years and joined the band.

Mrs. Alice Oliver, as a child in the 1830s, spent so much time with the Karankawa she learned their language. Her father owned a ranch near the coast and was friendly to the Karankawa. He let them camp on and pass through his land. While they were camped on his land he let his daughter, Mrs. Oliver, hang around the camp with them. That is how she learned their language. They never tried to kidnap or hurt her, they were very friendly. Her 1880 account of their language is the only good surviving example of their language we have. Her recollections recorded by Charles Hammond for the Peabody Museum are one of the best eyewitness accounts we have because it is not biased. This doesn't sound like the untrustworthy, savage, bloodthirsty Karankawas we find described in so much of the literature. So, be friendly to them and they are friendly back to you. Shoot at them and steal from them and they will defend themselves and their families.

Notice I use the word "band" for groups of Karankawa and not tribe. We are not sure just how the Karankawa were organized politically. Judging by de Vaca's descriptions of the group sizes and the number of persons in band of Karankawas he lived with and the other Karankawa bands he met, they seem to be organized at a band level. ( If you don't know what I am talking about go back to the home page and read the anthropology stuff under read me first. and look up bands.) New research and archeology now give us more information to consider on Karankawa political organization. During the summer the Karankawa seemed to move inland and during the winter they seemed to camp near the water on the large bays and islands on the sea coast. Food is the reason for this.

During the winter large schools of several kinds of fish would come into the shallow water of the bays. These bays are shallow enough to wade around in. This made the fish easy to catch and there were lots and lots of them. They would catch fish like red fish and drum. There are also lots of easy to get shell fish like oysters and clams near the shore in the bays. These can only be safely eaten during the winter months.

The Karankawa seemed to like certain camp sites for these winter camps and would make a camp in the same place year after year. The Karankawa collected and ate so many oysters and clams the shells they threw away made big piles several feet high under these camp sites. The newest data from the archeologists seems to indicate that some of these winter camps were really good sized villages of several hundred persons living in huts. NEW 10-20-99 pictures of the kind of hut the Karankawa built -- the wickiup page!!! This is important because villages this size should require a tribal level of organization. So who was in charge or chief? What happened to these villages? Why is there not a historical record of them? One answer is that European diseases killed quite a few Indians very quickly. As many as 80 percent, thats 8 out of every ten, of the Indian people died. The Spanish slave raiders may have given these diseases to the Karankawa, de Vaca and his people certainly did. So much for the winter camps, what about the summer?

During the summer the schools of fish moved back into deep water off shore in the Gulf where the Karankawa could not reach them. The oysters and clams are not safe to eat in hot weather. So, to find food the Karankawa would break up into smaller groups or bands and go inland to hunt and gather. In the summer there are lots of berries and edible plants and plant roots. Early accounts, like de Vaca's, tell that the Karankawa seem to like a certain root that grew in shallow water. They would wade into the shallow water and collect lots of these roots. No one nowadays is really sure just what plant these roots came from. There are also deer, rabbits, turtles, turkeys and other edible animals. De Vaca tells about how sometimes food was hard to find and they went hungry for days at a time.


THE KARANKAWA ARE LIVE AND LIVING IN TEXAS!!

TexasIndians has found two groups of Karankawa in Texas. One of them is living with the Atakapan, but they live in Louisiana - in the swamps on the coast. They show up at meetings several times a year.

The other groups live in the Corpus Christi areas. 12 years ago some one sent a Email from TexasIndians saying that they are ancestors of the Karankawa. OK. I noted this and didn't do much more. Then I got another Email saying the same story. Every three or four years I would get more Email from families saying that they are Karankawa Indians. Now I have 5 Emails about it. All different people in different towns. Even better, they tell about the same story, and that's the real story.

They said they are from slaves captured by the Karankawa before the Civil War. They said that the White men massacred the Karankawa men. The children and the women were captured and made slaves to the White people in the area. The Karankawas women got married too Negro men. So their ancestors were both Black and Indian. Some of them were Mexicans. And their families still remember about the Karankawa Indian blood and they remember about the slaves.

So the Karankawa Indians ARE still alive and living in Texas.


   Ricklis' book, "The Karankawa Indians of Texas"  It is now out of print by the UT Press.


Now go to Just the facts for more.



Karankawa names/ language

Alligator : hoko

Arrow : denoa

Bear : kudn

Bow : gai

Canoa : awan

Chief : halba

Cloth : kwiss

Corn : kwiam

Deer : doatn

Dog : kiss

Duck : medau

Fire : kwatch

Friend : ahayika

Horse : kuwayi

Kitten : kitten

Knife : silakayi

Laugh : kaita

Octopus : am tehuta

Oyster : da

Snake : aud

Turtle : haitnlok

Water : gille

Good bye : atchata


Copyright by R Edward. Moore and Texarch Associates,1998, 2000, 2012 all rights reserved. Graphics may not be used or reproduced without prior permission. Short parts of text may be quoted in school reports. Longer quotes require prior written permission.

Hit Counter  2012 8/15/12 Reset every so often. Not accurate