Native Texans
Main Idea for Studying Native
Texas Tribes
• Native Texans developed their own distinct
cultures.
• Each group’s lifestyle and practices were
uniquely suited to its environment and
specific needs.
Learning Target:
• I can compare cultures of American Indians in
Texas prior to European colonization.
• I can identify cultural traits and methods of
adaptation/interaction based on the
geographic location of each tribe.
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Nomadic
Sedentary
Agriculture
Artifact
Forage
Dwelling
Definitions
• Nomadic – no fixed home and moves from place
to place in search of food, water, and/or grazing
land.
• Sedentary – to remain in one place
• Agriculture - The science, art, and business of
cultivating soil, producing crops, and raising
livestock; farming.
• Artifact - an object made by a human being,
typically an item of cultural or historical interest.
• Forage - search widely for food or provisions
• Dwelling – a place to live in
“Which Tribes, and Where Did They
Live?”
Plains Cultures
KIOWAS
COMANCHES
WICHITA
CADDO
TIGUA
APACHE
Pueblo Cultures
JUMANOS
TONKAWA
KARANKAWAS
COAHUILTECANS
Southeastern
and Gulf
Cultures
The Caddo
The Caddo
•
A very civilized tribe that lived in organized villages. The most
numerous and most productive of all Texas tribes
• Primarily farmers - farming was the best way to get food. Their
region had plentiful rainfall, rivers, creeks, springs, and an ideal
climate for farming. There were no big herds of buffalo or
other animals…just the occasional buffalo or deer. (sedentary)
• They built dome-shaped permanent dwellings from timber,
mud, straw
• They made beautiful pottery to store grains, food, seeds.
(typical of a farming culture)
• They lived in the Piney Woods and created several tools to
work with wood. (stone axe)
The Caddo…continued
• Caddo often engaged in warfare.
• Formed their own government that consisted of two
leaders – women could also be leaders.
• From 1520-1690, population shrank from around
200,000 to only 12,000 b/c of European disease.
• The Caddo formed confederations to protect and
defend themselves from other tribes with their large
numbers.
• They also traded goods all over Texas, the Mississippi
river valley and the southeastern United States.
Caddo Timeline
http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/tejas/fundamentals/timeline.html
The Karankawa
The Karankawa
• Coastal dwellers who used the resources in the Gulf and bays.
• Semi-sedentary. In the fall and winter, they would live by the sea or bays
when shellfish are safe to eat. Lots of food coming into the bays means
they could stay in one place without moving and without farming. For the
spring and summer, they would later move inland as hunter gatherers for
the rest of the year to harvest berries and hunt deer.
• Made Canoes from trunks of trees (prized possession), Made nets and
wickiup houses similar to the Caddo, but not as permanent.
• Very little information about the Karankawa exists, but they seemed to
have been friendly. They shared the inland areas they roamed in with
other tribes and they traded with many other tribes.
• When North American settlers moved to the Coastal Plains in the 1820’s
fighting broke out. By the mid 1800’s almost all Karankawa had been
displaced or killed.
The Coahuiltecans
The Coahuiltecans
• “Coahuiltecan” is the term used to categorize all the
indigenous peoples (hundreds of hunter-gatherer
groups)of the south Texas plains and northeastern
Mexico.
• All members enjoyed equal status. Everyone had to
work…men hunted, women took care of the camp
• Rarely stayed in one place more than a few
weeks…constantly on the move to find food.
• Used bows and arrows to hunt deer, bison, and
javelina. When game was scarce, they would gather
cacti, mesquite, and other plants or would eat worms,
lizards, and plants
The Plains Cultures
(Comanche, Kiowa, Apache, Tonkawa)
The Native Texans that lived
on the plains based their lives
and their culture on the
buffalo.
Large parts of North, Central, and West Texas
were a sea of grass that provided a plentiful
food supply for millions of buffalo.
Plains Indians
•
Lived in North, West, and Central Texas
•
These tribes based lives and cultures around buffalo …for food and shelter
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Dried buffalo meat for jerky
Pounded dried meat and mixed it with nuts/berries to form Pemmican
Used bones for tools
Used hide for clothes, tepees, shoes, blankets
•
Nomadic people —followed the buffalo
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Used dogs to drag things from place to place
•
First cultures to fully incorporate horses into culture
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Willing to aggressively claim territory & resources
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Also gathered plants for food
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Family was basis of society
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Groups of families banded together under one chief
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Groups were very self-sufficient and brave
The Apache
• Occupied Northern Great Plains region
• Originally semi-sedentary – Apache farmed and after harvest,
they hunted buffalo on foot (before the Spanish brought
horses) – Apache would run/scare buffalo off of a cliff
• After horses, hunting was much easier. The Apache gave up
farming and became nomadic hunters.
• Continued to migrate south until they ran into Comanche
around central Texas. Comanche forced Apache to split into
two groups…one went south (Lipan). The other group
(Mescalero’s) went west to where the Jumano and Tigua tribes
once lived.
The Kiowa
Allies to the Comanche
Nomadic, lived in tepees
Similar to Comanche lifestyle, adaptations.
Kept histories of their travels and painted pictures on buffalo
hides to record important events in their lives.
• All males were members of a warrior society. Men also hunted
while women gathered.
• Kiowa famous for long-distance raids. Some raids all the way
down to Mexico from the Panhandle and some raids went all
the way up to Canada.
• Forced onto reservations in the 1860’s.
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The Comanche
The Comanche
• Comanche migrated from Canada in the 1700’s.
• Comanche life centered on two activities – hunting and war
• Buffalo hunts were important events that involved the whole
group – hunters on horses surrounded the buffalo and forced the
herd to move in a circle. Then the hunters would use bows,
arrows, and spears to make kills when the buffalo passed by. The
Comanche would eat some of the meat, but always dried and
saved the remainder for another time.
• Captured horses, taken from Comanche enemies were prized
possessions. The Comanche became so skilled at riding, that the
Spanish referred to them as “lords of the plains”
• The Comanche continued to keep their land and fight until 1875.
The destruction of the buffalo herds and loss of their horses forced
them to accept reservation life in Indian Territory (present day
Oklahoma)
• Comanche viewed their children as their most precious gift.
Children were rarely punished.
The Tonkawa
• The Tonkawa lived in central Texas near
modern Austin
• Tonkawa means, "the people of the Wolf".
The Tonkawa claimed they were all
descended from a mythical wolf. For this
reason the Tonkawa would never kill a
wolf.
• They refused to farm because they said they
were wolves and wolves hunted for food
and did not farm. So they got their food by
hunting and gathering
• The Tonkawa lived in both huts, wickiups
and tee-pees.
• The Tonkawa tattooed their bodies and
faces. They would have black tattooed lines
all over their bodies
Pueblo Cultures
• Jumanos
Jumano
• Lived in the arid west Texas Mountains and Basins region near
present day El Paso.
• Built individual homes from adobe and formed villages in
low river valleys of the Rio Grande. Homes were large,
stayed cool in the winter, warm in the summer, and in the dry
climate, lasted a very long time.
• Sedentary – farmers – used irrigation methods with the Rio
Grande as their water source. They grew a variety of crops
and some scholars believe they grew cotton as well.
• When crops failed, they would forage and hunt to meet their
food needs.
• The Jumano decorated themselves with tattoos
1.
Far West Texas Indians
Jumanos
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
2.
Lived in farming villages of one-room houses along the Rio Grande
from El Paso to Big Bend
Houses were made of Adobe (cool in summer and warm in winter)
Houses were brightly painted inside
Planted crops along rivers
Sometimes hunted and traded
Tiguas
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
Came to Texas in late 1600s with Spanish settlers avoiding Pueblo
uprising in New Mexico
Settled along Rio Grande near El Paso
Lived in adobe houses
Cooked food in round adobe ovens
Hunted, fished, and grew corn, tomatoes, squash, beans, and grapes
Made beautiful pottery cooking and storing food
Grew cotton and wove it into cloth
Ysleta del Sur…oldest continuous settlement in Texas
Jornada
a.
b.
c.
d.
Far West Texas Indians
Sedentary
Originally “pit” housing…partially underground
Transition to Pueblo style adobe housing
GONE BY 1400…?