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Native Peoples of the Coastal Region during the Early Historic Period
Textbox: In this Section
Peoples of the Rio Grande Delta
Peoples of the Middle Coast: Mariames, Karankawa
Peoples of the Upper Coast: Atakapa, Bidai
Coastal-nativemap; Map of approximate locations of native groups during Historic
period. The coming of Anglo-Europeans to the coastal region triggered movement among
the native groups, as they eventually were pressured into mission settings, or into
Mexico, where they were assimilated into other native groups or died out over time.
Fishing-tpwd: Native fishermen haul in their catch from coastal waters. Archeological
evidence indicates many groups established large fishing camps during the late and fall
and winter. Black drum and other fish school and spawn in the bays and near the mouths
of rivers and streams during this season. Image courtesy Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department.
Metal-points-tierra-1988-15-1-fig3: Metal points made of iron scrap found near the site
of the circa 1820s Spanish post, Fort Lipantitlan. The site is near a crossing of the
Nueces River historically known as campgrounds of Lipan Apache. Whether the points
were made by the Indians, or by the Spanish to trade with the Indians, is not known.
Image from La Tierra 1988 15(1): Fig.3. The Lipans were pushed southward by
Europeans and other Native groups; they, in turn, preyed on local Coastal Indians.
Lower coast images
Barriero-1770-inset; Indian villages, or rancherías, are shown dotting the landscape
near the Rio Grande delta and up the coast in this 1770 map by Barreiro. Although the
Spanish encountered numerous Native groups in much earlier expeditions, no group
names were recorded until well into the 18th century.
Gunflint-french-belle: Example of typical spall-type French gunflint. Such objects,
found in Native campsites such as 41CF136, may indicate contact with Europeans or
recycling of discarded objects. Photo courtesy of Texas Historical Commission.
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Berlandier-geese-duck; Wildlife of the lower Rio Grande near Matamoros, Mexico, as
documented by the Berlandier expedition ca. 1826-1830.
Palm-tpwd; Sabal palms grow among sugar hackberry trees near the Rio Grande delta.
These and other plants of this semi-tropical area provided an array of food and shelter
resources for Native peoples of this area. Photo by Chase Fountain, courtesy of Texas
Parks and Wildlife Department.
Wrecks-crossbow; Examples of Spanish weapons of the 1500s. These crossbows were
recovered from shipwrecks south of Corpus Christi Bay. Image from Olds 1976.
Textbox: Accounts suggest that the Native attack was rapid, well planned, and did not
allow the foreign intruders the means or time to counter-attack. The events are
remarkable considering that the Native weapons—bows and arrows—would have paled
in response to well-aimed firings from the cannons on Spanish ships.
Saldere: Northern Mexico Indian traders at La Sal del Rey lake, circa A. D. 1400, near
present-day Harlingen. Many cultures, including the Huastecans and the Aztecs, sent
trading parties to the lake to mine the valuable white mineral. The salt was prized during
later times as well. Painting by Jose Cisneros. Courtesy of the Museum of South Texas
History. Learn more about Sal del Rey (link to /st-plains/images/he5.html).
Make Textbox with border like st-plains: http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/stplains/peoples/index.html)
Textbox: Groups North of the Rio Grand
in the 1700s
Hunpuzliegut (Vnpuncliegut)
Tunlepem (Tugum lepem)
Sepinpacam (Sepin pacam)
Parammatugu (Paranapa matuju)
Perpepug
Coucuguyapem
Tlanchugin (Clancluiguygu)
Tlanchugin (Clancluiguygu)
Pexpacux (Perpacug)
Hueplapiaguilam (Lugplapiaguilam)
Imasacuajulam (Masa cuajulam)
Escandon-map-jackson; Map of Spanish ranchos sited between the Nueces and Rio
Grande rivers during the eighteenth century; adapted from map by Jack Jackson.
Textbox: Groups South of the Rio Grande
In 1700s
Inyopacanes
Atanguipacanes (Atanaguispacanes, Atanaguapaypam)
Aaulapaquet (Saulapaquet, Saulapaguet)
Aretpeguem
Calexpaquet (Alacalerpaguet)
Sagutmapacam
Sicalasyampaquet (Si. Cajayn paguet)
Igiguipacam
Cospacam(Coospascan)
Apemapem (Apernapem, Apen napen)
Humalayapem (Humalaiapem, Vmalayapem)
Guajopoctiyo (Guajepocotiyo, Guajopoco ayo)
Sumacualapem (Sanacualapem)
Berlandier-carrizo-164; Carrizos Indians of the Rio Grande, as drawn by Lino Sánchez
y Tapia after José María Sánchez y Tapia with the Berlandier expedition in the 1830s.
Numerous native groups still persisted in some traditional lifeways, but incorpotaed
elements of European culture, such as guns and clothing.
Textbox: The Indians waded out into the water that was sometimes waist deep, quickly
taking large numbers of fish. Another source…noted that fishing was seasonal and that
fish were dried and stored for later use…. Indians fished during the winter when foods
were scarce….[L]ong nets [were used], made from soft yucca fibers with a mesh so fine
that even the smallest fish were caught. -Escandon 1750
Prickly-pear: Prickly pear cactus with ripe fruits, or tunas. The plant was gathered
seasonally by Natives of the lower coastal area and throughout south Texas. Image
courtesy Alston Thoms.
Images to try to put in area of Middle coast section:
Karankawa-weir: Karanakwa Indians on the Texas coast. Note characteristic tattoos
and shell ornaments. Painting by Frank Weir, courtesy of Texas Sea Grant College
Program, Texas A&M University.
Karankawa-language; Words in Karankawa (Clamcoeh) language recalled by JeanBaptiste Talon in 1698. The young Frenchman, along with his four siblings, was
captured by the Karankawa during their brutal attack on Fort St. Louis, near present-day
Victoria. The Talon children lived among the group for several years, during which time
they absorbed much of the Karankawa culture and language and were tattooed in
traditional style.
Rockport-black-on-gray; Karankawa pottery, classified by archeologists as Rockport
ware, is distinctive for use of black asphaltum, a natural beach tar applied both as
decoration and, more critically, to waterproof vessel interiors. Drawing by Frank Weir.
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Guadalupe-scene-weir: Large Karankawa fishing camp on a bluff overlooking a
shallow bay. In seasonal camps such as these, dozens of families congregated to harvest
fish and shellfish, make tools, and socialize. Portable huts constructed of wooden frames
covered with skins or fiber mats provided shelter. Although this scene is based on the
Late Prehistoric Guadalupe Bay site at circa 1200 A.D., it depicts a successful way of
life which survived well into Historic times. Painting by Frank Weir. See Patterns of the
Past (coast/patterns/index.html) for full, interactive version of the scene, showing
artifacts.
Guadalupe-birmingham; The Guadalupe River, or River of Nuts, winds its way to San
Antonio Bay through Victoria. The Mariames made their home along its wooded banks,
where they found a variety of plant and animal resources as well as quality tool stone in
the river gravels. Photo by Bill Birmingham.
Pecan: Pecans were a staple food for the Mariames and other groups of the Coastal
plains.
Textbox: Sometimes they kill some deer, and at times, they take some fish. But this is so
little and their hunger so great that they eat spiders and ant eggs and worms and lizards
and salamanders and snakes and vipers that kill the men they bit, and they eat earth and
wood and whatever they can get, and the dung of deer and other things which I refrain
from telling, and I believe truthfully that if in that land there were rocks, they would eat
them. - Cabeza de Vaca
Roots-thoms; Roots of the globeberry plant. According to archeologist Alston Thoms,
this south Texas plant may have been one of the root foods sought by Mariames and
other inland groups of the central coast. Other possible root foods are wild onions, wine
cup, and star grass. See Learning from Cabeza de Vaca for more detail. (Link to
/cabeza-cooking/index.html).
Surround; Mariame hunters sometimes hunted deer using “surround” fires. Hunters,
carrying torches and weapons, lit grass fires and drove the animals into herds. This
strategy allowed them to dispatch their prey in large numbers. Drawing by Ted
DeGrazia, courtesy of the DeGrazia Foundation
Images for upper coast
Alzata-ramirez-1768-upper: Inset of 1768 map of Provincia de los Texas, showing
locations of Spanish presidios and missions. In this cropped version, the proximity of
Native groups of the upper coast is illustrated with Tierra de los Cocos (Karankawas)
shown near the mouth of the Colorado River, the Orcoquiza (Akokisa) near the Neches,
and the Bidai (Vidais) shown at the edge of the map near the border of Louisiana.
“Nuevo Mapa Geographico de la America Septentrional” by Joseph Antonio de Alzate y
Ramirez.
Atakapan: An Atakapan man skillfully maneuvers his dugout canoe through an inland
waterway. Though few in number at the time of European contact, the Atakapans
occupied a wide swath of territory along the southeastern Texas and Louisiana coast.
While the more inland Atakapan groups may have practiced farming like their Caddo
neighbors, the coastal groups drew heavily on marine resources. Drawing by Hal Story
(Newcomb 1961), courtesy of University of Texas Press.
Burial-weir: Artist’s depiction of burial ceremony of Akokisa or Atakapan peoples on the
upper coast. The grave, one of several dozen at the site, dates to based on archeological
evidence from the Mitchell Ridge Site.
aten-1983-fig-3-2; Tumultous change. This map by archeologist Lawrence Aten
graphically depicts the movement of coastal groups as other Native peoples and EuroAmerican settlers pushed into the upper and central coast region. Enlarge to see full map.
Adapted from Aten 1983 (Fig. 3-2).
Images for credits section:
Aten-1983 Lawrence Aten’s 1938 book, “Indians of the Upper Texas Coast.” Small only
Ricklis1966; Cover of “The Karankawa Indians of Texas” by Robert Ricklis. Small only
Salinas1990: Cover of “Indians of the Rio Grande Delta” by Martin Salinas.
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Native Peoples of the Coastal Prairies and Marshlands in Early Historic Times
The Texas Coastal Prairies and Marshlands is a region abundant in diverse resources. Bordering
the Gulf of Mexico, with its bays, estuaries, and barrier islands, and tracking inland into sandy
dunes, brackish marshlands, floodplain forests, and prairie grasslands, the narrow region winds
along the coast for more than 600 miles, from Port Arthur to Brownsville. For thousands of
years, aboriginal peoples fished and collected marine resources along the sandy shores and
trekked across the prairies and marshes in search of wild game and fruiting plants.
In more recent times, remnant groups of these longstanding cultures—the Atakapans,
Bidai Karankawa, Mariames, and others unnamed—were encountered by European
explorers, soldiers, and missionaries. Their prodigious journals and official reports
provide first-hand glimpses of the region’s native groups engaged in traditional lifeways
that had changed very little over the centuries: fishing and collecting marine resources along
the sandy shores, and hunting and gathering wild game and fruiting plants across the prairies and
marshlands. Among the earliest accounts are the 1537 journal of Cabeza de Vaca and the
1680s chronicle by the Frenchman Henri Joutel, one of La Salle’s colonists on the Texas
coast. These accounts differ greatly in perspective: Cabeza de Vaca and his shipwrecked
companions lived as captives among a succession of Native groups in south Texas and
along the coast. As a condition of his existence, he “became” a Native, performing
grueling labors alongside Native women: grubbing for roots “from morning to night,”
gathering plants and firewood, butchering animals. As such, his accounts are an insider’s
view in the truest sense, providing unprecedented details about Native lifeways (see the
TBH exhibit Revelations about Hunter-Gatherer Foodways at the Dawn of Written
History in Texas for a detailed account of Cabeza de Vaca and his journeys link to
cabeza-cooking/index.html) .
Joutel’s diary, written some 150 years later, is written from the perspective of a colonist,
albeit a hapless and unintentional one, encountering Native groups (chiefly Karankawa)
who viewed La Salle and his colonists at Fort St. Louis as unwelcome intruders in their
land. The Frenchman, intent on sustaining the meager colony in the wilderness while
struggling with the erratic behavior of La Salle, made little mention of Native ways, other
than recording their periodic threats and attacks on the settlers.
Later Spanish expeditions across the region during the 17th and 18th centuries produced
numerous documents mentioning their encounters with native groups. All of these
eyewitness accounts of Native peoples practicing traditional ways help us bridge the gap
between the distant prehistoric past—represented by mute artifacts and traces in the
dirt—and the modern world.
From these records we learn that, although the many Native groups along the coast had their own
distinctive traditions, languages, and names for themselves, they were linked by an intimate
knowledge of nature, the land and resources of their area. Many practiced similar subsistence
strategies, involving seasonal movements from the coastal shores to the inland prairies to harvest
resources as they became available. Use of dugout canoes was critical to transportation, both
along the coastal bays and shallows as well as up rivers and streams into the interior. Key
differences among coastal peoples are seen in mortuary traditions—there are no recorded
cemetery sites for the Karankawa—and varied responses to the European intrusion. Many Native
peoples were pressured southward into the traditional territories of other Native groups, others
forced into slavery, and others, such as the Karankawa, enticed or coerced into Spanish missions.
These relatively rapid changes, coupled with the typical movements of foraging peoples, make it
difficult to determine fixed locations of Native groups along the vast Texas Gulf coast during
historic times. The coming of the Europeans—as well as intruding Native Plains raiders, such as
the Comanche, Tonkawa, and Apache—triggered a period of devastating cultural upheaval and
movement among coastal Native groups. The sicknesses brought by Spanish missionaries
and French traders devastated entire villages. Mission Atakapans were stricken twice by
disease in the 1750s. Karankawas suffered a "devastating scourge" of measles and/or
smallpox in 1766. It was a story repeated across the region: warfare, disease, death, or
assimilation. Within the course of just a few centuries, most of the Coastal native societies were
gone forever.
Several exhibits on Texas Beyond History feature data from protohistoric, or late-period,
archeological sites, providing a look at the physical traces left by Native peoples living during the
time of early European entry: tools, ornaments, ritual items, and burials. In sites such as the
Mitchell Ridge Cemetery site (hotlink to www.texasbeyondhistory.net/mitchell/index.html) near
Galveston, we see not only European objects, such as glass trade beads, intermixed with
traditional Native objects, but also provocative bioarcheologcial evidence suggesting
interbreeding among Native and European populations.
Run across page, with one caption :
Glasspoint-sm;
GV-RR-F63-necklace-sm
Shanklin-escutcheon-sm:
Signs of trade and contact. Native weapons, tools, and ornaments made of chipped
glass and metal provide tangible evidence of traditional technologies in transition, as
Europeans began spreading their influence and goods across the coastal region. At left
is a chipped-glass arrowpoint made from a Spanish wine bottle. The artifact was found in
a Native campsite at the Linn Lake (link to /st-plains/images/he9.html) site in Victoria
County. The gold coloration is caused by patination, or weathering.Photo by Bill
Birmingham; drawing by Richard McReynolds. Shown in center is a necklace of
European glass trade beads strung together with Native bone ornaments, found in an
early historic Native burial at the Mitchell Ridge Cemetery (link to
/Mitchell/index.html) (41GV1) on Galveston Island. Photo by Robert Ricklis. At right is
a spear point made from an iron keyhole eschutcheon. It was found at the Shanklin Site
(link to /coast/images/he3) in Wharton County, along with a silver Spanish “piece of
eight” coin and a quantity of chipped-stone tools and Native pottery. Photo by Susan
Dial, TARL Collections. Click to enlarge. Heather: just make an html for each and add
the bit of pertinent caption above for each.
In the following sections, we look first at the lesser known Native populations of the lower coast,
the peoples of the Rio Grande delta. From there we work upward to the Indians of the central
coast—the Mariames and the Karankawa—and finally to the groups of the upper coast—the
Atakapan speakers and Bidai.
Peoples of the Lower Coast and Rio Grande Delta
When the waters of the Rio Grande reach their destination at the Gulf of Mexico, they
have traveled over 1,800 miles from the snow melt high in the Rocky Mountains.
Throughout their journey, these waters provided a rich environment for the Native
peoples who occupied the river’s banks. Teeming with fish, acting as a magnet for birds
and wildlife, and giving nutrients to plants, the river offered a cornucopia of potential
foods for the people who lived near it. Nowhere was that food more plentiful than at its
mouth in modern Cameron County, Texas. Here, the Rio offered up not only the fish,
wildlife, and a variety of plant resources as it did upstream, but, its mouth opened to a
variety of salt water resources such as clams, oysters, and salt-water fish. The Native
peoples here in the Rio Grande delta, like Native people elsewhere in Texas, were
knowledgeable about their environment and exploited the best of its resources when they
were available. When those resources were not available, they survived by eating less
nutritious foods, or by gathering their children and loved ones and moving elsewhere
where other foods were could be found.
Our knowledge of the Native people who lived in the Rio Grande delta when Europeans
first came to this river’s banks is imperfect. From the archeological record we know that
the region had been occupied by Native groups for thousands of years. Archeologists
believe that during the early historic era the region was well-populated by descendants of
the prehistoric inhabitants, and this is borne out by historic records. However, not many
sites dating to this time period have been recorded. A few sites, such as 41CF136 in
Cameron County contain both Native-made shell implements as well as a French musket
gunflint and a thin piece of copper wire. These objects may represent contact with
Europeans or recycling of discarded materials. Re-use of European goods is well
documented in the region. In the 1750s, a Spaniard, Escandón, reported seeing a boat on
the Rio San Fernando southwest of the mouth of the Rio Grande. Made from milled
lumber, the boat had been fashioned from the remains of a French vessel and was being
used as a fishing vessel by the Comecrudos, a local Indian nation.
Why there are so few sites with evidence of European contact is puzzling, but may be
attributed to cascading factors. Compared to other regions, few sites have been excavated
in the Rio Grande delta. Those that have generally show low densities of artifacts,
perhaps making some archeologists reluctant to dig at sites with likely meager results. At
the same time, numerous archeological sites may have been eradicated in the crush of
commercial and residential development in the area.
In contrast with the archeological record, the ethnohistorical record—documents, maps,
and drawings—offers some hope for understanding the Native peoples of the Lower
Coast, although it too is less robust than desired. An excellent summary of the
documentary record was published in 1990 by Martín Salinas, entitled Indians of the Rio
Grande Delta, Their Role in the History of Southern Texas and Northeastern Mexico.
Intrigued by the Native peoples who resided on both sides of the Rio Grande prior to the
establishment of Texas, he researched Spanish, English, and French records, maps, and
other documents dating prior to 1850 to learn about the original inhabitants of his native
land.
Early Spanish reports of expeditions mounted by Francisco Gary to assess the delta and
its resources—including potential native laborers—provide glimpses of fierce local
Natives resisting in the face of European might. In the first expedition in 1519, four ships
stopped at the mouth of the Rio Grande for 40 days. While there, an exploring party was
sent up the river some 16 miles. In this exploratory effort the Spaniards counted 40
rancherias or encampments of Indians—a quantity that is relatively substantial for such a
short distance. At first, the Native peoples treated the light-skinned strangers as friends,
or at least as equals who merited a polite greeting. As a result of this friendly reception,
Garay, the governor of Jamaica, sent three more ships with 150 men, seven horses, and
some artillery to the mouth of this same river. This expedition, however, was not to
merely explore the region more fully, but also to occupy the land along the Rio Grande.
Sensing this change in intent, the Natives made it clear that they were not pleased, and
put into play a plan of their own. They mustered large numbers of reinforcements, likely
accomplished by dispatching runners from one rancheria to another. Then, using canoes,
the Natives drove Spanish boats from the river. During the process, 18 Spanish soldiers
were killed along with horses. Garay’s Spanish soldiers, recognizing that they were
outmaneuvered, fled south by boat and by land. Accounts suggest that the attack was
rapid, well planned, and did not allow the foreign intruders the means or time to counterattack. The events are remarkable considering that the Native weapons—bows and
arrows—would have paled in response to well-aimed firings from the cannons on
Spanish ships. The planning, the ability to bring together a large force, and the will to
carry out their threat are indicators of the fierceness of the local Native population and
their attachment to their land.
Two more attempts by Garay were met with equal effectiveness by the Native peoples,
first with another armed response, then with a well-planned disappearance into the brush
country. Absent Natives to serve as worker bees for his colony, Garay decided to travel
south to Mexican ports. His departure from the Rio Grande gave local Native Peoples
nearly 200 years of peace from Spanish intrusions into the delta region.
No Names?
One of the curious aspects of early documents pertaining to the lower coast is that no
names are provided for any of the Rancherias or the Native people themselves. This is
unusual. In most expeditions, the Spanish either phonetically wrote down the names the
people gave for themselves, or they arbitrarily assigned names to the people based on
their physical characteristics, hair style or color, unique qualities of the physical place
they lived, or some other unique characteristic. Yet, no names were assigned to the
rancherías or Native peoples encountered in 1519.
In the mid-1700s, this trend of not naming groups changed—with a vengeance. Salinas
discovered an abundance of Native group names in the records for this period, but most
represented groups who had moved to the Rio Grande delta after 1600. About that time,
Spanish settlement began south of the Rio Grande in Nuevo León. By 1650, some 350
named Indian groups were recognized in that region. We do not know that they
represented “tribes” per se. Some may have been small family lineages. Others may have
represented villages. The names, however, were repeated in multiple Spanish documents
suggesting that these groups had some permanency in the region. One of the facts that
became clear to the Spanish during this period is that most of the groups in eastern Nuevo
Leon were, or at least included among them, people displaced from regions to the west.
These groups were generally hostile to the Spanish settlements and ranches and
consistently raided them.
In 1747, Jose de Escandon began establishing colonies in northeastern Mexico. In Texas,
Escandon’s settlements were established on both sides of the Rio Grande, many of them
in the area of modern Laredo. However, he also established some settlements in
Tamaulipas, just south of the Rio Grande. Documents associated with his initial
settlements and subsequent inspections of these settlements offer more information on the
Native peoples who had moved into the Rio Grande delta region of the Lower Texas
coast. From his reconnaissance of the region north and south of the Rio Grande in 1747,
we learn the names of the then resident native groups, as shown in the table below.
Groups are listed in the order encountered by Escandon, along with alternative spellings
and pronunciations in Spanish. It is doubtful that groups listed in the same row shown in
the table lived across the river from each other, but the listings give a sense of their
distance from the mouth of the Rio Grande and the Rio San Juan. Some of these groups
may have had remnants of the original inhabitants that Garay and his men encountered
200 years previously. While no population counts are available for groups living north of
the river, Escandon puts the population of Native peoples south of the river at 2,500
families. Perhaps a similar number existed north of the Rio Grande.
Some names in the table were given Spanish equivalents. Masa cuajulam were said to be
Los que andan solos meaning “those who walk alone. Paranpa matuju were called
bemejos los hombres meaning “the men are red.” Salinas says this “may refer to skin
color or, perhaps more likely, to male use of red pigment for body painting on special
occasions.” Perpepug meant cabezas blancas or “white heads” in English, perhaps
referring to the forehead. Peupuetem were said to be los que hablan differente meaning
“those who speak differently.” Whether this refers to a different language or a unique
accent is not clear. Segujulapem were said to be los que viven in los Guiachs meaning
“those who live in huisache thickets.” Sepin pacam were said to be los salineros or the
salt makers. There are several important saline lakes north of the Rio Grande, the largest
known as El Sal del Rey. (hot links http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/stplains/images/he5.html) A number of sites have been recorded around the site and likely
represent efforts of local prehistoric and historic Native peoples to exploit the rich salt
deposits that are found on the soil around the lake. The Sepim pacam may have resided in
the general vicinity of this lake.
Comecrudos
Three groups of Native peoples were called Comecrudos in the 1700s, a term meaning
“those who eat raw food.” Two lived south in Tamaulipas, but the third is associated with
the Rio Grande delta. Salinas believes that is it unlikely that any of them were related.
Their name appears to represent the Spanish characterization of their dietary habits.
Those associated with the Rio Grande delta region may have been noted in some
documents from the 1730s when there was a reference to raw food being consumed near
the Rio San Juan. However, Escandon clearly noted them in his 1747 reconnaissance of
the Rio Grande. At that time, they were led by a “Captain Santiago” (note the Spanish
surname) who led other Indians in the region along with the Comecrudos. Escandon,
camping near modern Matamoros, evidently asked him to bring other groups to visit with
him. Captain Santiago did so via smoke signals, and some 200 families responded to the
signals. They represented some 30 different groups then living in the area. Escandon
stated that the Comecrudos, however, were the most numerous group among them.
In subsequent years, life for the Comecrudos became harsh. They moved into Mission
San Joaquin del Monte at modern Reynosa, Mexico around 1749. At that time they
numbered around 150. By 1757, only 95 were listed in the census of the mission. They
remained at the mission as late as 1886, but numbered only 25 by that time.
Little is known about the daily lives of the Comecrudos, but we can infer some important
aspects of their diet, clothing, and customs. Certainly, fishing was important to groups
living along the Rio Grande near its mouth. In the 1680s Indians gave Spaniards fish, and
Escandon reported that fish continued to be important to them in the 1750s. Salinas
describes reports of bow and other types of fishing in the coastal lagoons of the mouth of
the Rio Grande: “The Indians waded out into the water that was sometimes waist deep,
quickly taking large numbers of fish. Another source…noted that fishing was seasonal
and that fish were dried and stored for later use….Indians fished during the winter when
foods were scarce….[L]ong nets [were used], made from soft yucca fibers with a mesh so
fine that even the smallest fish were caught.” Wild plants were also important in their
diet, particularly prickly pear tunas, mesquite bean pods, and maguey root crowns.
Men were generally described without clothing. Women wore only skirts of animal skins
or grass. Cabeza de Vaca and his companions found this to be especially difficult. They
were often cold during the winters. By the late 1700s, both sexes were reported to wear
skins or cloth clothing, likely an adaptation to Spanish influences. Many of the Rio
Grande groups practiced tattooing. Whether the Comecrudos did is not known.
In the 1830s, Jean Louis Berlandier, traveling along the Rio Grande during his expedition
to Mexico, made note of the small native groups such as the Garzas and Carissos
[Carrizos] still living in somewhat traditional lifeways and linked by a common enmity
toward Comanche raiders.
The huts which form the outskirts of Mier are inhabited by a single tribe of
indigenes known as the Garzas, who resemble the Carrizos in every way.
All speak Spanish perfectly and besides have preserved their own particular
tongue… The chief and his subjects…have not retained anything of a savage
life, other than their nudity and a taste for travels I the forests. They go
hunt in the forest to provide for their subsistence…. All these distinct
nations—formerly savage and today reduced to living in society—preserve
an implacable hatred of the Comanche, against whom they have sometimes
waged war in favor of Mexican towns.
Much has changed on the Rio Grande delta since the time when aboriginal peoples lived
there. In 1519, Spanish explorer Alonso Alvarez reported that the river's mouth was more
than 30 feet deep; he could sail his four large vessels some 20 miles up the river. Today
the Rio Grande typically is little more than a trickle when it empties into the Gulf of
Mexico.
Run across page: karankawa-newcomb-story; A Karankawa man in a dugout canoe
watches, with bow and arrow ready for passing fish off the Texas coast. Drawing by Hal
Story (from Newcomb 1984, courtesy of University of Texas Press).
Peoples of the Middle Coast
The middle stretch of the Texas coastal shores and inland grassy plains was the domain
of the Karankawa, the overarching name given to at least five distinct groups of native
peoples who shared a common language and culture—the Carancaguases, Cocos,
Cujanes, Guapites (Coapites), and Capoques. During the 16th and 17th centuries, these
names were recorded, with numerous variations in spelling, by Cabeza de Vaca and other
Europeans who encountered them as they traveled through the region. Further inland
lived the Mariames and other small groups whose names and cultures largely have been
lost to history.
Karankawa
Historic maps depict the central coastal region and part of the upper coast, extending
from Corpus Christi Bay to Galveston Bay, as the home of Wandering Tribes, and this
aptly describes the Karankawa (and many other groups, as well). In a long-established
and successful adaptive pattern—perhaps extending back some 3,000 years in time—
Karankawa groups migrated seasonally from the mainland area to the coastal bluffs and
barrier islands as resources became available. This mobile lifestyle was accomplished
through use of dugout canoes in which fishermen plied the bays and estuaries and
ventured inland along rivers and streams. Crudely built but large, the vessels reportedly
could accommodate entire families and their possessions in moves between camps.
Each year, during the fall and winter months, groups of Karankawa familes gathered
together in large fishing camps along the coast to harvest a variety of fish and shellfish.
The cooler months are prime times to catch schooling fish, such as redfish or flunder, as
they head into the deeper waters of the Gulf. According to historic accounts, fishermen
used weirs placed at tidal passes to trap dozens, if not hundreds, of fish as they moved
seaward. A variety of other types of fishing gear—spears, bows and arrows, and even
baited shell hooks—were used to procure a successful harvest. Shellfish, too, such as
Rangia clam and conch, were gathered from the mud in the shallow bays and estuaries.
These bivalves provided both food and hard shells to use for tools as well as ornaments.
It is easy to imagine a typical Karankawa camp scene: perhaps 50 to 60 dome-shaped
huts dotting the coastal bluff, dozens of small camp fires burning, and dozens of wooden
canoes lined up at the water’s edge.
In spring and summer, the group split into smaller bands to hunt deer and buffalo and
gather roots and fruiting plants in the coastal prairies.
Based on archeological evidence, Karankawa territories appear to have extended inland
some 40 kilometers (roughly 25 miles) from the coast. Beyond this boundary, other
native groups with quite different cultures and languages made their home, and it is likely
that the various groups maintained trade relations, if not social networks.
To learn more about the Karankawa, both in Historic as well as Prehistoric times, see the
Ethnohistory section of the Mitchell Ridge site (link to /mitchell/ethnohistory.html). A
large number of archeological sites have been attributed to the Karankawa based on the
presence of a distinctive pottery, known as Rockport ware (see the Guadalupe Bay Site
exhibit (link to /guadbay/index) and the Kirchmeyer Site (/coast/images/ap4.html).
The Mariames
Unlike the Karankawa, the Mariames did not frequent the coastal bays or barrier islands.
Instead they lived along the “River of Nuts”, or the lower Guadalupe River, about 20
miles inland. They moved their camps every few days, probably going up and down the
river through modern Refugio, Calhoun, and Victoria counties. Much of what we know
about the Mariames comes from the accounts of Cabeza de Vaca. Traveling down the
coast around January, 1533, Cabeza de Vaca found his lost companions, Dorantes and
Esteban, at the River of Nuts living among the Mariames, and his other comrade,
Castillo, living with their neighbors, the Yguases. For nearly two years, the Spaniards
lived with these Native groups, resulting in a fairly intimate glimpse of how they lived.
The Mariames were hunters and gatherers who “grind up some little grains with them
[the nuts, i.e. pecans] two months of the year, without eating anything else, and even this
they do not have every year, because one year they [the trees] bear, and the next they do
not.” While its seems improbable that they ate nothing but pecans, ground or unground,
for two months, it is likely that nuts dominated their food during the harvests. Cabeza de
Vaca makes similar statements about their limited menu when the Mariames were in the
tuna fields, harvesting the fruits of prickly pear cactus: “They eat them three months of
the year, in which they eat nothing else.” Elsewhere in the narrative, however, he offers
other information about the diet of the Mariames, and with that information, we find that
Cabeza de Vaca was not fond of their principal staple. “Their food supply is principally
roots of two or three kinds and they look for them through all the country….They [the
roots] take two days to roast and many of them are bitter, and on top of this is with great
labor that they are dug out.”
It’s not clear if the Mariames ate these roots because they preferred them or out of
necessity. Cabeza de Vaca makes it clear that the Mariames and other Native groups did
not always have adequate food to eat, saying that they moved their camp every two or
three days to look for food. “So great is the hunger that those people have that they
cannot do without them [the roots again], and walk two or three leagues looking for them.
Sometimes they kill some deer, and at times, they take some fish. But this is so little and
their hunger so great that they eat spiders and ant eggs and worms and lizards and
salamanders and snakes and vipers that kill the men they bit, and they eat earth and wood
and whatever they can get, and the dung of deer and other things which I refrain from
telling, and I believe truthfully that if in that land there were rocks, they would eat them.
They keep the fine bones of the fish that they eat and of the snakes and other things, in
order to grind it all later and eat the powder from it.” Although he does paint a picture of
a people who sometimes went without food, he notes elsewhere that “all these people are
archers and well built”, suggesting that they were not starving or emaciated. On their trek
to the tuna fields, they did not have food for several days, but the Mariames did not seem
discouraged. “They, to cheer us up, would tell us not to be sad, that soon there would be
tunas and that we would eat many and would drink their juice and would have our bellies
very big.”
More on the Mariames’ outlook on life comes from the following passage:
“They are very happy people; no matter how hungry they are, they do not stop dancing or
performing their celebrations and songs. For them the best time that they have is when
they eat the tunas, because then they are not hungry and all the time they spend dancing,
and they eat them night and day all the time that they last.”
Life for Mariame women, however, may at times have been quite difficult. Cabeza de
Vaca’s accounts indicate that the only women among the Mariames were adults. Brides
were never selected from within the Mariames or Yguases. They were always obtained
from their enemies by trading them for the best available bows or, if that was not
possible, a net. If the union produced a female baby, it was killed. When asked why they
did so, the Mariames said: “because all those of the land are their enemies and with them
they have continual war, and if by chance they should marry their daughters their
enemies would multiple so that they [the Mariames] would subject them and take them
for slaves.”
Mariame women were described as hard workers and carried most loads: “the men do not
carry loads, or anything of weight, but the women carry it and the old, who are the people
that they regard least.” It is not entirely clear, but this passage seems to say that not only
do the women carry most loads, they are also only one rung up the status bar from the old
“who are the people that they regard least." Further:
The women are very hard workers and capable of a great deal, for of 24 hours
that there are in a day and night they have only six hours of rest and all the rest of
the night that they spend in stirring their ovens in order to dry those roots that
they eat. And, from dawn they begin to dig and to bring wood and water to their
houses and to put in order the other things of which they have need.
Mariame men had the job of hunting, and Cabeza de Vaca notes they were capable of
running all day in pursuit of a deer. They also often hunted in larger groups, using
torches to herd deer into groups and dispatching them within the circle. Using this
strategy—hunting in a surround—they reportedly could occasionally kill 200-300 at a
time. Often, as not, however, none were killed, and hunters (or the women and children)
depended on trapping rodents. More about Cabeza de Vaca’s life among the Mariames
and other south Texas groups is presented in the TBH exhibit, Learning from Cabeza
de Vaca (link to /cabeza-cooking/index.html).
Peoples of the Upper Coast
The territories of the Karankawa extended upward along the coast into the homelands of peoples
of a very different cultural/linguistic group: the Atakapa-speaking Akokisa and Bidai Indians.
The interaction among these diverse Native groups creates a complex weave in the archeological
record, made more complicated by the influence of southeastern Native groups and by Europeans.
Shipwrecked Europeans arrived on the upper coast, first in 1528 (Cabeza de Vaca and his three
companions) and Cabeza de Vaca, shipwrecked in 1528 on what may have been present-day
Galveston Island, describes being found by a handful of natives carrying bows and arrows and,
within a half-hour, was captive in an armed group of more than 100.
Living among this group, the Spaniard describes a lifeway dependent on marine resources of the
island in fall and winter months and staples of the mainland (deer and plants foods) in the spring
and summer months. As was the case for Indians of the central coast, this dual mobility strategy
would have necessitated the use of canoes to travel seasonally from the barrier islands to
mainland areas. While these islands today are large land masses visible from the mainland, they
can only be reached by boat, swimming, or modern bridges. Swimming would not have been a
practical option for people carrying their belongings, their children, and their elderly.
The Akokisa and Bidai Indans of the upper coast shared a common linguistic tradition
with the Atakapa Indians of south-central and southwestern Louisiana. Although it was
originally thought that the two groups spoke the same language, and thus were culturally
related, it has been suggested more convincingly that each spoke their own language in
addition to a common second language.
The Bidai were an agricultural people who lived mainly between the Brazos and Trinity
rivers in southeastern Texas. The area associated with Atakapan groups extended from
from the upper Texas coast well into south-central and southwestern Louisiana, their
homeland area.
In the mid 1700s missions the Spanish established missions for both the Bidai and the
Akokisa Indians near the modern town of Rockdale.
Prior to the mid 1700s, the Native peoples of the upper Texas coast had very little contact
with Europeans, other than a few hapless individuals such as the shipwrecked Cabeza de
Vaca and the Frenchman, De Bellisle. Rumors of incursions by the French in New Spain,
however, prompted the Spanish to send a series of expeditions along the Texas coast, as
far north as Galveston Bay in 1745. One of these expeditions encountered the Bidai
Indians
By the early 19th century,
remnant groups of the Akokisa population remained in the traditional
homeland. This is from Ricklis—rewrite: They continued to reside in groups associated with
headmen who were formally recognized as such by Spanish authorities as “medal chiefs.”
Aggressive Anglo-American settlement after 1820, along with continued attrition of population,
sufficiently undermined the Akokisa that the survivors moved inland to join the Bidai and other
groups, and the tribe ceased to exist as a definable entity. However, in the early 1990s
archeologists Roger E. Moore and Madeliene Donachie uncovered remarkable documentary
evidence that a few Akokisa/Bidai individuals who spoke the Atakapa language continued to
reside in small groups in Harris County as late as the early twentieth century. They resided on
land along Cypress Creek homesteaded by Matthew Burnett in 1836. Burnett’s daughter, Rebecca
Burnett Lee who died in 1926, wrote a recollection of her early life that included details about the
Akokisa/Bidai Indians were lived on the homestead. In that recollection she describes a chief
named “Francisco”. Chief Francisco presided over a Bidai dance held at a pavilion of bark
apparently erected for the occasion. She recalled Chief Francisco playing music on an instrument
consisting of stretched alligator hide over which a small stone was rubbed, producing a “honkhonk” sound. Mrs. Lee’s recollections were independently confirmed by the subsequent owner of
the homestead, Chester Telge. Mr. Telge’s family bought the land from the Burnett’s in the
1850s. He was born there in 1918 and the Bidai were still living there in hide tents on pimple
mounds. Mr. Telge told Moore and Donachie that:
…his father and grandfather gave the Indians beef and hides periodically and went on to describe
a charming incident of reciprocity. On baking day, his grandmother would wrap up a large loaf
of bread and leave it on the back porch. By sundown, the Indians would have exchanged it for a
large catfish….The end of the Bidai’s occupation was marked by the day in the early 1920s when
the loaf of bread remained on the porch past sundown. Chester’s grandmother brought the bread
back into the house, and announced in German that “the Indians are no more.” NK added
To learn more about Indians of the upper coast, see the Etnohistory section of the TBH
exhibit on Mitchell Ridge (/mitchell/ethnohistory.html) and El Orcoquisac
(/coast/images/he2.html).
Graves at Mitchell Ridge dating to the 17th and 18th centuries show that the local Indians
interacted with the European intruders through trade and probably through interbreeding.
Burials from Protohistoric and early Historic times reflect the imprint of Europeans on the
island people—trade beads, glass and metal objects, disease and gradual demise.
Credits and Sources
Kenmotsu.jpg: Nancy Kenmotsu
The Native Peoples section was written by Nancy Kenmotsu and TBH editor Susan
Dial, and draws also on the work of Robert Ricklis (see Ethnohistory of the Mitchell
Ridge Site. Kenmotsu holds an M.A. from the University of Colorado and Ph.D. in
Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin, where her doctoral studies focused
on the native peoples of the Junta de los Ríos region of west Texas. Formerly director of
Cultural Resource Management at the Texas Department of Transportation, she is now
works for Geomarine, Inc. Kenmotsu and Mariah Wade are co-authors of Amistad
National Recreation Area: American Indian Tribal Affiliation Study, An Ethnohistoric
Literature Review
Print Sources
Aten, Lawrence A.
1983 Indian of the Upper Texas Coast. Academic Press, New York.
Berlandier, Jean Louis
1980 Journey to Mexico during the Years 1826 to 1834. Translated by Sheila
Ohlendorf, Josette Bigelow and Mary Standifer. Texas State Historical
Association, Austin.
Gatschet, A.S.
1891 The Karankawa Indians: The Coastal People of Texas. Archaeological and
Ethnological Papers of the Peabody Museum. Harvard University, Cambridge.
View manuscript online through The Portal to Texas History
http://texashistory.unt.edu/data/TBDP/STAR/meta-pth-29754.tkl
Jackson, Jack, W. Weddle, and W. DeVille
1990 Mapping Texas and the Gulf Coast, the Contributions of Saint-Denis, Olivan,
and Le Maire. Texas A&M Press, College Station.
Kenmotsu, Nancy A., and Mariah F. Wade
2002 Amistad National Recreation Area, Del Rio, Texas, American Indian Tribal
Affiliation Study Phase I: Ethnohistoric Literature Review. Archeological Studies
Program, Report No. 34, Texas Department of Transportation and National Park Service,
Austin.
Krieger, Alex D.
2002 We Came Naked and Barefoot: The Journey of Cabeza de Vaca Across North
America. University of Texas Press, Austin.
Mercado-Allinger, P. A., N. A. Kenmotsu, and T. K. Perttula
1996 Archaeology in the Central and Southern Planning Region, Texas: A Planning
Document. Office of the State Archeologist Special Report 35, Department of
Antiquities Protection Cultural Resource Management Report 7, Texas
Historical Commission, Austin.
Minet
1987 Journal of our Voyage to the Gulf of Mexico. Translated by L. Bell. In La Salle, the
Mississippi, and the Gulf: Three Primary Documents, edited by Robert S. Weddle, pp.
83-126. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.
Newcomb, W.W.
2004 Atakapans and Neighboring Groups. In Handbook of North American Indians,
Vol. 14, Southeast, edited by Raymond D. Fogelson: pp. 659-663. Smithsonian Institute,
Washington.
1984 The Indians of Texas: From Prehistoric to Modern Times. University of Texas
Press, Austin.
1983 Karankawa. In Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 10, Southwest,
edited by Alfonso Ortiz: pp. 359-367. Smithsonian Institute, Washington.
Olds, Doris
1976 Texas Legacy from the Gulf: A Report on Sixteenth Century Shipwreck Materials
from the Texas Tidelands. Texas Memorial Museum Publication 2, Misc. Papers 5, and
the Texas Antiquities Committee, Austin.
Ricklis, Robert A.
1996 The Karankawa Indians of Texas: An Ecological Study of Cultural Change and
Tradition. University of Texas Press, Austin.
Salinas, Martín
1990 Indians of the Rio Grande Delta: Their Role in the History of Southern Texas and
Northeastern Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.
Warren, Johanna (Translator), William C. Foster (Editor)
1997 The La Salle Expedition to Texas: The Journal of Henri Joutel, 1684–1687.
Texas State Historical Association, Austin.
Links