Below is a description of Chiricahua wickiups recorded by anthropologist Morris Opler:

"The home in which the family lives is made by the women and is ordinarily a circular, dome-shaped brush dwelling, with the floor at ground level. It is seven feet high at the center and approximately eight feet in diameter. To build it, long fresh poles of oak or willow are driven into the ground or placed in holes made with a digging stick. These poles, which form the framework, are arranged at one-foot intervals and are bound together at the top with yucca-leaf strands. Over them a thatching of bundles of big bluestem grass or bear grass is tied, shingle style, with yucca strings. A smoke hole opens above a central fireplace. A hide, suspended at the entrance, is fixed on a cross-beam so that it may be swung forward or backward. The doorway may face in any direction. For waterproofing, pieces of hide are thrown over the outer hatching, and in rainy weather, if a fire is not needed, even the smoke hole is covered. In warm, dry weather much of the outer roofing is stripped off. It takes approximately three days to erect a sturdy dwelling of this type. These houses are ‘warm and comfortable, even though there is a big snow.’ The interior is lined with brush and grass beds over which robes are spread...

Chiricahua medicine man in wickiup with family

"The woman not only makes the furnishings of the home but is responsible for the construction, maintenance, and repair of the dwelling itself and for the arrangement of everything in it. She provides the grass and brush beds and replaces them when they become too old and dry.... However, formerly ‘they had no permanent homes, so they didn't bother with cleaning.’ The dome-shaped dwelling or wickiup, the usual home type for all the Chiricahua bands, has already been described.... Said a Central Chiricahua informant.

"A house form that departs from the more common dome-shaped variety is recorded for the Southern Chiricahua as well:

...When we settled down, we used the wickiup; when we were moving around a great deal, we used this other kind..."^[30]

Recent research has documented the archaeological remains of Chiricahua Apache wickiups as found on protohistoric and at historical sites, such as Canon de los Embudos where C.S. Fly photographed Geronimo, his people, and dwellings during surrender negotiations in 1886, demonstrating their unobtrusive and improvised nature."^[31]

Food[edit]

Various Apache containers: baskets, bowls and jars. The women-made baskets could hold heavy loads and were made mainly from yucca or willowleaves or juniper bark.^[32]

Apache people obtained food from four main sources:^[33]

Particular types of foods eaten by a group depending upon their respective environment.

Hunting[edit]

Hunting was done primarily by men, although there were sometimes exceptions depending on animal and culture (e.g. Lipan women could help in hunting rabbits and Chiricahua boys were also allowed to hunt rabbits).

Apache jug

Hunting often had elaborate preparations, such as fasting and religious rituals performed by medicine men before and after the hunt. In Lipan culture, since deer were protected by Mountain Spirits, great care was taken in Mountain Spirit rituals in order to ensure smooth deer hunting. Also the slaughter of animals must be performed following certain religious guidelines (many of which are recorded in religious stories) from prescribing how to cut the animals, what prayers to recite, and proper disposal of bones. A common practice among Southern Athabascan hunters was the distribution of successfully slaughtered game. For example, among the Mescalero a hunter was expected to share as much as one half of his kill with a fellow hunter and with needy people back at the camp. Feelings of individuals concerning this practice spoke of social obligation and spontaneous generosity.

The most common hunting weapon before the introduction of European guns was the bow and arrow. Various hunting strategies were used. Some techniques involved using animal head masks worn as a disguise. Whistles were sometimes used to lure animals closer. Another technique was the relay method where hunters positioned at various points would chase the prey in turns in order to tire the animal. A similar method involved chasing the prey down a steep cliff.

Eating certain animals was taboo. Although different cultures had different taboos, some common examples of taboo animals included bears, peccaries, turkeys, fish, snakes, insects, owls, and coyotes. An example of taboo differences: the black bear was a part of the Lipan diet (although not as common as buffalo, deer, or antelope), but the Jicarilla never ate bear because it was considered an evil animal. Some taboos were a regional phenomena, such as of eating fish, which was taboo throughout the southwest (e.g. in certain Pueblo cultures like the Hopi and Zuni) and considered to be snake-like (an evil animal) in physical appearance.^[34][35]

The Western Apache hunted deer and pronghorns mostly in the ideal late fall season. After the meat was smoked into jerky around November, a migration from the farm sites along the stream banks in the mountains to winter camps in the Salt, Black, Gila river and even the Colorado River valleys.

The primary game of the Chiricahua was the deer followed by pronghorn. Lesser game included: cottontail rabbits (but not jack rabbits), opossums, squirrels, surplus horses, surplus mules, wapiti (elk), wild cattle, wood rats.

The Mescalero primarily hunted deer. Other animals hunted include: bighorn sheep, buffalo (for those living closer to the plains), cottontail rabbits, elk, horses, mules, opossums, pronghorn, wild steers and wood rats. Beavers, minks, muskrats, and weasels were also hunted for their hides and body parts but were not eaten.

The principal quarry animals of the Jicarilla were bighorn sheep, buffalo, deer, elk and pronghorn. Other game animals included beaver, bighorn sheep, chief hares, chipmunks, doves, ground hogs, grouse, peccaries, porcupines, prairie dogs, quail, rabbits, skunks, snow birds, squirrels, turkeys and wood rats. Burros and horses were only eaten in emergencies. Minks, weasels, wildcats and wolves were not eaten but hunted for their body parts.

The main food of the Lipan was the buffalo with a three-week hunt during the fall and smaller scale hunts continuing until the spring. The second most utilized animal was deer. Fresh deer blood was drunk for good health. Other animals included beavers, bighorns, black bears, burros, ducks, elk, fish, horses, mountain lions, mourning doves, mules, prairie dogs, pronghorns, quail, rabbits, squirrels, turkeys, turtles and wood rats. Skunks were eaten only in emergencies.

Plains Apache hunters pursued primarily buffalo and deer. Other hunted animals were badgers, bears, beavers, fowls, geese, opossums, otters, rabbits and turtles.

Clothing[edit]

Influenced by the Plains Indians, Western Apaches wore animal hide decorated with seed beads for clothing. These beaded designs historically resembled that of the Great Basin Paiute and is characterized by linear patterning. Apache beaded clothing was bordered with narrow bands of glass seed beads in diagonal stripes of alternating colors.^[36] They made buckskin shirts, ponchos, skirts and moccasins and decorated them with colorful beadwork.

Undomesticated plants and other food sources[edit]

Apache girl with basket, 1902

The gathering of plants and other foods was primarily done by women. However, in certain activities, such as the gathering of heavy agave crowns, men helped, although the men's job is usually to hunt animals such as deer, buffalo, and small game. Numerous plants were used for medicine and religious ceremonies in addition their nutritional usage. Other plants were utilized for only their religious or medicinal value.

In May, the Western Apache baked and dried agave crowns that were pounded into pulp and formed into rectangular cakes. At the end of June and beginning of July, saguaro, prickly pear, and cholla fruits were gathered. In July and August, mesquite beans, Spanish bayonet fruit, and Emory oakacorns were gathered. In late September, gathering was stopped as attention moved toward harvesting cultivated crops. In late fall, juniper berriesand pinyon nuts were gathered.

The most important plant food used by the Chiricahua was the Century plant (also known as mescal or agave). The crowns (the tuberous base portion) of this plant (which were baked in large underground ovens and sun-dried) and also the shoots were used. Other plants utilized by the Chiricahua include: agarita (or algerita) berries, alligator juniper berries, anglepod seeds, banana yucca (or datil, broadleaf yucca) fruit, chili peppers, chokecherries, cota (used for tea), currants, dropseed grass seeds, Gambel oak acorns, Gambel oak bark (used for tea), grass seeds (of various varieties), greens (of various varieties), hawthorne fruit, Lamb's-quarters leaves, lip ferns (used for tea), live oak acorns, locust blossoms, locust pods, maize kernels (used for tiswin), and mesquite beans.

Also eaten were mulberries, narrowleaf yucca blossoms, narrowleaf yucca stalks, nipple cactus fruit, one-seed juniper berries, onions, pigweedseeds, pinyon nuts, pitahaya fruit, prickly pear fruit, prickly pear juice, raspberries, screwbean (or tornillo) fruit, saguaro fruit, spurge seeds, strawberries, sumac (Rhus trilobata) berries,^[37] sunflower seeds, tule rootstocks, tule shoots, pigweed tumbleweed seeds, unicorn plant seeds, walnuts, western yellow pine inner bark (used as a sweetener), western yellow pine nuts, whitestar potatoes (Ipomoea lacunosa), wild grapes, wild potatoes (Solanum jamesii), wood sorrel leaves, and yucca buds (unknown species). Other items include: honey from ground hives and hives found within agave, sotol, and narrowleaf yucca plants.

The abundant agave (mescal) was also important to the Mescalero,^[38] who gathered the crowns in late spring after reddish flower stalks appeared. The smaller sotol crowns were also important. Both crowns of both plants were baked and dried. Other plants include: acorns, agarita berries, amole stalks (roasted and peeled), aspen inner bark (used as a sweetener), bear grass stalks (roasted and peeled), box elder inner bark (used as a sweetener), banana yucca fruit, banana yucca flowers, box elder sap (used as a sweetener), cactus fruits (of various varieties), cattail rootstocks, chokecherries, currants, dropseed grass seeds (used for flatbread), elderberries, gooseberries (Ribes leptanthum and R. pinetorum), grapes, hackberries, hawthorne fruit, and hops (used as condiment).

They also used horsemint (used as condiment), juniper berries, Lamb's-quarters leaves, locust flowers, locust pods, mesquite pods, mint (used as condiment), mulberries, pennyroyal (used as condiment), pigweed seeds (used for flatbread), pine inner bark (used as a sweetener), pinyon pine nuts, prickly pear fruit (dethorned and roasted), purslaneleaves, raspberries, sage (used as condiment), screwbeans, sedge tubers, shepherd's purse leaves, strawberries, sunflower seeds, tumbleweed seeds (used for flatbread), vetchpods, walnuts, western white pine nuts, western yellow pine nuts, white evening primrose fruit, wild celery (used as condiment), wild onion (used as condiment), wild pea pods, wild potatoes, and wood sorrel leaves.

The Jicarilla used acorns, chokecherries, juniper berries, mesquite beans, pinyon nuts, prickly pear fruit, and yucca fruit, as well as many different kinds of other fruits, acorns, greens, nuts, and seed grasses.

The most important plant food used by the Lipan was agave (mescal). Another important plant was sotol. Other plants utilized by the Lipan include: agarita, blackberries, cattails, devil's claw, elderberries, gooseberries, hackberries, hawthorn, juniper, Lamb's-quarters, locust, mesquite, mulberries, oak, palmetto, pecan, pinyon, prickly pears, raspberries, screwbeans, seed grasses, strawberries, sumac, sunflowers, Texas persimmons, walnuts, western yellow pine, wild cherries, wild grapes, wild onions, wild plums, wild potatoes, wild roses, yucca flowers, and yucca fruit. Other items include: salt obtained from caves and honey.

Plants utilized by the Plains Apache include: chokecherries, blackberries, grapes, prairie turnips, wild onions, and wild plums. Numerous other fruits, vegetables, and tuberous roots were also used.

Crop cultivation[edit]

The Navajo practiced the most crop cultivation, the Western Apache, Jicarilla, and Lipan less. The one Chiricahua band (of Opler's) and the Mescalero practiced very little cultivation. The other two Chiricahua bands and the Plains Apache did not grow any crops.

Trading, raiding, and war[edit]

Some interchanges between the Apache and European-descended explorers and settlers were based on trading. The Apache found they could use European and American goods.

Although the following activities were not distinguished by Europeans or Euro-Americans, Apache tribes made clear distinctions between raiding (for profit) and war. Raiding was done with small parties with a specific economic target. The Apache waged war with large parties (often clan members), usually to achieve retribution.

Though raiding had been a traditional way of life for the Apache, Mexican settlers objected to their stock being stolen. As tensions between the Apache and settlers increased, the Mexican government passed laws offering cash rewards for Apache scalps.^[39]

Religion[edit]

Apache religious stories relate to two culture heroes (one of the Sun/fire:"Killer-Of-Enemies/Monster Slayer", and one of Water/Moon/thunder: "Child-Of-The-Water/Born For Water") that destroy a number of creatures which are harmful to humankind.^[40]

Another story is of a hidden ball game, where good and evil animals decide whether or not the world should be forever dark. Coyote, the trickster, is an important being that often has inappropriate behavior (such as marrying his own daughter, etc.) in which he overturns social convention. The Navajo, Western Apache, Jicarilla, and Lipan have an emergence or Creation Story, while this is lacking in the Chiricahua and Mescalero.^[40]

Most Southern Athabascan "gods" are personified natural forces that run through the universe. They may be used for human purposes through ritual ceremonies. The following is a formulation by the anthropologist Keith Basso of the Western Apache's concept of diyí’:

Medicine men learn the ceremonies, which can also be acquired by direct revelation to the individual. Different Apache cultures had different views of ceremonial practice. Most Chiricahua and Mescalero ceremonies were learned through the transmission of personal religious visions, while the Jicarilla and Western Apache used standardized rituals as the more central ceremonial practice. Important standardized ceremonies include the puberty ceremony (Sunrise Dance) of young women, Navajo chants, Jicarilla "long-life" ceremonies, and Plains Apache "sacred-bundle" ceremonies.

Certain animals - owls, snakes, bears, and coyotes - are considered spiritually evil and prone to cause sickness to humans. .

Many Apache ceremonies use masked representations of religious spirits. Sandpainting is an important ceremony in the Navajo, Western Apache, and Jicarilla traditions, in which healers create temporary, sacred art from colored sands. Anthropologists believe the use of masks and sandpainting are examples of cultural diffusion from neighboring Pueblocultures.^[42]

The Apaches participate in many religious dances, including the rain dance, dances for the crop and harvest, and a spirit dance. These dances were mostly for influencing the weather and enriching their food resources.

Their food was always boiled in earthen pots or roasted. Although there were a lot of salt deposits nearby, the Karankawa used chile for seasoning their food. After European contact, the Karankawa also would mix flour with water, lay the dough upon a flat stone and baked it on the open fire. They were fond of sweet coffee.^[4]

The Karankawa seemed to manage to always get pure, fresh water, although the whites did not know where they obtained it, because the wells of the whites had a brackish taste.^[4]

Culture[edit]

Language[edit]

The Karankawa spoken language was observed to be deeply guttural. Syllabic structure was vocalic, they doubled consonants and vowels, and often extended sentences beyond the supply of breath which they could command. They often abbreviated their words and spoke softly.^[4]

They also possessed a gesture language for conversing with natives of other tribes.^[4]

Smoke signalling[edit]

The Karankawa were noted for their skill of communicating with each other over long distances using smoke. The Karankawa could make the smoke of a small fire ascend toward the sky in many different ways, and it was as intelligible to them across long distances as their language. Their methods are unknown.^[4]

Manners and customs[edit]

The Karankawa had a specific way of conversing. They carefully repressed their breath while speaking; at the end of their sentences, they exhaled heavily, releasing the air they held back during speaking. Moreover, their expression was interpreted by Europeans as impassive, especially because they never looked at the person to whom they were speaking. Their pronunciation was very exact, and they ridiculed poor elocution by the whites who tried to learn their language. The Europeans described their general demeanor as surly and fatigued.^[4]

They did not have a regular sleep schedule, but slept whenever they wished. They also ate and drank at all times of the day.^[4]

Karankawa never communicated their native names to the whites. However, they all adopted English or Spanish names. Many men adopted American military epithets and Christian names, and they would change these frequently.^[4]

Among the Karankawa there exists an in-law taboo. Once a man and his wife have become in the Karankawa sense, married, the husband and his children are now no longer allowed to enter the residence of his wife's parents nor can his wife's parents enter his or his children's home. These two groups are also no longer allowed to talk with one another and must never come face to face with one another. If there is the danger of coming face to face with one another both parties must avert their eyes and move away from each other. This taboo only seems to apply to the husbands and their children, most likely due to inconvenience on the wife's part as Karankawans are typically patrilocal.^[8]

Arts, athletics, and recreation[edit]

The Karankawa possessed at least three musical instruments: a large gourd filled with stones which was shaken to produce sound, a fluted piece of wood which the Karankawa drew a stick over to produce sound, and a flute which was softly blown.^[4]

The Karankawa practiced hatchet-throwing, recreational brawls with knives, ball plays, and wrestling matches. No gambling or guessing games seemed to have developed among the Karankawa.^[4] The Karankawa were also noted for their remarkable physical feats, such as continuing to fight after being wounded in battle, breaking ice with their bodies, and swimming in freezing water.^[5]

Archery[edit]

Their best-honed skill was that of archery. The Karankawa made their own bows and arrows, and were renowned for equal skill whether standing on land, in calm waters, or in turbulent waters.^[4]

Their bows were made of red cedar wood and they made them according to the height of each archer, reaching from the foot to the chin or eye. The bows were always kept in perfect repair. The arrows were about a yard long, tipped with steel and feathered with wild geese feathers.^[4]

As well as using archery for hunting, the Karankawa engaged in archery as a recreational activity. They often shot at the mark or shot arrows perpendicularly into space. The shooting matches they held were lively and sportive. Many young men were able to split the previous arrow in the target in two from a distance of at least eighty feet.^[4]

Social institutions[edit]

Tribal leadership[edit]

The groups of Karankawa were commonly led by two chiefs: a civil government chief with a hereditary succession in the male lines, and a war-chief, probably appointed by the civil government chief. No evidence of a confederacy, like that of the Caddo or Creeks, was found. The Karankawa were probably a loose-knit body living under separate chiefs only united by the common language and shared war expeditions.^[4]

The ritual in order to become a chief has been studied by 18th-century Spaniards. They have stated that a selection starts from many candidates and each is injured by a comb created from the spines of a sea fish, long wounds being dug into their skin from the top of their head to the soles of their feet and then tied to a pole for several days to either emerge thin or emaciated and close to death. While this description can indeed be a ritual to choose a chief, a diary of Fray Gaspar Jose De Solis states that he suspects these rituals could simply be a puberty rite or an initiation ritual to a brotherhood.^[9]

Gender and family structures[edit]

One aspect of the Karankawa culture was their recognition of three gender roles: male, female, and a third role taken on by some males and women. Males who took on this third role are called berdache (Karankawa: monanguia.) They generally took on female roles and activities in daily life, while playing a special role in religious rites. According to some accounts, the berdache also performed as passive sexual partners for other males.^[10]

In the written accounts of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca it is mentioned that bride price and bride service is part of a Karankawa marriage. While the bride price is assumed to be the generalized system in the indigenous population found by Cabeza de Vaca where the groom gives gift to the parents of the girl he wishes to marry in order to secure their permission, the bride service is based on a ritual where the husband must give every morsel of food he managed to collect or hunt to his wife. His wife then delivers the bounty to her parents and in return is gifted food to give back to her husband. This ritual goes on for an unknown number of months, but when it is concluded the pair typically then engage in patrilocal residence. In terms of marriage, divorce is a common aspect typically only to marriages that have not created any children and is highly unlikely if children have been born from the marriage.^[11] Between the husband and wife, no signs of fondness, intimacy, or special treatment were observed. The Karankawa reacted strongly and sometimes violently to Europeans interfering in marital or familial affairs.^[4]

The Karankawa was known to have a deep compassion and tenderness for their children.^[12][4] Children not able to walk yet were carried by the mother on the back, wrapped in a loop of skin.^[4]

Appearance[edit]

Physical character[edit]

The Karankawa had distinctive tattoos, notably: a blue circle tattooed over each cheekbone, one horizontal blue line from the outer angle of the eye toward the ear, three perpendicular parallel lines on the chin from the middle of the lower lip downward, and two other lines extending down from under each corner of the mouth.^[4] Moreover, they were observed by sixteenth century explorers to have piercings of cane on the lower lips, nose, and other parts other body.^[13]

The woman in some tribes such as the Coco group also had a tattoo of concentric black circles from their nipple to circling their entire breast.^[3]

Both men and women were noted for their spectacularly white teeth, even elders.^[4] Men, women, and children alike rubbed sharks' oil on their entire bodies regularly to deter mosquitoes effectively and to keep their skin soft and supple. Europeans who encountered the Karankawa were disgusted by the odor.^[4]

Forehead flattening was practiced for all Karankawa. As babies, a piece of cloth was applied first, then a thin board, and then a wadded cloth, each of these tied to the head with a bandage and left to stay there about one year.^[4]

Dress[edit]

The men wore a breech-clout of skins, while the women wore skirts of deerskin. Neither head-covers nor shoes were ever worn by the Karankawa. Some women of the tribe obtained European clothing occasionally tear them apart or wear them temporarily. European blankets were of greater use to the tribe, worn fastened to their bodies during cold weather and pinned with thorns. Both men and women wore a small bracelet of undressed deer skin. The children were left to roam undressed until they were about ten years old.^[4]

Differences in appearance between the sexes[edit]

Many Europeans noted the sharp contrasts in appearance between Karankawa men and women. The women were described as plainer, shorter and of stouter build than the men. The men were very tall, of strong athletic build, and had coarse black hair. Most men wore their hair so long as to be waist-length. Their foreheads were mostly low and broad, and the heads larger than most whites. The men, in contrast with the women, had lithe builds and slender hands and feet. Their skin color was said to be lighter and closer to cinammon-colored than the women.^[4]

The women wore no ornaments, while the men were seen with many ornaments. Men's long hair was braided and consisted of three strands. They inserted bright objects (e..g, ribbons, colored flannel). The women never braided their hair nor combed it regularly. The men wore necklaces of small shells, glass beads, pistachios, and thin metal disks on their throats (never on their chests). Rings were also worn by the men.^[4]

Religion and ritual[edit]

Europeans knew limited information about the rituals of the Karankawa because the latter did not reveal the purposes of their actions or their beliefs.^[4] When Joutel, an explorer and companion of Robert Cavalier de La Salle, questioned their religious beliefs, the Karankawa only pointed at the sky.^[4]

At the full moon and after very successful hunting or fishing expeditions, the Karankawa traditionally held a ceremonial. After gathering around a central fire, they boiled a strong and bitter brew from the leaves of the yaupon tree and stirred it until the top was covered with a yellowish froth. This brew was shared and all the Karankawa drank freely. Although this brew was said to be intoxicating, Europeans did not notice any visible effects on the natives. One Native stood within the circle of men, wrapped up to his head in skins, and he bent over as he walked circled the fire. They chanted in chromatic ascending and descending tones, and all the Natives joined in the chorus. This ceremony would continue throughout the night.^[4]

Other than this, only a few other rituals were observed, and their purposes are unknown. The Karankawa would stare at the sun when it disappeared into the sea, like some other native groups of the area. They would also smoke tobacco through their nostrils first to the north, then to the east, west, and south. They frequently whistled at certain times and apparently for some objective, but ultimately for unknown purposes.^[4]

Portrait of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.

In regards to special burial rites or rituals, the Karankawa seemed to be indifferent, and buried their dead at the site of their passing.^[4]

Cannibalism[edit]

According to some sources, the Karankawa practiced ritual cannibalism, in common with other Gulf coastal tribes of present-day Texas and Louisiana.^{[14][5][4][2]}

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish conquistador who lived among the Karankawa for several years in the 1530 and wrote a memoir, made no mention of cannibalism. Cabeza De Vaca admitted that he and his fellow survivors had committed acts of cannibalism of their own, eating their dead in order to survive after shipwrecking off Galveston Bay. The Karankawa people were shocked at the Spanish cannibalism, which they found to be repugnant.^[2] Whites never actually witnessed an act of cannibalism, and second and third-hand accounts are of disputed credibility.^{[12][5][4][2]}

Dogs[edit]

The Karankawa was distinctive in that they were one of the only tribes known to keep dogs. The Karankawan dogs, of a coyote-like or wolf-like species, accompanied the Karankawa on hunts, swims, and recreational activities.^[5] The dogs were voiceless, with straight ears and fox-like snouts.^[4]

History[edit]

Early encounters with the Spanish and French (16th - 17th centuries)[edit]

Karankawa Indian campsite and burial ground historical marker located in Jamaica Beach on the west end of Galveston Island

In 1528, one of two barges put together by survivors of the failed Pánfilo de Narváez expedition to Florida struck aground at Galveston Island. Survivors, including Cabeza de Vaca, were cared for by the Capoque band of Karankawa.^[15] From 1527, Cabeza de Vaca subsisted for seven years among the coastal tribes, making a living as a medical practitioner and occasional trader.^[4] During his stay, de Vaca reported that a fatal stomach ailment reduced the Karankawa population by roughly one half; the nature and casualties resulting from this illness are unknown.^[16] De Vaca reported that extensive trade occurred with inland groups as far as the extent of the entire length of the present-day United States. After the introduction of the horse by Spaniards, these trade networks strengthened.^[13]

Henri Joutel, the companion of Robert Cavelier de La Salle on his last expedition in 1687, recorded several tribes living in the coastal area, including the Karankawa (which he spelled as Korenkake and Koinekahe).^[2][4] His observations were that the Karankawa were peaceable rather than hostile. Upon their first meeting, Joutel reports that the Karankawa "demonstrated their friendship by putting their hands over their hearts, which meant that they were glad to see us."^[5] He also noted that they possessed horses, which were undoubtedly obtained from the Spanish.^[4]

When de La Salle stole some canoes from the Karankawa to sail up a river and establish Fort St. Louis, the Karankawas were enraged. When they heard of de La Salle's departure and subsequent death, they attacked about twenty French settlers left in the fort and massacred all but five. The survivors were forcibly tattooed and made to follow the Karankawa on their hunting and fishing expeditions; they were eventually rescued by a Spanish expedition in 1689.^[2][4]

Relations with the Spanish[edit]

The La Salle venture stimulated the Spanish into active exploration and colonization of south Texas. A Spanish search for Fort St. Louis to check if the French had returned led to a skirmish between the Karankawa and the Spanish, and an establishment of hostilities between these two groups.^[2]

In 1691, Captain Domingo Teran led a combined land-sea expedition to Texas to strengthen recently established missions and to search for French presence. Both expeditions were mismanaged and led to a temporary lapse in Spanish interest.^[2]

However, continued French action encouraged the Spaniards to occupy the area of Matagorda Bay permanently.^[2]

La Bahía del Espiritu Santo, a mission-presidio complex, was established in 1722 on the southern bank of the San Antonio river. At first, the Karankawa were not antagonistic to the Spanish. But in 1723, a skirmish occurred between the Spanish and Karankawa, after which the Karankawa moved away from the mission and became hostile. By 1727, the Karankawa depredations forced the mission-presidio complex to move inland to the Guadalupe river, where they remained until 1749. The Karankawa successfully reduced Spanish claim to the Texas coast.^[4][2]

By the 1730s, the Karankawa and other native tribes of the Texas area were viewed by the Spanish as the primary obstacle to control of northern New Spain. In 1749, Jose Escandon was made governor and representative of the viceroy, appointed to conquer and settle northern Mexico and the region of Texas and to map, survey, and acquaint himself with the area and with the natives. He recommended that the mission of La Bahía should be moved because of native hostility and the unfavorable climate.^[2]

A new mission, Mission Rosario, was established in 1754. It was in constant fear of revolt by the natives in the mission and often appealed to La Bahía for military aid. Overall, it was extremely ineffective as a spiritual and "civilizing" center. The Karankawa fled when subjected to any corporal punishment, and continued to enjoy the resources provided by the Spanish without being dependent on them.^[2]

Over time, the Karankawa grew to speak Spanish with great fluency and adopted Spanish names for themselves to facilitate interaction with the whites.^[2][4]

The late eighteenth century saw a revival of Karankawa resistance and strength. The Spanish began to see them as unable to be converted to mission life, and some began to scheme for their extermination. However, none of these schemes were carried out.^[2]

In 1806, the Rosario mission was merged with that of Refugio. In 1830, Refugio and La Bahía del Espiritu Santo were secularized.^[2]

Relations with the British and French[edit]

While the Spanish tried to incorporate the Karankawa into their empire, the Karankawa engaged in purely economic terms with the British and French, trading skins and deer for weapons (i.e., muskets, guns) and household goods.^[2][4]

Encounters with Jean Lafitte[edit]

When Galveston Island was occupied by the pirate Jean Lafitte from 1817 to 1821, some of his men kidnapped a Karankawa woman. In response, about three hundred Karankawa moved in to attack. When Lafitte learned of their encampment and impending attack, he sent two hundred of his men, armed with two cannons to confront the Karankawa. After the Karankawa lost about thirty men, they retreated to the mainland, with the pirates in pursuit. On the mainland, a few more Karankawa were killed.^[4][2]

Encounters with the Texan colonists[edit]

Austin was introduced to the Karankawas via an encounter with a peaceful Coco tribe. After some talks and an exchange of tobacco and a frying pan, Moses Austin considered them good friends, but after a warning of Karankawas at the mouth of a nearby river, Moses wrote in his journal that Karankawas are universal enemies of man and cannot be befriended and must be removed in order for Anglo-American settlers to live in peace.^[17]

Painting, "The Settlement of Austin's Colony," by Henry Arthur McArdle, in the House of Representatives chamber in the Texas Capitol. Stephen F. Austin is shown rallying his colonists against the Karankawa Indians around 1824, as an unnamed scout comes to the cabin door to sound the alarm.

In 1821, Moses Austin received the Austin land grant to settle 300 families between Galveston Bay and the Colorado River. The Karankawa sought to hinder their progress by killing some settlers who were guarding the ship John Motley and stealing their supplies. The terrified settlers moved up the river, where they suffered from a lack of supplies. In subsequent years, the Karankawa continued to exact violence upon the settlers. By 1825, the colonists decided to band together to rid themselves of the Karankawa. Stephen Austin commissioned Captain Kuykendall to lead volunteers to expel them from the territory, which extended to the Lavaca river. They chased the Karankawa to Manahila Creek, where a Spanish missionary interceded on their behalf and made them promise to never again go east of the Lavaca. This promise was broken, however, and was met by disproportionate violence by the Texan colonists.^[4][2]

Smallpox and slavery decimated the Coahuiltecan in the Monterrey area by the mid-17th century.^[8] Due to their remoteness from the major areas of Spanish expansion, the Coahuiltecan in Texas may have suffered less from introduced European diseases and slave raids than did the indigenous populations in northern Mexico. But, the diseases spread through contact among indigenous peoples with trading. After a Franciscan Roman Catholic Mission was established in 1718 at San Antonio, the indigenous population declined rapidly, especially from smallpox epidemics beginning in 1739.^[9] Most groups disappeared before 1825, with their survivors absorbed by other indigenous and mestizo populations of Texas or Mexico.

Coahuiltecan culture, in the words of one scholar, represents "the culmination of more than 11,000 years of a way of life that had successfully adapted to the climate and resources of south Texas.”^[10] The peoples shared the common traits of being non-agricultural and living in small autonomous bands, with no political unity above the level of the band and the family. They were nomadic hunter-gatherers, carrying their few possessions on their backs as they moved from place to place to exploit sources of food that might be available only seasonally. At each campsite, they built small circular huts with frames of four bent poles, which they covered with woven mats. They wore little clothing. At times, they came together in large groups of several bands and hundreds of people, but most of the time their encampments were small, consisting of a few huts and a few dozen people.^[11] Along the Rio Grande, the Coahuiltecan lived more sedentary lives, perhaps constructing more substantial dwellings and using palm fronds as a building material.^[12]

The Coahuiltecan made good bows and arrows and hunted small game. Occasionally they killed bison that had strayed into their region from the Great Plains to the north. During times of need, they also subsisted on worms, lizards, ants, and undigested seeds collected from deer dung. They ate much of their food raw, but used an open fire or a fire pit for cooking. Most of their food came from plants. Pecans were an important food, gathered in the fall and stored for future use. In summer, large numbers of people congregated at the vast thickets of prickly pear cactus south-east of San Antonio, where they feasted on the fruit and the pads and interacted socially with other bands. They cooked the bulbs and root crowns of the maguey, sotol, and lechuguilla in pits, and ground mesquite beans to make flour.^[13] Most of the Coahuiltecan seemed to have had a regular round of travels in their food gathering. The Payaya band near San Antonio had ten different summer campsites in an area 30 miles square. Some of the Indians lived near the coast in winter. In the summer they would travel 85 miles (140 km) inland to exploit the prickly pear cactus thickets.^[14] Fish were perhaps the principal source of protein for the bands living in the Rio Grande delta.^[15]

Little is known about the religion of the Coahuiltecan. They came together in large numbers on occasion for all-night dances called mitotes. During these occasions, they ate peyoteto achieve a trance-like state for the dancing. The meager resources of their homeland resulted in intense competition and frequent, although small scale, warfare.^[16]

Descendants exist and have begun to organize to be recognized as a tribe. Numerous descendants today share a mixed lineage of Atakapa-Ishak and other ethnic ancestry, but they have maintained a sense of community and culture.^{[29]
They have no eminems.}

Scholars have been unable to determine what language was spoken by the historic Jumano, although Uto-Aztecan, Tanoan, and Athabascan have been suggested.^[3] The Jumano have been identified in the historic record and by scholars as pottery-using farmers who lived at La Junta de los Rios, buffalo-hunting Plains Indians who frequently visited La Junta to trade, and/or both the farmers and the buffalo hunters.

The approximate location of Indian tribes in western Texas and adjacent Mexico, circa 1600

In his book The Indian Southwest: 1580-1830: Ethnogenesis and Reinvention (1999), Gary Anderson proposes that the Jumano were a people of multiple ethnic groups from various sections of present-day Texas. They combined and became a new people in a process of ethnogenesis, formed from refugees fleeing the effects of disease, Spanish missions, and Spanish slaving raids south of the Rio Grande.^[4]

Cabeza de Vaca may have encountered the Jumano in 1535 near La Junta, the junction of the Conchos River and Rio Grande at Presidio, Texas. He describes his visit to the "people of the cows" in one of the towns, but these may have been the settled Indians of La Junta. They were people "with the best bodies that we saw and the greatest liveliness." He described their cooking method, in which they dropped hot stones into prepared gourds to cook their food, rather than using crafted pottery. This method of cooking is common among the nomads of the Great Plains, for whom pottery was too heavy to be carried and used extensively. For this reason, scholars think he may have been describing the seminomadic Jumano.^[5]

The Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo first used the term Jumano in 1582, to refer to agricultural peoples living at La Junta. This area was a trade crossroads and seems to have attracted numerous Indians of different tribes, of which the Jumano were one group. Among the other names the Spanish used for Indian groups near La Junta were the Cabris, Julimes, Passaguates, Patarabueyes, Amotomancos, Otomacos, Cholomes, Abriaches, and Caguates.^[6] A member of Espejo's expedition identified as Jumano the buffalo-hunting people they encountered on the Pecos River near Pecos, Texas.^[7]

The hunters were known to have close relations with the Indians at La Junta, but whether they were full-time bison-hunting nomads, or lived part of each year in La Junta is uncertain.^[8] Charles Kelley has suggested that the sedentary people living at La Junta were Patarabueye and the bison hunters were Jumano. In this scenario, the nomadic Jumano maintained close relations—and possibly spoke a similar language—with the people living at La Junta, but were distinct from them. From their recognized homeland between the Pecos and Concho Rivers in Texas, the Jumano traveled widely to trade meat and skins to the Patarabueye and other Indians in exchange for agricultural products.^[9]

The Spanish identified as Humanas or Ximenas the people associated with the Tompiro pueblo villages of the salinas, an area about 50 miles east of the Rio Grande on the border of the Great Plains. The pueblo later called Gran Quivira was the largest of several Jumano towns. This location enabled trading with the buffalo-hunting Indians of the Great Plains. The Jumano also mined extensive salt deposits, for which the Spanish named the region salinas. They traded salt for agricultural produce. The people living in the Tompiro pueblos have been identified as speaking a Tanoan language.^[10] The historian Dan Flores has suggested that the Jumano associated with the Pueblo villages were the ancestors of the Kiowa, who are also Tanoan-language speakers.^[11] The Tompiro towns were abandoned by 1672, probably due to fatalities from epidemics of introduced European diseases, Apache raids, and burdensome Spanish levies of food and labor.^[12]

Scholars have suggested that a fourth group of people in Texas may have been Jumano. In 1541, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado encountered a group of people he called Teyasat the headwaters of the Brazos River. Scholars have since identified the Teyas as Apache, Wichita, or Jumano. Riley suggests that they were the nomadic relatives of the Pueblo villagers of Gran Quivira and the salines. Over the next two centuries, the people who became known as the Wichita were often referred to as Jumano in the historic record.^[13]

Scholars agree that, at a minimum, the Jumanos comprised the nomadic bison-hunting people of the Pecos and Concho River valleys of Texas. Since as nomads and traders, they were often found far from their homeland, this may account for the Spanish having referred to a variety of Indians of different cultures and locations as Jumano.^[14]

The Wichita lived in fixed villages notable for their large, domed-shaped, grass-covered dwellings, sometimes up to 30 feet in diameter. The Wichita were successful hunters and farmers, skillful traders and negotiators. They ranged from San Antonio, Texas in the south to as far north as Great Bend, Kansas. A semi-sedentary people, they occupied northern Texas in the early 18th century. They traded with other Southern Plains Indians on both sides of the Red River and as far south as Waco. For much of the year, the Wichita lived in huts made of forked cedar poles covered by dry grasses. In the winter, they followed American bison in a seasonal hunt and left their villages behind. All parts of the buffalo were used for clothing, food and cooking fat, winter shelter, leather supplies, and medicine. They returned in the spring to their villages for another season of cultivating crops.

The Wichita were known to tattoo their faces and bodies with solid and dotted lines and circles. They called themselves Kitikiti'sh / Kirikirish ("raccoon-eyed people") because of the tattooed marks around their eyes. They wore clothes made of tanned hides, which the women prepared and sewed. They often decorated their dresses with elk teeth. The kindred Pawnee called them Kírikuuruks / Kírikuruks ("bear-eyed people") and the Arikara referred to them as Čirikuúnux (a reference to the Wichita practice of tattoos). The Kiowa knew them as Thoe-Khoot ("tattoo faces").

Wichita ceremonial life closely followed the seasonal round of economic activities. The deer dance, a ceremony performed by the medicine men, was held when the first grass appeared, when corn ripened, and when corn was harvested. The calumet ceremony, involving the presentation of a feathered pipestem to a prominent individual, was believed to be of lasting benefit to the tribe. Other ceremonies were performed to ensure good harvests, the successful return of war parties, or the abundance of buffalo.

The Wichita spoke a Caddoan language. They formed a loose confederation of related peoples on the Southern Plains, including such bands or sub-tribes as Taovayas (Tawehash), Tawakonis, Wacos (who appear to have been the Yscani/Iscanis of earlier times), and Guichitas or Wichita Proper; minor bands are listed as well: Akwits / Akwesh, Asidahetsh / Asidahesh (a former northern Pawnee splinter group, which joined the Wichita), Itaz, Kishkat, and Korishkitsu (the two latter names perhaps a Wichita name for the Kichai). They were related by language and culture to the Pawnee, with whom they enjoyed close relations. The Taovaya were the most important in the 18th century. The French called the Wichita peoples Panis Piqués (i.e. Pawnee Picts) or Panis Noirs (i.e. Black Pawnees), because they practiced tattooing; sometimes the ″Panis Piqués / Panis Noirs″ are included into the listing of Wichita sub-tribes, but it seems that there were no known separate sub-tribe which can be identified by this name. One Pawnee splinter grouping known as Panismahas moved from what is now Nebraska to the Texas-Arkansas border regions where they lived with the Taovayas.

The Wichita lived in fixed villages notable for their large, domed-shaped, grass-covered dwellings, sometimes up to 30 feet in diameter. The Wichita were successful hunters and farmers, skillful traders and negotiators. They ranged from San Antonio, Texas in the south to as far north as Great Bend, Kansas. A semi-sedentary people, they occupied northern Texas in the early 18th century. They traded with other Southern Plains Indians on both sides of the Red River and as far south as Waco. For much of the year, the Wichita lived in huts made of forked cedar poles covered by dry grasses. In the winter, they followed American bison in a seasonal hunt and left their villages behind. All parts of the buffalo were used for clothing, food and cooking fat, winter shelter, leather supplies, and medicine. They returned in the spring to their villages for another season of cultivating crops.

The Wichita were known to tattoo their faces and bodies with solid and dotted lines and circles. They called themselves Kitikiti'sh / Kirikirish ("raccoon-eyed people") because of the tattooed marks around their eyes. They wore clothes made of tanned hides, which the women prepared and sewed. They often decorated their dresses with elk teeth. The kindred Pawnee called them Kírikuuruks / Kírikuruks ("bear-eyed people") and the Arikara referred to them as Čirikuúnux (a reference to the Wichita practice of tattoos). The Kiowa knew them as Thoe-Khoot ("tattoo faces").

Wichita ceremonial life closely followed the seasonal round of economic activities. The deer dance, a ceremony performed by the medicine men, was held when the first grass appeared, when corn ripened, and when corn was harvested. The calumet ceremony, involving the presentation of a feathered pipestem to a prominent individual, was believed to be of lasting benefit to the tribe. Other ceremonies were performed to ensure good harvests, the successful return of war parties, or the abundance of buffalo.