Karankawa
The Karankawa were a Native American people who inhabited the coastal regions of Texas, ranging from West Galveston Bay to the Laguna Madre near the Rio Grande. They developed a lifestyle intricately connected to the land and the Gulf of Mexico, relying on rich natural resources for sustenance. The Karankawa fished and hunted, utilizing dugout canoes for navigating the waters, and gathered various plants and shellfish, demonstrating a deep knowledge of their environment that was passed down through generations. Their society was spiritually grounded, with practices that included observing sunsets and holding full moon celebrations, which featured traditional music and ceremonial drinks.
Karankawa villages were strategically located near the shore or elevated areas, with their dwellings constructed from materials like cane and animal hides, designed to withstand harsh weather. Over time, they navigated complex relationships with European settlers, particularly during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, as pressures from Anglo-American migration grew. Ultimately, the Karankawa sought refuge in Mexico as their traditional lands became less hospitable due to encroaching settlers. The history of the Karankawa reflects both their resilience in sustaining their culture and the challenges posed by external influences.
Karankawa
Category: Tribe
Culture area: Southeast
Language group: Karankawa
Primary location: East coast of Mexico north of Tamaulipas, south Texas coast
Over the centuries the Karankawa people developed a lifeway measured by the land and the gulf upon which they depended. They lived amid riches in terms of game and fish, and they cultivated foodstuffs. They moved in dugouts or skiffs on seasonal rotation from the river valleys to the bay inlets along the coast, ranging from West Galveston Bay on the north to the Laguna Madre south of the Rio Grande. The Karankawa never exceeded ten thousand people.
Over thousands of years they nurtured a knowledge of the animals, the plants, the earth, and the sea, upon all of which their existence depended. Karankawa knowledge was passed carefully from one generation to the next. The Karankawa fished the bays and inlets from their dugout canoes, exploiting redfish, snapper, flounder, and green sea turtle; they gathered sea bird eggs and shellfish. They hunted bison and deer as well as smaller game, and they cultivated blackberry bushes, arrowroot, and potatoes as well as collected pecans, acorns, and prickly pear.
The Karankawa were spiritually centered people. People paused no matter what they were doing as the sun disappeared behind the horizon. They stood observing the sunset as a system of beauty of which they were a part. Formal celebrations were held at the time of the full moon, and they involved the use of “black drink” or yaupon tea. Music was made with song and instruments—gourd rattles, carved wooden rasps, and cedar flutes. Their sense of being included the marshes, bays, salt flats, brush, and dunes as they established patterns of sustainable behavior in the ecosystem. Karankawa people understood the changes that form the design of the coastal land and the borders of the gulf. They had the foresight and knowledge to protect these lands and waters for centuries.
The site of their villages was always close to the shore or bluff. They bathed every day in the salt water, and they used shark’s oil as protection against mosquitoes. The people were tall, and most were in excellent physical condition. They lived in structures made of woven mats of cane, tanned skins, and hides that covered a structurally sound framework of willow and oak resting on foundations of oyster shell. These structures sheltered the Karankawa from the winds and the rains of fall and winter. They had few possessions, as they lived amid the wealth of the coastal environment.
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the Karankawa maneuvered diplomatically between the French and the Spanish. The mission Espiritu Santa de Zuniga was founded in 1722 specifically to influence the Karankawa, but this effort failed within a few years. Some Karankawa people did seek the protection of other missions for American Indians in the late eighteenth century. Early in the nineteenth century, the Karankawa began to face the Anglo-Americans who moved into the region. Pressure increased until they migrated from Texas south of the Rio Grande into the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, where they sought sanctuary.