Skip to main content

Full text of "The Karankawa Indians, the coast people of Texas"

See other formats 


This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project 
to make the world's books discoverable online. 

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject 
to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books 
are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover. 

Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the 
publisher to a library and finally to you. 

Usage guidelines 

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the 
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to 
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying. 

We also ask that you: 

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for 
personal, non-commercial purposes. 

+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine 
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the 
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help. 

+ Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find 
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it. 

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just 
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other 
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of 
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner 
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe. 

About Google Book Search 

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers 
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web 



at |http : //books . google . com/ 



/ 



ifumi^ 



mmmk 



L 




' V- 



-(. V w ., 



• X' \ 



iV„, 



AKrnJEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL PAPERS 

or THl 

PKABODV MUSEuiU. 

Vm^ t No- S. 



TUB KAilANKAWA INDIANS, 



iiiK coAf>T vmn.K or trxas. 



Af^BHitT B. ay 



iVrtif nirr* ttT t,#14ji 



< n iHai 1,14 APii ^ Yvi; III* tint 

*ft,t%hm. 






TilT-t /'iTE 



THE NEW YCfiK 
PUBLIC LIE R/.^xY 

888120 

ASTOR. LENOX .' ^ 

TiLDEN founda:!-:^ . 
R 1918 ' 



printbd by 
The Salem Press Publishing and Pbintino Co, 



» • • \ 

m . ^ 

1 • -I "" * 









^ 






X 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

Prefatory Notice. By F. W. Putnam v 

Biographical Notice op Mrs. Oliver. By C. A. Hammond . vii 

The Carancahua Tribe op Indians. By Charles A. Hammond . 9 

Notes on the Carancahua Indians. By Alice W. Oliver ... 16 

The Karankawa Indians. By Albert S. Gatschet 21 

Notes on Karankawa History 

I. The Karankawa People from the Discovery down to 

THE Year 1835 23 

II. Other Indian Tribes op the Texan Littoral . . * . 33 

III. Tribal Synonymy op the Karankawas 43 

rv. The Karankawa Nation after 1836; its Decline and 

Extinction 46 

Map of ancient domain of the Karankawa Indians (to face) . 46 

V. Ethnographic Sketch of the Karankawa Indians . . 52 

VI. The KifkRANKAWA Language 73 

Vocabularies 

Karankawa and English 73 

English and Karankawa 83 

Grammatic Elements of the Language 87 

Ig Affinities of the Language 96 

ri VII. Bibliographical Annotations 99. 

Index 101 



^ 



PREFATORY NOTICE. 



In November, 1888, it fell to ray good fortune to make the ac- 
quaintance of Mr. Charles A. Hammond, the Superintendent of the 
Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad, whose workmen had dis- 
covered a burial place of the Massachusetts Indians at Winthrop. 
With a consideration for scientific research worthy of his educa- 
tion and attainments, he notified me of the discovery and held the 
place intact until I could carry on a systematic exploration. Dur- 
ing this work I daily met Mr. Hammond and in the course of con- 
versation he told me of Mrs. Oliver and of her having known the 
Karankawa Indians whose language she had learned, and of tlie vo- 
cabulary he had gathered from her. We both realized the impor- 
tance of this vocabulary as the remnant of a language now extinct, 
and I urged its publication with such an account of the tribe as 
Mrs. Oliver could furnish. The manuscript was soon given to me. 

Knowing of the researches of Mr. A. S. GatscJhet and that he 
was particularly interested in the languages of the southern tribes, 
I sent the manuscript to him with the request that he would edit it 
for publication by the Peabody Museum. Mr. Gatschet, while in 
Texas in 1884 and 1886, had searched in vain for trustworthy in- 
formation on this language, and bis surprise at receiving the vocab- 
ulary and learning that there was a lady in Massachusetts who un- 
derstood the language can be imagined. He soon obtained leave 
from the Director of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology to visit Mrs. 
Oliver, and his visit resulted in securing from her considerable ad- 
ditional information, drawn forth by critical and systematic ques- 
tions which would occur only to one who had made Indian lan- 
guages his life-long study. 

The several papers resulting from the fortunate series of incidents 
to which I have referred, are here published as the second number 
of the Special Papers of the Museum. 

Greatly regretted by all who knew her, the gifted and intelligent 



VI PREFATORY NOTICE. 

lady who had once knovn a now extinct tribe, and who was the only 
person from whom a vocabulary could be obtained, died within three 
months after she had done what she could to put on record a lan- 
guage which she had learned and spoken in her youth. 

This incident is certainly a most conclusive argument for the ne- 
cessity of immediate work among all the Indian tribes ; that their 
language and their myths, their legends and their customs, may be 
investigated and recorded. In another year it will be too late to 
obtain many facts which can be secured during the present. The 
Indian is now fast merging into our civilization. His life is chang- 
ing and his language and customs are rapidly disappearing. Let us, 
while we may, strive to atone for the unjust treatment he has re- 
ceived, since the first white men landed on the shore of America, 
by collecting and recording such facts relating to his past history 
as are yet attainable— rfacts so essential in a study of the phases of 
life through which all races are passing, or have passed, in the de- 
velopment of culture. 

F. W. Putnam, 

Curator of tJie Museum. 

Cambridge^ Mass.<, April, 1890. 



Note.— The paging of the volume, of which this is the second paper, is given at the 
foot of the pages. 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF MRS. OLIVER. 



BY CHARLES A. HAMMOND, 



Alice Williams Oliver was born in Beverly, Nov. 27, 1828. 
She was the only daughter of Capt. Thomas Bridges^ of Beverly who 
was a successful shipmaster. After a number of fortunate voyages 
to different parts of the world he found himself in New Orleans at 
the time of the Texan *'War of Indei^endence" with Mexico (1836), 
and being of an adventurous spirit he engaged in transporting mu- 
nitions of war and other supplies from New Orleans to Matagorda, 
Texas. Afterward learning of the offer by the State of Texas of a 
township to any one who would bring his family there and reside 
on it, he with his brother William (who was the mate of a ship) 
went out and located his land on the shores of Matagorda bay, tak- 
ing his family there in the year 1838. 

The writer first became acquainted with Mrs. Alice W. Oliver in 
the year 1869, and was much interested in the narration of her ex- 
periences of Texan life. Her mother, a finely-educated woman, 
took great care to bring up her daughter so that she should not lose 
any accomplishment through separation from the educational advan- 
tages she had herself enjoyed, and regular lessons were learned 
daily. Their house in Texas, not far from the city of Matagorda, 
was ever open for the entertainment of guests for as long as they 
chose to stay, and many persons of mark who were attracted by the 
inducements offered by the new republic stopped there en route. A 

^Capfc. Thomas Bridge8(boni in Beverly, Sept. 21 , 1795 ; died in Texas 1848) was the old- 
est of the four children of Benjamin Girdler Bridges (born Sept. 8, 1771; died Apr. 18, 
1816) and Abigail Mercy Blyth (born Aug. 26, 1772 ; died Aug. 15, 1830), who were married 
Jan. 1, 1795. 

Capt. Bridges married (Aug. 10> 1825) Hannah Hellfger Horton (bom in Marblehead 
March 28, 1798; died Aug. 9, 1853) who was the daughter of Capt. Samuel Horton by his 
second wife, Mrs. Eleanor Williams (n^e Bronghton). Two children were bom to Capt. 
Bridges; Thomas, who died in infancy, and Alice Williams who married William F. Ol- 
iver (born in Lynn 1810; died in Lynn, Feb. 7, 1877), their children being Alice Cora (wife 
of Charles A. Hammond) and Sarah Jane (wife of Charles E. Lovejoy). 

71 



Viii BIOGRAPHICAL NOTIOB. 

number of foreign gentlemen at different times thus shared the hos- 
pitalities of Capt. Bridges, among others Prince Salm-Salm and 
suite, in connection with a German colonization scheme. From an- 
other guest, a French gentleman of high attainments, Mrs. Oliver 
received instruction in the French language, the knowledge of which 
remained with her through life. But her indoor pursuits were also 
mingled with abundant opportunities for outdoor exercise and she 
became an expert horsewoman, often taking long rides over the 
prairie and along the shores of the beautiful bay. 

Mrs. Oliver often referred with great interest and enthusiasm to 
her delightful life in Texas, and among other things spoke partic- 
ularly of the Indian tribe of Karankawas (also written Caranca- 
huas) in whom she came to take a great interest and whose language 
she succeeded by persistent effort in acquiring, sufficiently, at least, 
for all ordinary conversation, writing down ^uch new words as she 
learned, and subsequently verifying them as parties of Indians en- 
camped each summer near her dwelling, with whom she soon be- 
became a great favorite. 

It was the writer's sincere lament of the fact that the record which 
Mrs. Oliver had made and preserved for a number of years had been 
lost, that led her to reproduce from her memory as many of the 
Indian words as possible ; and in this, though the attempts were 
at intervals during several yesirs, she succeeded most remarkably, 
so that it was the writer's privilege thus to record over a hundred 
words of this now extinct and unwritten language. It was upon 
making the acquaintance of Prof. F. W. Putnam, of Cambridge^ 
Mass., in connection with certain discoveries of Indian remains, 
made while building a railroad in the town of Winthrop, Mass., that 
this list of words was brought to his attention ; and this resulted in 
i;he visit to Mrs. Oliver by Mr. A. S. Gatschet of Washington, in 
November, 1888, at which time he carefully went over the entire list 
with her and succeeded in obtaining a number of additional words 
as well as further information concerning the manners and customs 
of this interesting tribe, once very powerful and greatly feared, but 
of whom it is believed that not a single descendant is now living. 

Further investigations with some comparison of words of neigh- 
boring tribes were about to be undertaken when interrupted by the 
death (after a brief sickness) of Mrs. Oliver, Feb. 8, 1889. 

Lynn, Mass,, March, 1890. 
72 



THE CARANCAHUA TRIBE OF INDIANS. 



By CHARLES A. HAMMOND. 



During the revolt of Texas against Mexico, known to all Texans 
as the " war of independence," Capt. Thomas Bridges, of Beverly, 
Mass.y being in New Orleans with his vessel, was engaged to carry- 
arms and supplies from New Orleans to Texas ports, running the 
Mexican " blockade." At the close of the war he settled on a tract 
of land, or " head-right," situated upon the northerly shores of 
Matagorda bay, and soon after, in January, 1838, brought his fam- 
ily to reside there. During the succeeding ten years his daughter, 
an only child, became much interested in a wandering tribe of In- 
dians, the once numerous Carancahuas, and succeeded in acquiring 
many of their words, so that she was able to converse with them in 
their own language. As fast as learned she wrote the words down 
to the number of five or six hundred. This record, unfortunately, 
is lost, but its compiler in after years (1871) drew from her memory 
and repeated to the writer a list of one hundred and thirty-four 
Carancahua words, including the ten numerals, and these are em- 
bodied in the following vocabulary. 

Mrs. Oliver stated that when the Indians conversed they care- 
fully husbanded or somewhat repressed their breath, and, at the 
end of a sentence or isolated word, it escaped in a gentle sigh or 
''breathing," — giving the speakers an air of ennui ; this was height- 
ened by their "conversational " expression, which was stolid and 
slightly contemptuous, and by their custom of never looking at the 
person to whom they were talking, as if their speech was an act of 
utter condescension. 

Many different parties of Indians encamped near the residence 
of Captain Bridges during successive seasons, and were often sur- 
prised at being accosted by a young white girl in their own language. 
The words obtained by her were thus verified as to their significa- 
tion, and one or two instances of deception exposed. The innocent 

73 



10 THE CARANCAHDA TRIBE OP INDIANS. 

use of a false word, such as tesnakwak'n for tesnakwdya (milk), 
caused the Indians much amusement, and they kept repeating the 
false word softly to themselves with a sort of quiet laughter. They 
were very exact in their pronunciation and ridiculed poor elocution, 
such as the hasty utterance of the Italian word madonna to repre- 
sent their word mad6na (pig). 

Their parties usually voj^aged from place to place along the coast 
in their canoes^ or " dug-outs," which were made from large trees, 
the bark left on. One side of the log was hewed flat and the log was 
then dug out, the ends bluntly pointed, leaving a triangular place 
or deck at each end. The women and children and household 
goods occupied the " hold," while the father of the family stood on 
the stern and poled the boat along, keeping not far away from the 
shore. On arriving at a landing place, tlie men hauled the canoe 
up on the beach and then left the women to set up the wigwams. 

The site of their camp was always close to the beach or bluff, 
and the squaws can-ied the tent poles, bundles of skins and such 
simple utensils as they possessed to the site selected and proceeded 
to build. A dozen slender willow poles about one and one-half 
inches in diameter and fifteen to eighteen feet long, sharpened to a 
point for boring into the soil, were set in a circle ordinarily of 
about ten or twelve feet in diameter, but varying with the size of 
the family or families — for two often occupied the same hut. The 
poles were about a j^ard apart and admitted of entrance between 
any two. The tops of the poles were then bent over toward the 
centre and interlaced in a rude sort of wicker work aided by an 
occasional thong of deer skin. Upon this light framework they 
usually spread deer skins, adding sometimes the skin of a bear, a 
wild-cat or a panther carelessly fastened to tlfe poles with deer 
thongs. They never thus covered more than one-half of the wig- 
wam, or ba-ak, and always selected the windward side for this pro- 
tection ; should the wind change decidedly, or should the sun beat 
down too fiercely, they changed the position of the skins for shelter 
or shade. 

After the hut was built, a fire was made. The squaws usually 
begged Jire or matches from the settlers, but in case they had no 
other means of kindling it, they resorted to the primitive method 
of producing it by friction of wood. Their Jire- sticks they alwaj^s 
carried with them and kept them carefully wrapped in several lay- 
ers of skins tied up with thongs and made into a neat package ; 
74 



THE OARANOAHUA TRIBB OF INDIAKS. 11 

* 

they were thus kept very dry and as soon as the occasion for 
their use was over, they were immediately wrapped up again and 
laid away. These sticks were two in number. One of them was 
held across the knees, as the Indian squatted on the ground, and was 
about two feet long, made of a close-grained, brownish-yellow wood 
(perhaps pecan), half-round in section, the flat face (heM upward) 
about an inch across in which were three holes about half an inch 
in diameter and of equal depth, the bottoms slightly concave. The 
three holes were equally distant apart, about two inches, and the 
first one was the same distance from the end of the stick which 
rested upon the right knee. In one of the holes was inserted the 
slightly rounded end of a twirling stick about eighteen inches long, 
made of ai white, soft wood, somewhat less than the diameter of the 
hole, so as to turn easily. Holding the twirler (which was perfectly 
cylindrical) vertically between the palms of the hands, a gentle but 
rapid alternating rotary motion was imparted. After continuing this 
for about five minutes, the abrasion of the softer wood caused a 
fine impalpable dust to collect in the hole from which soon issued a 
thin blue line of smoke ; as soon as the Indian saw this he quickly 
withdrew his twirler with one hand, while with the other he caught 
up and crushed a few very dry leaves, previously placed on a dry 
cloth close by (having been produced from their wrappings in which 
they had been carefully preserved for this very purpose, to serve as 
tinder), and very quickly but lightly sprinkled them in and around 
the hole, over which both hands were then held protectingly, the 
head bent down and the incipient fire fanned to a blaze with the 
breath. As soon as the blaze had fairly caught, the stick and tinder 
were deftly turned over upon a little pile of drj^ twigs and leaves, 
made ready beforehand, and the fire was started. This operation of 
producing fire was always performed by the men. The fire was in- 
variably built in the centre of the hut upon the ground, and was us- 
ually kept burning, — for the Indians never slept regularly but 
whenever they pleased, being often asleep in the daytime and awake 
nights or vice versa^ as they felt inclined. 

The Indians' lodge-furniture consisted of skins, — single skins to 
sit upon and a small pile of skins for a bed. Their /ood, — ven- 
ison, fish, oysters, turtles, etc., — was always either boiled in rude 
earthen pots or roasted in the ashes of their fire. They also baked 
in the ashes cakes of flour or meal obtained from the white people, 
and in their season they gathered berries, nuts, persimmons, wild 

75 



12 THE CARANOAHUA TRIBE OF INDIANS. 

grapes, etc., and at certain times in the year obtained quantiUes 
of sea-birds' eggs of many different kinds of which they were 
very fond. Fish were abundant, — red -fish, sea- trout, flounders, 
sheep's-head, Spanish mackerel and Jew fish. The Indians took 
their fish by the same weapons with which they hunted their game, 
viz. : the bow and arrow, and they were remarkably expert in this 
way of fishing. Whether in their canoes, or while standing in the 
water after wading out hip-deep, no matter how turbid or rough the 
water might be, their aim was unerring ; holding their arrow in place 
with drawn bow and watching intently, suddenly " the arrow flies 
and the fish dies," and then as it rises to the surface it is easily se- 
cured. Often when the white people had tried in vain with their 
hook and line, the Indians with their trusty bow never failed to cap- 
ture a fish. It seems that they could feel the approach of a fish in 
roiled water by the motion or undulation of the water below the sur- 
face. 

The weapons of these Indians consisted of bows and arrows of 
their own manufacture, clubs and tomahawks, and long, double- 
edged knives procured from the whites. These knives were carried 
in sheaths attached to belts of deer-hide. They had also hatchets 
and axes, of the ordinary patterns, for domestic use. 

Their utensils were few and simple, — rude wooden spoons, and 
a few clay vessels of different sizes with bottoms rounded — never 
flat. The women had needles made of fish-bones with smooth 
nicely-made eyes which carried threads of fine deer sinew manu- 
factured with great care and patience, and with these they made 
their skirts of dressed deer skin. They had no covering of any 
kind for the feet or for the head. 

Their bows of red cedar conformed to a certain rule of length, 
according to stature, reaching from the foot to the chin or eye. 
They were beautifully made and kept well oiled and polished. 
At the middle, the bow was about two inches wide, and one and a 
half inches, or so, thick. The bow-string was formed of twisted 
deer sinew of many fine strands aggregating one-fourth of an inch 
in diameter, making a very strong line perfectly smooth and hard. 
Great pains were taken to keep the line smooth and in perfect re- 
pair, any slight tendency toward fraying being at once remedied. 

The arrows were about a yard long, the shaft something over 
half an inch in diameter with a sharp thin steel head about three 
inches long, the shank of which was set in a cleft of the shaft which 
76 ' 



THE CABANCAHUA TRIBE OF Iin>IANS. 18 

was wound with sinew. Tlie arrows were feathered with wild geese 
wing-feathers, three being set equidistant around the shaft, in 
slots or clefts and then wound. The feathers were about six inches 
long and showed about one-half inch from shaft. In shooting, the 
arrow was held with one feather on top, vertical, and the other two 
radiating downward and outward. The bow was held with the left 
hand in the firm grasp of the palm and fingers, so that the thumb 
was free to move ; the shaft of the arrow thus rested on the first 
thumb joint, so allowing one of the two lower feathers to pass on 
each side of the thumb and also clear of the bow, and permitting 
accurate aim. The bow-string was drawn to the left cheek by the 
first two fingers of the right hand hooked over the string, one above 
and the other below the arrow-shaft. 

The foregoing information was obtained from Mrs. Alice W. Ol- 
iver, who at the request of the writer also composed the following 
" Notes " on the history and customs of these Indians. 

Lynn^ Maas.y Nov, 5, 1888. 



NOTES ON THE CARANCAHUA INDIANS. 



By ALICB W. OLIVER. 



Before the commencement of the war with Mexico, which se- 
cured to Texas her independence, there seems to be no record of 
the Carancahua tribe of Indians, though they had probably long 
been inhabitants of the country. At that time they were a very 
powerful and warlike nation, exceedingly dreaded by the Mexicans 
and by other tribes of Indians for their unparalleled ferocity and 
cruelty. They were cannibals, and horrible stories are still told of 
atrocities perpetrated upon certain isolated families, who were 
among the pioneers upon the coast of Texas. Continual tribal 
wars, in which the Carancahuas appear to have suffered disastrous 
defeat, about this time reduced their numbers considerably, so that 
when, at the beginning of the war, their services were offered to the 
Mexicans, 3000 warriors were supposed to represent the strength 
of the tribe. ^ They rendered very efficient service to the Mexicans 
by harassing the few scattered families along the coast where sol- ^ 
diers could not have found their way, and passing like birds of 
prey silently and swiftly in their canoes along the shore, from Co- 
pano along the Trespalacios and Matagorda bays, always managed 
to elude pursuit. Swooping suddenly down upon the defenceless 
inhabitants, they spared neither age nor sex, involving every living 
being in one general massacre. They disappeared as silently as 
they came, leaving only a few ruins to tell the story. 

Subsequently, owing it is supposed partly to the effect of cer- 
tain treacherous conduct toward them on the part of the Mexicans, 
and partly to the fact that the Indians probably began to foresee 
the fina-l result of the war and the importance of gaining the pro- 
tection of the Americans when their sway should become estab- 
lished in Texas, these Indians, with other tribes, about the time of the 

^From two hundred to two hundred and fifty warriors ie all we can assume for that 
period.— A. S.G. 

79 



^^ NOTES ON THE OARANOAHUA INDIANS. 

memorable battle of the Alamo, or immediately after, left the Mex- 
ican army and became nominally the allies of the Americans who 
were then steadily gaining strength and power. In the battle of 
the Alamo these Indians suffered greatly and many of their war- 
riors—the flower of the tribe indeed — were either killed or cap- 
tured. They were, from that time, under the protection of the 
American flag, and the settlers were thus secure from their further 
depredations ; for the Indians perfectly comprehended that their 
existence as a tribe depended thereafter entirely upon their implicit 
obedience, at least so far as outward acts were concerned, to certain 
conditions which were imposed as the price of their protection ; 
any deviation would mean utter extermination. Probably their ten- 
dencies were always unchanged, and their sympathies were toward 
the Mexicans notwithstanding, and their hatred of the Americans 
was longing for some safe opportunity to betray itself. One such 
instance is recorded, where detection seemed impossible (to them), 
but it was discovered and followed by a retributive action on the 
part of the Americans which virtually destroyed the tribe and re- 
duced the remnant to utter and abject submission. 

After the close of the war and the establishment of American 
rule, these Indians continued the same wandering ways regarding 
their domestic life, as they had always observed. They had never 
any settled abiding place, but wandered from point to point, all 
along the coast; now, no longer free to come and go, or linffer 
at their pleasure, but living their lives under protest as it were 
and only on sufferance. As their tribal strength declined, and 
they realized that their traditions were the only inheritance of their 
children and that the deeds of their generation could never 4idd 
any lustre to the record, that in a few years thev would be utterly 
extinguished as a nation, the spirit seemed to die within them and 
their degradation was complete. Their life remained unchanged 
in Its general features. The chase and fishing had always been 
their chief dependence and so it continued to a great extent • their 
habits were pnmitive in the extreme, but here, as always, the 
blighting touch of civilization legits baneful trace and hastened 
the doom of the fast diminishing tribe. They had always lived an 
Itinerant life, passing in their "dug-outs," which were Ion- and verv 
narrow yet capacious from spot to spot, stopping generally wherl 

some settler had made his home, always where fresh water and brusL 
wood for their fire were easily attainable. The long, slender po^^^^^ 



NOTES ON THE CARANCAHUA INDIANS. 17 

for their rude tents, or wigwams, were very carefully and skilfully 
twisted together and<bestowed in their canoes. Besides a few 
cooking utensils, skins for their beds, and their bows and arrows they 
had literally no possessions. The task of erecting the tents by la- 
boriously boring the willow poles into the earth at either end, care- 
fully pointed, crossing at the top, and covering the windward side 
with undressed skins, the bringing of water and wood and other 
menial tasks, were always performed by the women. The fire 
was in the middle of the tent, upon a few stones, and the fish or 
venison was cooked and eaten, not with salt but with chile, fin- 
gers taking the place of forks. The men were very tall, magnifi- 
cently formed, with very slender hands and feet. They were not 
very dark, and many of them had very delicate features and, with- 
out exception, splendid teeth. Their long, black hair was rarely 
combed but frequently braided and adorned with bits of colored 
flannel, sometimes terminating in the rattle of the rattlesnake, 
which, dry and shining, made a faint ringing sound as the wearer 
moved. Around the left wrist was a small strip or bracelet of un- 
dressed deer skin, worn by women as well as by men. The women 
were rarely ornamented in any way, were generally plain, short of 
stature, stout and usually disagreeable looking and exceedingly 
dirty, as were also the men. 

There seemed to be almost no young girls among them and very 
few children or infants ; caresses or fond expressions were almost 
never used, yet there was evidently an affectionate recognition 
of the parental tie, on the part of the mother at least ; but never 
was any responsive tenderness observed in a child. The dress 
was simply a waist cloth worn by the men, with a skirt of deer 
skin of exquisite softness for the women. The addition of a blan- 
ket, thrown over the shoulders, was the only other article of cloth- 
ing. The children, till about ten years of age, were unclothed. 

They were surly in their general aspect, averse to conversation, 
and the deep guttural of their language, as they occasionally 
talked with each other, always with averted faces, left the impres- 
sion of extreme fatigue. They were exceedingly dirty in all their 
habits and had probably never known the voluntary application of 
water; their continual wading in the salt water, however, kept 
them cleaner than might be supposed, but the odor of the shark's 
oil with which they habitually anointed their entire bodies as pro- 
tection against mosquitoes, rendered them very offensive. 

F. M. PAPERS. I. 6. 81 



18 NOTES ON THB CARANCAHCA. INDIANS. 

Once in a while they held a sort of solemn festival^ or religious 
ceremonial, of what particular significance could not be exactly 
discovered. It was always celebrated at the full moon and after 
a very successful hunt or fishing expedition. A number of In- 
dians, who all happened to be together at the time, assembled in 
a tent which had been enlarged for the purpose, in the middle of 
which was a small fire, upon which boiled a very strong and black 
decoction made from the leaves of the youpon tree. From time 
to time, this was stirred with a sort of whisk, till the top was cov- 
ered thickly with a yellowish froth. This " tea," contained in a 
vessel of clay of their own manufacture, was handed round occa- 
sionally and all the Indians drank freely. It was very bitter and 
said to be intoxicating, but if so it could only have been when 
drunk to great excess as it never seemed to produce any visible 
effect upon the Indians. These, seated in a row round the inside 
of the tent, looked very grave and almost solemn. 

One tall Indian, probably a chief, stood within the circle and 
passed round and round the fire, chanting in a monotonous tone. 
He was a grotesque figure, being wrapped up to his head in skins, 
and his face concealed ; his long, black hair streamed over his 
back, and he bent nearly double as he moved about, seldom rais- 
ing himself to an erect posture. The chant rose and fell in a 
melancholy sort of cadence, and occasionally all the Indians joined 
in the chorus which was Ha'-i-yah, Ha'-i-yah ; hai , hai'yah, hai'yah, 
hai'-yah. The first two words were shouted slowly, then a loud 
hai', then a succession of hai'-yahs very rapidly uttered in chromatic 
ascending and descending tones, ending in an abrupt hai ! ! very 
loud and far reaching. There were three instruments of music, upon 
which the Indians accompanied the chant. One, alargegourd filled 
with small stones, or shot, was frequently shaken ; another was a 
fluted piece of wood, which was held upon the knees of the plaj-er 
and over which a stick was quickly drawn producing a droning 
noise ; the third was a kind of rude flute, upon which no air was 
played, but which was softly blown in time to the chant. 

This " fandango" was always kept up all night, and as the hours 
went on the chanting became louder and more weird, and the fire, 
allowed to burn up furiously, illuminated the earth and sky, pro- 
ducing, altogether, a frightful effect. 

The day following was always a quiet one and the Indians slept 
or moved languidly about. If, as sometimes happened, they had 
82 



NOTES ON THE CARANOAHUA INDIANS. 19 

obtained some whiskey, it was used instead of the youpon tea, and 
then the Indians became intoxicated, very quarrelsome and often 
really dangerous, fighting among themselves and lurking about the 
dwellings of the settlers, stealing from them articles of food or 
household utensils, and begging continually — rarely willing to per- 
form the slightest task whatever the offered reward. 

In regard to any sacredness of feeling, or particular rites in ref- 
erence to the burial of their dead, they isecmed entirely indifferent. 
No place of sepulture belonging to them ever was alluded to by 
them, or ever discovered, and wherever one of the tribe died there 
he was also interred. 

The peculiar distinctive marks of the tribe were : a small circle 
of blue tattooed over either cheek-bone, one horizontal line ex- 
tending from the outer angle of the eye toward the ear and three 
perpendicular parallel lines, about one-fourth of an inch apart, on 
the chin from the middle of the lower lip downward, and two others 
under each corner of the mouth. 

Their method of communicating with each other, when parties 
were at a distance, was by smoke. By some means known only to 
themselves and carefully kept secret, the smoke of a small fire could 
be made to ascend in many different waj's, as intelligible as spoken 
language to them. At night the horizon was often dotted in vari- 
ous directions with these little fires, and the messages thus con- 
ve3'ed seemed to determine the movements of the Indians. 

They were strictly silent upon the subject of their marriage cere- 
monies, though they certainly did not practise polygamy, but be- 
tween husband and wife there was always a perfect indifference in 
manner. 

It is believed that at the present time not one of this tribe of In- 
dians is in existence and these few lines are their only memorial. 

AN ANECDOTE. 

The Indian of song and stor}^ the Indian immortalized by 
Cooper was certainly a very different being in his noble, generous 
impulses and his glorious, self-sacrificing life, from the type repre- 
sented by the Carancahuas, whose character seemed entirely desti- 
tute of heroic traits. Recollection furnishes only one instance, in 
an experience of years, of generous kindness. 

A young daughter of a settler on Matagorda bay had been in the 
habit of interchanging kindly courtesies with the wife of one of the 
chiefs, who manifested some attachment to her. 

83- 



20 NOTES ON THB CARA.NCAHUA INDIANS. 

This young girl was exceedingly sick during several weeks of 
a particularly hot summer, when a fearful drought prevailed and 
water was very scarce and brackish. A newly finished and very 
capacious rain-water cistern had long awaited the anticipated rain, 
which was withheld till all animal and vegetable life seemed perish- 
ing. A party of Indians, among which were the chief and his wife, of 
whom mention has been made, had been encamping near the home 
of the 3'oung girl and of course knew of her sickness. They had 
left for the home of another settler, about three miles distant across 
the bay, where there was a cistern, filled by the last rain, with pure, 
fresh water. 

The night after their departure, the family of the first settler 
were aroused about midnight by a fearful noise and tumult, and on 
seeing in the moonlight the forms of several Indians, were ex- 
tremely alarmed and excited. The settler, a man of remarkable 
courage and always hitherto upon friendly terms with the Indians, 
rushed down stairs, rifle in hand and found three or four of his 
hired men, who had been sleeping upon the piazza, also with their 
guns, prepared to defend themselves against a supposed treach- 
erous attack of the Indians. As soon as the master of the house 
appeared, the Indians, who had been apparently trying to explain 
the cause of their appearance, came toward hfim with outstretched 
hands, and the chief, presenting a large jug, which had been con- 
cealed by his blanket, said in his few words of English : " You 
water no good — you Alice sick — here, water good — Alice drink." 
The gratitude and delight of the father cannot be expressed, and 
the Indians returned to their tents loaded with gifts. 

Lynn, Mass., Oct. 30, 1888. 



THE KARANKAWA INDIANS. 



bt albert s. gatschet. 

Of the U, S* Bureau of Ethnoloffp, 



Omnes iUacrimabilei 
urguentur ignotique longa 
node; carent quia vate sacro. 

Our historic information concerning the once populous Texan 
nation of the Karankawa is an average specimen of the fragmentary 
manner in which Indian history and tlie general history of man- 
kind as well is transmitted to our knowledge. Chance and fate, pow- 
ers uncontrollable by the human species, decide whether we are to 
have any knowledge or not of an important people or of its note- 
worthy rulers or public characters ; fires, floods, tornadoes, wars 
and the ravages of time have often destroyed the only documents 
left of the literature of a people, or of its style of architecture and 
art ; or when something has come down to our times, which testifies 
to their existence, we often have to scrape together our informa- 
tion from the most insignificant and minute sources, frequently dis- 
torted by unsafe, traditional reports. 

To render our knowledge of the past still more checkered and un- 
equal, insignificant towns and tribes are often described at length 
and the deeds of Wxqxx petits grands hommes extolled beyond meas- 
ure. Why? Only because they happened to exist in the vicinity 
of literary centres, or of men of culture who filled their leisure hours 
in writing their biographies or chronicles. At other times events of 
little importance are magnified into deeds of consequence, while 
men of heroic mind or eminent capacities are misrepresented as 
being mere common-place individuals^ 

With our knowledge of the Karankawa Indians chance has 
played a capricious game as well as withthat of many other tribes. 
Although their tribe figures as a people of consequence in Texan 
colonial history, the information left us by the chroniclers of the 
times does not give the necessary points enabling us to classify 

85 



22 THE KARANKAWA INDIANS. 

them according to race and language. Their records report that 
cruelties were inflicted by them upon harmless settlers ; they dis- 
cuss their bodily appearance, their weapons, implements and ca- 
noes, with some of their customs, but they are silent concerning 
their religious ideas, their migrations, their tribal government, and 
especially their language, which is the most important character- 
istic of each tribe, and we have to deplore that even in our scleu' 
tiflc age so little attention is paid to the tongues of primitive na- 
tions. 

What our predecessors in Texan ethnography have failed to 
transmit to us, we can in a small degree supply now, by drawing 
our conclusions from all the disjecta membra of Karankawa history 
and tradition. There is a considerable number of these discon- 
nected notices to be found, more than of many other western or 
southwestern tribes, but as to their language, probabl^^ no living in- 
dividual can inform us now about its strange accents and primitive 
vocabulary' bej'ond what we here present. 

For convenience I have subdivided the historical facts concern- 
ing this people into four sections : 

I. The Karankawa people from the earliest historic times down 
to 1835, the beginning of Texan independence. 
II. Other Indian tribes of the Texan littoral. 

III. Tribal synonymy of the Karankawas. 

IV. The Karankawa tribe after 1835 ; its decline and extinction. 

Then follow : 
V. Ethnographic sketch of the Karankawa Indians. 
VI. Treatise upon the Karankawa language. 
Washington, D. C, January^ 1890. 



NOTES ON KARANKAWA HISTORY; 

I. THE KARANKAWA PEOPLE FROM THE DISCOVERY DOWN 
TO THE YEAR 1835. 

Primosque et extremos metendo 
itravit humum sine {clade) victor. 

Thk earliest report we possess on the coast tribes among which 
the Karankawas have dwelt during the historic period, is contained 
in the twenty-sixth chapter of the "Naufragios" composed by Alvar 
Nunez Cabega de Vaca, one of the four men who were saved from 
the unfortunate expedition of Pamfilo de Narvaez. From 1527 he 
subsisted for seven years among the coast tribes, destitute of every 
thing, even of garments, but as a trader and medical practitioner 
he managed to eaun a scanty living. He thus became acquainted 
with many tribes, even of the interior tracts, and gives descriptions 
of .them in his above-mentioned record. Among the coast tribes he 
mentions the Caoques, Han, Chorruco, Doguenes, Mendica, Que- 
venes, Mariames, Gua3'cones, Quitoles, Camoles, los de los Higos.^ 
None of these can be identified with the tribes known in later 
times as the Karankawas or the Ebahamos (to be described be- 
low), though some of them must have lived in the same districts. 

Joutel^ the companion of Robert Cavelier de la Salle on his last 
and unfortunate expedition, has left a journal of his travels, in 
which he mentions the Koienkahe among the tribes living north of 
the Maligne river, and also the Kouyam and the Quouan in the 
same tracts (Margr3',Decouvertes iii, 288 ; date : February, 1687). 
In another edition of this journal, the Koienkahe are called Koren- 
kake,2 and placed between St. Louis bay and the Maligne river. 
In the Korenkake and the misspelt Koienkahe we easily recognize 

^Barcia, Historiadores Primitivos de las Indias occidentales, etc., Madrid, 174&. Vol. 
I, No. 6. The customs are described in cliapter25; (ch. 25coino los Indios son prestos 
kiin arma); ch. 26: De las naciones i lenguas; here he says: "En la isla de Mulhado 
(where he landed) ai dos lenguas : k los unos Haman de Caoques, i k los otros llaman de 
Han. Adelante.en la costadelmarhabitanlos Doguenes, ienfrentedeellos los deMen* 
dica,**etc. If any of the locations described by him were held by Karankawas, they were 
probably those of the Caoques and the Han, who both lived on a sandbar. H. H. Ban- 
croft, Works, XV, p. 64, believes that the Isla del Malhado was in San Antonio Bay. 

SB. F. French, Histor. Collections of La., 1, 134 sqq. 

87 



24 THE KARANKAWA PEOPLE 

the Karankawa Indians, while the Qnouan, in French spelling, ap- 
pear to be the Cujanos. 

Long lists of other Indian tribes are added to these passages, 
subdivided into tribes living north and in others living west and 
northwest of the Maligne river. Where the exploring party crossed 
this river, it was as wide as the Seine at Rouen and probably it 
was the Colorado river of the present day. Some of these tribal 
names have the ring of Karankawa words, but since many are writ- 
ten diiFerently in the two lists,^ we cannot attempt to analyze any 
of them here. The tribes permanently hostile to the people among 
whom the expedition was then staying, lived to the southwest, 
toward the Rio Grande. 

Joutel then adds a short ethnographic notice upon the habits and 
customs of these coast people (Margry, Dec. iii, 286-292), whom 
he had leisure enough to study before the expedition started on its 
way northeast. They seemed to be peaceable and rather timid 
than obtrusive ; except during the heavy "northers" the male sex 
went about in a perfectly nude state, while the females wore skins 
reaching from the belt to the knees. They had baskets and made 
some pottery for cooking their victuals ; they possessed horses, 
which they could have obtained only from the Spaniards ; the dogs 
seen among them were voiceless^ their ears were straight and their 
snouts were like those of foxes. When upon the Maligne river, 
the horses were always seen fleeing whenever Indians were ap- 
proaching, or bathing in the current of the river (p. 286) . Whether 
these Indians had any idea of religion, Joutel was unable to ascer- 
tain ; when questioned they pointed to the sk}^, and the Frenchmen 
were regarded by them "almost as spirits" (p. 292). 

This author also relates that R. C. de la Salle enjoined his men 
to treat these Indians with care and propriety and made small pres- 
ents to them to keep them in good humor ; for, said he, if a con- 
flict should occur between us and these savages, we would be too 
small in numbers to resist them successfully. 

Among the tribes mentioned in that vicinity is that of the Eba- 
hamo, Hebobamos, Bahamos or Bracamos. Joutel states in his 
narrative (French, Hist. Coll. La., i, 134) that de la Salle took a 
vocabulary of their language, which is very different from that of 
the Cenis and more difficult; that they were neighbors and allies 
of the Cenis and understood part of their language. Cavelier ' (in 

1 One list in Margry, D^c, and the other in B. F. French. 
88 



TO THE TEAR 1835. ' 25 

Shea, Early Voyages, p. 22) states that the "Bracamos" dwelt near 
the fort and that the French tried to cultivate their friendship 
(March, 1685). Delisle's map (about 1707?) places them west of 
a river emptying into the St. Louis (or St. Bernard) ba}^ Fort 
Louis being on the mouth of said river, west shore. ^ Father Douay 
mentions them as being hostile to the tribe of the Quinets.^ Their 
name resembles the Karankawa term b6hema, which is mentioned 
in our vocabulary. After that no further mention of them is made 
in the annals or documents. 

When Robert Cavelier de la Salle returned to these parts, early in 
the year 1687, he made explorations from Fort Saint Louis, which 
he had previously built upon St. Louis bay (part of Matagorda 
bay) into the surrounding districts. On one of these excur- 
sions he took away from the Clamcoet Indians some canoes to sail 
up one of the rivers emptying into the bay, and to establish a set- 
tlement. They felt enraged at this act^ and although peace was 
made, their passions were aroused. When they heard of La Salle's 
departure and assassination they attacked the (twenty or more) 
French men and women left in the fort at a time when they were 
off their guard and massacred all but five (1687). Those who 
were spared underwent no punishment except painful tattooing and 
being compelled to follow the Indians on their hunts and war-ex- 
peditions. ^ In 1689 these French people were rescued by a Span- 
ish expedition under Don Alonso de Leon.^ That the Clamcoet, 
or as they were also called, Quelanhubeches, are the same people 
as the Karankawas will soon appear. 

After the close of the Spanish succession war, the government 
of Spain resolved to put a stop to French encroachments upon ter- 
ritories which it considered to be its own, by occupying the im- 
mense country now known as Texas and establishing colonies, forts 
and missions upon its area. The Sabine river was to be the limit 
between French Louisiana and the new Spanish possession, which 
went under different names (provincia de las tecas, provincia de 
las Nuevas Filipinas were the names for the portion east of Me- 
dina river) and governors were installed in two fortified places, 
Nacogdoches and San Antonio de Bejar. 

»Map reproduced In J. WInsor, Hist. Amer., ll, 294. 

2Shea, fiarly Voyages, p. 21 (note). 

»Cf. Interrogatory of P. and J. Talon, in Margry, D^couv. et Etabl., ni, 613-616. 

*Barcia, Ensayo, p. 294. Shea, Discov., p. 2U8 (note) . 

89 



26 THE KARANKAWA PEOPLE 

Not long after this (since 1716) a number of missions were es- 
tablislied to christianize the natives and from that time onward we 
possess some historical though scanty information upon the Texan 
tribes. Not all of these mis«*ions had churches or other buildings 
erected within their areas, as was done on a large scale in and 
around San Antonio de Bejar and in the southern part of Califor- 
nia, but in many of them the curate became an itinerant teacher 
and adviser of the natives to be converted. This was the case, e.g., 
upon the lower Rio Grande and probably also in some of the mis- 
sions of eastern Texas. ^ 

Although Spanish domination was now firmly established through- 
out Texas, — at least in the southern parts of what is now Texas — 
but little is transmitted to us about the natives of those parts dur- 
ing the first half of the eighteenth century and the state documents 
preserved in Austin do not begin earlier than 1740. From French 
writers of the period we gather ^ few points which probably refer 
to the Karankawas or sonde people closely cognate with them. 

A French oflScer, Simars de Belle-Isle, was exploring the west- 
ern countries and had the misfortune of being captured by the In- 
dians. He lived fifteen months in slavery among a people of an- 
thropophaglsts residing at the bay of St. Bernard, one of the seats 
of the Karankawas, from 1719 to 1721, and when released and re- 
turned to the French colony on the Mississippi river, the narrative 
of his tragic fate excited the compassion of his countrymen to such 
a degree that all the contemporaneous writers on Louisiana refer 
to it.2 

Contemporaneously with de Belle-Isle's stay among these na- 
tives, Benard de laHarpe relates that Beianger, in 1720, found an- 
thropophagi sts about one hundred and thirty leagues west of the 
Mississippi river (by sea) in Lat. 25° 45', on what he thought to 
be St. Bernard bay .3 

Sixty years after these events, Milfort, a French commander, 
passed through southern Texas at the head of two hundred war- 
riors of the Creek or Maskoki nation of Alabama, and five days 
travel west of St. Bernard bay met a tribe called Atacapas, who 
were anthropophagists, as this name designates, which is taken 

^ A comprehensive historic sketch of Texan missionary establishments will be found 
in H. H. Bancroft, Hist, of the North Mexican States, i, p. 609 (whole vol. xv). 

s Of. his own report in Margry, D^c. et Etabl. Yi, 320^1, and What Le Page da 
Pratz, Hist, of La. (1758) and Bossu (1771) state about him. 

» French, Hist. CoU. of La., in, 78, 79 ; cf. ibid.y 96-99. 

80 



TO THE TEAR 1835. 27 

from the Cha'lita language. In extenuation of this charge Milfort 
states, that "they do not eat men, but roast them only, on account 
of the cruelties first practised against their ancestors by the Span- 
iards."! 

Whether this last statement rests upon a misunderstanding or 
Las to be regarded as a cruel irony, the fact is certain that these 
people were anthropophagists up to the beginning of the nineteenth 
century. The authentic and documentary proofs that all the orig- 
inal (not all the intrusive) Texan tribes were man-eaters are too nu- 
merous to permit any doubt of this fact. The Tonkawe, the In- 
dians on the lower Rio Grande, the numerous Assinai (Cenis, now 
Caddo) tribes, and the Atakapa of southwestern Louisiana were 
all given to this horrible practice, and even at the present day the 
Tonkawe state that human flesh tastes like bear meat. Anthro- 
pophagism was also common among some Algonquin and Iroquois 
tribes settled around the great Cana<iian lakes. Ethnologists who 
through false philanthropy revoke in doubt the historic statements 
which prove the fact, have never been able to controvert these tes- 
timonies ; they have only shown thereby their inability to place 
themselves into the state of mind of an aboriginal American sav- 
age. The two brothers Talon stated in their examination, that the 
Clamcoet did not eat the bodies of the slain Frenchmen, but were 
in the habit of eating those of their Indian antagonists. Jean- 
Baptiste Talon said, that they offered him the flesh of Ayonai 
Indians during three days, but that he preferred to die of hunger 
than to accept this food.^ 

Other instances of anthropophagy among the southern tribes are 
numerous about that period. In 1719 Benard de la Harpe reports 
that it existed among the Tawakaros^ and the Wichitas, who in one 
feast had eaten seventeen Cancjs (Apaches).^ Panis and Pddu- 
kas (Comanches) devoured each other's prisoners of war, as nar- 
rated by the same officer in 1719.* One of the manifold motives 
for cannibalism was probably the expectation of depriving the dead 
of the possibility of living a second life and of taking revenge. 
In Mexico, Central and South America anthropophagy was more 
frequent and widespread than in the northern continent. 

At the end of the eighteenth century we meet with some Spanish- 

1 G^n^ral Milfort, M^moive ou coup d'oeil rapide Bur mes diffSrents voyages et mon 
B^jour dans la nation Creek. Paris. An. XI (1802), p. 90. 

« P. Margry, D^c. et Etabl. Ill, p. 616. » Identical with the Tawdkoni. 

* Maigry, D6c. vi, 292. » Margry, D6c, vi, 312. 

91 



28 THE KARANKAWA PEOPLE 

Mexican documents which give us an insight into the civil condi- 
tion of the Karankawa and of some of the coast tribes of their 
neighborhood. 

A document preserved in the state archives in Austin, consulted 
by me in December, 1884, is dated 1793 and mentions the founda- 
tion of missions among the Karankawas on Colorado river, among 
the Cocos (perhaps near Sabine river), tlie Horcoquisas on lower 
Trinity river, and among the Comanches. "It is impossible to 
christianize the Carancahuazes of the Colorado on account of the 
close friendship which they entertain with the Lipans .... 
The Carancahuazes originated and came from the coast and during 
summer continually live upon the islands, in winter in the sur- 
roundings of Refugio. For their crossings and fisheries they pos- 
sess canoes, and there is also abundance of fish in the Nueces bay 
or river (en las Nuezes) ; they like to visit the bay (las lagunas) 
and the coast, as there are quantities of cactus-figs around it. From 
all this it appears how troublesome it would be for these Indians 
to give up their own territory ; it is also important for us to have 
control of the Port of Mata Gorda, and hence the site selected [for 
their mission] at Refugio seems the best, as the lands there will 
never become deficient of the larger game, necessary for their sus- 
tenance ; . . it will be necessary to establish a new fort (presidio) 
upon the spot proposed for locating the Carancahuazes upon Colo- 
rado river, which will be distant about twenty leagues from the site 
of Nuestra Senora del Refugio, where the other Carancahuazes 
Uve under the superintendence of Father Garza." 

Refugio is the county seat of Refugio county and lies below the 
confluence of La Vaca and Medio creeks, midway between Corpus 
Christi and Victoria, about 28° 40' Lat. It is distant about one 
hundred miles in a southwestern direction from Matagorda town, 
which is built at the outlet of Colorado river. It appears that 
individuals of the Karankawa people were then settled at two 
places at least, and were changing their habitations with the sea-^ 
sons of the year. The Spaniards were in the habit of peopling 
their missions with the Indians of the neighboring tribes by using 
military force. The mission of Nuestra Senora de Refugio was 
established in 1790 and had sixty-seven Indians in 1793 (H. H. 
Bancroft, Vol. XV, p. 633). A census taken in 1814 shows one 
hundred and ninety individuals settled there (Texas State Ar- 
chives). 
92 



TO THE TEAR 1835. 29 

Another mission, where some Karankawas had been settled with 
Aranama Indians and perhaps with other tribes also, was La Bahia 
del Espiritu Santo, on the southern bank of San Antonio river, 
and lying a little below the city of Goliad. A short distance sep- 
arated it from Refugio, which is almost due south ; a census of 
the mission taken in 1789 shows eighty-two individuals.^ Miih- 
lenpfordt's work "der Freistaat Mexico" (1842), ii, 120, even places 
the original sites of the Karankawa between Goliad or La Bahia 
and Aransas (Aranzaso), and for doing this he must have had 
some documentary evidence before him. 

A document of the close of the eighteenth centurj^ dated 1796 
and extracted by Orozco y Berra in his '*Geografia de las Lenguas 
de Mexico" (18C4), p. 382, proves that the land occupied b}' the 
Lipans of the lower countries bordered east upon those of the Ka- 
rankawas and the Borrados.^ 

The reports concerning this coast people, which date from the 
beginning of the nineteenth centur}-, differ considerably from the 
earlier ones by the constant references made to the unparalleled 
ferocity and cruelty a'nd the desultory, unforeseen attacks of these 
"barbarians." Horrible stories are still told by the descendants 
of the settlers of the cannibalistic atrocities practised upon the iso- 
lated families of their ancestors who had settled in the coast tracts. 
jN^ot only the whites felt the rage of these aborigines, who began 
to see that gradually their coast lands would slip from their hith- 
erto almost undisputed control, but also intertribal contests with 
the Lipans, Aranamas, Tonkawe, Bidai and chiefly with the Co- 
manches, whom they greatly feared ,3 called the Karankawa war- 
riors to arms and inflicted heavy losses upon them before Texas 
became an independent commonwealth. Captain Thomas Bridges 

* 

> La Bahia del Espiiitu Santo was founded as a presidio in 1722 on the site of de la 
Salle's Fort St. Louis on La Vaca river ; transferred to the San Antonio river about 1724 ; 
moved up the river to its final site opposite Goliad in 1749. In 1782 its population was 
Ave hundred and fifteen. H. H. Bancroft, Works, Vol. xv, 633. 

' Borrados or "Indians painted in stripes." The passage runs as follows : "Los Li- 
panes se dividen en dos clases nombradas de arriba y de ab&jo, con referencia al curso 

del Rio Grande, cuyas aguas los banan Los de ab&jo tiencn sus alternati- 

Tas de paz y guerra con los indios carancaguaces y bonados que habitan la marisma. 
.... For el oriente sus limites son los caranguaces y borrados, proviucia de Tejas ; 
por el sur nuestra frontera." ^ ' 

» Maillard, N. D., the History of the Republic of Texas; p. 251 sqq. (London, 1842, 
8vo) states that the "Carancahuas about the year 1796 commenced a sanguinary war with 
the Comanches, which lasted for several years." 

93 



80 THE KARANKAWA PEOPLE 

used to state, that from 1800 up to his time about thirty war par- 
ties, and not more, had been sent out by these Indians. 

The ferocity of the Karankawas is easily accounted for, when Tve 
consider the brutalities which they experienced at the hands of the 
white people who came to deprive them of their fishing grounds 
and coast tracts, and moreover interfered with their family con- 
nections. 

While Galveston island was occupied by the well-known pirate 
Lafitte, some of his men in 1818 abducted one of the Karankawa 
\^omen. To revenge this injury, about three hundred of these In- 
dians landed on the sand-bar, near the '^Three Trees." When this 
became known, two hundred of the adventurers, armed with two 
pieces of artillery, immediately proceeded down the island to meet 
the Indians, who after a stubborn fight and the loss of about thirty 
men withdrew to the mainland. After Lafitte had evacuated his 
position upon that island, ^ Dr. Parnell visited it in 1821 to hunt 
for treasures supposed to have been buried there by the freebooters. 
He found some Indians, attacked them and put them to flight. The 
historian Yoakum believes that it was through these attacks tliat 
the Karankawas subsequently became so hostile towards the colo- 
nists following in the wake of Stephen Austin. 

In 1822 these Indians put to death four men left in charge of 
two vessels loaded with immigrants and goods, at the mouth of the 
Colorado river, and destroyed the goods. 

Encounters between the settlers and the Karankawa Indians oc- 
curred not only on the coast, but also in the upper parts of the 
Texan tide-water section. Thus in 1823, when the city of San 
Felipe de Austin was founded on the lower Brazos river by Stephen 
Austin, one of the settlers reported that a number of Karankawas 
had come up the Colorado river and encamped at the mouth of 
Skull creek, a northwestern affluent of the Colorado in Colorado 
county, fifteen miles below his settlement.^ From their ambush 
they killed Loy and Alley, two of his young friends who were just 

" Qnoted from H. S. Thrall, Pictorial History of Texas (1879), pp. 451, who also giyeB 
some of the incidents below. Lafitte, who died 1826 in Yucatan, first had his piratical 
lieadquarters, 181 1-1813, on Grande Terre island, now Barataria, coast of Louisiana, and 
fought on the American side in the battle of New Orleans (1815). 

9 W. B. Dewees, Letters ft-om an early settler of Texas; Louisville, 1854; pp. 37, 
38 (letter dated Aug. 29, 1823). He also mentions having seen TonkawS Indians; cf! 
p. 45. 

94 



TO THE TEAR 1835. 31 

f 

returning in their boat with a load of corn ; a third man, Clarice, 
who was with them managed to escape, though severely wounded. 
He alarmed the settlers on the day following ; they gathered, am- 
bushed the Indians and killed nine of them on one spot and ten 
more upon the prairie. More fights occurred on Bay prairie. These 
Indians are described by him as tall men of a stout, magnificent 
exterior, as excellent bowmen and fierce cannibals, who dwelt 
between the Brazos and Brazos Santiago.^ Their bows were as 
long as they were themselves and they hit their mark with great pre- 
cision at a distance of one hundred yards. They wore beautiful 
plaits of hair. 

While engaged in surveying lands in 1824, Captain Chriesman 
had several skirmishes with the Karankawas on the St. Bernard 
river and Gulf prairie. The severest encounter was sustained by 
a company under Captain Randall Jones on a creek in Brazoria 
county, since called Jones' creek. Fifteen Indians were reported 
killed and the whites lost three men. 

The destinies of this littoral nation began to take a decisive 
tarn in 1825, when the Anglo-American colonists, who had largely 
increased in numbers, banded together to rid themselves of these 
predatory Indians, who had become exasperated by their frequent 
losses of warriors and revenged themselves by stealing and murder- 
ing. Col. Austin requested Captain Abner Kuykendall to gather a 
corps of volunteers and to expel the Indians from his land grant, 
which extended west to the La Vaca river. The Indians were routed 
and while the troops pursued them, they were met at the Mana- 
huila (or Menawhila) creek,^ six miles east of Goliad city, by a 
Catholic missionary of La Bahia, who took the refugees under his 
protection. He conveyed the promise of these Indians, that they 
would never show themselves again east of the La Vaca river, and 
this promise was accepted. But they did not keep this compact 
for any length of time ; portions of them returned to the Colo- 
rado river, committed new depredations and were scourged again 
by the colonists. ^ This defeat is evidently the same event which is 
narrated by a relative of Stephen Austin, Mrs. Mary Austin Hol- 
ley, in her book : Texas (Lexington, 1836, 8vo, with map) ; she is 

* Near the southern end of Padre island, Texas. 

s An affluent of San Antonio river coming from the northwest. 

» Thrall, p. 451. Baker, D. W. C, Texas Scrap Book, 1875; an article taken from 
Texas Almanac, 1872, and composed by J. II. Kuykendall is inserted there. Tlie earlier 
▼olnmes of the Texas Almanac contain many articles of Talue for Indian history. 

95 



82 THE KARANKAWA PEOPLE TO THE TEAR 1835. 

more circumstantial in her account, but fails to give the date of 
the occurrence. In this she is equalled by many other chroniclers 
and historians of the west, who seem to think that history can be 
written without any chronology. 

The same event is also referred to in a sensational article on this 
tribe inserted in "The Republic*' of St. Louis, Missouri, of April 
13, 1889, page 13, which appears to place this final reduction of 
the Karankawas after the time they had massacred the inhabitants 
and destroyed the town of Matagorda in 1827 (?) and adds an in- 
cident of warfare which took place near Old Caney and Peach 
creek. Not the least regard is paid to the causation and chrono- 
logic order of historic events. 

Among the earlier American settlers it was an admitted fact, 
that many of the depredations and murders committed bj' Indians 
on isolated farms and upon inoffensive hunting parties passing 
through the country were instigated by the Mexican population, 
w^ho regarded the Anglo-Americans as intruders and feared their 
Increasing numbers. Mrs. Oliver also refers to the fact that some 
Karankawas together with other Indians formed part of the Mex- 
ican army, and that after the battle of the Alamo the American 
settlers retaliated heavily for the crimes committed by them with 
or without the behest of their Mexican superiors. This brought 
them into submission and made them perceive the necessity of be- 
ing on better terms with their new rulers. 

Their losses in numbers and the dissolute mode of life, which 
they had adopted while they were dependent on the Mexicans, 
did more than any other causes to bring on their decay as a na- 
tional body and their final extinction. The sad story of their an- 
nihilation during the era of Texan independence, with some notices 
on their latest chiefs, will be recounted in another chapter. 

To close up the period of the national independence, I intend to 
give a rapid survey of all the coast tribes known to have existed 
in the neighborhood of the Karankawas, an undertaking which may 
ultimately shed more light upon the aflSnities once existing among 
them in race or language than we have now. Another chapter 
will deal with the various names under which the Karankawa In- 
dians, or portions of them, were known to the whites and Indians. 
96 



II. OTHER INDIAN TRIBES OF THE TEXAN LITTORAL. 

Interim dum tu celeres sagittas 
promts J haec denies acuit timendos. 

" Similar climates produce similar habits and customs " is an 
ethnologic principle which may be accepted as true in its general 
sense, but is not without its restrictions. The gulf coast or tide 
water section of Texas has once harbored many indigenous tribes, 
called autochthonic, because they had forgotten all about the for- 
mer migrations of their ancestors or congeners. These tribes, 
entirely identified with the country in which they grew up, all 
showed many analogies in their habits ; they wore no moccasins, 
protected themselves with dress or skins in cold weather only, lived 
in the pure hunter and fisher state, painted and tattooed themselves, 
were anthropophagists and engaged in continual warfare among each 
other. To these belong the tribes of the Atdkapa, of the Assinai, 
the Karankawa, the Tonkaw^ya and the Pakawd. But there were 
also some tribes in this littoral tract, who were intruders from the 
north and differed from the above in many of their customs, though 
by length of time they came to adopt some of these. We have to 
count among these intruders the various Apache-Tinne tribes, of 
which the Lipans were the most prominent, and also whatsoever of 
the Pani family (Wichitas, Tawakoni, Weko) advanced so far south 
as to reach temporarily the coast ; also the Kayowe and the Coman- 
ches, the latter belonging to the great Shoshonian (Ne'-ume, Ne'- 
uma) inland family. Of all these intrusive bodies of Indians none 
settled permanently on the coast except a portion of the Lipans. 

I begin with the eriumeration of such tribes as lived nearest to 
the Karankawa Indians, the numerous bays, inlets and sandbars 
of the Texas coast. With these the probability is greater than 
with the remoter ones that they were congeners in race or language 
with the tribe which chiefly occupies our attention. I shall ofben 
have occasion to refer to Professor J. C. E. Buschmann's notes on 
the Te^an tribes, arrayed in alphabetic order in his *' Spuren der 
aztekischen Sprache," Berlin, 1869 (Transact. Roy. Acad. Sci- 

P. M. PAPERS. I. 7 97 



34 OTHER INDIAN TRIBES 

ences of 1854), pp. 417-455. He was the first scientist who pub- 
lished a methodic account of this portion of North American In- 
dianology. 

The Aranama, an agricultural and peaceable people, were settled 
upon the mission of La Bahia south of Goliad, where some Earan- 
kawa Indians also formed a part of the neophytes. They are 
reported to have previously fallen an easy prey to the warlike 
Karankawa, though no date is given for the event. Morse, in his 
Report (1822), mentions Arrenamuses to the number of one hun- 
dred and twenty men upon the San Antonio river and the tribe ex- 
isted there much later. ^ 

Biskatronge ; see Caoque. 

Caoque was the name of a tribe living upon the sandbar where 
A. N. Cabe§a de Vaca and his three companions suffered shipwreck, 
and which he calls Island of Misfortune (Isla del Malhado). They 
spoke another language or dialect than the Han, who lived upon 
the same island, and whose name appears to be the Caddo term 
haj^dnu, contracted into ha-an, hsi' unpeople, men.^ In another chap- 
ter of his "Naufragios" this people is called Capoques, and Father 
Anastasius Douay speaks of them as Quoaquis, living near St* 
Louis bay, raising crops of maize and selling horses at low prices.^ 
They belonged to the Biscatronges or "Weepers" seen by de la 
Salle's companions, and individuals of the same gens always went 
together,^ as reported by Gabe^a de Vaca. These "Weepers'* were 
called by that name, because before presenting a request or com- 
plaint, they cried and wept in the most piteous manner for half an 
hour — a peculiar and expressive kind of gesture language ! This 
custom was common among the tribes of the vicinity and hence 
Biscatronges cannot be considered as a real tribal name, as several 
tribes differing from each other, whenever they observed this cus- 
tom, could be called so.^ The tribes of the Kouyam and Quouan 
we have mentioned previously. An anonymous Mexican document 
of 1828 states that the "Tarancahuases y Cujanos" are coast tribes 
scattered from the harbor of Corpus Christi (northeastward) to the 
bar of Colorado river. They are good fighters and often attacked 

»H. S. Thrall, Pictorial History of Texas ; St. Louis, Mo., 1879, p. 446. 
* This Caddo word is variously pronounced: li&yauu, ii^ano, h4-ano, etc.; an Indian 
is: hitino h^ano, lit. '*red person," h4tiuo, itinu meauing red. 
•Shea, Discovery, p. 207. 

« Cabe^a de Vaca, in Barcia, Historiadores, i, pp. 17, 28. 
^ For the verb to weep^ cry, our Karanl^awa list has the term owiya. 

98 



OF THE TEXAN LITTORAL. 35 

St. Austin's colonists, though they were repulsed by them. Both 
tribes had about one hundred families as a joint population.* 
" Cujanos or Cuyanes *' are mentioned long before this as inhabit- 
ing tracts in the vicinity of San Antonio (de Bejar), probably be- 
cause placed there upon a mission and they must be identical with 
the Caoques and also with the Cok6s, whom, in 1849, Bollaert de- 
clares to be a branch of the " Koronks.**^ 

The Cocos mentioned by Morse and others appear to have lived 
in Louisiana and to belong to the Atakapa family ; the Caddo term 
koko, kuku means water; cf. the names of Coco prairie and of Ana- 
coco in western Louisiana, Vernon Parish. 

Ebahamo. What we know of this tribe has all been stated pre- 
viously among the early accounts upon the Karankawa. They do 
not appear again in history and probably were a tribe closely affil- 
iated to the Karankawa. 

Erigoanna are referred to by Charlevoix (Nouvelle France, ed. 
Shea, IV, 90) ; they were in 1687 at war with the Bahamos or Bra- 
camos, and figure upon the maps of the period. 

The Kironona Indians were a tribe living about thirty leagues 
southwest of the Assinai or Cenis, and were seen by Joutel and 
others in 1686, who called them Kikanonas. According to a note 
in French, Hist. Coll.,ii, p. 11 (1875), they occupied an island or 
peninsula in St. Bernard's bay, which was ten miles long and five 
broad. Anast. Douay mentions them as neighbors of the Biska- 
tronges or " Weepers " and calls them Kironomes. Barcia in his 
Ensayo refers to Joutel's visit among them, stating that the Ki- 
kanonas received the French in friendly manner and had their hands 
full of ears, thereby welcoming them to a repast. They referred 
to a white people in the West, cruel and treacherous, evidently al- 
luding to the Spanish.3 Daniel Coxe, in his Carolana, p. 38 (1741), 
mentions the Kirononas as a tribe settled on the Texas coast upon 
a river of the same name. It will be shown below who these Ki- 
rononas really were. 

The Mayeyey Malleyes or Mayes were a tribe who during the 
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries lived in the immediate vicin- 
ity of the Karankawa Indians. They are mentioned in a census 

> Soc. Geogr. Mexic, 1870, p. 266; cf. ibid., 1869, p. 604. 

> Journal Ethnol. Soc, II. 265, 276 (London, 1850). 

»Cy. Marqnette and Joliet. Account of the DIscov., etc., in French, Hist. Coll. 
of La., II, 280.— Charlevoix, New France, ed. Shea, IV, 88: footnote quoting Father 
Anast. Douay and Abb^ Cavelier. 

99 



36 OTHER INDIAN TRIBES 

of the Indians of Nacogdoches jurisdiction, taken in 1790 : Ata- 
capas, Mayeyes, Orcoquiza, Cocos, etc., and Dr. Sibley, in his mes- 
sage of 1805,^ mentions the Mayes as living on a large creek called 
St. Gabriel, near the mouth of the Guadeloupe river and running 
into the bay of St. Bernard. They then numbered two hundred 
men, spoke Atakapa ( ?), but had a language of their own. Brack- 
enridge's Views of Louisiana (1814), p. 87, calls them Mayees. Old 
Simon, my Tonkawe informant, said that the Meye, or Miyi, spoke 
a dialect of Tonkawe and lived near the Texan coast, where he saw 
them. That they were a people cognate to the Tonkawe is made 
probable by the fact, that a clan, or gens among these, is called Maye 
or Meyei, said to signify dizziness.^ Villa Senor knows of the 
Malleyes (p. 323) as being settled upon a water-spring Las Puen- 
tecitas in the district of San Antonio and calls them pagans. Ar- 
ricivita calls them Mayeyes, settled upon the San Xavier Mission, 
which is not identifiable with any of the mission sites now known. 
(Buschmann, Spuren, p. 434.) 

We now come to a series of tribes which have many ethnic and 
linguistic particulars in common with the Karankawas. These 
particulars will be given in detail below and will go far to estab- 
lish linguistic aflBnity, though only a distant one. These tribes 
are : (1) the bands now known under the collective name Tonka^ 
weya, abbreviated Tonkawe ; and (2) the tribes on both sides of 
the Lower Rio Grande. The former extent of this family is not 
known with accuracy. I have called it Pakawa from one of their 
tribes, some of whose representatives survive at the present time 
under the name of Pintos. 

The Tonkawe people of Texas, now living upon the Oakland re- 
serve in the northern parts of Indian Territorj', is a conglomerate 
of tribal remnants closely related to each other but differing con- 
siderably in their bodily size and constitution. The language of 
the •' old people" among them contains many terms regarded as 
archaic by those who speak the language of the " young people," 
and one of the thirteen totemic gentes of the people — (which in 
1884 had dwindled to seventy-eight persons), bears the name *' the 
genuine Tonkawe." Tonkaweya is the W6ko name of the people, 

> Lewis and Clark, Discov., 1806, p. 72. 

>M&yan signifies terrapin in tlie Tonkawe language; a tribe of "Tortugas*' is 
mentioned in the vicinity about ttie middle of the eighteenth century, said to be called 
after a turtle-shaped hill in the tide water section of Texas. 

UOO 



OP THE TEXAN LITTOEAL 37 

by which they are mentioned over one hundred and sixty years 
ago ;i it is said to mean "they all stay together/* w6ya, w6-i, wai'h, 
being the Caddo word for all But they call themselves by the Ton- 
kawe name of Titskan wdtitch', indigenous men, native Indians, or 
people of this country, and observe the institutes of mother-right. 
Just prior to their removal from northwestern Texas to their new 
homes, in September and October, 1884, 1 had the opportunity to 
study their language at Fort Griffin, on the Clear fork of Brazos 
river, where they had been placed after the close of the secession 
war. One of their old men, Simon, said that the Meye (or Mayeyes) 
spoke a language related to theirs and one of their traditions states 
that on the coast near Galveston they once met a people called 
Ydkwal, *' Drifted People," from whom they had suddenly been 
separated by a submergence of coast land and who spoke a dia- 
lect of their language.^ In consequence of their erratic habits, 
the Tonkawe (abbreviated Tonks ; Span. Tancahuas) people or 
rather portions of it have lived in almost every part of middle 
and southern Texas; one band is mentioned (1842) in Fayette 
county, southeast of the capital ; one on the Wallopia river (the 
Guadeloupe river ?) near Corpus Christi about 1847 ; another near 
Waco, in the centre of the state, on the upper course of Brazos 
river. They probably lived also near the Rio Grande, for many of 
their traditions and terms of the language point to that vicinity. 
The fact that certain Tonkawe terms of general and daily use are 
compound terms and not short words, as with us, seems to prove 
that their early home was distant from the gulf of Mexico, or from 
any large river or lagoon. I refer here to words like no-ensh6yun, 
canoe, boat; talmai a/-kapai, island, the real meaning of these 
terms being "make float," "round and no water," i, e,, "dry round 
piece of land in the water." Neither is the term for Jish, nishw6- 
lan, a simple word, but the causative form of a verb.^ 

^La Harpe, in 1719, calls them Tancaoye, and enemies of the Cancy (Apaches); Mar* 
gry, D6C0UV., VI, 277-279. 

*Tliey called tobacco n&wetxih, tobacco pipe nawetch wek; words belonging to the 
archaic dialect of Tonkawe and still understood by the people. 

* The following will give some contemporaneous evidence upon the distribution of 
tribes in southern Texas from 1830 to 1850: 

From a correspondence addressed to me by an old Texan settler, Mr. T. W. Grad- 
meyer, dated La Grange, Fayette Co., Texas, Aug. 17, 1878, 1 gather* the fact that por- 
tions of the Tonkawe and Karankawas were often encamped near the spot where he 
stayed ; the former at Matagorda, near the coast, and the latter on the Colorado river, 
about eighteen miles above La Gi*ange. He had made an imperfect vocabulary of 
tl^e languages of both tribes, which subsequently was lost in an overflow, and he re- 

101 



88 OTHER INDIAN TRIBES 

The Paikawa, Paikawan or Pakawi family of Indians are the 
aborigines living on both sides of the Lower Rio Grande, though 
their limit to the north and northwest is unknown. The numerous 
dialects of this stock were spoken in the west as far as the tower- 
ing ridge of the Sierra Madre and in the east extended to or be- 
yond the San Antonio river. One dialect of it is preserved in the 
Catechism of Padre Bartholome Garcia (Quer6taro, 1760), who 
was stationed for more than twelve years in the missions of Texas 
and had under his special charge the Indians gathered at the mis- 
sion of San Juan Capistrano,^ about ten miles south of the city 
of San Antonio. On the title-page of his Catechism, which bears 
the title of " Manual," he does not mention the name of the lan- 
guage in which he wrote, but states that the questions put down 
by him will be understood by the tribes of the Pajalates, Orejones, 
Pacaos (the above Pakawa or Pintos, "tattooed"), Pacoas, Ti^i- 
jayas, AJ^sapas, Pausanes — and also by many others living in the 
missions around San Antonio and the Rio Grande ; for instanee, 
the Pacu^ches, Mescales, Pamp6pas, Tacames, Chayopines, Ve- 
nados, Pamdques and by the 3'oung people of the Pihuiques, Bor- 
rados, Sanipaos and Manos de Perro. There are but a few of these 
tribes of which the authors give us the original habitat, but all of 
them dwelt between the Sierra Madre and the Medina river or the 
Rio San Antonio. Other dialects of Pakawd existed south of the Rio 
Grande, between Mier and Matamoros. Two of these survive near 
Las Prietas and were studied by me in 1886 : the Comecrudo and 
the Cotoname. The former is spoken by eight old people only 
who live on the southern bank of the Rio Grande, in Tamaulipas, 
and in many respects is exceedingly simple in its phonetics, lexi- 
con and structure. The tribe of the Carrizos has long been ex- 
tinct, but these two tribes now popularly pass under that name, 
because they cover their lodges with long canes (carrizos) . 

membered very little about the contents, except that the ** Crancuas*' called the horse: 
"Qwy/' the Tonkawe ''Neshawn." He also became acquainted with Lipans, Ara- 
namos and Bidais, but never was able to discorer the slightest resemblance or afSnity 
between the languages spoken by any of these tribes. He also thought that a few of the 
Earankawas might still exist on Padre island, at its southern end, near the mouth of 
the Rio Grande. The proper woiding of '^Nesbawu" is : nish&wanan '<who is made to 
cany (loads)." Qwy is Span. ccAallo. 

1 H. H. Bancroft, Hist, of North Mex. States, T, 633 (whole Vol. XV), gives the fol- 
lowing particulars : this mission was in 1731 transferred from the Nazones (a Caddo 
tribe) to its later position and numbered fifty-eight Indians in 1785, thii-ty-four in 1793. 
The Census Report for 1814 in the Texas State Archives, Document No. 812, gives sixty- 
five Indians. 

102 



OF THE TEXAN LITTORAL. 39 

Orozco y Berra and bis sources mention other tribes which lived 
in the same parts and must have spoken cognate languages. Of 
the languages of southern Tamaulipas nothing is known except a 
specimen of Maratino, which is too corrupt in its text and too short 
to furnish any reliable linguistic data.* 

The Indians of the Atdkapa family of Louisiana consisted of 
coast and fisher tribes like those of the Karankawa and their lan- 
guage is reported as spoken formerly in parts of Texas. This fact 
becomes somewhat doubtful on account of the generic signification 
of the name, which is the Cha'hta term for man-eater and could 
therefore, like that of Chichimecas, Diggers, Orejones, Tapuyos, 
Patagones, etc., be applied to many tribes simultaneously. Only 
a small part of Texas, east of Houston city and Neches river, 
could have harbored Indians of the same nation which spoke the 
dialects once heard upon the Bayou Teche, the Merment4-u, Cal- 
casieu and Sabine rivers of Louisiana. 

Fdjii tribes on the Gulf coast. In prehistoric times the nation 
of the Assinaiy now better known as Caddo (from one of their 
branches) must have diverged from the Pani proper, the Wichita, 
the Kichai and the We'ko (Span. Hueco), though nobody can 
tell the directions of the compass which were followed by these 
peoples when the segmentation took place. At the dawn of history 
we find the Assinai in the centre of what is now Texas, and they 
appear to have had their densest settlements upon Trinity river. 
They are the Cenis, Cenys, Asinays, Ass^nis of the French ex- 
plorers. The Bidai (Span. Vidais^ Vidayos) appear to have 
lived in the same tracts and to have also extended further south ; 
they passed for a branch of the Assinai (which means man^ Indian 
in Caddo) in early times. The name bidai, shrub, bush, belongs to 
Caddo dialects, and from the six first numerals, the only Bidai 
terms I was able to obtain, I infer that they belong to a Caddo 
dialect, because like the adjectives of that language they all be- 
gin in na — .^ Another tribe probably related to the Assinai, the 

« <y. Alex. Prieto, ««Tamaiilipa8,'» 1873. Pimentel, Cuadro, Vol. III. 

«Mr. Ruftis Grimes of Navasota, Grimes Co., Texas, writes under date of Nov. 15,1887, 
that the "Bedias" once occupied tlie above and four of the a^oining counties. About 
five hundred of them existetl In 1826, and they remembered wars which their forefath- 
ers bad with the Comanches. From remembrance he put down the following numerals : 
1, namah; 2, nahonde; 3, nnheestah; 4, nashirimah; 5, nahot nahonde ; 6,na8heesna- 
honde. Of the numerals from 7 to 10 nothing was remembered except n— , which was 
their initial sound. Piiskus mean t boy and tindshai maize, 

loa 



40 OTHER INDIAN TRIBES 

Oi'coquizac, was settled near the coast, and a Spanish-Mexican guar- 
rison and mission was established among them at a later epoch. 
This was San Agustin de Ahumada or Horcaquisac presidio, upon 
an ancient ford of the Lower Trinidad river, and it existed from 
1756 to 1 772.1 These Indians are variously called Arkokisa, Accon- 
cesaws, Orcoquizas, Horcaquisaes, etc. ; el puerto de Orcoquisac, 
with two hundred soldiers in 1805 (Tex. St. Arch., Doc. No. 538), 
and for some time Lower Trinidad river itself was called Arkokisa. 
Some are also mentioned as an agricultural tribe upon the San 
Jacinto river. Of the racial aflSnity and language of these Indians 
nothing is known and their Caddo affinity is merely a guess. Their 
tribal name, however, is undoubtedly from the Caddo language 
and was pronounced Akankisa. Its signification is not certain, 
but it has something to do with passing or crossing (the river) and 
occurs in the word for noon^ when tlue sun passes the noon-point : 
kdditi ta;^iskdnkisa, noon (kaditi, kahdditi = in the middle, half). 
But the historical people of the Tejas or Texas, from which the 
state obtained its name, was certainly related to the Assinai, and 
according to Villa Senor the province "de los Texas" was also called 
"de los Senis" (p. 328). Los tecos, Lastecas, Tachies and other 
earlier forms of the name have often been the subject of etymo- 
logic attempts, but no author found the correct explanation, be- 
cause none was acquainted with the dialects of the Assinai or 
Caddo language. Tek, tek, tik, the term for people, man, some- 
body, in the Yatassi and Nabaidatche dialect, is the original form 
of the name Texas, which appears historically in so many diflfereut 
modes of spelling. 



Of the intrusive, non-indigenous families of Texas the Tinne or 
Athapaskan is the most conspicuous. The family of the Tinn6 is 
indigenous to the country north of the Saskatchewan river and that 
portion which came as far south as Texas and New Mexico is of 

>H. H.' Bancroft, I. I. XV, p. 633 (Note). C/, p. 630: "an order was Issued in 1772 
to suppress the presidios of Los Adaes (Pilar) and Horcaquisac (San Agustin); . . . 
these orders vrere carried out immediately by Rippeidd .... and the northern di8> 
trict thus was practically given up to the savages.'' In 1756 filly Tlascaltec families 
had been brought to this presidio.— (76irf., p. 625). 

In the Texas Archives there is a document of Aug. 26, 1756, containing an Order to 
select a site for a mission and settlement of fifty families : "de este ojo I'agua pasa k la 
rancheria de Calzones Colorados, capitau de la dicha rancheria y de uacion Horco- 
quisa." 

104. 



OP THE TEXAN LITTORAL. 41 

a particularly ferocious type. The Lipans were in the eighteenth 
century settled in two regions on the Rio Grande, as pointed out 
previously ; nowadays about fifty of them, with Kickapoos, live in 
the Santa Rosa mountains, from which they stroll about mak- 
ing inroads into the vicinity to steal horses and cattle. Others 
serve as scouts in the Texan forts which are garrisoned by the 
United States army. In April, 1757, a presidio and a mission were 
established for the Lipans and Apaches on the San Saba river, 
but eleven months later the mission was destroyed by several thou- 
sand Indians who arrived under the command of a Comanche chief. 
The Apaches were then provided with missions in 1761 and 1762 at 
San Lorenzo and at Candelaria (perhaps on the Upper San Antonio 
river), but in 1767 these missions were abandoned by order of the 
viceroy.^ The presidio at San Saba existed till 1772. To what 
special tribe these Apaches belonged is not known, though raids 
of Mescalero-Apaches into Texas occurred in the eighteenth cen- 
uiy. The Apaches were also known to the Texan Indians as Cances 
(misspelt, Carees), which is the appellation given them by the Cad- 
dos : Kantsi, "deceivers, traitors." On Jefferys' Atlas of 1776 the 
nations of the Kaikaches and the Kanaches, the latter being the 
"Kantsi" or Apaches, are marked as southwest of St. Bernard (or 
St. Louis) bay, down to the Rio Bravo del Norte. 

The Comanche people is the only branch of the Shoshonian stock 
of the great interior basin which has pushed its raiding expedi- 
tions so far south as to reach the coast. They are in fact a branch 
of the eastern Shoshoni or Snake Indians, now in Wyoming Terri- 
tory and vicinity, and a Comanche division is still called after that 
national body (P6hoi). Comanche warfare in Texas and Old 
Mexico is recorded as far back as the first half of the eighteenth 
century, and if the Choumans of the French chroniclers should be 
identical with this people, as some believe, raids of this warlike 
tribe would be recorded even for the end of the seventeenth. The 
Comanches consist of more than fourteen subdivisions, which in 
earlier times never lived together, but were often separated by thou- 
sands of miles. Of these the Kwahdda, or "Antelope" Com- 
anches passed for the most warlike, that of the Penet6thka or 
"Honey-Eaters" for the most populous.^ The Kdyowe Indians 

iH. H. Bancroa, {. h xv, 62&-629. 

'Com. p6ni, pini, sweet; sugart honey; t^thka, in other Shosh. dialects, teka, reka, 
rika, to eat^ or, one eating, those who eat. They fed upon the honey of wasps. 

105 



42 OTHER INDIAN TRIBES OF THE TEXAN LITTORAL. 

were their associates on war-expeditions for centuries, and with 
tliese we find as constant companions a small tribe of Apaches, 
who call themselves Naisha and whose dialect has a considerably 
close affinity with that of the Mescalero-Apache of New Mexico. 
Many Comanches were placed upon the mission of the San Saba 
river, a western affluent of Upper Colorado river. This vicinity 
afterwards became a sort of headquarters for all the war parties of 
the Comanches, and from there many incursions were made into 
Chihuahua, Coahuila and to the coast of Texas, like those of 1840 
and 1843. A document (No. 1156) of the Texas archives, dated 
1832, speaks of oriental and occidental Comanches and records in- 
cursions of theirs into Mexico for that year. The Tonkawe people 
lived for a while on the same reservation with these Indians, on the 
Bi-azos river, and remember them, especially the Kwahdda, with 
terror. The Karankawas, though warlike, were greatly afraid of 
their raids, which in 1840 and 1843 were directed into the heart of 
the Karankawa country. They also visited the mouth of the Rio 
Grande, scourging that country everywhere, and were known to the 
Comecrudos as Selakamp6m papi. Comanche is pronounced by 
them "Kuma'tsi, Kuma'ntsi," a name which was given to them by 
the white population of Mexico ; they call themselves N6-umc, the 



III. TRIBAL SYNONYMY OF THE KARANKAWAS. 

iSiMOK, an old Tonkawe man, pronounced the name of this 
people : Kardmkawa, which comes very near to the French form 
Clamcoet. In this last form the final t is only graphic sign and 
not pronounced ; so we have : klam-koe. It also agrees closely 
with Korenkake, perhaps misspelt for Korenkahe, for the names of 
these French lists are not to be relied on in their orthography. 
The second syllable of Earankawa is the accented one. 

Besides these forms which we may regard as the most complete 
and correct ones in their spelling, the name is also rendered in the 
following waj^s: 

Spanish authors : Carancaguaces, Carancahuazes, Carancahua- 
ses, Carancahuas, Caranchuhuas, Carancowasos. 

Ame7'ican and English authors : Caranhouas, Carankahuas, Ca- 
rankawaes, Carankoways, Carankouas, Charankoua, Corankoua, 
Coran-canas, Coronkawa, Crancuas, Karankaways, Karankoas, 
Karan-koo-as, Eoronks (or Coronks). The form Caranchua is 
justifiable only when the c and the h are pronounced with an hiatus 
intervening. 

' French authors : Carancouas, Carankouas, Carankonas, Clam- 
coets, Koi'enkahe. 

The majority of American tribal names now in use were given 
to the respective tribes by neighboring Indians, whereas each tribe 
calls itself simply : men, people, bodies, Indians, indigenous or na- 
tive people, genuine people and other forms of such general import. 
This was also the case with the Karankawa Indians, who obtained 
their name from a cognate people, dwelling south of them, who 
called the dog by the term klam, gldm. In the Comecrudo lan- 
guage the dog is called so and formerly this was also the term for 
animal or quadruped. The Karankawa and Shetimasha call the 
dog : kiss,^ and the Cotoname has kissd for fox. The second por- 
tion of the name is kawa, to love, to like, to be fond of, or when a 

iln Shetimasha of Southern Louisiana kish is dog^ and kfsh atfn, horset viz., ** large 
dog." This shows that kUh was originally the term for unimal, or living being, 

107 



44 TRIBAL SYNONYMY OF THE KARANKAWAS. 

plural of the object is referred to, kakdwa. Thus Karankawa 
means dog-lovers^ dog-raisers, and this refers to the fact, reported by 
Mrs. Oliver as well as by an author of the seventeenth century, 
that these Indians kept dogs, which were of a fox-like or coyote- 
like race. It is possible that the plural form kakdwa is preserved 
in the name Korenkake. Kawa also reappears in the Karankawa 
language itself, where ka means to love, to like. 

It is of importance to know that the tribe called themselves by this 
same name Karankawa ; for thus we are entitled to assume that 
they understood this appellation, and did not object to apply it to 
themselves, though it belonged to another language. 

With others I think that the name of the Kirononas or Kikano- 
nas, a tribe living in the very districts held by the Karankawas, is 
but an orthographic distortion and misspelling of the name Ka- 
rankawa. 

With a change of the second part, the same name is contained 
in QuelancoucJiis, a tribe assigned to the same localities also. They 
are mentioned in Margry, Dec. IV, 316, about 1G99; as Quela- 
moueches in Delisle's map, in J. Winsor, Hist. Amer., II, 294 ; as 
Quelanhubeches in 1689 ; Barcia, Ensayo, p. 294 ; Shea, Discov., 
p. 208 (note) ; Shea, Early Voyages (1861), p. 21, note. The sec- 
ond portion apparently represents one and the same word differ- 
ently written, but I am unable to tell the signification of this second 
component. 

The names by which other tribes called them remain to be con- 
sidered. The Tonkawe called them Wrestlers from this manly art 
in which they excelled : Keles or Kills. ^ They also named them 
Yakokon kapd-i, " barefooted," *' without moccasins,"^ an appella- 
tion which they applied as well to the Bidai and to some tribes on 
the lower Rio Grande. ^ 

The Li pan-Apaches called the Karankawa : people who walk in the 
water, Nda kun dad6he ;^ this evidently refers to their peculiar 
mode of fishing and turtle-catching, as described by Mrs. Oliver. 

The Comecrudo Indians called them Estok Karanguas (est6k, 
people, Indians), and for a while they were known in these dis- 
tricts as Tampacuas ; c/. below. 

»In Tonkawe shaya ekilen, lam wrestling; k^tai ^kelo I wrestle vHth met 
* Y4kokon, moccasin; k4pai, not having, 

s As to the custom of walking barefooted, it will be noticed that a diyision of the 
Comanche people is now called Ket4'htone, " never wearing moccasins.* 
* Hid&t people; kun, water; dad^he, walking, in Lipan- Apache. 

108 



IV. THE KARANKAWA NATION AFTER 1836; ITS DECLINE AND 

EXTINCTION. 

Dura post paullo fugies inaudax 
proelia raptor. 

Before starting upon the narrative of tbe events wbicli finally 
brought about the extinction of the nation which here occupies our 
attention, let us cast a glance upon the former historic facts in or- 
der to compass the extent of territory occupied by this people 
when still in its native, flourishing condition. 

HABirAT OP THE NATION. 

A promontory of the mainland in the West bay, fifteen miles 
southwest of Galveston city, Galveston county, is called '• Caron- 
kaway point" to this day. This was one of their fishing and stop- 
ping stations and also formed one end of the shallow ford which 
allowed them to cross over to the sand bar opposite in good weath- 
er. By this ford a party of theirs escaped at night when attacked 
by Lafitte's men in 1818. This point is the easternmost place in 
their possession which I have been able to discover. It explains 
their vicinity to the Atdkapa tribe and the adoption of that lan- 
guage by a part of the Karankawa nation (as referred to by Dr. 
Sibley), who continued speaking their own language besides. The 
extensive shores of the neighboring Galveston bay were probably 
visited by them also, and Morse (1822) heard of some living upon 
San Jacinto river. 

vWe know that west of these the Karankawas held or claimed both 
sides of the mouth of Colorado river, Texas, and the map in Yo- 
akum's History of Texas (1856) has placed them there correctly. 
One of their main points of repair was undoubtedly the bay of 
Matagorda, its northern inlets, as Trespalacios bay, and its west- 
ern part, also called La Vaca bay.i Further west they lived up- 
on the bays of Aransas, Espiritu Santo and Kopano, on the out- 

1 La Yaca river or ** Cow river" was called so by B. C. do la SaUe, on account of 
the herds of buffaloes seen there. 

109 



46 THE KARANKAWA NATION AFTEB 1835 ; 

let of the rivers there andof Nueces (or Pekan Nut) river, on 
both sides of the Laguna Madre down to Brazos Santiago, a place 
at the southern end of the sandbar, called Isia del Padre.^ They 
regarded the tide- water portions of the Texan rivers as their hunt- 
ing grounds, but probably did not occupy them for any long sea- 
son of the year. They appear to have inhabited the coast exclu- 
sively. They once inhabited Refugio and La Bahia in the interior, 
but did so only because they had been compelled by the missiona- 
ries and their armed forces to settle upon these missions. But the 
littoral districts, south of these places, around Kopano, were points 
of attraction to them, where they congregated in numbers, espe- 
cially in the fishing season. They wandered in bands of thirty to 
forty people and remained perhaps four weeks at one place, gener- 
ally where there was fresh water and firewood, to reappear there 
again after an absence of about three months. 

Their former presence in the interior parts of southwestern Texas 
is marked by the course of Taroncahua creek (false for Karonca- 
hua), an affluent of Pintos creek and San Fernando river; it runs 
from northwest to southeast through Duval county, about Lat. 28**. 

THE DOWNFALL OP THE NATION. 

The previous chapter on Karankawa history has shown the cir- 
cumstances that were threatening not only the independence, but 
the very existence of this littoral nation. As long as the Mexi- 
cans had control of Texas, they were allowed to go their own ways ; 
for the easy-going colonists did not exclude them from their lands, 
which they claimed probably for no other use than for horse and cat- 
tle-pastures. But with the arrival of the more active Anglo-Ameri- 
can race all this underwent a change. The more enterprising among 
the latter obtained " headrights " or land grants from the Mexi- 
can authorities, stocked them, set out orchards, ploughed and sowed 
the agricultural lands, and built houses, towns, fences and roads. 
The fertility of the coast tracts attracted settlers in ever increasing 
numbers, and Indian depredations could no longer be tolerated. 
The clandestine larcenies and murderous attacks of the Karankawas 
had to cease as well as the open robberies and truculent raids of the 
Comanches and their savage allies. . Thus we may say that the des- 
tiny of the Karankawas was sealed through the increase of the Amer- 

1 Upon the northern end of Padre Island they knew of a ford to cross oyer to the 
mainland, similar to the one described under *' Caronkaway Point.'* It was oyer fifteen 
miles long. 



THE NEV.' '■ : X 
PUBLIC LIBRARY 



ASTOR, LENOX 
(TILDEN FOUNDATIONS j 



ITS DECLIKB AMD EXTINCTION. 47 

ican population in the Texan districts bordering upon the gulf of 
Mexico. 

The heaviest blow that fell upon the Karankawa Indians was their 
flight to the I^a Bahia Mission after experiencing several defeats at 
the hands of Texan volunteers. If we are correctly informed, this 
event occurred in 1825, but we do not know how large a proportion 
of these Indians was aflfected by this surrender or compromise. 

It appears, however, that the remnants of these Indians after 
this event were constantly wavering between the influence of the 
Americans and that of the Mexicans, and that the Indians were hated 
by both parties. Two chiefs are mentioned at this epoch : Jos6 Ma- 
ria, killed by the Mexicans during the war of Texan independence, 
and his brother Antonio, who succeeded him and was married to a 
woman of Comanche origin. Chieftainship was hereditary in the 
male line, and had the son of Jos^ Maria not been killed by the Mex- 
icans, he would have succeeded his father. 

Concerning this chief I take the opportunity to publish the fol- 
lowing letter sent by an old Texas settler, A. B. Gyle, to Mrs. Alice 
Oliver, dated Trespalacios, September 27, 1882. This missive fur- 
nishes the proof that these Indians were not always harshly treated 
by the colonists, and it also gives an insight into the condition of 
aflairs then (before 1830) prevailing upon the coast. I reproduce 
also the orthography of the letter (which is written in a regular 
hand), so as not to deprive it of its local color. 

'^Friend, . • . In reguards to the Indians you ask about, the 
most of the old settlers have died since you left here and it is a bard 
matter to learn much about them ; in the first settling of Texas, the 
old settlers told us, they were quite a large tribe of Indians here, and 
knowing they were always at war with the other tribes and whites, 
they were reduced down to a very small band when I first knew them. 
I will relaite a story that an old settler of Caney told me not long 
since. When she was but a child, they lived at the afore said place 
and the Indians were camped on lower Caney and were then hostile, 
her Father Mr Hunter took this opportunity to make a treety with 
them, being a very long cold spell of wether — he knew that the In- 
dians would be suffering — so Mr Hunter took his wagon and loaded 
it with corn, potatoes and pumkins. and took his rifie and kill two 
or three deer as he went along, and proceeded to the camp ; as 
the Indians heard them aproaching they mustered to arms, thinking 
the whites were a going to make an atact on them, Mr Hunter rode a 

in 



48 THE KARAKKAWA NATION AFTER 1835; 

horse back on a head of his wagon, and waved a white hanker- 
chief, and cried megus — megus — mundier megus^^ then Hozzie 
Merear the Chief, laid down his bow and arrow, and came to him, 
when Mr Hunter told him what he wanted. The treety was made 
and never broken by them, he assured them that he are any of his 
family should never be molested by them. Years afterwards the 
Indians were camped on the Trespalacios bay, the Chief took sev- 
eral of the Indians with him. and prceeded up the Trespalacios 
River, when he came to her stepfathers Mr Lacy ; there they saw 
her and recognized her as Mr Hunters daughter, he asked where 
Mr Hunter was, and she told him that he had been dead for several 
years, and he sighed, and said the best friend to poor Indian was 
gone, then he returned to his canooes and proceeded down the river, 
and that she said was tbe last she saw of old Hozzie Merear. 

I will have to close, as we are in great haste, prepairing to leave 
this lower cuntry. I do not know any thing conseaming the Indians 
myself and my brother Clements merary is so very bad from old age 
he has forgotten all he knew about them." 

Chief Jos6 Maria, whose Indian name is unknown to us, was at 
that time regarded by the colonists as a bellicose, daring and blood- 
thirsty man. During the war of Texan independence his son Walupe 
(Span. Guadalupe) had been captured by the Mexicans and in spite 
of his youth (he was but nineteen years old) they put him to death. 
The infuriated father then came with about twenty warriors on 
board of Mr. Bridges' vessel to announce to him that bloody revenge 
would be taken upon the Mexicans for the deed. But in their attack 
upon the enemy the Indians were routed, and the chief with almost 
all his men killed by the Mexicans. 

A man named Antonio, who passed for Jos6 Maria's brother, snc- 
ceeded him in the chieftaincy. Mrs. Oliver became acquainted with 
him and his Comanche wife after 1839, and on that occasion he 
showed much tenderness for his children, who had fallen sick. He 
was killed by an accident. During his life and after his death the 
tribe diminished rapidly through consumption and other distempers, 
and also through frequent brawls caused by intoxication. 

E. Kriwitz, whose article upon the Texas tribes was published 
in 1851, but was composed much earlier, knew of ten or twelve 
Karankawa families of poor fishers, who then lived upon Aransas 

^Spanish words: <<amigos, amigos, nrncho amigos,'' /Hends, goodJHendsf 
112 



ITS DECLINE AND EXTINCTION. . 49 

bay and Nueces river.^ Miihlenpfordt, d. Freistaat Texas, p. 120, 
3tates that on account of the paucity of the Indians of the coast, 
two French missionaries, Odin and Estany, made endeavors in 1842 
to unite the remnants of the Karankawa with those of other tribes 
into a mission. Perhaps this, in connection with tlie report that 
a priest brought some of that tribe to Isla del Padre to educate and 
protect them there from the revengeful blows of the colonists, 
started the rumor that all Karankawas left the mainland of Texas 
at that time. 

The following occurrence is sufficiently substantiated by contem- 
poraneous evidence to be regarded as true. Some of the tribe were 
encamped near Kemper's bluff on the Guadelupe river, fifteen miles 
south of Victoria, the Kemper family being then the only whites 
living near that camp. One day three or four Karankawas demanded 
of Mr. Kemper a beef which he had just killed. He threatened to 
shoot them if they did not vacate his premises. Then one of the 
Indians shot an arrow at Kemper, which caused his death within 
a few hours. The Indians, anticipating an attack, fled down the 
Guadalupe river in their canoes and coasted along the shores to the 
mouth of the Rio Grande, passing over to Isla del Padre. John 
Henry Brown, an old Texan settler now residing in Dallas, states 
that the murder of Mr. Kemper took place in November, 1844, and 
that after this these Indians were never jseen east of Aransas river 
again, 2 but is wrong when he states that " they became entirely ex- 
tinct upon the lower Rio Grande and on Padre island in 1845 or 
1846." 

Another report of a contemporar}^ states that about 1843 the rem- 
nant of the Karankawa tribe, about forty or fifty people, applied to 
the Mexican government for permission to settle south of the Rio 
Grande and this having been granted, emigrated to these parts. 
(Baker, D. W. C. Texas Scrap Book, 1875.) 

It appears that the Karankawas who fied into Mexico about that 
time consisted of two bodies. One settled upon Padre island, prob- 
ably its southern end, and the reports upon their fate or extinction 
are sensational^ and conflicting ; the other went directly into Tam- 
aulipas, and the following piece is an extract of the Reports of the 

* In Berghaiis' geograph. Zeitschrift; cf. Biischmann, Spuren, p. 429. 

• Correspondence with B. W. Austin, Dallas. Feb. 11, 1889. 

» Cf, Reid, Sam. C, jr., MacCuUoch's Texas Bangers in 1846, Phila., 1847, illustr., p. 
46. 
P. M. PAPERS. I. 8 113 



50 THE KARANKAWA NATION AFTER 1835 ; 

Mexican Border Commission^ upon this subject, whicili was the re- 
sult of the investigations concluded at Reynosa, Tamaulipas, on 
Dec. 10, 1872 (pp. 404-407) : 

" The Carancahuases, Indians from Texas, were mentioned at 
Reynosa by some witnesses who in 1872 testified that this tribe had 
been driven into Mexico by American troops since 1848, and had 
obtained an asylum. In 1688 this tribe lived on the bay of Espiritu 
Santo, where it was found by the governor of Coahuila, Don Alonso 
de Leon, when, by order of the Viceroy of Mexico, he marched with 
troops to that point to drive away the French, who had gained a 
footing there. It was found that^these Frenchmen had already been 
massacred by the Carancahuases, who remained in the same region 
even after the colonization of Texas by Don Jose Valdivieso, Mar- 
quis of San Miguel de Aguayo, who, in 1719, penetrated as far as 
Red river, boundary between Texas and Louisiana. The colony 
brought soon after by the marquis from the Canary islands did not 
disturb these Carancahuases, otherwise called Tampacuases. 

" These Indians, few in number when Texas ceased to belong to 
Mexico, were driven thence, and were, in 1852, located within the 
jurisdiction of Reynosa at ' La Mesa ' and other points. Yield- 
ing to the habits of their vagabond life, they soon manifested their 
inclination to plunder, obliging the authorities of that town to or- 
ganize troops, and reduce them to order. General Avalos inter- 
fered in the case by virtue of instructions from the general govern- 
ment, took them under his protection, and removed them to the 
center of Tamaulipas, not far from Burgos. There they gave oc- 
casion to dispute between the government of Nuevo Leon and Ta- 
maulipas, which led to their being carried to their former place of 
residence near Reynosa. Being again attacked on account of rob- 
beries, the tribe removed to Texas, and on the 26th of October, 
1858, the judge of Rosario sent the following report to the mayor 
of Reynosa : 

" 'In pursuance of your orders of the 23d instant, for the arrest 
of the Carancahuases, I took measures for that purpose, but find- 
ing that they are now on the left bank of the Rio Grande, beyond 
the limits of my authority, at the place called " Urestena," I in- 
formed the authorities at Rosario and Ranon, to the end that they 
on the American side and we on this side may combine for their 

1 « Translated fV-om the official edition made in Mexico,'* and printed in New York 
1875, 8vo., pp. 443. 

lU 



ITS DECLINE V^ND EXTINCTION. 61 

arrest, since, besides tlie horses they have carried off, they have 
committed other robberies at La Mesa. With tlie inhabitants of 
this district, I have explored all this region in their pursuit.' 

'' The history of these Indians terminates with an attack made 
upon them in the said 3'ear, 1858, by Juan Nepomuceno Cortina, 
then a citizen of Texas, along with other rancheros, when they were 
surprised at their hiding place in Texas, and were exterminated. 

'* These Carancahuases were undoubtedly the ' other Indians * 
. referred toby the American commission in connection with the Lip- 
ans, Kickapoos, Seminoles and Carrizos.^ They were the only ones 
known in Tamaulipas of whom information could be had at Browns- 
ville and the accuracy of such information may now be readily in- 
ferred." 

That the Karankawas were called there Tampacuds is possible, 
because their remnants had settled at the place so called, which now 
exists as a rancheria in the southernmost part of Texas, Hidalgo 
county, about twenty miles north of Rio Grande. The name sig- 
nifies " place of Pakawds," and points to the fact that it had 
been a settlement of the Paikawa, Pakawd or Pinto (" Tattoed") 
tribe, which is mentioned among other cognate tribes upon the title 
page of Garcia's Manual (1760). That they were congeners of the 
Karankawas also, is very probable from what will be mentioned 
below. It is rather natural that when the Karankawa had to quit 
their own country, they took refuge with a people related to them, 
and they were themselves tattooed also; not only in the face, but on 
other parts of the body besides, and so they could possibly be 
called by that name as well. 

The man from whom I obtained a Cotoname vocabulary faintly 
remembered their stay in the country, and called them /aima Aran- 
guas, Arangwa Indians^ and Indios por aquL He thought that 
some may be still in existence, but could not tell where. 

1 All of these and " other tribes " were said to have committed depredations lately, 
having been sheltered in Coahuila and Chihuahua, and enabled thereby to inv^ide 
Texas with impunity. But the investigations of the Commission have shown that the 
Carrizos and Carancahuas were extinct since 1858 and the other tribes had not depre- 
dated that vicinity for many years past. 

115 



V. ETHNOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF THE KABANKAWA INDIANS. 

Through the personal presence of my informant among the Ka- 
rankawa Indians our knowledge of their manners, customs and 
ethnic peculiarities has become much more accurate and extensive 
than our knowledge of their tribal history will ever be. Certainly 
there are many gaps left concerning the mode of life, tribal gov- 
ernment and religion of their littoral tribes, but now we have at 
least some points to hold on and these may become more fully sub- 
stantiated by researches on their language. 

The ethnographic material now on hand I have subdivided into 
two parts. One of these will consider the nation from its physical 
or natural side (bodily constitution, food, implements, dress, etc.) ; 
the second section describes its mental aspects (government, cus- 
toms, religion, etc.). The whole is preceded by a few words on 
the country and its climate, for these are at the foundation of every 
ethnographic peculiarity. 

THE COUNTRY AND ITS CLIMATE. 

The tide-water section of Texas inhabited by the Karankawas 
presents but little variation in its configuration. The shore line 
from Galveston to the Rio Grande is formed throughout by sand 
bars with narrow openings between, except upon the short stretch 
from the mouth of Oyster creek and Brazos river to Caney creek, 
where the mainland borders immediately upon the waters of the 
Gulf of Mexico. By these sand bars the mouths of the Texan riv- 
ers are protected from clogging, and to some extent also from the 
furious tempests blowing from the Gulf side. The quiet waters of 
the lagoons, closed in between the mainland and the sand bars, make 
it possible to catch fish, oysters and turtles at almost any season 
of the year and enabled the Indians to start out upon their maris- 
cadas at regular periods. The shore line was partly wooded, espe- 
cially along the river courses, and therefore gave shelter to large 
numbers of game, of which the supply was almost inexhaustible. 
Other portions of the shore were prairie lands, studded with prickly 
pears, fragrant weeds and flowers, and in de la Salle's time, and 
probably up into the nineteenth century, the buffalo was seen in 
herds upon the coast. 
116 



THE KARANKAWA INDIANS. 53 

The geological feature of the coast line consists, according to the 
Texas map of A. R. Roessler and M. v. Mittendorfer, 1874, of the 
following formations: From Sabine river to Carancahua bay in 
Jackson county, of red alluvial loam mixed with sand. From Car- 
ancahua bay to the Mission river and Rio Medio, its affluent in 
Refugio county, of a dark clayey prairie soil of good agricultural 
qualities. From there southward to the Rio Grande of a calcare- 
ous loam, forming the best of pasture lands. At distances vary- 
ing from thirty to over one hundred miles from the coast there are 
oval tracts of land called hogwallows running parallel to the coast 
line. This name was given them on account of the unevenness of 
the surface, caused by cracks during drought; they consist of 
black tenacious clay slightly mixed with vegetable mould. 

The coast lagoons are shallow and the water so low that in many 
of them people may wade out for a mile without losing ground. 
The large or dangerous fish and mollusks do not come very near the 
beach and this enabled the Indians to walk far out into the water 
to shoot the fish with their arrows. It is a remarkable fact that 
most of these lagoons have a triangular shape ; the base is formed 
by a line forming the continuation of a river entering the bay, the 
second side by the sand bar and the third irregular one by a series 
of inlets and the mouths of smaller rivers, bayous and creeks. 
The lagoons as they follow each other from east to west are called 
as follows: (1) Galveston bay with its subdivisions: East bay. 
Trinity bay with Turtle bay. Clear lake, Dollar bay, West bay and 
Oyster bay. (2) Matagorda bay with its subdivisions: Oyster 
lake, Trespalacios bay, Carancahua bay, Lavaca bay. (3) Es- 
piritu Santo bay, with its northern extension, called San Antonio 
bay. (4) Aransas bay with its subdivisions: St. Charles bay, 
Copano, Mission and Fuerte bay. (5) Corpus Christi bay with 
Nueces bay. (6) Laguna de la Madre with Salt lagoon. 

We may assume with a fair degree of certainty that these la- 
goons v^ith all their sidewaters were once the haunts of the skilful 
fishermen and intrepid hunters of the coast tribe which occupies our 
attention. 

The Indians who spoke the dialect of Karankawa transmitted by 
Mrs. Oliver had their principal haunts along the shores of Mata- 
gorda bay, formerly St. Bernard bay, and her father's house, with 
his Mexican land-grant of one square league, lay in the midst of the 
resorts most frequented by them. It was built upon the beach at Port 

in 



54 BTHNOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF 

Austin, at the entrance of Trespalacios bay, one and one-half miles 
from Trespalacios and about eighteen miles (by water) east of De- 
cros House at Decros point, which forms tlie western end of the 
Matagorda peninsula or sand bar. Port Austin was at a distance 
of twenty-five miles from Matagorda city, the lower course of the 
Colorado river intervening between the two places. The nearest 
settlers lived at a distance of fifteen miles, and at Palacios there 
were then not over four houses. At Carancahua bay there was a 
tract called Carancahua Land, but these Indians did not stop there 
any more than they did at any other place. From 1840 to 1850 
there were only two American settlers there. On the opposite side 
of the bay, Linville, destroyed in 1843 by the Comanches, lay a few 
miles above the site of the present Indianola, then called Indian 
point. In winter these Indians were in the habit of staying in the 
woods on the Colorado river and at Caney creek, because it was 
warmer there, and there they could gather pecan-nuts and hunt 
bears. In summer the fertile tracts on the Caney are unbearably 
hot and unhealthy, the woods producing fevers. The surface of 
the creek is always covered with a green film, which the settlers 
utilize for manuring their sugar and cotton plantations. 

The bleak shores of Matagorda peninsula, consisting of sand 
and sand hills, yielded much wreckage that was floated ashore. 
Decros point, which lies upon the Pass Cavallo, was since January 
1851 enlivened by becoming a halting place for the steamer-line 
of Harris and Morgan plying between Texas ports and New Or- 
leans. 

Around Port Austin the soil was filled with little lumps of pumice- 
stone, some of the pieces being as large as a man's head. Marine 
shells lie all over the prairie, as far as six miles inland, but on the 
surface only. A petrified log was also found there. Dr. Sibley 
mentions a "bluff" upon an **island or peninsula occupied by Ka-. 
rankawas, containing a combustible substance, which had then been 
on fire for several years, emitting smoke and shining at night into 
great distances. From this burning ledge particles are detached 
by the action of the waves and a substance like gum or pitch is 
thrown ashore, which is called cheta by the Spanish people. The 
Indians are fond of masticating it." Mrs. Oliver stated that as-'' 
phaltum was often washed ashore and used by the Indians for black 
paint after mixing it with oil; but where that "burning hill" was, 
is uncertain. 
118 



THE KARANKAWA INDIANS. 55 

There were many mounds in the prairie, looking like graves and 
always over ten feet apart. Nothing was found in them, but they 
seemed made by man and not nature's products. 

Salt deposits were to be found in the neighborhood, which were 
conspicuous on the shore by the lack of grass and vegetation. They 
originated by the floods breaking over the shores and leaving de- 
posits of salt. The Indians made no use of the salt, as they pre- 
ferred chile to season their food. 

The climate of the coast is much cooler than that of the interior 
pf Texas, which often becomes unbearably hot where the country 
is bare of trees or underbrush. This result is produced by the gulf 
breeze which every afternoon begins to blow from south to north 
from about three o'clock until after dusk. This gulf breeze is 
sweeping the country almost up to the middle course of Red river, 
which forms the northern boundary of Texas. Sudden squalls are 
not unfrequent upon the coast lagoons, and hurricanes are rare 
but very destructive when they occur. In 1853 or 1854 a terrible 
tornado dismantled and destroyed the house where my informant 
lived, and killed cattle in large numbers by driving them into the ^ 
waters of the bay. Scarcely could the inmates save their own lives, 
as the wind blew furiously during a whole night. The northers are 
heavy periodical winds blowing from the north and northwest and 
sweeping the whole interior of Texas and of Mexico from the 
Louisiana border to Tampico. They check the growth of vegeta- 
tion and are much dreaded by the population. In Matamoros the 
northers are blowing thirty-seven days in the year for an average. 

The fauna and the flora of the Texan coast have been too often 
described by naturalists and travellers to need repetition. It will 
suffice to recall a few facts concerning both. 

Herds of buffaloes came down to the coast in de la Salle's time 
and probably much later. Prairie-wolves were frequent on Mata- 
gorda bay as late as 1850 ; they fed chiefly on fawns but, when 
these were scarce they became desperate and attacked other ani- 
mals and, when united in packs, were even dangerous to man. Deer 
were so plentiful that some could be shot from the windows of the 
settlers' houses. 

Many birds of brilliant plumage lived in the prairie, but few 
songsters. Water-fowl, such as brants, geese and ducks were plen- 
tiful. Wild turkeys were common in the woods. The turkey-buz- 
zards were regarded as useful birds and never killed by the Indian 

119 



do BTHNOGRAPHIC 8KETCH OF 

population. The fish and amphibians are mentioned elsewhere (in 
Mr. Hammond's article). The octopus, or squid, did not come so 
near the shores of the lagoons as to endanger the lives of the coast 
Indians, who passed their lives more upon the water than on terra 
firma. The manta, or *'blanket-fish,"i prefers deep waters and 
does not trouble the fishing population to any degree. 

Tlie vegetation around the coast lagoons mostly consists of weeds 
and flowers, as but a small part of these regions is wooded. Grease- 
wood, however, is frequent. A great variety of flowers embellished 
these prairies in spring and summer. As early as February the 
prairies around Trespalacios bay appear so full of wliite flowers, 
that tlie green grass can no longer be seen among them ; in March 
everything appears red from a profusion of ried geraniums, with a 
glutinous sap. In May the colors become more variegated, and 
blue rivals with white, pink and yellow-colored flowers, while in the 
autumn purple and yellow will predominate. In places where the 
grass is removed, a species of daffodil opens its petals after dusk. 
All these prairie growths were often destroyed by ravaging prairie- 
fires ; when these became dangerous by approaching the camps and 
settlements, the Indians and whites fought them by slapping the fire 
with brushwood. Nevertheless houses were sometimes destroyed 
by their fury. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 

The appearance of the Karankawa men and women can now only 
be described from the impression it made on persons who lived in 
their country, as we have no accurate anthropologic data or meas- 
urements to determine it scientifically. 

All witnesses from earlier and later epochs are unanimous in 
describing their men as very tall, magnificently formed, strongly 
built and approaching perfection in their bodily proportions. Many 
southerners regarded them as giants, and Mrs. Oliver ventured the 
opinion that they measured about five feet and ten inches.^ No 

1 This large iish, Cephaloptera mantat Bancroft, is described in Jordan and Gil- 
bert, Bull, of U. S. Mui^eum, 1882, p. 52, and in Zoolog. Journal, 1828-1829; IV, 444. 

a A committee on antlnopometry was appointed in 1876 by the British Association for 
the Advancement of Science, which has published tlte results of measurements of va- 
rious nations and tribes of all parts of the globe since 1878. On the stature of persons 
we find the following statement: 

Samoans meter 1.853 feet 6,10 97 

Polynesians in general 1.762 5, 9.33 

English professional class 1.757 5, 9.14 



THE KARAKKAWA INDIANS. 57 

skeletons or skulls are known to exist, which could give a decisive 
proof of this statement. Their hair was as coarse as that of horses, 
and perhaps owing to their being bareheaded, it often assumed a 
reddish hue. They were not prognathic nor showed they more than 
ordinary Indian proportions in their cheekbones or in the thyroid 
cartilage (Adam's apple) ; but their foreheads were mostly low 
and bi'oad, and the heads larger than those of the Anglo- American 
race. All had splendid white teeth, even in their older years. 

A considerable difference was perceptible between the deport- 
ment of males and that of females. That of the men was, even 
when their bodies were of a heavy exterior, free, lithe and graceful. 
Their complexion was rather light-colored than of the cinnamon 
hue, since they ate more venison than fish. Although their jaws 
looked heavy, their chin was small and their lips thin, which agreed 
well with the long and slender hands and feet observed in many in- 
dividuals. In some cases, the fingers tapered off most gracefully 
and ended in delicate-looking nails, the palm of the hand showing 
no callosities. Many men wore the hair so long as to reach the 
waist, and while sitting on their mats of skins they were in the 
habit of crossing the legs. 

The exterior of the women was in many respects just the reverse 
of their male companions. Weighted down by the drudgery of 
domestic toil they looked sullen, morose and uninviting. Being 
shorter than the men the}' surpassed them in embonpoint ^ were 
quite plain and even in youth not pretty. They showed no fancy for 
wearing ornaments. Very few children could be seen about their 
lodges and of young girls almost none, and it is very probable that 
the men in the tribe exceeded the women numerically. The blood 
was kept pure, since but a few mixed bloods could be noticed. 

Patagonians 
Iroquois Indians 
North American Indians 
OJibwe Indians 
Bushmen (Afi'ica) 

Average stature of men meter. 1.658 i^et. 6,5.25 

(Extract Arom American Naturalist 1884, pp. 646, 617.) 
When our informnnt spoke of the tall stature of the Earankawa, she referred to the 
men only, not to the women who are distinctly described as short and squatty. Five 
feet and ten inches are equal to 1.805 m. ; thus the Samoans would be the only people sur- 
passing the Karankawa men in height, and this is based upon the old observations of 
Lapeyronse. Of our southern Indians now extant the Osages are popularly believed 
to be the taUest. 

121 



1.754 


6,9.00 


1.735 


5, 8.28 


1.726 


6,7.»8 


1.700 


6, 6.90 


1.341 


4, 4.78 



58 ETHNOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF 

Children not yet able to walk were canned by the mother on the 
back wrapped in the loop of the skin worn by her. They used no 
cradles, but baby- boards. The babe was fastened to one of these 
which had the outlines of a child's bodj^ and was suspended to the 
ceiling of the lodge, by the thongs of a deerskin. While there- 
by its body became straight, the forehead of the baby was sub- 
jected to the flattening process. The children were rather quiet 
and cried but rarely. The boys very probably had their initiation 
trials like those of other Indians, but ceremonies connected with 
the jpuberty of girls have not been noticed among them by the white 
settlers. 

" The perfect physical condition of the people appears from the 
fact, that our informant never saw any deaf, mute, nor any case of 
squinting, though one lame man and two blind women came to 
her notice. The Karankawas were blessed with a sound appetite, 
for they were seen eating and drinking at all times of the day ; 
after the settlers had finished their meals they appeared around the 
houses to ask for food. 

FOOD. 

The duty of procuring food for the family devolved upon the men, 
exclusively, and that of preparing it for the meals upon the wo- 
men. There was no diflaculty of procuring deer-meat and ducks, 
for they were as plentiful as could be wished. Of the latter. Cap- 
tain Bridges once shot ninety before breakfast time. The other 
animals hunted by the Indians were the bear (at some distance 
from the lagoons) and the rabbit ; of birds, the brant and other geese 
with their eggs ; of shellfish, the oyster, which they ate on the shell. 

Of fish, it was only the larger species which they caught, like the 
salt-water trout and the "red fish," which resembles the codfish.^ 
They never used nets or angling lines. Of turtles, the great green 
turtle, hai'tnhikn, often 3^ feet long, was brought by them to the 
shore alive and then killed and eaten. The lagoons teemed with 
porpoises, but the Indians did not hunt for them. The shooting of 
fish by means of arrows is found with other tribes as well. The 
Omaha Indians used a special kind of arrows, without heads, for the 
purpose; c/. Mag. Am. History, N. Y., 1889, vol. xxii, 'p. 78; 
J. A. Villa Senor, Theatre Americano, i, p. 400, sq., states that 

1 other fish caught by them are enumerated in Mr. Hammond's article, which also 
describes the mode of killing them. 

122 



THE KABANKAWA INDIANS, 59 

the Seris in the gulf of California, pierce fish on the salt water 
with arrows : "los peces que (los Seris) fisgan k flechazos en el 
mar." 

Although these Indians were not agriculturists and had no maize, 
their vegetable food was as varied as that obtained from ani- 
mals, for which they cared mqch more. The soil contains a bul- 
bous nut, without shell, which they dug and ate without cooking ;i 
other bulbs were utilized also, and berries were eaten. Though 
salt was so near at hand, they used chile for seasoning, like the 
Mexicans. The tunas or cactus-figs grow there abundantly, but 
the Indians valued them but little, though in Cabe^a de Vaca's 
time it was a staple food on the coast, and one tribe was named af- 
ter these succulent fruits (Los de los Higos, p. 23). The Karan- 
kawas, after obtaining a quantity, laid them in the sand and rolled 
them with their feet until the sharp prickles were removed. The 
white settlers made pies of them. , The Indians also ate the per- 
simmon, this being the only fruit growing there on trees. 

The cookery of these natives was a rather simple aflair. Every 
lodge had but one iron kettle, but several made of pottery, all un- 
washed. Instead of mortars the women used cylindric low stones 
for mashing and grinding fruits or seeds, a larger stone being used 
upon these for crushing. They prepared but one kind of pottery 
from clay, the vases having a globular bottom, so that they had to 
be placed into a hole in the sand. They had no handles and meas- 
ured in diameter about twelve inches, Mrs. Oliver observed their 
manufacture but once ; then it was a man who made some pots and 
ornamented them on the outside with little designs, faces, scrolls, 
scallops, etc., in black paint. 

When the Indians could not beg bread enough from the settlers, 
or molasses and other food, they mixed fiour with water, laid the 
dough upon a fiat stone and thus set it to the fire for baking. Meat 
was boiled or roasted on the coals, oysters were cracked in the fire 
and then eaten. They liked coflee very much and wanted it sweet. 

The species of fish eaten by the Indians and their method of 
killing them are described in Mf. Hammond's article. They often 
caught more fish than they could dispose of, and then bartered them 
to the whites for household articles. 

In that part of the coast the Indians always managed to get 

1 This ground nnt had appendages consisting of long fibres, or films, and was of 
thimble size. It tasted better than the peanut. 

128 



60 ETHNOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF 

pure, fresh water, though the whites did not know where they ob- 
tained it. The colonists had wells, no cisterns ; the w ater of these 
wells was always of a brackish taste. 

Of domestic animals they kept only the dog, who was of the 
coyote or wolf-like species as mentioned above.^ They kept many 
of these, but since they were an erratic people and performed their 
wanderings by canoe, they never had cattle nor horses, and when 
mounting horses showed themselves a poor sort of cavalry. 

CANOES. 

Their canoes were of two kinds, both being called awa'n by 
them : (1) the aboriginal dugout j about twenty feet long, narrow, 
yet capacious; (2) old skiffs obtamed from the whites, much broad- 
er than the dugouts and flat-bottomed. A mast with a little sail 
was occasionally set up, but for want of space they were never 
seen paddling or rowing them.. Mrs. Oliver states that neither of 
the two was used for fishing, but served for transportation only ; 
and these embarkations were so frail and untrustworthy that they 
could never have ventured to go out upon the open waters of the 
gulf. The dugouts were not made smooth upon the outside, but 
had the bark still on. 

DRESS. 

Their articles of wardrobe were exceedingly few in number, 
and before the advent of the whites they probably moved about in 
a perfectly adamitic state, except during the coldest time of the 
year. Hats or head-covers were unknown. The men wore a 
breechclout of skins, the women a skirt of deerskin ; from the knee 
downward nothing was worn, and children under ten years went 
nude. Blankets (kwi'ss) , obtained from the colonists, were worn 
only during cold weather, but skirts and all other garments used 
by the Texans were disliked. Women sometimes begged for 
dresses (kwiss kddla, calico), wore them once or twice, then tore 
them to pieces or had them on for some time with the fore parts on 

1 Dr. I. L. Wortman states in Rep. Geol. Survey of Indiana, 1884: *'It is by no 
means uncommon to find mongrel dogs among many of the western tribes, notably 
among Umatillas, Bannocks, Shoshones, Arapatioes, Crows, Sioux, which have every 
appearance of blood-relntionship with the coyote, if not, in many cases it is this ani- 
mal itself in a state of semi-domestication.^' See also Am>'r. Naturalist, 1873, p. 385; 
"Native Ameiican Dogs," ibid,, September, 1885, and reprinted in Kansas City Review, 
Nov., 1885, pp. 239-243, from which the above quotation is made. 

124 



THE KARANKAWA INDIANS. 61 

their backs. The blankets were fastened upon their bodies with 
guisache- thorns serving as pins. The sliarks' oil which they rubbed 
on their bodies to keep their skins smooth and supple, emitted a 
most disagreeable odor, so that horses and cattle ran away from 
them,i sometimes for three miles from the stable, and this oil would 
have ruined the best dresses within a short time. Men sometimes 
fastened some yards of calico on their bodies, and trailed it behind 
them when not engaged in hunting. 

The skins of panther, bear, wild-cat, raccoon and cow, which they 
had in their lodges, were used like mats to sit and to slsep upon, 
but did not serve them as garments. 

ORNAMENTAL ATTIRE. 

The gentle sex is generally supposed to be more fond of orna- 
ments of dress to heighten its attractions, than are the males ; but 
among the Karankawas just the opposite was observed. Their squat 
and squalid females appear to have disdained ornaments, but the 
males with their uncombed though braided hair and unwashed faces, 
loved to have some ornaments dangling about their bodies. Their 
braids consisted of three strands and were rather long ; they never 
> knotted the hair to make it shorter, but sometimes inserted bright 
objects, as ribbons, bits of colored flannel, etc. The women never 
braided their coarse hair nor combed it, although some combs were 
seen in their lodges. The men generally arranged their hair with 
their hands. On the throat (not on chest) they wore small shells, 
glass beads, fruits of the pistachio tree, little disks of tin, brass or 
other metal. Mother-of-pearl was not utilized for the purpose. Rings 
were worn also, when obtainable. They manufactured bracelets, 
one inch in width, of deerskin with the hair left upon it and tied 
them by little strings fastened on each end. The fact that both 
sexes wore them on the left wrist only, makes it plausible that they 
also served as wrist guards to hunters. 

The custom of head flattening, considered as a mark of bodily 
improvement among so many southern tribes, was much in favor 
among this coast people. The babies of both sexes had to undergo 
the process, and their foreheads only were flattened. A piece of 
cloth was first applied, then a thin board, then a cloth inlaid with 
moss or some other sott substance to make a wad, all of these be- 

1 1 have mentioned an instance of tliis recorded by an author of the seventeenth 
century; </. p. 24. 

125 



62 ETHNOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF 

ing tied around the head with a bandage, and left to stay there 
about one year, day and night. Even after twenty years the eflfect 
of this proceeding was perceptible.^ 

TATTOOING. 

More conspicuous than head-flattening are the tattooing marks 
observed upon the majority of the tribes who walk around wholly 
or partly naked. Many Indian communities are distinguished by 
peculiar tattoo-marks which they claim as belonging exclusively to 
themselves. Thus the Karankawas had the face-marks described 
by my informant as their own, and they must have made a strong 
impression at first sight if not on the Texan Indians, at least upon 
the white people. These lines and figures were all of blue color, 
and though the substance used is unknown, we are acquainted with 
the fact that black substances, as soot, charcoal, burnt plum seeds, 
etc., become blue when placed subcutaneously. Tattooing was ap- 
plied to the face only, and only one man was remembered, about 
forty years old, whose chest showed tattoo-marks. Boys were not 
tattooed before their tenth year, and young women marrying into 
the tribe on their arrival already bore the same style of tattooing, 
as the women of the band frequenting the inlets of Matagorda bay. 

Body painting will be discussed below. 

DWELLINGS. 

The lodges or wigwams of these migratory people were far from 
being substantial, as they could be erected and taken down again 
within an hour or two by the women, to whom this manipulation de- 
volved in this and the majority of other tribes. Their mode of con* 
struction having been specified in the two articles preceding this, 
I have to add a few particulars only. These primitive, tent like 
huts were round, or intended to be so, and were called ba-ak ; they 
contained about seven or eight people and afforded no protection 
against the rain, which would pour through the roof (by courtesy 
so called) of the structure. For want of a smoke-hole, the smoke 
had to escape gradually through the willow-sticks or anywhere it 
could. Very tall persons had to bend their heads in coming in, and 

» Head-flattening prevails^not only upon the Pacific coast from southern Oregon to 
54* N. Lat., but also in Central America Palestine, Asia Minor, etc. In the last- 
named country the Yu"ru"k areu8ingtc;e^ bandages for the purpose. Cf. von Luschan 
in Berl. Gesellsch. Krdk., 1888, p. 63, aud my own aiticle in Migration Legend of the 
Creek Indians, yol. Ii, pp. 53-55. 

126 



THE KABANKAWA INDIANS. 63 

when inside would touch the top. There were no seats going around 
the lodge walls ; all the property of these people, weapons and cook- 
ing vessels, were lying on the ground, and they sat, ate and slept 
oii their fur-skins on the lodge-floor, using them as mats. 

The lodges of the Tonkawe (3etsu/an) and Comecrudos (wdmak) 
are diffiprently constructed ; they are cane or willow-stick lodges, 
flat on the top, open on one or two sides and covered with brush- 
wood and sail-cloth, old blankets, etc., on the top and the closed- 
up sides. They average in height from five to seven feet. The 
Tonkawe term, y6tsu/an, is derived from tsii/, ts6;^, cloth^ textile 
fabric^ also what is interwoven or wattled^ and y6tsu;^an therefore 
corresponds best to our word brush-lodge. 

TRIBAL GOVERNMENT. 

Passing over from the physical to the mental aspects which this 
Indian people presents to us, our information is scanty also, but 
the organization existing in other tribes of the south throws some 
light upon the subject. 

What we know about their tribal rulers is, that they were ruled 
by two kinds of chiefs : they had chiefs for their civil government, 
whose succession was hereditary in the male line, and war-chiefs, 
appointed probably by the civil chiefs. No women were ever 
known to have acted as chiefs. 

One hundred years ago their territory had a considerable coast- 
front and must have harbored a large population. But whether 
this was ever united into one confederacy, like that of the Creeks 
or Caddos, is doubtful, for we have no reports of any alliance for of- 
fensive or defensive purposes under one head chief. If such a con- 
federacy or symmachy ever existed, it must have been powerful 
and wide-reaching. It is more probable that this coast people 
formed a disconnected national body living under separate chiefs, 
which was united only by the tie of a common language, by war- 
expeditions undertaken under a common war chief and perhaps hy 
phratries and gentes having the same names throughout. The 
Caddos and Tonkawe have the gentile system, and the mention 
of vendetta or blood-revenge among the Karankawas also seems to 
point to the existence of a system of totemic gentes.^ After mar- 

^As I have pointed out previously, Cabe^a de Vaca states that individuals of the 
same gens always went together; but it is uncertain whether that ooa-st tribe seen by 
him was of Karankawa affinity or not. 

127 



64 ETHNOGRAPHIC SKETCH OP 

rying, the Earankawa often took their fathers-in-law and motheta- 
in-law into their lodges and lived with them. 

MORAL CHARACTER. 

It is certainly a difficult task to sketch the morarqualities of a 
nation, of which a few tribes or bands only were known to the white 
people, and under circumstances which make us doubt the Veracity 
of the informants. Indeed who would be inclined to believe what 
what one man says about another, whom he is constantly trying 
rob and kill, and who is on that account cruelly punished by him 
from time to time ? 

In the earlier epochs they were filled with hatred against the 
Spaniards on account of their cruelty and haughty demeanor, but 
were not hostile to the French, who knew how to treat them in a 
friendly manner. But their warlike qualities and anthropophagy 
always made them an object of terror to the travellers and settlers 
of the white race, and by the Anglo-Americans they were regarded 
as selfish, mean, cruel, crafty and treacherous. Ignorant of any 
rights of property in our sense of the word they showed their thiev- 
ish inclination by purloining food, knives, clothing and such house- 
hold articles as they could use for themselves ;^ but were not bur- 
glars. Their lazy habits prompted them to continual begging and 
rarely were they willing to perform the slightest labor, no matter 
what reward was offered to them. But these are qualities inher- 
ent to almost every savage people. Indolence is charged even to 
many so-called civilized communities. [Why should a primitive 
tribe, which had always lived upon the liberal gifts of nature, sud- 
denly change their habits to please some settlers who came to squat 
upon their domain ? 

To the Texan settler who came to these coasts from civilized 
communities, these Indians certainly appeared as a ferocious type 
of unmitigated savagery, untempered by the milder influence of 
agriculture which has exerted such a civilizing power among so 
many of the northern and more so among the southern tribes. Mrs. 
Oliver sketches the people of the band near her home as "surly 
in their aspect, averse to conversation, apparently feeling no in- 
terest in anything that was said ; they spoke to each other and 
to the whites in guttural, indifferent tones and with faces averted." 

1 This reminds us of what Granville Stuart states, in his '^Montana as it is'' (New« 
Yorlc, 1866), of the Snake Indians : "They are not real thieves, but steal just enough to 
keep their hands in." 

128 



THE KARANKAWA. INDIANS. 65 

They sometimes tried to deceive her in giving words of their lan- 
guage, and most of these in her list were obtained from women. 

A "witty" joke, rather characteristic of their mode of thinliing, 
was perpetrated by a young man, called Kwash or '* Fire" and is 
related by her as follows : 

Kwash was at times employed by her father, Mr. Bridges, to do 
household work, and at one time, Mr. Bridges, wishing to treat 
his noithern guest to some genuine prairie venison, sent Kwash out 
to kill a deer. In due time Kwdsh returned apparently unsuccessful. 
He shook his head mournfully to all eager inquiries, and wore an 
air of extreme disappointment. Judge, therefore, of the effect .pro- 
duced and which Kwdsh keenly enjoyed, when nearly an hour later, 
after having eaten his dinner, he said to her in a low voice : " ne 
bdwus kawa-i, nd-i do-atn ahuk," let me have the horse, I have killed 
a deer. 

When judging about people, their wicked qualities leave a more 
ready impression upon our minds than the good ones and seem to 
preponderate over these. It is, therefore, unjust not to make men- 
tion of the latter qualities also. When coming to see the colonists, 
they were not obtrusive, but rather dignified and reserved, and when 
they entered their houses they attentively examined the pictures 
hanging on the walls. Wlien asked to work for money they were 
always frank enough to say " we do not want to work :'* Karan- 
kawa koni ta takina). Gratefulness, devotion or kindred feelings 
could certainly not be expected from these natives, for these quali- 
ties are rare enougli even among individuals of cultured nations ; 
hospitality, however, is found among almost all nations of the 
earth and may not have been wanting altogether even ui^on that dis- 
tant coast of the " Lone Star State." 

Between husbands and wives no sign Of fondness or intimacy 
could be observed and they rarely spoke to each other, but between 
parents and children affection was sometimes noticed, especially 
on the mother's side. The women were not examples of chastity ; 
hence but few children were born and our informant never saw over 
two in one family. Widows remarried as soon as opportunity of- 
fered itself. Children were not often visible and those seen were 
mostly babies. Adult or half-grown girls were scarce in all their 
bands. 

The Karankawas suffered no interference of outsiders in their 

marital affairs and strongly resented any attempt at such. When 

p. u, PAfBiis. I. 9 129 



66 ETHNOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF 

a band made its temporary stay at Port Austin, ^about the year 
1839, one of the wives became suspect to her " liege lord" as to 
her chastity. He seized her by the hair and pulled her over the 
steep bluff, about five feet high, to the beach of the lagoon and 
beat her tewibly. Aroused by her cries, the settlers interfered, 
but this exasperated the Indians to such a degree that they re- 
solved to revenge themselves by a night attack. They had a cer- 
emonial dance called ^'fandango," that night, as it was then full 
moon. Chief Antonio's wife, who was of Conaanche descent, man- 
aged to notify Mr. Bridges' family of the intention, and the colo- 
nists remained wakeful after the lights had been extinguished and 
hid themselves in the lumber piled up about the house. After a 
while the husband of that woman was seen sneaking through the 
high grass toward the house. Several travelling men then stopped 
at the house, all of whom were armed. Captain Bridges advanced 
with cocked gun towards the dusky form in the grass, shouting : 
"What are you doing here ? If you disturb us once more, you will 
all be killed by the settlers at Matagorda and of our neighborhood !" 
This was effective and the man withdrew ; the inmates of the house 
watched all night long, but no attack was made and the next 
day the band retired to a distance of four miles near other settle- 
ments. 

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 

The information we can present upon these points is by no means 
exhaustive ; this is a matter of regret, as the Earankawa certainly 
had many curious customs of their own, like all the other aborigi- 
nes. An instance of this is the ceremonial weeping referred to above. 

Among their games and pastimes shooting with the bow was 
prominent. They often shot at the mark or shot the arrows up per- 
pendicularly into space, and their shooting matches were rather 
lively. Arrows shot at the mark and sticking in it were sometimes 
split in two the long way by another Indian shooting at the notch ; 
many young men were able to do this at a distance of eighty feet 
at least. They also threw hatchets at the mark with wonderful 
precision, and rivals often engaged in brawls or fights with knives 
to settle their " rights." They also had ball plays and wrestling 
matches, one of their names, Keles, q. v., being derived from the 
latter practice. No gambling or guessing games seem to have ex- 
isted among these people at that time, 
aso 



THE KARANKAWA INDIANS. 67 

Tobacco was smoked by tbem in great quantities in cigars or 
cigarettes made with maize husks, Mexican fashion. ^ 

As to the disposal of their dead it is not definitely known which 
mode they followed. Cremating was out of the question, since 
there was no timber or bushes in the neighborhood of Trespala- 
cios bay, and no place of sepulture wns ever known to exist or was 
alluded to by these Indians. Neither did they burn the lodges in 
case the owners died ; if so, the white colonists would have heard 
of it. An Indian, about thirty years of age, had been failing in health 
through phthisis and became too weak to move about. His tribe, 
wishing to depart for another shore, concluded to leave him near 
Captain Bridges' house. They were dissuaded from doing this and 
promised to take him away. But after their boats had left the 
shore, and it was supposed they had all gone, four men brought the 
sick man back in a blanket, deposited him in a bush near the house, 
then ran away. The colonists made a provisional tent for him and 
his son, and he lived two weeks longer. Two days after his death 
his brother came to claim the boy who was three years old and had 
been given to Captain Bridges bj^ his father. 

When a baby died belonging to the chief, it was certainly not 
buried there ; the Indians remained quiet in their lodges, the par- 
ents were much afflicted and a gloom reigned over the camp. Two 
days after they left for other parts. They appeared otherwise en- 
tirely indifferent as to sacredness of feeling or particular rites in 
reference to losses by death. 

Further information on their customs is negative only. Upon 
inquiry I learned that probably they did not observe what is called 
the cotivade, kept no prisoners of war as slaves and did not manu- 
facture any mats or baskets, but made coarse pottery and knew 
how to dress skins. There were two men in the tribe greatly de- 
spised by the others, so that they probably knew the ''peculiar in- 
stitution" of hermaphrodites, or men in women's clothes. Cabe^a 
de Vaca also mentions the amarionados seen by him. The south- 
ern custom of scratching the knees of every warrior once a year 
did not exist here.^ Fire-wood and other loads were carried upon 
the shoulders, or on the back by means of a strap. 

»The various modes of nsiiu? tobacco among the Indians of the West Indies, where 
this practice was first observed, have been investigated by Dr. A. Ernst of Caracas, 
'•On the etymology of the word to6occo, "Amer. Anthropologist of Washington, vol. 
n, 1889, pp. 133-142. 

« The Shetimashas had this cn^tom, and among the ChA'hta coal dust was rubbed 
into the bleeding wounds inflicted upon their knees once every year. 

131 



68 ETHNOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF 



MENTAL ATTAINMENTS. 

Before describing what is known to us of the religious and tran- 
scendental ideas of the Texan coast people, I gather under the 
above heading a few disconnected points apt to illustrate the de- 
gree of mental development acquired by them. 

Although the women were not manufacturers of mats or baskets, 
cooking pots with rude ornaments were seen in their camps. A 
block of wood with a roughly-wrought human face served as a doll 
to the children of a family ; who, when scarcely two years old, often 
ran into the water of the bay up to their necks. 

Besides some rude attempts at wood-carving a beginning of the 
plastic arts could be seen in the appliance of a paint, which was 
either red or black, and of a clay producing a black color. With 
these they painted figures of animals and human faces upon their 
skins and upon pots and articles of wood. These paintings were 
far remote from any artistic finish and were but seldom seen. The 
dugouts were not painted, as the bark remained upon the outside. 
Their tattooing has been referred to already. 

The musical instruments of the tribe are described by Mrs. Oliver 
on page 18. 

Of their mode of counting the numeral series would give us some 
idea, if we had more of it than the numbers from one to ten. Like 
other Indians they counted upon the fingers, commencing at the 
small finger and ending with the thumb. Of this their word for 
five is conclusive evidence, for nat'sa b6hema *' ^ one ^ father^'' means 
to say that while counting on the one or first (nSt'tsa) hand they had 
arrived at the biggest or thickest finger, which in some languages is 
symbolized by "father, mother, or old." The haikia, tvx)^ com- 
posing the numerals from six to nine, show that they then counted 
the fingers of the second hand. To say twenty, thirty^ etc., they held 
up both hands twice or three times. 

Other material helps were used whenever computations had to be 
made extending over days or weeks, or reaching high figures. Most 
Indians use sticks from one to three inches in length when days 
havp to be counted from a certain period, and after this period throw 
away one stick every day. To count loads a young EarankawsC 
used the following expedient. Captain Bridges, wishing to con- 
struct a road of sea-shells, ordered him to count the necessary quan- 
tity of shells taken in a wheelbarrow to the places designed ; he 
132 



THE KARANKAWA INDIANS. 69 

tben had to be absent for a while, and the young Indian kept the 
record of his wheelbarrow loads by placing for each one a stone in a 
row, sometimes three, sometimes four in a day, and by beginning 
a new row for every da}' he worked. 

One of the medical or conjuring practices of these Indians was 
to suck the disease from the patient's body, and welts could often be 
seen on their skin. From this we may judge that their conjuring 
did not differ materially from that of otlier Indians. They often 
called on Captain Bridges for his medicines and so they must have 
been, in critical cases, distrustful of tlieir own conjurers. 

Tlie Karankawas could not be prevailed upon to communicate 
their Indian names to the white people and thus Mrs. Oliver learnt 
of one only, Kwash or Fire. But everyone had an English or Span- 
ish name and many men went by the burlesque military and other 
epithets in use among Americans, as "Captain," "Major," "Colo- 
nel," etc., these being placed before their assumed baptismal names. 
The latter they changed frequentl}', thus Captain Jim, e. gr., might 
be known in a few weeks under the new name of Captain Jack. This 
reluctance of acquainting people outside of their tribe with their 
Indian names is frequent among Pacific and southwestern Indians 
and I found it to exist among the Tonkawe Indians, then at Fort 
Griffin, on the clear fork of Brazos river, northwestern Texas. The 
Tonkawe will give to their children Comanche and English names 
besides those from their own language, which they are unwilling to 
communicate to others. And why ? they believe that when some- 
body calls an individual by his or her name after death, the spirit 
of the deceased may hear it and be prompted to take revenge upon 
those who disturbed his rest ; but if called in another language this 
would have no effect upon the spirit. Thus after having stepped 
into Hades' domain, an Indian seems to remember his own language 
only. 

The Karankawa Indians possessed a gesture language for con- 
versing with alien Indians by motions of the hands or body. Mrs. 
Oliver remembered one gesture of it, to express ^'nothing,** which 
-is approximately the same as performed by other Indians for the 
. same idea. It consisted in stretching both arms forward horizon- 
tally with fingers extended, and then making the hands or arms 
diverge suddenly. The Ak6nkisa or Acconcesaws on lower Trin- 
ity river, Texas, had a "dumb" or sign langdage of the same de- 
scription ; c/. Dr. Sibley's "Message to the President," 1805. 

133 



70 ETHNOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF 

For signalling to a distance tbey had several methods. They 
called each other's attention by a whistle, which was much shriller 
than ours. On clear days, generally at noon, they signalled news 
by columns of smoke from their camp fires, which were started frona 
small pits in the ground, every Indian having a fire in front of his 
lodge. The column of smoke was made to ascend in more than 
twenty different ways, sometimes diverging or curling up in spirals, 
sometimes rising up in parallel lines. The shape of these smoke 
signals was as intelligible to their distant friends as spoken lan- 
guage, and the messages thus conveyed appeared to determine their 
movements. Some of these looked like the letters V and Y, others 
resembled spiral lines, or two parallel zigzag lines moving upward, 
or twin columns standing close to each (»ther. How these columns 
could be made to go up in the directions intended for them was 
not known to the informant, and it is possible that the numerous 
prairie and camp fires burning at night at all points of the horizon 
were used by them as signals also. It is especially incomprehen- 
sible, how smoke could be made to diverge laterally in the manner 
seen by our informant. 

RELIGION. 

Of the religious ideas prevailing among the Karankawas noth- 
ing is known except what Mrs. Oliver has communicated in giving 
a sketch of their "fandango," which evidently was a misnomer for 
a religious ceremony and took place when the moon was full. They 
also celebrated it after very successful hunts or fishing expeditions 
resulting in a bountiful catch. The use of the black drink decoc- 
tion of the yaupon-leaves^ {Ilex cassine) was frequent among In- 
dians of the gulf coast on both sides of the Mississippi and is also 
mentioned in Texas by Cabe§a de Vaca. The Creek Indians pre- 
pared it in three different ways and one of these they adopted when 
the beverage had to serve for convivial purposes.^ 

It was a religious act of theirs, when they sent the smoke of 
tobacco through their nostrils first to the north, then to the east, 
west and south in an apparently unconcerned and careless manner. 

iProDOiinced yapdti oryap<Sn in Texas. The Texane find it in the woods, not on the 
coast'line and drink a tea or decoction of it with sugar and milk. The white people 
east of Mississippi river do the same. 

^Compare my *'Mi)cration Legend of the Creek Indians," toI. il, 56-59, where I have 
adduced historic evidence upon the use of the '^Black Drink." 

134 



THE KARANK4.WA INDIANS. 71 

Their staring at the sun, when it disappeared into the sea, has been 
observed with other Indians as well.^ 

The Karankawa were frequently heard to whistle, but at certain 
times only and with some apparent object. Thus we do not know 
whether this was founded on some superstition or not. The tribe 
or tribes frequenting Matagorda bay had never been visited by 
any missionary, as far as my informant could remember, and of 
their legends and historic traditions nothing whatever is known, 
except that they formerly had lively contests with some of the 
neighboring tribes, the Bidai and the Tonkawe. Of former migra- 
tions of their own people they were entirely unconscious. 

>The ancient Creeks regarded it as a divine favor when they could travel at least 
once during their lives to the bay of Mobile to see the sun disappearing in its waters. 



VI. THE KARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 



It bas been for a long time a desideratum to ethnologists to ob- 
tain reliable information upon this coast language, which could 
furnish a clew to the origin^ and racial aiffinities of the nation. 
This desire has now been gratified, though in a modest degree only, 
and I intend to present the scanty linguistic information now on 
band under three headings : 

1. The vocabularies. 

2. The grammatic elements of the language. 

3. AfiSnities of Karankawa with other languages. 



1. KARANKAWA VOCABULARIES. 
A. Vocabulary obtained from Alice W. Oliver. 

a and; gai a dem6a n^-i (this is) my how and arrows (putting 
their hands upon them) ; gai a dem6a &wa (this is) your bow 
and arrows. 

aguiya needle; from Spanish aguja. 

aha'mmish hush! don't ay! (as said to children) ; aha'mmish sni'n ! 
get away ! scat 1 (as said to dogs and cats ; with sharp accent) . 

ahdy iita /nend. The Spanish amigo was more used among them. 
When wanting to be on good terms with the whites, they 
preferred the term amigo and said : mucho amigo I k6tn ahd- 
yika hostile^ enemy; the Karankawas called so several of 
the tribes around them. 

ahuk, ah6k to kill^ sing, and pi. of object ; n&-i yk d6-atn ah6k 
m'sus / am starting soon to kill deer. 

akndmas, aknamus to eat; k6m akn&mus no^ eatable^ or do not eat. 

Aksol to whistle. 

137 



74 THE KARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 

akwet^n to drink. 

akwini tree; na-i am6ak akwini I fell from the tree. 

imjish; aquatic animaJy see tcliuta. 

dmel, emphatic ame-el hungry, cf. mdl; nd-i amel, td kwiam6ya 

aknamus / am hungry^ I want to eat bread. 
dmhatn flour; yd dmliatn com flour ^ meal of maize. 
am6ak to fall; ka'da am6ak, ka'da owi'ya the girl fell and wept. 
dnawan, a'nawa smoke (?) 
ashabak now, presently; hdlba mushawdta takina ; ashdhak kwd-al, 

tdim the chief has worked continuously; now he is tired (and) 

wants to sleep. 
atebdta ! good bye I farewell ! 
aud^ ijna/ce, serpent. 
dwa (1) thou^ you; pron. pers. of second pers. singular, also for 

dir. and indir. object : nd-i dwa bdwiis / give you. Captain 

Jim dwa kosdta Capt. Jim made it for you. (2) thy^ thine, 

yours; dwa kaninma thy mother. 
awa'n (1) dugout , canoe; (2) boat, vessel, ship. 
bd, bS,', be wind; w61 bd strong wind. 
bd-ak (1) Indian lodge, cabin, willow-lodge, hut, wigwam; gds bd- 

ak to return home; (2) Indian camp; (3) house, building. 
bdkta day; bdkta buddma wdl day long past. 
bdwiis to give; ni bdwiis tesnakwdya give me milk; nd-i dwa kwia- 

m6ya bdwAs I give you bread. 
b6hema, b^hema, he'lima father. Also occurs in numerals, 
buddma gone; buddma wdl long past, said of time ; hdlba bu- 
ddma, gds messds bd-ak the chief has gone, he will return home 

soon. 
bddel barrel; from Span, baril. 
da' oyster. 
ddhome egg. 

ddn to push; gl6s'n ka'da ddn the boy pushed the girl. 
d6 tobacco, 
dem6a arrow. ^ 
d6 atn, d6-etn, do'tn deer. 
do-atn; this term occurs in the numerals: haikia d6-atn nine; 

d6-atn hdbe ten. 
d6 owal sun, 

e tooth; e tesselenia tooth-hush. 
6m to jump, skip. 
188 



THtt KARAKKAWA LANGUAGE. 75 

6nno to suck. 

6tsnia hand, jitiger. 

ga', gd'h moskito. 

ga-an, ka an to. strike with hand, club, etc. 

ga-i, gai how. 

gata domestic cat; from Spanish gato; gdta kwdn kitten. 

gl6-essen, gl68'n hoy ; gds, gl6s'n come^ hoy! a mother said to her 

son five years old ; nd-i gl68'n kwdtso my hoy is sick, 
gll6-i, gle-i (1) water and any liquid; t6skau8 gll6-i molasses; (2) 

sea, ocean^ open waters. 
gusgdma shirt; cf. kwiss. 
gwa, kwa to read. 
habe; occurs in d6 atn liAbe ten. 
haikia two; composes tlie numerals : \\kyo haikia six; haikia na^tsa 

seven; haikia b6hema eight; haikia d6-atn nine. 
haitn to catchy capture; nk-'x k6ta kuwai haitn / ran to catch the 

horse; nd-i b6hema haitn (go and) catch up with my father! 
haitnlokn, a turtle species, called the large green turtle^ frequently 

found in Matagorda Bay, up to three and one-half feet long : 

Chelonia mydas. 
hdyo haikia six; seems to stand for ka;^ayi haikia, abbrev. hdyi 

haikia three times two; hdyo hdkn four. 
hdkes to sit; ka'da hAkes bA-ak the girl sits in the house. 
hilba chief. # 

\mmk\tL pretty^ handsome; tdl dkwini hamAla this tree is pretty. 
ihi6-a, hie e, hi-ia, hie-&, ie-e yes! 
iin to sleep ; ik ira he wants to sleep. 

yk'&n greaty large^ tally wide; the opposite of kwa'n, q. v, 
ydin potato; not the batate or ** sweet potato." 
ydmawe ma7i. 
y6 to goy to walky reduplicated y6ye ; nA-i y6 medd-u 6dn lam going 

to shoot ducks; wk-i y6 do'tn ah6k / am going to kill deer; nd-i 

y6 w61 / walked considerahly. 
yetso to stand. 
yb'iSL music. 

ka to lovcy cherish; nd-i dwa ka Hove you. 
ka'da girl; mothers addressed their daughters by this term : gds, 

ka'da! come^ girl! 
kddla calico; kwiss kddla, see kwiss. 

139 



76 THE KARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 

kAhawan, kd-awan (1) to mafce, produce^ manufacture, as bread, ar- 
ticles of wood, etc. ; nd-i dem6a kdhawan / make arrows; 
(2) to grow^ said of animals and plants ; kwdnakwan in the 
reduplicated or iterative form ; kwd-an young ; lit. '* grow- 
ing ;" kwdnnakwan akvvini? do they grow on a tree^ on trees? 

kaita, katd to laugh; dwa katd ; kaiipn ! you laugh! tell (why) ! 

ka/dyi three. 

kanin, kenin breast; female brea^sty teat; kaninma, keniuma mo^^er; 
nd-i keninma my mother, 

kassidshuwakn to hurt^ injure^ cause pain. # 

kdssig to pound, as maize, etc., is pounded by means of a stone. 

kaiipn to tell, to say to^ to talk, converse; kadpn nd-i behema gds 
bd-ak tell my father to return home; nd-i kaninma behema td 
kaupn my mother wants to speak to the fath^ r. 

kedo'd, keda'd crane. 

kekey a foot, feet, 

kiss dog. 

klabdn well, healthy, in good health; dwa kaninma klabdn? is your 
mother well f 

k6m, ko'm,kum (1) no! (2) not; k6m ahdyika, see ahdyilia; k6m 
akndmus, etc. 

kosdta to perform, do, to make; nd-i kwdtchi kosdta messus / shxjUl 
soon build afire, 

k6ta, kotd to hasten, to hui^y ; nd-i kotd ^bd-ak / am hurrying home. 

kiidn, k6dn, kdtn bird; kutne w61ya (1) prairie chicken; (2) chicken, 
hen, 

kumna to know, to understand; ktimna? do you understand? 

kii'nmil gunpowder. 

kuwdyi, kuwai horse; from the Spanish ca6aZifo. 

kwd-al, kwa'l tired, exhausted; dwa kwd-al ! hdkes! you are tired! 
sit down! 

kwa'n and kwdnakwan to grow; see kdliawan (2). 

kwa'n, kwdn (1) little, small; (2) young of animal, child, babe; 
gdta kwa'n kitten. 

kwdss, kwds to know; more frequent!}' used tlian kdmna. Na-i kuin 
kwds / do not know; dwa nd-i kwdss? do you know mef 

kwdtchi (li) fire; (2) nom. prop, masc, " Fire." 

kwdtcho, kwdtsu sick; cf, kwdtchi ^?*e, fever-heat being often com- 
pared to fire; and kwd-al. A'wa kwdtsu? are you sick? 

140 



THE KARAKKAWA LANGUAGE. 77 

kwidm maize^ Indian com; kwiaiii6ya bread; gl6s'n akwdmus 

kwiamoya the hoy is eating bread. 
kwiss (1) any cloth, textile fabric; abbr. to gus in gusgdma, q. v. ; 

kwiss kdilla calico dresSj gown^ woman*s dress, 
lA-ak goose. 

Id-akum round; globiform, circular and disk-shaped, 
labd i whiskey. 
Idliarna, Id'hhama heart. 
mad6na j?/^. 
mdl dead. 
matdkia to hate; nk-i dwa maldkia / hate you (said once by a 

Karankawa cliild to a bench wlien falling over it), 
matchita hatchet; from Spanish maxihete. 
mawida to many; from Spanish mando. 

medd u, medau, nieddw canvas-back duck; prob. generic for duck. 
messus, mesus, m'stis by and by^ after a while, soon, at present. 
mudd? where f kiss mudd? where (is) the dog? dwan mudd? where 

is the boat f 
miishawdta/o?' a long while, all the time, always. 
mutd dear, affectionate. 
ndyi, nd-ayi, nd-i, nd-i (1), 7, pron. pers. first pers. singular, abbrev. 

into n* ; n* teh6 awa / see you. Also for obj. case : dwa nd-i 

kwdss? do you know me? abbr. ne : ne bdwtls kwdtchi give me 

fire; (2) my, mine: ndi b^'hma my father; nd-i gai my bow; 

nd-i gl6'sn my boy. 
na'tsa one; na'tsa b^hema^ve, haikia na'tsa seven. 
n6tawa to swim; dm, kiss n6tawa the fish, the dog is swimming. 
nyd, nid there, yonder; kiss nid the dog (is) there; wdl nia far 

off; nd-i awdn tclid nyd I see a boat ovei' there. 
odn, A'dn to shoot \ 6dn dem6a to shoot arrows; dwa 6dn m'siis you 

shoot now I in the sense of " you may shoot presently." 
6's, 6ss bear; from Spanish oso. 
owiya to weep. 
pdl blax:k. ( ?) 
pld good, nice, fine, useful; in the concrete as well as in the abstract 

and moral sense ; the opposite of tchuta. Madonna akndmus 

pld a pig is good to eat. 
silekdyi knife, 
sui'n ; see aha'mmish. 

141 



78 THB KARAKKAWA LANGUAGE. 

td to fvant^ wish, desire; gdsl nd-i Awa ta come! I want you; 

k6m td takina he does not want to work; gl69'n 6m ik w6l tJie 

hoy wants to jump to a distance; also signifies '*the boy can 

jump far out" ; gl6s*n td t6skaus-glle-i the hoy wants molasses ; 

nd-i ik hdkes I want to sit dow^i. Also used as auxiliary verb 

for the future tense, 
tdbama (1) to hreak, as china, sticks, an'ows, etc. ;(2) to tear, as cloth, 
takina to work. 

tdl, tdll, pron. dem., this^ that; he, she^ it. 
tamoyika red. 
tenno toOy also, and; nd-i t^nno Waldpe land Quadelupe; gl6s'n 

akndmus t^nno the hoy eats (of it) also, 
teskaus sweet; sugar; teskaus glle-i molasses; nd i akndmus 

kwiamoyi t6skaus-gll6 i I am eating hread with molasses. 
tesnakwdya milk, 
tessel6nia, tesel6nya hrush; cf. 6. 
t^ts'oa, t6tsoa heef^ cow^ cattle^ heef-meat; Col. Robinson tetsoa 

ahuk Col. Rohinson has killed a cow. The meat had to be 

specified by giving the name of the animal. 
t6los, t61us to run; to run fast; ne bdwns kwdtchi ! t61us, toliis ! 

give me fire ! run^ run ! 
tuwdmka yesterday; also referring io past time in general, 
tchd {!) to «ee, hehold; n* tchd dwa I see you; nd-i dwan tcbd 

I see J perceive a hoat; (2) m' tchd dwa? how do you do? lit. 

" how do you find yourself?" 
tchdpn to he on the point of; n'tchdpn ... J am going to . . ; 

n'tchdpn dwa o'dn / will shoot you. Etymologically con- 
nected with tchd to see. 
tchautawal to touch something ; wal perhaps a separate word, 
tso'l hlue. 
tchuta had^ ohnoxious^ wicked^ dangerous; din tchntd octopus 

" dangerous fish ;" kom akndmus tdl dm ; tchdta this fi^h 

is not eaten; (it is) had. 
wi-asn rain. 
w61, w611, wdl (1) strong, powerful; w6l bd ; see bd ; (2) much^ 

a great deal of plenty of; wa'l gll6-i much water; 6m w6l to 

jump to a (great) distance^ to take a long leap; wdl nia/ar 

offt "way 3'onder ;"nd-i y6 wol 1 walked a good deal; cf. bdkta. 
w6lya, see kudn. 

wu-ak to lie down; nd-i be'hma wiiak, td im my father lay down to sleep, 
142 



THE KARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 79, 

B. Vocabularies obtained from Old Simon and Sallie Washington. 

The following short series of Karankawa terms I have obtained 
from two old persons, whom I met among the Tonkawe tribe of In- 
dians in September, 1884, who then stayed in northwestern Texas, 
near Fort Grifl^n, in Shaekleford county. Both claimed to have 
lived when tliey were young for a considerable time among the Kar- 
ankawas on the coast. 

One of them was called Old Simon; he was not less than sev- 
enty-five years old and it was a difficult matter to obtain any re- 
liable information from him on account of an extreme debility of 
body and memory. He called the tribe Kar^mkawa or Keles, Kilis, 
vn'estlei's^ and saw twenty lodges of theirs about or after the year 
1835, near the mouth of the Rio Grande, which would place this 
portion of the tribe much farther south than we knew them to live 
at that epoch. They wore no moccasins and had a powerful phys- 
ique. Near the coast he had also seen three other tribes walking 
barefooted : the Minai (or Bidai) in twent3'-five lodges ; the Carri- 
zos in five lodges near the mouth of the Rio Grande and the 
Kharimame, Khaimi,me or Hanama in ten lodges. The Bidai were 
then southeast of Austin, the capital, and the third tribe must have 
been the Xaranames, mentioned in some Mexican documents. 
The following words were all he remembered : 

aw4tch/ol grass. 

^vihcome! come here 1 

ga/i^metet upa't long ago 1 spoke (the language). 

h6iv80 alligator. 

humhe^re. 

kdhe tobacco; ka sw6nas cigarette. 

koldme frying pan^ tin bucket (Aztec comalli f) 

kwa mk black horse. 

kwan peka white horse. 

kw6-om, kwom no. 

/ankJ, niktam I come quick^ boy! 

nap6-nai pdtsim / speak^ tell^ converse. 

nap6-nai na/erua;^a pdra / am very angry, 

Tchankdya Tonkaioe Indian. 

tikemai beef. 

upat (emphatically : up^-a-at) long ago. 

ushi niktam a little man^ a youngster. 

143 



80 TUB KARANKAWA LANGUAOB. 

* My other informant was a blind old woman, not much younger 
than Old Simon ; she was called ScUlie Washington^ on account 
of having once been with a delegation of Texan Indians to the cap- 
ital, brought there by Sam Houston. She had once lived with a 
man of the Karankawa tribe for a considerable time, as reported. 
The words which she remembered confirm some of Old Simon's 
statements. 

ew6-e I come ! come quick I 

hdka ! sit down! tchakwam^ ! sit down here! 

kd-as wand ! come Jiere ! 

;^ankeye to run, Imrry^ Iiasten. 

tapshewa fiog. 

wdna ! go away ! or let us go ! 

Both lists were incorporated into the collection of manuscripts of 
the Bureau of Ethnology and subsequently published in the "Glo- 
bus" of Braunschweig, 1886, Vol. 49, pp. 124, 125. 

The small extent of these two lists renders any.comparisons dif- 
ficult and they probably represent another more western dialect of 
Karankawa than the one Mrs. Oliver was familiar with. Many 
words agree pretty well with her list. These two Tonkawe In- 
dians once had tattoo lines along their noses, as I was informed, 
and although all traces of these had disappeared when I saw tliem, 
there is nothing impossible in this. The Karankawas were said to 
have had the same lines, and the Mexican tribes around the Panuco 
river had them also. I read the terms of these two lists to Mrs. 
Oliver, but she could not remember having heard any of them. 

The proof that the words furnished by Old Simon and Sallie 
Washington really belong to the same linguistic stock as the 
dialect obtained from Mrs. Oliver, and that if the one is accepted 
as being Karankawa, the other must be considered Karankawa also, 
is furnished by the following coincidences : 

kwd horse : kawdyo, kuwdi. 

kw6-om not^ no: ko'm, k6m, kiim. 

nai /, in nap6-nai : ndyi, nd-i. 

hdka sit down (is also contained in tch-aA;-wam6) , hdkes to sit 
down. 

kd-as come! gd'hs, gd*s, to come. 

In the following linguistic comparisons and the grammatic sketch 
only incidental use will be made of these two little word- lists, by 
using the sign S. 
144 



THE KARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 81 

Mrs. Oliver also remembered a song worded in that language 
and heard from a woman of the tribe, who uttered it in an ex- 
tremely monotonous strain, two lines at one breath, without any 
rise or fall in the intonation. It runs as follows : 
N&tsa kwan k6dn h&kus akwinf 

t&l dksol, t&l &k8ol, t&\ 6ksol, na tch&; 
D&tsa kwan gl6-esn g&s, g&-i demo'-u, 
"u* tchdpn 6dn &wa, ham&la kw&u kddn !" 

The translation runs as follows : 

One little bird sits on a tree, 
he whistles, he whistles, he whistles, I see ; 

One little boy comes with bow and arrow, 
**I will shoot you, pretty Utile sparrow !'* 

When I made the remark, that the use here made of ndtsa as an 
indefinite article, of tdl for Ae, and of nk* tchd / see, was and could 
not be aboriginal, she said that I was right, and that the song 
seemed to be nothing but a translation of a well-known American 
cradle-song of the English language ; that woman, Lettie, knew 
more English than other squaws, and also showed herself more 
affectionate to her children. The original song probably was as 
follows : 

Little cock-sparrow sat up in a tree, 

he whistles, he whistles and thus whistles he ; 
a little boy came with his bow and his arrow, 
and said : "I will shoot you, poor little cock-sparrow 1" 

A fragment of another cradle-song was also remembered, of 
which the two first lines were the following : 

aha'mlsh gl6s'n, k6ra owfya, 
&wa b^hema g&a missus. 

Of this the original appears to be : 

Rockaby baby bunting, your father's gone a hunting ; 
mother's gone to get the skin, to wrap the baby bunting in. 

Some more linguistic material besides the above is preserved in 
the place and river names of these coast tracts, though by their very 
nature these names can be of little use to us. Those that could 
possibly belong to the Karankawa language, are Kopano (a long), 
Aranzaso or Aransas, Manawhila Creek, Anaqua town with Ana- 
cuas River and Rancho Anaquitas, Cameron Co., Ecleto Creek, 
an affluent of San Antonio River in Karnes County. Two of these 

p. M. PAPERS. I. 10. 145 



82 THE KARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 

could possibly be reduced to Tonkawe, but not yet to Karankawa 
words : Kopdno upon Kopano Bay, a large side inlet of Aransas 
Bay, resembles T. k6pol hollow^ concave^ round; k6pan, the interior^ 
inside of^ especially of the animal body ; T. kopanek kd/a-u ye- 
ik6wa, hile^ gcUl^ " what becomes black in the entrails." Anaqua 
town, Victoria Co., on San Antonio R., and Anacuas River, afflu- 
ent of San Gertrude's Creek, Nueces Co., may contain T. dna/ok, 
many (lodges, or Indians). 

Several Indian names thereabouts belong to the Nahuatl lan- 
guage and were imported there with several dialectic terms still 
heard in the Texan-English and Texan-Spanish, by the Tlascaltec 
Indians settled there for protecting the newly established missions. 
Thus we have Papalote town and creek in Bee Co., Chiltipin town 
and river in San Patricio Co., Atoyac River in Eastern Texas, af- 
fluent of Angelina R., running into Neches River (Azt. atoyatl 
river) and perhaps Talpacute Creek, Bee Co. A town, Tenochtitlan, 
formerly stood in Burleson Co., western shore of Brazos River. 
Several of these Nahuatl-Texian local names, with Lepantitlan, are 
explained by Prof. J. C. E. Buschmann, Spuren d. a. Spr., pp. 
416, 417. 
,146 



ENGLJSH-KARANKAWA. 



after a while messtis. 

alligator h6k80 S, 

all the time mushawdta. 

also t^nno. 

alioays mushawdta. 

and a, t6nno. 

angry, see S. vocabulary. 

jarrive, to g&& ; ewe-e, S. 

arrow dem6a. 

o^ present messtis. 

babe kwa'n ; see young. 

bad tchuta. 

barrel bddel. 

bear 6's. 

be, to; cf. page 93. 

be on the point of tchdpn. 

&ee/tets'oa; tikemai, S. 

beef meat tets'oa. 

behold, to tchd. 

bird kudn. 

bla^k pdl ; ma, S. 

blue tso'l. 

boat awa'n. 

bow gai. 

boy gl6-essen ; niktam S. 

b7*ead kwiam6ya. 

break, to tdhama. 

breast, female kanin. 

brush tessel^nia. 

building bd-ak. 

by and by messus. 

cabin, Indian lodge bd-ak. 

calico kddla. 



camp, Indian village or huts 

bd-ak. 
canoe awa'n. 
capture, to haitn. 
cat, domestic gdta. 
ca^chf to haitn. 
cattle t6ts*oa ; cf. beef. 
cause pain, to kassidshuwakn. 
cherish, to ka. 
chicken kutne wolya. 
chief hdlba. 

child kwa'n ; see boy, young. 
cigarette ka sw6nas S. 
cloth kwiss. 
come, to gds, gd'hs ; kd'-as S ; 

ew6-e, ewe, S. 
converse, to kadpn ; ga/iam6tet, 

pdtsim, S. 
com, Indian kwidm. 
cornflour yd dmhatn. 
cow t^ts'oa ; cf beef. 
crane kedo'd. 
dangerous tcMta. 
day bdkta. 
dead mdl. 
dear mutd. 
deer d6-atn. 
desire, to td. 
do, to kosdta, kdhawan ; how do 

you do? m* tchd dwa? 
dog kiss. 

drink, to akwet6n. 
duck, canvas back medd-u. 

147 



84 



THE KARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 



dugout awa'n, 

eat, to akndmas. 

eatable; see akndmus. 

egg ddbome. 

eight haikia b6hema. 

enemy k6m aMyika. 

fall, to ain6ak. 

far offwil nia ; cf ny6. 

farewell I atcbdta ! 

father b^hema. 

find, to tcM. 

fine pld. 

finger ^tsma. 

fire kwdtchi ; Mmhe S. 

fish dm. 

five na^tsa b6hema. 

fiour dmhatn. 

foot k^keya. 

for a long while mushawdta. 

four hdyo bdkn. 

friend abdyika. 

frying-pan koldme, S. 

future tense often expressed by 
td or tcbdpn, q. v. 

get away I aba'mmish sni'n ! 

girl ka'da. 

give, to bdwtls. 

go, to, y6; let us go! or go 
away ! wdna ! S ; J am go^ 
ing to (do, etc.) n'tcbdpn. 

good bye I atcbdta ! 

gone buddma. 

good pld. 

in good health klabdn. 

goose Id-ak. 

gown kwiss kddla. 

grass awdtcb;^61, S. 

great yd-an ; a great deal o/w61. 

grow, to kwan, kwdnakwan. 

gunpowder kii'nmil. 

148 



hand 6tsma. 

handsome bamdla. 

hasten, to k6ta; ;|fank6ye, S. 

j^anki, S. ew6-e, S. 
hatchet matchita. 
hate, to matdkia. 
he tdl. 

healthy klabdn. 
heart Idbama. 
hog tapshewd. 

horse kuwdyi ; kwd, kwdn S. 
hostile k6m ahdyika. 
house bd-ak, 
hungry dmel. 

hurry, to, see : hasten, to. . 

hurt, to kassidshuwakn. 
hush! aba'mmish! 
hut bd-ak. 
1 ndyi, nd-i. 

injure, to kassidshuwakn. 
it, pron., tdl. 
jump, to 6m. 
kill, to ahuk. 
kitten gdta kwdn. 
knife silekdyi. 
know, to kwdss ; kiimna. 
large yd-an. 
laugh, to kaita. 
lie down, to wti-ak. 
liquid glle-i. 
little kwa'n. 
lodge', Indian or willow, lodge 

bd-ak. 
long ago npat S. ; tuwdmka. 
long past buddma wdl. 
love, to ka. 
maize kwidrp. 

make, to kdbawan ; kosdta. 
man ydmawe; iishi S. (?). 
manufacture, to kdhawan. 



THE KABAKKAWA LANaUAGE. 



85 



marry ^ to mawida. 

milk tesnakwdya. 

mine, my nkj\. 

molasses t6skans-gll6-i. 

mosJcito g&', g^'h. 

mother kaninma. 

much w61. 

music yo'ta. 

needle aguiya. 

nice pld. 

nine haikia d6-atn. 

no I k6m ; kw6-om, kwom, S. 

not k6m. 

now asbdbak. 

obnoxious tchtita. 

ocean gll6-i. 

octopus Am tchtita. 

one na'tsa. 

open waters gll6-i. 

oyster da'. 

past time; " in times past" is 
often expressed by tuwdm- 
ka ; long past buddma w41. 

per form y to kosdta. 

pig mad6na. 

plenty of w61. 

potato ydip. 

pounds to kdssig* 

powerful w61. 

prairie chicken kntne w61ya. 

presently asbdbak. 

pretty hamdla. 

produce, to kdbawan. 

push^ to ddn. 

quick 1 see ew6-e, ewe, S ; to run 
quick t6los. 

rain wiasn. 

read^ to gwd. 

red tam6yika. 

return^ to; see gds. 



round Id-akum. 

run^ to t61os ; see /dnkeye, ew6-e. 

say, tOy or to say to kaupn ; 

pdtsim, S. 
scat I aba'mmish sni'n ! 
sea gll6-i. 
see, to tcbd. 
serpent aud. 
seven baikia na'tsa. 
she tdl. 
ship awS'n. 
shirt gusgdma. 
shoot^ to 6dn. 
sick kwdtcbo. 
sit^ to hdkes. 

sit down 1 hdka ! tchakwam^ ! S. 
six hkyo haikia. 
skip^ to km. 
sleep, to i'm. 
small kwa'n. 
smoke; see dnawan. 
snake aud. 
soon messtis. 
speaky to; see ga;fiametet S., 

pdtsim, S. 
stand, to y6tso. 
strike, tc^ gd-an. 
strong w61. 
suck, to 6nno. 
sugar t6skaus. 
sun d6-owal. 
sweet teskaus. 
svrim, to n6tawa, 
talk, to katipn ; ga;^iam6tet S. 
tall yd-an. 
teat kanin. 
teU, to kaupn; ga;^iametet S. 

pdtsim, S. 
tear, to tdbama. 
ten d6-atn hdbe. 

149 



86 



THB EARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 



textile fabric kwiss. 

that tdl. 

there nyd. 

thine^ thy dwa. 

this tdl . 

thou awd. 

three ka;^dyi. 

tin bucket koldme S. 

tired kwd-al. 

tobacco de ; kahe, ka, S. 

Tonkawe Indian Tchankdya, S. 

too t6nno. 

tooth 6. 

tooth-brush 6 tessel^nia. 

touchy to tchautawal. 

tree akwini. 

turtle, large green haitnlokn. 

two baikia. 

undei'standy to ktimna. 

vessel, sailing awa'n. 

walky to y6. 



want, to td. 

waier gll6-i. 

weep, to owiya. 

well, adj., klabdn. 

where? mudd? 

whiskey labd-i. 

whistle, to dksol. 

white p6ka, S. 

wigwam bd-ak. 

wide yd-an, 

wind bd. 

wish, to td. 

woman's dress kwiss kddla. 

work, to takina. 

yes hi6-e. 

yesterday tuwdmka. 

yonder, adv., nyd. 

young, adj., kwa'n; see also 

kdbawan. 
young of animal kwa'n. 
youngster ushi niktam, S. 



150 



2. GRAMMATIC ELEMENTS OF THE LANGUAGE. 
PHONETICS. 

Phonology is that part of grammar for which the most informa- 
tion can be obtained from the scanty material now on hand. The 
little we have is just sufficient to show that the Karankawa dia- 
lect in question embodied some sounds rarely occurring in Euro- 
pean languages, and that vice versa others well represented there 
did not enter into the phonologic system of that dialect. Its syl- 
labic structure was remarkably vocalic, like that of the majority of 
languages spoken within the limits of the United States. 

The consonantic sounds subdivide themselves into : 



Explosive sounds. 


Sounds of duration. 


SURD 


SONANT 


SURD 


SONANT 


Gutturals k 
Palatals tch 
Linguals 
Dentals t 
Labials p 


dsh 

d 
b 


sh 

s 


h 

y 

I, ^h r 

n 
w, m, ra 



It appears from this list, that the following sounds, not unfre- 
quent in other North American languages of the southwest, are 
not represented in this dialect ; the labials f, v, the lingual or cacu- 
minal /c, the palatalized 1 (*1 or P), the two dental aspirates of 
English : th and dh and the uvular trill r. 

Amorg the sounds uncommon in Indian languages we find the 
complex sound d, which varies considerably as to pronunciation 
and often sounds like dl, dn, tn, and occurs in Kayowe, Omaha, 
Ponka and other tongues of the Mississippi plains.^ Another is 

iThis lingiio-dental sound is met with in kddla cnZico; dd-atn, ddad, dd-etn deer; 
kSddd, k^d&'d crane; kdd, kddu, kiitn, bird; perhaps aluo in dmhatn^otir. 

151 



88 THE KARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 

m, which differs from m by being a final sound closing words and 
is pronounced short and with the lips tightly closed. The double 1 
(11) in gll6-i liquid, water^ juice^ is a vocalic 1 equal to the thick I 
of the Polish language. The aspirate x Is not frequent, and often 
resembles an h forcibly expelled from the vocal tube ; it occurs in 
gd/s, gd'hs to come^ ka/dyo three, in nd/erua/a (S.) My informant 
said that in pronouncing their tribal name, the r was very distinctly 
uttered by them : Ka?-4nkawa. The older form of the name was, as 
seen previously, Clamcoet, so that both sounds, 1 and r, were inter- 
changeable. Simon has r in one word, but r in tlie Spanish words 
baril and marido becomes budel and mawida, a fact proving that 
Spanish r differed from the r of that Indian dialect. 

It is curious to observe, that the surd mutes here preponderate 
in no manner over the sonant mutes (except in the palatals), for 
this fact differs altogether from what obtains in other languages 
of North America. The preponderance of the a among the vowels 
appears to have the same cause. 

The vocalic articulations of this coast dialect are not numerous, 
and there was a tendency to pronounce them indistinctly^, as Eng- 
lish people do. The series is as follows : 

a a 
e a GO 



The short a and e was often weakened down to e as in hitler, 
poker^ and between a and o the Karankawa had an intermediate 
sound d, 6, as heard in ball, straw. The vowel a was apparently 
the most frequent of all vocalic sounds in the language. Of the 
three softened vowels of German, tl>e Umlaute : a, 6, ii, onl3* a oc- 
curs in the vocabulary, the two others being rare throughout North 
America. The vowels were generally pronounced short; long 
vowels were due to synizesis only. The vowels were not nasalized 
as they are in French, Cha'hta, Tuskarora and especially in Kayowe, 
where every vowel can become nasalized. 

Of diphthongs the language exhibits a considerable variety, 
though few of them stand at the commencement of words. In 
many of the diphthongs the component vowels are pronounced and 
accented separately, and when they are, a more archaic status is 
thereby evidenced. These adulterine diphthongs are found in the 
large majority of the Indian languages. A word entirely com- 
152 



THE KABAKKAWA LANOUAGB. 6\f 

posed of vowels is owiya to weep. We meet with the following 
diphthongic groups : 

ai in : haikai^ kuwdyi or kuwai, lab&-i and labai, gai, kaita.* 

ei in : k6keya, gll6-i and gUei. 

oi in : kwiam6ya. 

ui in: kwidm, kwiam6ya, 

ia, ya in ; mut&kia, m& or ny&, tessel^nia, ydmawe, owiya. 

io, yo in : yo'ta, hdyo. 

ye in : y6, y6ye, y^tso. 

au, aw in : dwa, a'wan, med&u and medd-u, t^skaus, add, musha- 
wdta, n6tawa. 

ou, ow in owiya. 

Alternation or spontaneous permutation of cognate sounds with- 
out an}' apparent cause occurred here as well as in all other prim- 
itive, unwritten languages, though apparently more in the vocalic 
' than in the consonantic elements. The latter alternate in gwd, 
kwd to laugh^ the former in 6dn and lidn, ah6k and ahuk, akndmus 
and akndmas, b&' and be', d6-atn and do-etn, b^hema and b6'hema, 
be'hma, k6m and kdm. 

Accentuation. In many words of the vocabularies the radical 
syllable is the accented one, and when stress is laid upon the ter- 
mination, or when the terminal becomes long in quantity, the ac- 
cent advances to the ultimate syllable : dmel and ame-el, k6ta and 
kotd. The few Spanish words of the vocabularies are emphasized 
upon the penult, which is the true Castilian pronunciation. 

Gemination. The doubling of consonants and vowels is quite 
common and appears to have no other reason except that of em- 
phasizing. From the elision in kdhawan originates kd-awan. Con- 
sonants are geminated in aha'mmish, 6nno, t6nno, kiss, kdssig, 
kwdss ; vowels in kwd-al, bd-ak, gd- an, j^d-an (and ya'n), Id-ak, Id- 
akum, kwd-an (and kwa'n), am6-el, d6-owul. 

Ch'ouping of sounds. Vocalic groups or accumulations have been 
considered previously. As to the groups of consonants, we find 
but few instances, like 6tsma hand^ where more than two conso- 
nants were joined into one cluster, and one of these generally is a 
trill or a nasal. Thus we have akndmas to eat, gll6-i, gle-i liquid^ 
gl6s'n hoy, haitnlokn turtle, kaninma mo^^er, kassidshuwakn to hurt^ 
ktinmil gunpowder, pld good, klabdn healthy, sni'n, kaiipn and 
tclidpn. When elisions take place, vowels disappear and conso- 
nants often unite into clusters : n' bdwiis, n' tchd dwa, m' tchd dwa. 

153 



90 THE KABANKAWA LAKOUAGB. 

Other consonant-groups are observed in bdkta day^ halba chiefs 
gusgdma shirty kwdtso dck^ teskaus sweety tuwamka yesterday. 

Combinations of two consonants, especially of an explosive with 
a sound of duration following, are not unheard of as initial sounds 
of words, but consonants or vowels standing single, the former fol- 
lowed by a vowel, are the rule. Syllables and words generally end 
in vowels, which proves the vocalic character of the language. 

Mode of utterance. From the vocabularies it would appear that 
this language was not only vocalic but sonorous also. But my in- 
formant stated they spoke in "guttural, indifferent tones," and that 
the *' deep gutturals of their language conveyed the expression of 
extreme fatigue." Further explanations elicited the fact, that their 
utterance was monotonous and indistinct, because they took nei- 
ther the trouble of speaking aloud nor distinctly and often abbrevi- 
ated the terms. The "extreme fatigue" or "anxiety " I have often 
remarked in the utterance of Indians on the Pacific coast, who had 
not more gutturals in their language than we have in English. The 
cause of this apparent " fatigue " lies in their laryngeal utterance, 
while the glottis is left open and in their habit of protracting their 
sentences beyond the supply of breath which they can command. 

MORPHOLOGY. 

In the linguistic material before us there is very little which could 
give us a clue to the grammatic structure of this coast idiom. The 
nouns do not appear to have had any inflection for case^ and the 
verbs were inflected by auxiliary verbs —but we have always to bear 
in mind, that the informant had not heard this language spoken 
for at least thirty-eight years, and that therefore the syllables and 
sounds expressing grammatic relation may have escaped her mem- 
ory. 

Reduplication was certainly one of the synthetic features of that 
language and had the function of iteration, repetition or severalty ; 
this becomes apparent from kwannakwan to grow, compared with 
the simple form kahawan to make, to produce, Y6ye to go, said of 
many, is the reduplicated form of ye to go. The noun k6keya/ee^ 
is also showing a reduplicated form and I take it to be a real plural 
of a supposed form k6ya foot ; cf ki6 to walk, go in the Comecrudo 
language. From these examples it is not possible to determine all 

1 In Tonkawfe the case-suffixes, or what may pass for such, are still in the condi- 
tion of postpositions to the noun. 

154 



THE KARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 91 

the various methods of reduplication, but from analogous facts in 
Tonkawe and Pakawa it becomes probable that the first syllable was 
the reduplicated one. 

The series of numerals is either faulty or not given in the cor- 
rect order and hence no dependable conclusions can be drawn from 
it. 

Pronouns. The personal pronoun was identical with the pos- 
sessive pronoun, if the examples are correct, and this would prove 
that the verb was in fact not a verb nor a noun-verb, but a real 
noun ; thus " I kill " had to be expressed by my killing and " I kill 
a chicken '* by my killing of a chicken. The personal pronoun was 
placed before, not after the noun qualified. 

If the pronoun of the first person of the singular allows any in- 
ference concerning the other pronouns, they were often abbreviated ; 
we find them abbreviated also when used in the case of the direct 
and indirect object. Ndyi, nd-i I becomes n', ne, in n* tche awa / 
see you^ ne bdwus kwdtchi give me fire. It is possessive : my^ mine 
in nd-i gai my how; nd-i kaninma b^hema td kaupn my mother 
wants to speak to the father. 

The pronoun of the second person of the singular number is dwa 
2/ow, thou and thy^ thine; perhaps we find it abbreviated to a- in 
the term atchdta good-hye, farewell^ if this can be resolved into 
a tchd ta (/) want to see you (again), or (7) shall see you (again). 

The demonstrative pronoun tdl this, that also served to express 
our he, she, it. 

Other pronominal roots appear in nia, nyd, there, yonder, abbrev. 
to yd ; and in mudd where f cf. m' in : m' tchd dwa ? how do you do ? 

Verbal inflection. From the syntactic examples I conclude that 
the verb (or the noun having predicative verbal function) did not 
inflect for person, but that the personal pronoun was placed sepa- 
rately, and generally before the verb. We do not know how the 
past tense was expressed, though some temporal particle seems to 
have served for the purpose. The future tense was often indicated 
by td to wish, want or by tchdpn to be on the point of, both being 
placed before the verb. 

nd-i td hdkes I am going to sit down, I shall sit down. 

na-i be'hma td im my father is going to sleep, or wants to sleep. 

n' tchdpn dwa 6'dn I will shoot you. 

Perhaps in the suffix -pn the idea of futurity was inherent also : 

165 



92 THE KARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 

td kadpn (she) wants to speak ; or it may have been the suffix form- 
ing a gerund or other verbal. 

The imperative and interrogative sentences contained in the vo- 
cabulary do not contain any forms differing from tlie declarative 
forms of the verb. Negative statements were expressed by the 
particle k6m, kum standing separate from the verb ; of a passive 
verb no example was obtained, neither do we have any indications 
how participles and verbals were formed. 

Of paHides transmitted there are only a few : a and^ ashahak 
now, m'sus soon, mushawdta for a long time^ t6nno also^ tuwamka 
yesterday. 

Radical syllables. The monosyllabic roots, as far as recogniza- 
ble in the words of the vocabulary, frequent!}' terminated in vowels, 
but just as often in consonants and their vowels were short. Many 
monosyllables in the vocabulary represent bases rather than roots 
and also end in consonants, and their brevity agrees well with the 
thoroughly analytic character of the language. Thus we have add 
snake, de tobacco^ gai bow, km fish, 6 tooth, im to sleep, mk\ dead, 
pla good, wdl, w61 (1) large, (2) much. 

SYNTAX. 

There are no instances in the vocabularies to show the use of post- 
positions ; but whenever bd-ak is employed in the sense of in the 
house, to or from the house, it stands without affix after its verb 
and at the end of the sentence : 

nd-i kotd bd-ak I am hurrying hom£. 

ka'da hdkes bd-ak the girl sits in the house. 

A remarkable freedom must have prevailed concerning the posi- 
tion of words in the sentence. The direct and the indirect object 
could be placed after as well as before the verb, for we find : 

nd-i dwa ka / love you. 

nd-i dem6a kdhawan I make arrows. 

nd-i ye d6tn ah6k lam going to kill deer. 

nd-i akndmus kwiam6ya I am eating bread. 

nd-i am6ak akwini I fell from the tree. 

nd-i kwdtchi kosdta m'stis I will make fire soon. 

The adverb is sometimes placed after the verb it qualifies at- 
tributively, and at the end of the sentence : nd-i y6 wol I walked a 
good deal; nd-i awdn tchd nyilsee a boat over there (wdl nyd/ar off). 
166 



THE KARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 93 

Nominal and pronominal attributes were placed before or after 
the nouns which they qualified. In compound nouns the determin- 
ing word precedes the word qualified : 

km tchutd octopus^ viz. " dangerous fish." 

6 tessel^nia tooth-brush. 

gata kwan kitten, viz., " cat's offspring." 

Kardnkawa halba a Karankawa chief. 

ik\ akwini this tree; nd-i b6bema my father. 

te8kaus-gll6-i molasses^ viz., " sweet juice." 

The verb to be was not expressed when in the present tense, but 
then the nominal predicate (noun or adjective) was placed at the 
end of the sentence : 

nd-i am^l I am hungry. 

nd-i gl6s'n kw&tcho my boy is sick. 

ashahak kwd-al now he is tired. 

dwa kaninma klabdn ? is your mother weUf 

tdl akwini hamdla this tree is pretty. 

It must remain a matter of doubt, whether Karankawa had a sub- 
stantive verb or not, for it cannot be inferred from the sentences 
on hand, how it^was expressed in the past, future and other tenses. 

DERIVATION. 

To obtain an idea of the mode of derivation in this language, 
all that can be done is to gather and rubricate the affixes or what 
appears to be affixes. These are prevailingly suffixes, and only 
one of the affixes, a-, may be suspected of being a prefix. 

a- occurs in akwini treCj and is a prefix, if this noun is a deriva- 
tive of kwan (c/. kwdnnakwa to grow) ; also in ahdyika friend^ 
friendly^ if this is a derivative of hdikai " two together." If we 
regard akwdmus to eat as connected with kwiam maize, or food in 
general, a- has to be considered here as a prefix also* 

Suffi^xes of derivation. Suffixes are either verbal or nominal or 
both simultaneously. 

-dya, -dyi, -d-i appears in ka;^&yi three, lab&i whiskey, silek&yi 
knife, tesnakwdya milk. 

-ika occurs in ah&yiks. friend, tam6yika red ; perhaps in tuwdmka 
yesterday, if this has originated from tuw&mika. 

-1 is found chiefly in adjectives, as am61 hungry, mdl dead, kwd-al 
tired, tdl this one, tso'l blue, wdl, w6l large and numerous. We also 
find it in kunmil gunpowder. 

167 



94 THE KABANKAWA LANOUAOB. 

-ma occurs in b^hema father^ buddma gone (perhaps a partici* 
pie) , etsma hand^ gusgdma shirty lahama hearty kaninma mother^ 
a derivative of kanin female breast; it also occurs in the verb ta- 
hama to breaks tear, 

-n is a frequent suffix and appears in the following verbs : ak- 
wet6n to drink^ kahawan to produce^ gd-an to strike; also in nouns, 
like kwa'n young^ little^ kanin breast^ klabdn healthy^ yd-an large, 
tall^ wi-asn rain^ and in the particle sni'n. Whether -n is the full 
suffix, or whether it is the remnant of a longer form like -an is a 
matter of doubt. 

-na occurs in ktimna to know, takina to work; also in mado'na 
pig. 

-s is verbal and nominal suffix : akndmas to eat, bdwiis to gwe, 
gds to come, kwas to know, t61os to run; also in kiss dog, kwiss 
doth, tissue and in m'stis soon, by and by. 

-ta occurs in some of the verbs of the vocabulary : kaita to laugh, 
kosdta to perform, k6ta to hasten; in nouns and particles : bakta 
day, y 6'ta music, mutd dear, tchuta bad, mudd where f cf. tchauta- 
wal. 



REMARKS ON A FEW TERMS. 

To promote all further inquiries on the language as much as 
feasible I add some remarks upon the function and derivation of 
some terms to those presented previously, excluding the numerous 
Spanish words which have crept into the language. These were 
qualified as such in the vocabulary, and if tsol blue is the Spanish 
azvl, this term has to be added to the list. 

bd is probably not wind but the verb to blow; w61 bd it blows 
hard. 

da' oyster; the original meaning is probably shell, and this would 
explain ddhome egg, viz., " what has a shell,'* or " what is in the 
shell." 

d6-owal sun. Should this term be derived from the word for 
heat as it is in many southern languages, then I would consider d&- 
owal as a compound of the adjective wdl strong, great (" great 
heat"). Thus in Naktche the archaic term for the sun was wa- 
shil " fire great ;" in Tonkawe td;^ash is sun, td/an heat; in Nahu- 
atl t6natiuh sun, t6na to be hot. In the Cotoname o', 6 is sun and 
day. 
158 



THE KARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 95 

haitn to catch, capture composes the word haitnlokn large green 
turtle. 

kassidshuwakn to hurt is a compound of kdssig to pound, which 
may have had other significations besides. From this the exis- 
tence of corbpound verbs becomes probable. 

kaupn to tell, speak, seems connected with gwd, kwd to read, of 
which the original meaning must have been to speak (to the paper) ; 
cf, the English to read with German reden, to speak. 

kutne w6l ya hen, prairie chicken, is probably a whole sentence : 
"birds-many-there (are) '^ or "bird-large-there (is)." 1 assume 
that nyd is here abbreviated into yd. 

U-ak goose is an onomatopoetic term, corresponding to Idlak goose 
or brant-goose in Pacific coast languages. Owiya to weep seems to 
have also an onomatopoetic origin. 

pdl black. My informant was not quite certain about this term, 
which in Comecrudo is used in that sense. Old Simon has ma black. 
The Cotoname dialect has bai for dark, black, night. 

yo'ta does not signify musical instrument, but music only. 



8. AFFINITIES OF THE LANGUAGE. 

While engaged in comparing the scanty remnants of this littoral 
dialect with other tongues now spoken throughout Texas and Mex- 
ico, I have met with linguistic facts which give us a firm foothold 
for assigning the Karankawa people its true ethnic position. When 
the language of a people is shown to pertain to a certain family, 
this does not always determine the ethnic race to which it belongs ; 
but in this western hemisphere it does so in most instances, be- 
cause here the nations which are known to have exchanged their 
paternal language for that of other national bodies by conquest, 
commercial intercourse or other contact are by no means as nu- 
merous as in the eastern hemisphere. 

The languages which I have compared with positive results were 
the Tonkawe on one side and three Pakawa dialects upon the other : 
Comecrudo, Cotoname and the dialect of Garcia's "Manual" of 
1760. All of these are so unlike the Karankawa that it takes con- 
siderable time to find in them any facts pointing to afl3nity and the 
idioms are so unintelligible to each other that the Indians of none 
of these three languages could have entertained the idea that all 
came from a common stock. 

159 



96 THE KARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 

AFFINITY OF KARANKAWA WITH TONKAWK. 

6we, 6we-e I come here! T. niwe come here! w6 ewan in that di- 
rection, 

haitnlokn great green turtle; T.o;^61oko, o/oldkau oyster^ mussel j 
shell; the second part 16ko recalls the Ear. 16kn, haitn meaDing to 
capture, 

hie-e', hie-d! yes! T. hehe, yes. 

k6(l, kudn, kud bird; T. kola, ko*6la bird, 

/ankeye to run, hasten; T. hdna, ;^dna, redupl. /4/a to walky to 
be going; ;f4yen going. 

tal, this^ this one; T. t6le, tel this^ this one and adv. Jiere, 

tchd to see, to find; T. ydtcho, yetchu to see, to find; ya, ye- being 
prefixes. 

wdl large^ greats numerous; T. kwdlo large, 

wdna ^o ^o, to leave; T. wdnen lY is going (said of a bullet) ; td- 
usho wdna shooting star; seki6shte wdnen seven-sJiooter ; wan wd-al 
just so, ^iA:e this, 

AFFmiTY OF KABANKAWA WITH PAKAWA DIALECTS. 

(Com. — Comecrado; Cot.— Cotoname ; G.— Garcia). 

aknamiis to eat; Cot. /a;j;4me, hahame to eat; akwaudmie to mas- 
ticate. 

ba, ba' wind or it blows; Com. p6t wind^ pep6t blowing, 

6, 6'h ^00^^; Com. i, iy ; he-6wu i too^^. 

gai bow; Com. ;^ai, kai wood, tree,x^i and ;^a(patdple 6ot(;. 

kd to love, to like; G. kdwa, redupl. kakawa (spelt: cacagua). 

kanin teat, female breast; Com. ken6m, kn6m teat and female ani- 
mal, ken6 chest (of man) . 

kiss dog; Cot. kissd fox, 

k6cl, k6dn, bird; Cot. komi6m 6ird. 

k6tn, kum, kw6-om no I Com. kam; G. a;^am, ya/dm no^ 

kiimna to know; Com. kdm ^o know. 

kwdnnakwan to grow; Com., kwaskdm to grow (plants) ; kwds 
fruit, 

ndyi, nd-i, nai I; G. na- /. 

p6ka white; Com. pok, puk (in p6pok, pepuk, pe- being prefix) 
white, 

pld good; Com. pel6, p'l^ good. 

sni'n, a particle occurring in an exclamatory phrase : aha'mmish 
160 



THB KABAMKAWA LANGUAGE. 97 

sni'n, g. v.; Garcia has sn6n for san in6n ; /akal ajam sn6n ne 
vayas tu^ do not go, Manual, p. 30 ; /ayuna sn6 (I order) tJiat you 
have to fast, ibid. ; /amestia sn6 (I order) that you have to pray, 
ibid. 

tdl this, this one; G. ta- in tapa, tapom the one (who is) here. 
upat long ago; G. apa oi tha^ time. 

There are several other Karankawa terms which seem to be re- 
lated to words of the Pakawa dialects ; but the affinity not being 
certain and perhaps illusory, I have gathered them after the others 
into this appendix : 

hk'Ok house, lodge; Com. wamak house, 
ahuk to kill; Cot. wdt/uka to kiU, cf, wate/o he died, 
glo-essn, gl6s*n hoy; Cot. kuw6sam little boy, little girl, 
im to sleep; Com. -em in n6met to sleep. 
ma black; Cot. bai black, dark, night. 

niktam boy ; if it means " not yet adult," it may be connected 
with Cot. katdm large, adult, grown up, 

kdhe, ka tobacco; Com. d'h tobacco; or it may be connected with 
Com. /ai wood, tree, plant. 

From the above lists it appears that the probability of a linguis- 
tic affinity existing between Karankawa and the Pakawa dialects 
is rather strong and will probably increase with further researches 
made in Garcia's "Manual" of 1760 and in the surviving dialects 
of Pakawa. 

The proofs for an affinity between Tonkawe and Karankawa are 
rather scarce, but would by themselves become strong in spite of 
their paucity, if relationship could be proved to exist between Ton- 
kawe and Pakawa dialects by direct comparisons. In this direc- 
tion I could find only what follows : 
T. 4/, a'/ water, liquid; Com. Cot. d/ waJter, liquid. 
T. au, d-u deer, dwash buffalo, meat, flesh; Com. ew6, eu-e deer, 
and meat, 
T. dshui belly; G. as'hipok belly, 

T. kdla, kdl mouth; Com. /dl mouth; cf. kam to eat, in T. yd/a. 
T. /a- in ;fa'she, /a'si leaf, husk; sd-;^ai arrow; ndn/ashan wood; 
Com. ;^ai jD^ane, wood, tree; cf. Kar. kdhe (this page). 
T. 6k wan dog; Cot. kowd-u dog (see below). 
T. -tsd/ in y6tsa/ chest, breast; G. tzotz breast. 
Derivatives of the verb kdhawan, kd-awan to make, produce, seem 
to link together all the languages just considered. I assumed that 
p. M. PAPERS. I. 11 161 



98 THE KARANKAWA LANGUAGE. 

tbis verb could also be employed intransitively in the sense of 
growing ; cf. kwannakwa to grow. Nouns formed from kahawan 
would then have either an active signification, as in T. kwa'n 
woman and wife^ also female animal^ viz. " producer" and Kar. 
kwan young^ little^ viz. ''growing." This reappears in T. wi/wan 
young ^ little^ small (we-, wi- is often plural prefix), in Com. kwas 
fruit and perhaps in Com. pakwaula married (man) , G. ak'au hus- 
band^ viz. '* procreator." fikwan dog for yekwan "■ generating " 
(T.) may also belong here, as dogs belong to the most prolific 
among the animals. 

I have also compared over two hundred words of other southern 
Indian languages with Karankawa terms of similar or related sig- 
nifications in order to trace further aflanities or loan-words. The 
languages compared were Caddo and cognate dialects, Tonika, 
Shetimasha, Na'htchi, the Maskoki dialects, Yuchi and Atakapa. 
On account of its proximity to the Karankawa lands I expected to 
find a nulnber of analogies in the latter, but was disappointed, the 
most of them being furnished by Shetimasha of Southern Louisiana. 

K. kiss dog ; Shet. kish; kish atin is horse^ viz. " large animal." 

e, e'h toothy Shet. i ; i kipi gums^ viz. " tooth-flesh." 

ba', Com. pot wind; Shet. poko, poku"^ wind, 

la-ak goose, onomatop. ; Na'htchi lalak, Yuchi shanlala. 

am fish; Na'htchi H'^ fish. 

yd this one; Shet. ha, a ; Na'htche kaya , Atak. ya. 

apel Com. above, sky and face; Koassati aba ; Tonika aparu sky. 

a'h, a'/ water Com. ; a/ in Atakapa and in Tonkawe. 

kahe, ka tobacco; Caddo naki ka'hwa I smoke : tobacco being yaha 
in Caddo. 

ma black ; Atak. mel, melmel ; Tonika meli. 
162 



VII. BIBLIOGRAPHIC ANNOTATIONS. 

The " Relation " of Joutel^ which is of importance for the study 
of manners and customs of the Texan coast Indians, has come down 
to our times in several editions differing considerably among them- 
selves. A narrative running parallel to that in Margry, Decouver- 
tes, vol. Ill, 120-172 will be found in B. F. French, Historical Col- 
lections of Louisiana, Part I (New York, 1846, 8vo), 94-118, etc. 
An early English edition of Joutel was published in London, 1714. 

Additional information on the Karankaioa tribe is contained in 
Charlevoix, History of New France, iv, 75-77 {ed. Shea) and in 
Bonnel, Topographic Description of Texas, Austin, 1840. 

Mounds and graves in Aransas County, near Salt Creek on Hynes 
Bay, '* where the Karankawas formerly dwelt," are described by 
V. Bracht in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 
1879, p. 442. 

The Aranama tribe, a peaceable people mentioned, pp. 29 and 
34, as living at La Bahia. del Espiritu Santo mission, appear to be 
identical with the Xaranames of some Mexican documents pre- 
oerved in the Texas state archives, c/. p. 79. In this case we shall 
have to assume that the initial guttural / was lost, and the Kiro- 
nonas, who lived on St. Bernard's bay, may in their name repre- 
sent another form of the same aboriginal appellation ; see p. 35. 
Document No. 83 of the Texas archives, date about 1792, mentions 
thirty-two Xaranames who had run away from the mission of Es- 
piritu Santo. 

163 



83ei20 



INDEX. 



Affinities of Karankawa language, 

95-98. 
Akonkisa, 40, 70, same as Orcoquiza, 

q, V. 
Alasapas, 88. 

Anthropophagy, 15, 26, 27. 
Antonio, chief, 20, 48, 67. 
Apaches, 27, 33, 40-42, c/. Lipan. 
Aranamas, 29, 34, c/. Xaranames. 
Aransas, 29, 46, 48, 49, 54, 81. 
Assinai tribes, 27, 33, 36, 39, 40. 
Atdkapa, 26, 27, 33, 36, 89, 46, 98. 
Attire, ornamental, 17, 62. 
Austin, Stephen, 30, 31, 35. 

Bahamos ; see £bahamos. 
Barcia, Ensayo, 25 (Note), 86. 

Hlstoriadores, 23(Note). 
Belle-Isle, Simars de, 26. 
Bidai, 29, 39 (and Note), 79. 
Biskatronge, 84, 35. 
Black drink, 18, 71. 
Borrados, 29 (and Note), 38. 
Bracamos, 24, 26, 35. 
Brazos river, 30, 81, 87. 
Brazos Santiago, 31, 46. - 
Bridges, Thos., vii, vlii, 9, 30, 48, 

66-69, 70. 
Buschmami, J. C. E., 38, 36, 49. 

Cabeca de Vaca, Alvar Nunez, 28, 

84, 71. 
Caddo, 27, 87, 39, 40, 98. 
Camoles, 23. 

Cancy, 27, 37 (Note), 41. 
Caney creek, 47, 53, 66. 
Canoes, 10, 16, 61. 
Caoques, 23, 34, 35. 
Carrizos, 38, 61, 79. 
Cenis, 27, 39, 40 ; see Assinai. 
Chayopines, 38. 
Chichimeca, 89. 
Chorruco, 23. 
ClamcoSt, 25, 27, 43, 88. 
Climate of coast, 67. 
Coast lagoons, 64. 



Coco Indians, 28, 36, 36. 
Colorado river of Texas, 28, 30, 34, 

42, 45. 
Comanches, 27, 28, 29, 33, 41, 42, 

46, 47. 
Comecrudo, 38, 42-44; language, 

96-98. 
Contents, table of, iii. 
Corpus Christl, 28, 34, 37, 64. 
Cotoname, 38, 43; language, 95-98. 
Counting, method of, 69. 
Cujanos, 24, 84, 35. 

Derivation of words, 93, 94. . 

Disposal of the dead, 19, 68. 

Doguenes, 23. 

Dogs, 24, 43, 44, 97, 98. 

Dress, 17, 61. 

Dwellings, 10, 11, 17, 63, 64. 

Ebahamos, 28-25, 36. 
Erigoanna, 36. 

Etymologies, of local names, 81, 82 ; 
of Karankawa terms, 94, 95. 

Fauna of the coast, 56. 
Fire-drill, 10, 11. 
Fire-signalling, 19, 70, 71. 
Flora of the coast, 67. 
Food of the Karankawa, 11, 17, 
59-61. 



Galveston bay, 45, 64. 

Galveston island, 80. 

Garcia, B., Padre, 38, 61, 96-98. 

Garza, Padre, 28. 

Gatschet, Albert S., 3, 6; The Ka- 
rankawa Indians, 21-99. 

Gesture language, 70. 

Goliad, city, 29, 31. 

Grammatic elements, 87-94. 

Grasmeyer, T. W., correspondence 
of, 37. 

Guay cooes, 23. 

Gyle, A. B., letter, 47. 

165 



102 



INDEX. 



Hammond, Chas. A., v; biograph- 
ical notice of Mrs. Oliver, vli ; 
the Carancahua tribe of Indi- 
ans, 9-13. 

Han, 23 (and Note), 34. 

Harpe, B6nard de la, 26, 27, 87 
(Note). 

Hebohamos, 24. 

Hermaphrodites, 68. 

Head flattening, 62, 63 (and Note). 

Higos, los de los, 23. 

Holley, Mrs. M. A., 31. 

Isladel Malhado. 23 (Note), 34. 
Isla del Padre, 46, 49, c/., Brazos 
Santiago. 

Jos6 Maria, chief, 47, 48. 
Joatel, explorer, 23, 24, 35. 

K&yowe, 33, 42, 43. 

Karankawa Indians : anointing 
themselves, 17, 24, 62; bodily 
appearance and constitution 
17,24,67-59; canoes, 10, 16 
61'; children, 17, 59, 66; camp- 
fires, 10; chiefs, 47, 48, 64 
country and its climate, 53-67 
disposal of the dead, 19, 68 
downfall of the nation, 46-51 
ethnography of, 67-71 ; expelled 
from Texas, 49-51 ; fights with 
settlers, 30-32; food, 11, 59, 
61 ; historic notes down to 1835, 
23-32; hostility towards the 
whites, 30; our knowledge of 
them but fragmentary, 21 ; La- 
fitte attacks them, 30 ; language 
of, 73-98; lodges and camps, 
10, 11, 17, 63, 64; manners and 
customs, 16, 17, 67, 68; mental 
attainments, 68-71 ; moral char- 
acter, 19, 20, 65-67; personal 
names, 70; religious festival, 
13, 71 ; settled on two missions, 
28, 29; settlements, 26, 28, 45- 
61, and the map; signalling, 
19, 70, 71; tribal synonymy, 
43, 44; utensils, 12; vocabula- 
ries, 73, 79, 83 ; wars, 15, 29-82, 
46-61 ; weapons, 12, 13. 

K61es, 44, 67, 79. 

Kemper murdered, 49. 

Kichai, 89. 

Kironoua, 36, 44. 

Koienkahe, 23, 43. 

Kopano, 16, 46, 46, 54, 81, 82. 

Kouyam, Qupuan, 28, 24. 

166 



Kriwitz, E., 48. 
Kuykendall, Abner, 31. 
Ewah&da, 41. 

l!ia Bahia del Espirita Santo, 
mission, 29, 31, c/. 45, 46, 47. 

Lafitte, pirate, 30, 46. 

Language of the Karankawa, 73-98. 

Lavaca bay, 46, 64. 

Lavaca river, 28, 31. 

Lipan, 28, 29, 33, 40, 41, 44, 51. 

Lodges or wigwams, 10, 11, 17, 68, 
64. 

Maligne river, 28, 24. 

Manahuila creek, 31, 81. 

Manners and customs, 16, 17, 67, 

68. ' 
Manos de Perro, 38. 
Map of the Karankawa haunts and 

settlements ; opposite page 46. 
Maratino, 39. 
Mariames, 28. 
Matagorda, vii,9, 28, 32, 87, 46, 64, 

55, 67. 
Mayes, 85. 
Mayeye, 35. 
Medicine men, 70. 
Mendica, 23. 

Mental attainments, 18, 68-71. 
Mescaleros, 41, 42. 
Mescales, 88. 
M6ye, 36, 87. 
Milfort, 26. 
Missions in Texas, 26, 28, 29, 31, 

46 ; c/. La Bahia. 
Moral character, 17, 66. 
Musical instruments, 18. 
Mtihlenpfordt, 49. 

Nabaldatche, 40. 
Nacogdoches, 25, 36. 
Na'htchi, 95, 98. 

Nahuatl local names in Texas, 82. 
Na-isha Apaches, 42. 
Names, personal, 70. 
Narvaez, Pamfllo de, 23. 
Nueces bay, 28, 54. 
Nueces river, 46, 48. 
Numerals, 69, 91 (and in Vocabula- 
ries). 

Old Simon, 36, 87, 43, 79, 80. 

Oliver, Alice Williams ; v, vii, 44, 47, 
48, 64-67, 70, 71, 80; biograph- 
ical notice, vii. Notes on the 
Carancahua Indians, 15-20 ; 
her vocabulary, 78-78. 



INDEX. 



103 



Orcoquiza, 28, 36, 40. 
Orejones, 38, 39. 

Pacaos, 38. 

Pacoas, 38. 

PacuSches, 38. 

P4duka, 27. 

Painting, art of, 69. 

Pajalates, 38. 

Pakawa, linguistic family, 33, 37-39, 
61 ; language, 96-98. 

Pamaques, 38. 

Pamp6pas, 38. 

Pdni, 27. 

Pdnl tribes, 39-40. 

Pausanes, 38. 

Penetethka, 41. 

Phonetics, 87, 88. 

Pihuiques, 38. 

Pohol, 41. 

Pottery, 24, 69. 

Pronouns, 91. 

Putnam, F. W., viii; prefatory no- 
tice, V. 



Quelancouchis, 44. 
Quelanhubeches, 26. 
Quevenes, 23. 
Quinets, 25. 
Quitoles, 23. 

Keduplication, 90. 

Refugio, mission, 28, 46. 

Religion, 18, 24, 71. 

Rio Grande apd tribes upon it, 26, 

27, 29 (Note), 37-39, 41, 42, 

49-^1, 63. 

Salle, Robert Cavelier de la, 23, 26. 

Sallie Washington, 79, 80. 

San Antonio de Bejar, 26, 26, 36, 

38. 
St. Bernard bay, 25, 26, 36, 41, 64. 
St. Louis bay, 23, 26, 41. 
Sanipaos, 38. 
Settlements or haunts of Karankawa 

Indians, 16, 26, 28, 45-61, and 

map. 



Shetimasha, 43, 98. 
Shoshonian family, 33, 41. 
Sibley, Dr., 36, 45, 55, 70. 
Snake Indians, 41. 
Songs, 18, 81. 
Suffixes, 93, 94. 
Syntax, 92, 93. 

Tac^mes 38. 

Tamaulipas, 38, 39. 49, 50; see also 

Rio Grande, 
Tampacuds, 44, 50, 61. 
Tattooing, 19, 63. 
Tawakaros, 27, 33. 
Texan littoral, Indian tribes of, 

33-42. 
Texas, state, 33-42, 50, 51. 
Texas (or Tejas) tribes, 40. 
Tilijayas, 38. 
Tinn6 family, 40, 41. 
Titskan w&titch, 37. 
Tonkawe, 27, 29, 33, 36, 37, 42, 43, 

44, 70; language, 95-98. 
Trespalacios bay, 15, 45, 47, 48, 54, 

55. 
Tribal government, 64. 
Trinidad river, 40. 

Venados, 38. 

Verbal inflection, 91, 92. 

Vidayos ; see Bidai. 

Vocabulary of Mrs. Oliver, 73-78. 

Vocabulary of Old Simon and Sallie 

Washington, 79, 80. 
Vocabulary, English-Karankawa, 

83-86. 

Weepers, 34, 35. 

Weko (Hueco, Waco), 33, 36, 39. 
Wichita tribe, 27, 33, 39. 
Wrestlers, 44 (and Note), 79. 

Xaranames, 79, 99 ; c/. Aranamas. 

Ydkwal, 37. 
Yatassi 40. 
Yoakum, historian, 30, 45. 



167 




PtTBLlCATlONS 

PHABODT linSEtni AMERICAN ARCH^LOflV AKD BfTHSOl/iOY, 

AUKUAL REPORTS, 8to. 

Vohvmm I eoBtaiiid the ftr^t /im* lit*t)0!t9 (lH6ii^lS76) wiili in- 
d^x. $0^ pa^(«9, Prlc^, bound in alotht io^O0. 

VoLOMK ri i!i>nt^Un^ tU lOlb, IHli, 12tU nod lUh B^part* U^?*? 
-18HU} with uifiro [UantnitlouA arid index* 78i frngt^s- Fric©, 
bouuil io cUjUi, I^.OU, 

Voi.rn^tii: jn ccintiiini Uiit Mlii, 16Ui, 161U, 17tlt, 18U), tD|k OJiil 
2i>ili III |.oH^ {IHHX -1HK7), 1^5 iiAgea with UlaiUntloiji n»«5 tndBx. 

VfiLiTiir. IV, Nil. J, 2Ul lUsj^irl, lBt*7; No< 2. 22iia H*^>orL^ 
18HB ; Niia, 5 mia 4, 23d ^tml 211*1 Ki*porU, iBH^d^ 1B9W, Tln> four 

nil, 5Ut, ' 

^2 ■ i't:.« can l>' 

Th* -^ili, ) iUi^ Utili snd I7tlj liofieirta can iiolj tiff stiif|)tiafi in ibe 

I'ufl vuleimi'**, 

ARCHiElOLOGIOAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL 
PAPERS, 8vo. 

*' ' ' ""'f '■!.(; 1^ s* - ' or Heiiii'iitvifr r jjlh liktorl* 

t ' ■ ■ ?:IJJU< 

%K\ On V Kit, aw] ft Vowbnliirji \ fixiio AUtii W. 

I' . wlUi tn«|i^ l**tih ilM* 

^ r,. iL iL Th*^ AMntl or Kpenr-tbroifei' of iLv AuL-n^isi jttt .vi- 
rnij*.. by XnuA KifTCiLi,, 3(S ptiif c^ and a |>lfiu »* laai. 60 lU. 



r 



THE NEW YORK PUBLIC UBRARY 
REFEaENCB DEPARTMENT 

This book i» under no oJroan.»t-no« to be 
taken Iroin the Building