Coco (people)
The Coco , also written Caanucozi , Caocasi , Cascossi , Coke , Coashe , Quaqui or Quoaque , are an extinct North American Indian tribe from the Gulf Coast in Texas , who belonged to the Karankawa .
Residential area and name
Coco's residential area was on the Texas coast between the Lavaca River , Colorado River, and Brazos River . The Coco appear for the first time in documents of the expedition of Robert Cavelier de La Salle , in which they are referred to as Quoaque . The common name of the Spaniards for this tribe was Coco , while the Anglo-Americans used the name Coke .
Life in Spanish missions
In the second half of the 18th century , the Coco could be found in the directories of various Spanish missions :
- San Antonio de Valero in San Antonio ,
- San Ildefonso ,
- Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria on the San Gabriel River near today's Rockdale ,
- Nuestra Señora del Refugio near the present day Refugio and
- Nuestra Señora del Rosario near the present-day town of Goliad .
The Spanish missions in the northern provinces of Mexico were run by the Catholic Church and in Texas by Franciscans . The Padres assumed that at least 10 years would pass between the establishment of a mission and the conversion of the Indians to Christian workers . As a start-up, each new mission received a sum of money to buy bells, clothes, seeds, tools and other necessary items. If everything went according to plan, the Mission gradually evolved into a thriving, self-sufficient company. First a makeshift chapel and a few primitive accommodations were built. After the makeshift buildings were in place, the Franciscans began spreading the gospel among the local Indians, helping out with beads, clothing, blankets, and food. As soon as they were baptized, the padres had to cultivate the fields and replace the temporary buildings with permanent ones. Over the years, the residents expanded the fenced, square property into a self-sufficient little world of apartments, workshops, cattle sheds and storage rooms. The mission church rose above all these buildings and was often the last to be completed.
If the Indians did not come voluntarily, soldiers took them to the mission by force. The padres did not tolerate any religion besides Christianity. The Indian spiritual life was in their eyes pagan superstition and witchcraft . In the mission, the newcomers and neophytes were monitored and severely punished if the strict rules were broken or if they were violent. They were pressed into Christianity, they were taught manual skills and after a certain period of time they were given a piece of land near the mission. Superficially made into Christian peasants and workers, they were in fact slaves to the Spanish missions.
In the early 19th century, European settlers encountered the last of the Coco in their original residential area on the lower Colorado River . The missions were secularized around 1830 and abandoned by the Indians. Presumably these went up in other Karankawa groups and were generally referred to as Karankawa by the Anglo-Americans. Under the pressure of the rapidly growing white population in Texas, they were pushed further and further west and have been considered extinct since 1858.
literature
- William C. Sturtevant (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians , Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC
- Alfonso Ortiz (Ed.): Southwest Vol. 9, 1979 ISBN 0-16004-577-0
- Alfonso Ortiz (Ed.): Southwest Vol. 10, 1983 ISBN 0-16004-579-7
- Editor of Time-Life Books: The Spanish West , Time-Life Books Inc., 1976
- Alvin M. Josephy jr .: 500 Nations , Frederking & Thaler GmbH, Munich 1996 ISBN 3-89405-356-9
- Alvin M. Josephy jr .: The world of the Indians , Frederking & Thaler GmbH, Munich 1994 ISBN 3-89405-331-3