Karankawa

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Former residential area

The Karankawa are a North American Indian tribe from the Gulf Coast in Texas, extinct since 1858 . They played an important role in the early history of what was then the Mexican province. Their language , of which only about a hundred words are known, is also called Karankawa and has similarities with Coahuiltec , but the affiliation is not certain.

Name and associated tribes

The name Karankawa probably means dog lovers or dog breeders , because the Karankawa owned dogs similar to the fox or coyote . There were several tribes with the same language and culture that are assigned to the Karankawa.

These peoples were called:

  • Coco (also Coaque , lived on Galveston Island and along the mouth of the Brazos River)
  • Coapite
  • Carancaquacas ("real" Karankawa, lived along Matagorda Bay)
  • Kohani (lived near the mouth of the Colorado River)
  • Kopane (lived along Copano Bay)

The affiliation of some other tribes is uncertain, for example the Tiopane and Tup and perhaps also the Pataquilla and Quilote , which were mentioned by Cabeza de Vaca .

Designation by other tribes

The Tonkawa called the Karankawa Kéles (also Kilis = wrestler ). They often called them Yákokon-kapá-i ( barefoot = people without shoes ), a name with which they also referred to the Bidai and other smaller tribes on the lower Rio Grande. The Comanche referred to them as Estók Karanguás ( Karankawa people ). The Lipan Apache called them Nda-kun-dadéhé ( people who walk in water ), which most likely refers to their particular way of fishing and catching turtles.

residential area

The residential area of ​​the Karankawa comprised the coast of Texas on the Gulf of Mexico, approximately from Galveston Bay to the southwest to Corpus Christi Bay . They led a nomadic life and followed a seasonal cycle that led them from the islands off the coast (English Barrier Islands ) about 40 to 100 kilometers inland. They stayed only a few weeks in the same place and used canoes to transport their goods, which not only between islands and the mainland, but also on the many rivers, such as Guadalupe River , Colorado River , Brazos River and Trinity River are used, could. The residential area in the inland consisted mainly of grass and marshland, which was only overgrown by bushes and trees along the rivers, which offered protection against the scorching rays of the sun, because the summer temperature there averages over 34 degrees Celsius , while it is in winter cools 10 degrees on average.

Culture and way of life

Outward appearance

The Karankawa impressed the Europeans with their stately appearance. The men were described as about six to eight feet tall and muscular, who wore a loincloth made of deerskin or were completely naked. They painted and tattooed her body and pierced her nipples and lower lips with small pieces of reed. Often they smeared their bodies with a mixture of dirt and alligator fat or blubber of sharks , to guard against the mosquitoes to protect. The women were also painted and tattooed and wore cloaks made of Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) or animal skin that reached down to their knees.

Way of life

The main means of transport was the dugout canoe , a simple canoe made by hollowing out a large tree trunk. The vehicle was not suitable for deep, open waters and was mainly used in the shallow sea between the offshore islands and the mainland, as well as on the rivers. Each boat was big enough to carry a whole family and their belongings. In the countryside, the Karankawa walked and were described as powerful runners and excellent swimmers. A portable wickiup , called a ba-ak , served as a dwelling for the coastal people. It consisted of a frame made of willow poles, which was covered with animal skins and rush mats and offered space for seven to eight people. The Karankawa made baskets and clay pots that were sealed with an asphalt- like compound. This natural substance was found on the Gulf Coast.

The main weapon of the warriors was the arrow and longbow , which were used for both hunting and war. The bows were made of the wood of the red cedar (Juniperus scopulorum) and reached from the chin to the feet of the archer. The social and political organization of the Karankawa was determined by their nomadic life. They hiked in small groups of 30 to 40 people, led by a chief . These groups were often divided into smaller groups, probably families, to make foraging easier. The link between them was provided by a well-developed system of smoke signals that could be used to call the groups together for special events.

Ceremonies and customs

The ceremonies centered around a festival known as the mitote and consisted of dancing and consuming an intoxicating drink brewed from crushed leaves of the yaupon ( Ilex cassine or I. vomitoria ), a small, shrubby tree that grows in the is home to southern Texas. The black drink was intended exclusively for the men of the tribe. The Karankawa also held competitions where they could demonstrate their weapon skills and physical dexterity. Wrestling was so popular with the Karankawa that they were also referred to as the wrestlers by the neighboring tribes .

War was part of life and there is evidence that the tribe practiced a type of ceremonial cannibalism in which they ate the meat of their traditional enemies. A detailed account of this ceremony comes from a Spanish priest. According to him, the prisoner was tied to a stake and there was dancing around the victim. Arrows were then shot in the body and pieces of meat were cut out with a sharp blade and roasted over a fire. Then the meat was eaten in front of the unfortunate person. In this custom, which was widespread among the tribes in Texas, parts of a dead or dying enemy were eaten in final retribution or in the magical belief that it would gain strength and courage from the slain enemy.

Some historians doubt that the Karankawa practiced ritual cannibalism. Rather, they suspect that the Spaniards confused the Karankawa with the various groups of Atakapa , whose territory stretched along the Texas Gulf Coast from Galveston Bay along Bayou Teche to Vermillion Bay in Louisiana . The Atakapa were known as cannibals of their enemies - they also got tattoos.

history

The first known contact of the Karankawa with Europeans dates back to 1528. Four small boats carrying survivors of the Pánfilo de Narváez expedition landed on the island of Galveston (in present-day Texas ). This island called Malhado (Spanish = island of misfortune) was inhabited by the Karankawa. The records of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca , one of the castaways, are the first information about the coastal people. Cabeza de Vaca lived with the Indians for several years and provided valuable ethnological reports on the indigenous people. After the visit of Cabeza de Vaca, the Karankawa had no contact with Europeans for a century and a half. It was not until 1685 that the French expedition led by Robert Cavelier de La Salle came and built Fort St. Louis on Garcitas Creek in the heart of Karankawa land. After La Salle and some of his men traveled back to Canada to get help for the weak colony, the Karankawa raided the remaining settlers, killing all but six children they took with them. These children were rescued by a Spanish expedition in the early 1690s. Two of the children, Pierre and Jean-Baptiste Talon , came to France in 1698 and were questioned by the French authorities. The logs about it provide valuable information about the Karankawa culture in the late 17th century.

In the early 18th century, French interests revived on the Texas coast and the Karankawa land was once again a center of Spanish-French rivalry. The French continued to explore the coastal area and in 1719 the Karankawa captured a shipwrecked seaman named Francois Simars de Bellisle . The Frenchman lived with the tribe for 15 months before escaping to Louisiana and being able to provide the French authorities with detailed information on coastal tribes in Texas. As a counterbalance to the French efforts, the Spaniards established the Presidio Nuestra Senora de Loreta and the Mission Espiritu Santo de Zuniga near the former Fort St. Louis. Both institutions later became known as La Bahia . The primary purpose of the mission was to civilize and Christianize the Karankawa and to make them loyal Spanish subjects. But soon there was hostility between Spaniards and Indians and by 1726 there were no more fresh converts in the mission, which was relocated to the Guadelupe River, where it remained until 1749.

Despite the failure in La Bahia, the Spaniards continued their efforts to evangelize the Karankawa. In 1754 a new mission, Nuestra Senora Rosario de los Cujanes , was established on the San Antonio River. This mission was more successful and in 1764 there were 101 converted Indians there. But the success was short-lived, as the mission had to be closed in 1781 because of the high number of deserting Karankawa. A third mission, Nuestra Senora del Refugio , was built for the Karankawa in 1791. This mission has been postponed three times and it was last near the present-day town of Refugio . 190 Karankawa and Coahuiltec inhabited the mission in 1814, but several Comanche attacks in the early 1820s depopulated the facility. The two missions continued their work anyway until they were secularized in 1831 and 1832 . For more than a century, the Spaniards had tried to proselytize the Karankawa - with little success. Only a few Indians gradually came into the missions, but the majority resisted all attempts at conversion and did not believe in the Spanish way of life. A French named Athanase de Meziéres worked as an Indian agent for the Spaniards, but even this could not bring about peace. In the late 1770s he pursued the extermination of the tribe, but could not get his way through with his plan. At the end of Spanish rule in Texas, however, the Karankawa population was greatly reduced due to diseases and other consequences of the European invasion. For the Karankawa, the confrontation with Laffite's pirate colony on Galveston Island in 1819 was particularly tragic. The disaster began when Laffite's men kidnapped a Karankawa woman. The tribe attacked the pirate nest with 300 warriors. The pirates were only 200 men strong, but had two cannons and inflicted heavy losses on the Indians. This defeat was a great tragedy for the once powerful Karankawa.

Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, and the new government supported the immigration of Anglo-Americans to the then sparsely populated province of Texas. As settlers invaded Karankawa land, the incidents increased. The Mexican authorities tried to protect the settlers by making peace with the Karankawa - but to no avail. The settlers, under the leadership of Stephen F. Austin , rallied to solve the problem themselves. Austin believed that exterminating the Karankawa was the only possible solution. In 1824 he led a force of 90 men to the Karankawa, who sought refuge in the La Bahia Mission. A monk arranged a truce between the parties. It was agreed with their chief Antonito that the Karankawa would retreat behind the Lavaca River in the west. However, the Indians did not keep to the treaty and there were increased conflicts with the settlers. The tribe's population steadily declined, both from the fighting against the Texans and against enemy Comanche and Tonkawa . When Texas became an independent republic in 1836, the Karankawa were so decimated that they were no longer considered a serious threat.

By 1840 there were only scattered remains of the tribe on the Texan coast. One of these groups camped on the Guadelupe River south of the city of Victoria and was attacked by Texans in the same year in revenge for Karankawa raids in the area. Many Indians were killed and the survivors fled along the coast and settled about 80 kilometers south of Corpus Christi . Other small groups were at the Aransas Bay near the mouth of the Nueces River at the time . In the mid- 1840s , most of the Karankawa moved south to Mexico to escape pressure from the growing Texas population. But south of the Rio Grande they encountered the same problems. They were accused of being involved in looting in the Reynosa area and were repeatedly attacked by Mexicans as a result. By the late 1850s, the Karankawa had been pushed back to Texas, where they camped near Rio Grande City . But even here they were not welcome and in 1858 armed Texans under the leadership of Juan Nepomuceno Cortina continued their policy of extermination and killed all members of the small group. Since that incident, the Karankawa tribe has been considered extinct.

Demographics

James Mooney estimated the population in 1690 to be 2,800. Most anthropologists find this number too high, but there are no reliable data for a more precise determination. But numerous wars and epidemics, especially measles , contributed to the fact that they ceased to exist as an independent ethnic group in the 19th century.

See also

literature

  • William C. Sturtevant (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians , Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC
  • Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: Shipwrecks. Report on the disaster of the Narváez expedition to the south coast of North America in 1527-1536 . Stuttgart 1925.

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