The Karankawa Indians - Page 1
The Karankawa lived along the Texas Coast from Galveston Island to south of Corpus Christi and as far inland as Eagle Lake in present day Colorado County. The tribes were divided into major groups, Cujane, Guapite (Coapite), Coco, Copane, and Karankawa. The entire group eventually came to be known as Karankawa. The name Karankawa meant "dog lovers" in their own language.
Explorers found the natives daunting because of their height and appearance. The male Karankawas were between six and seven feet tall. According to Joutel, who kept a journal of the La Salle expedition, the men wore breechcloths. Some of the men wore deerskin bracelets, small shells, glass beads, or small discs of metal around their necks. Naked for the most part and covered in alligator grease to ward off mosquitoes, they wore multi-colored spots on their faces and wild tattoo's on other parts of their bodies. They pierced the nipples of each breast and the lower lip with small pieces of cane. The Karankawa's ferocious appearance and smell, along with the fact they were said to be cannibalistic put fear and terror into all who visited them.
The female Karankawas were of normal height and Stephen F. Austin described some of them as being handsome. They adorned themselves with tattoos as well as the men and wore skins around their waist to their knees. The children of the tribes wore nothing. Married women painted the entire body, unmarried women wore simple stripe tattoos from forehead to chin.
The Karankawa used bows and arrows for hunting and fighting. They were said to be almost as tall as their owners and the arrows were two and one-half to three feet in length. They were said to have amazing skill with them. Arrows and bows were even used when fishing. They were seasonal hunters and gatherers. Fish, shellfish, oysters and turtles were some of the staples of the Karankawa diet, but a wide variety of animals and plants contributed to their sustenance. Of the larger mammals, they hunted bison, deer, javelina, antelope, bear and alligators.
Some of the non-game foods they used were the prickly pear (fruits and pads), dewberries, cattails, husk tomatoes, wolf berries, nuts and Mustang grapes. Prickly ash was used as a toothache remedy and a small growth on the white oak was used to tan hides. The leaves of theYaupon holly, not the berries which are poisonous, were used in their pipes and as a tea for the Mitole dance. Page 2
| Tool and Game Pieces - Donated by Charles Husak |
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| Arrow Points - Donated by Charles Husak |
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| Dart Points - Donated by Charles Husak |
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| Fish Hooks and Dart Points - Donated by Charles Husak |
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| Replica of a Karankawa Dugout - Donated by Charles Husak |
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