page_title: Karankawa people
hierarchical_section_title: Karankawa people
context_page_description: The Karankawa were an Indigenous people concentrated in southern Texas along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, largely in the lower Colorado River and Brazos River valleys. They consisted of several independent seasonal nomadic groups who shared the same language and much of the same culture. The tribe included the groups called the Cujanes, Cocos, Guapites, and Copanes. Some of the village names survived to modern day and are the Ebahamo, Emet, Kouyam, Meracouman, Quara, Quinet, and the Toyal villages.
  From the onset of European colonization, the Karankawa fought with the Spanish, French, and English. After one attack by the Spanish, who ambushed the Karankawa after the establishment of Presidio La Bahía in 1722, the Karankawa allegedly felt "deeply betrayed [and] viewed Spanish colonial settlement with hostility." By 1825, Stephen Austin commissioned a captain to lead volunteers to expel the Karankawa from the Austin land grant. The Karankawa were repeatedly attacked by Texan colonists, commanded by men like John H.
context_section_description: The Karankawa were an Indigenous people concentrated in southern Texas along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, largely in the lower Colorado River and Brazos River valleys. They consisted of several independent seasonal nomadic groups who shared the same language and much of the same culture. The tribe included the groups called the Cujanes, Cocos, Guapites (Coapites), and Copanes. Some of the village names survived to modern day and are the Ebahamo, Emet, Kouyam, Meracouman, Quara, Quinet, and the Toyal villages.
  From the onset of European colonization, the Karankawa fought with the Spanish, French, and English. After one attack by the Spanish, who ambushed the Karankawa after the establishment of Presidio La Bahía in 1722, the Karankawa allegedly felt "deeply betrayed [and] viewed Spanish colonial settlement with hostility." By 1825, Stephen Austin commissioned a captain to lead volunteers to expel the Karankawa from the Austin land grant. The Karankawa were repeatedly attacked by Texan colonists, commanded by men like John H. Moore and Robert Kuykendoll, who massacred men, women, and children in stealthy attacks on their villages to drive them out of their homelands, scalping the dead while stealing their food and supplies. By the 1840s, the Karankawa, now exiled, split into two groups, one of which settled on Padre Island while the other fled into the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. During 1858, Juan Nepomuceno Cortina led a group of Texan colonists against the Karankawa's last refuge and killed the remaining members of the tribe. By 1891, colonists believed the Karankawa as an organized tribe had been disbanded.
  Historical research of the Karankawa is hindered because the documents concerning them were overwhelmingly written by enemies of the tribe. The Karankawa have been described for centuries as "cannibals," now believed by many to be a falsehood initially perpetuated by the Spanish after they failed to convert them to Catholicism at missionary settlements in La Bahía and Refugio. Years later, Texan colonist John H. Moore attempted to justify his role in the massacres of the Karankawa because "their cannibalism... [was] beyond question," despite the total absence of evidence.
caption: Karankawa territory
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