Historic
Period
1600
AD
- 1875 AD
Historic pictograph from Vaquero Shelter
Adapted by permission. From Ancient Texans
copyright © 1992, Gulf
Publishing Company, Houston, Texas, 800-231-6275.
All rights reserved.
There was a lot of migration of Indian peoples prior to,
and into historic times. It is therefore difficult to identify
prehistoric artifacts as being made by the ancestors of a
certain tribe.
During historic times South Texas had several Indian
tribes. These included the Coahuiltecan, Tonkawa, Karankawa,
Lipan Apache, Kiowa Apache, and the Comanche.
The Coahuiltecans, Tonkawas, and the Karankawas were
possibly the descendants of the Indians of the Late Prehistoric
period. All three tribes lived by hunting and gathering. Even
shamans and other people of high rank spent most of their time
looking for food.
The Coahuiltecans occupied most of Southwest Texas away
from the gulf coast, and Northeastern Mexico. There were
about a dozen bands of the Coahuiltecan tribe. These included
the Orejons, Aranamas, Payayas, Tamiques, Carrizos,
Katuhanos, Pachals, Kersale-Terkodams, and possibly others.
The Karankawa's land was in Southeastern Texas along the Gulf
Coast. They built crude rafts and did a lot of their hunting and
fishing in the rivers and shallow bays along the Gulf Coast.
Usually they ate fish, turtles, snakes, frogs, and waterfowls;
though they sometimes ate animals that were found dead,
and buzzards. When food couldn't be found, they could exist
on waterlillys for a period of time. They particularly liked
eating pork. The Karankawas were pushed westward by the
white men and many possibly died of diseases, though some
were taken in by the Kiowa Apache and Comanche, and
converted to the Kiowa or Comanche lifestyle.
The Tonkawas land was in Central Texas and south to the
Coastal Plains. The Tankawas had a simple kind of pottery,
possibly traded from the Caddoes in East Texas, or they
learned pottery making techniques from the Caddoes.
The Tonkawan culture was similar to many tribes in the
Southern Plains, like the Lipan Apaches. They sometimes
practiced cannibalism and ate their enemies, such as the
Comanches.
The Tonkawas, Karankawas, and the Coahuiltecans all
spoke dialects of the Coahuiltecan language, related to the
Hokan languages in California.
During the early 1700s the Lipan Apaches moved from the
Southwestern states into the Southern Plains. At this time
the Comanches migrated (over a period of years) Southward
into the Southern Plains. White men brought and traded
their articles. Metal and glass arrow points began to replace
stone points.
When tribes like the Apache and Comanche got horses, they
became more reliant on buffalo for food. Many also went on
raiding parties and stole goods from the white settlers.
They usually went South and East of the Balcones Escarpment
and raided settlements, then they went back into the hill
country and used the terrain for cover. Most of the wild
Indians were out of South Texas by about 1879.
Chronological list of artifacts introduced
in the Historic period: