Chapter 3: Native Texans

Chapter 3: Native Texans

Section 2: Southeastern and Gulf Cultures

Vocabulary

Matrilineal

Confederacy

shaman

religious leader

Tracing decent through the mother's side of the family.

Groups of people that get together to form a larger group.

The Caddos

The Search for Food

Southeastern Farmers and Gathers

Early People

More than 24 groups made up the Caddo people. The groups were part of larger associations called confederacies. Two of the confederacies that lived within the boundaries of present-day Texas were matrilineal, tracing descent through their mothers.

While the Caddos were building farming communities, the Native American people along the Gulf of Mexico led a nomadic life. The environment left them little choice. The marshy lands along the Texas coast made farming difficult for Gulf people, like the Coahuiltecans and the Karankawas. They lived by hunting small game and gathering nuts, cacti, and other plants.

The Native American people of the Southeastern culture—among them the Caddos, Karankawas, and Coahuiltecans—also were not alike. Some of these Southeastern people, like the Caddos, farmed. When people had a steady source of food, they did not have to move constantly searching for wild berries and roots. There were able to build permanent settlements and more permanent housing. Many villages became trade centers for the surrounding areas.

People who lived in Texas before Europeans arrived shared many similarities. Most lived in small groups and shared responsibility for decision making. Early people believed spirits caused rain, fire, the change of seasons, and the existence of streams and rivers. According to Native American beliefs, these spirit beings walked the earth and interacted with human beings. Sometimes they helped, but they were also known to cause harm.

Although they grew much of their food, the Caddos also gathered wild fruit and berries. They also excelled at fishing. Across a stream Caddos often strung a trotline, a long, heavy fishing line to which they attached several baited hooks. This practice of fishing is used in fishing today. Caddo men also hunted for turkeys, deer, and bears.

Each Caddo group had its own government, headed by two leaders. One leader handled matters of war and peace, and the other directed religious affairs. A Caddo leader usually had many helpers, and both women and men could hold powerful positions in government. The Caddos were the most numerous and agriculturally productive of all the native Texas nations. From 1520 to 1690, because of the introduction of European diseases, their numbers decreased from around 200,000 to only about 12,000.

The Caddos were part of a vast trade network that stretched from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians. Shells, stones, and other trade goods from hundreds of miles away have been found in eastern Texas. The center of the trade network was Cahokia, located near present-day Missouri. In 1859, the Caddos were relocated to reservations in present-day Oklahoma, where there descendants live today.

Directions: Using your text, answer the following questions and highlight your answer in the text.

1. What did the Coahuiltecans hunt with?

2. What types of animals did the Coahuiltecans hunt?

3. When food was scarce, what did the Coahuiltecans eat?

4. Coahuiltecan men hunted for food, what was the job of women?

Others, like the Karankawas and Coahuiltecans of the Gulf cultures, used the coastal waters for fishing, and many groups gathered foods that grew in the wild such as roots and berries.

Karankawa

Coahuiltecan

In your vocabulary books write down the definitions for the vocabulary words.

The Coahuiltecans

Most Caddos lived in permanent villages. They built dome-shaped houses of mud, poles, and straw.

By the time Texas became a part of the United Sates, the Coahuiltecans had almost disappeared from the Gulf region. Many had been killed in battle. Others had moved into Mexico or into other areas. A great many Coahuiltecans had died from diseases that the Europeans brought to the region.

For hundreds of years, the Caddos lived and farmed in the East Texas timberlands. They cultivated fields of squash, beans, pumpkins, melons, sunflowers, plums, and two crops of corn each year. The men cleared the fields, and Caddo women planted and tended the crops.

All members of Coahuiltecan society enjoyed equal status and shared the available food and water. In camp, everyone had to work. Women took care of the camp, and men hunted. Those who were unable or too old to do heavy labor still worked at other tasks. Shamans, people believed to have the power to summon spirits and to cure the sick, were important to Coahuiltecan life, just as they were to other Native American people. Shamans led the religious ceremonies, made medicine from plants, and cared for the sick.

The Caddos often engaged in warfare. They fought other Native American nations, sometimes other members of the confederacies, and occasionally European settlers who arrived near their settlements after the 1600s. There were usually on friendly terms with the French, who were more interested in trade than in taking Caddo land. When there was trouble between Spain and France, the Caddos were likely to support the French.

The Coahuiltecans seldom strayed from the dry and brushy land called the South Texas Plain. With bows and arrows, the Coahuiltecans hunted deer, bison, and javelina. The javelin is a small animal that looks something like a wild boar. The Coahuiltecans gathered cacti, mesquite, agave, and other plants, dried them, and ground them into flour. When game was scarce, they ate worms, lizards, and plants. Constantly on the move to find food, Coahuiltecans seldom spent more than a few weeks at each campsite.

The cultures of early people in Texas also believed that animals, plants, and humans once understood each other’s languages. People were connected with the earth in a special relationship. Each of these cultures had a creation story, or explanation of how the earth and people were different from one another. They did not speak the same language. Some were peaceful, but some were warlike. While many lived in communities, others moved frequently.

Using your notes, answer the following questions.

1. How many groups made up the Caddo people?

2. How many leaders did each Caddo group have?

3. What types of crops did the Caddo's grow?

4. What state were the Caddos sent to in 1859?

The Karankawas

Other Southeastern Cultures

The Karankawas lived along the Gulf Coast and on the small islands between Galveston and Corpus Christi Bays. Theo people roamed in search of food. From about March to September, the Karankawas built camps near the forests. This allowed them to gather nuts and berries and hunt deer, bears, and stray buffalo that occasionally wandered onto the coastal prairie. IN the fall and winter, the Karankawas moved their camp to near the sea. Karankawans in dugout canoes—their most treasured possessions—caught fish, porpoises, and turtles. They also gathered clams, oysters, and underwater plants.

After the Europeans explored Texas during the early 1500s, other Native American people arrived in the area just west of Caddo country. Many of these newcomers came from areas north of Texas. Technology introduced by the Europeans, such as guns and horses, had changed tribal relationships. Some were trying to escape warring neighbors. Others were looking for a place where living would be easier. Many began to trade with local Native American groups, the French, or the Spanish.

Answer the following questions

1. What technology introduced by the Europeans changed tribal relationships?

2. Around which modern day cities did the Wichitas live?

3. Why did the Wichitas fight Spanish Settlers?

4. What state does hundreds of descendants of the Wichitas live in?

Members of the Karankawa family worked together to make tools necessary for their existence. They made pottery jars and bowls and wove baskets. The pottery and baskets were coated with tar to make them waterproof. When North American settlers moved onto the Coastal Plains in the 1820s; fighting broke out between settlers and Karankawas. By the mid-1800s, almost all Karankawas were displaced or killed.

The Wichitas

They Wichitas built villages, grew crops, and hunted game. Wichita villages and houses resembled Caddo villages and houses. Wichita women held positions of leadership and shared work with the men

Because they lived in lands sought by others, the Wichitas often were at war. Like the Caddos, they got along well with French traders. They often fought Spanish settlers, who tried to force them into the Spanish settlements. When the Spaniards began trading with them instead, the fighting would stop. Like the Caddos, the Wichitas were forced by the Anglo American settlers to give up their land. Today several hundred descendants of the Wichitas live in Oklahoma.

The prairies and oak timberlands that today surround the cities of Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco, and Wichita Falls were once the home of the Wichitas. Several tribes were collectively known as Wichitas. During the 1600s, they moved from a region in present-day Kansas into lands along the Trinity, Red, and Brazos Rivers.