Texas Trails: The 'wild and crazy' Karankawa Tribe not well liked

Tuesday, August 9, 2011  

"he first Europeans to stumble upon the Karankawa tribe on what is now the Texas coast, found that the Karankawas did not play well with others. Other than a few raids that resulted in mass murder and a certain amount of cannibalism, the tribe kept to itself. The first Anglos to lay eyes on them were the remnants of Spanish explorer Cabez De Vaca's expedition that wandered onto the Karankawas' turf when the expedition was at its weakest. They were captured, but not eaten by the natives, who kept De Vaca around because they decided he was a powerful medicine man.

Karankawa men were tall, muscular and lighter skinned than other tribes. The men went around either naked or mostly naked; the women, generally shorter and stouter than the men, wore knee-length skirts made from Spanish moss. Both men and women painted, pierced and tattooed their bodies. They were said to be great runners, swimmers and archers. Their favorite recreation was wrestling and some tribes called them "The Wrestlers." The Karankawa name is translated loosely as "dog lovers" because they traveled with a small, fox-like and barkless dog that has only been documented among the Karankawa and a tribe in the Lesser Antilles.

The Karankawas devised an insect repellant extracted from the livers of sharks and alligators that was so foul smelling it kept away mosquitoes and most other living things as well; they don't seem to have been be the kind of people you would want to wrestle with unless you were fighting for your life, which was more often than not the case with this tribe.

After De Vaca's stay with the Karankawas, the tribe did not see another European for 150 years."

Get the Story:
Texas Trails: The Wild and Crazy Karankawas (The Country World 8/8)
Texas Trails: Cabeza De Vaca (The Country World 8/8)