The Facts

• Karankawa was a name given to a group of Native American peoples that included the Capoques, Kohanis, Kronks, and Karankawa. They were hunters of deer and bison, using mainly long bows and lances as their weapons of choice. They also fished for crabs, oysters, sea turtles and shellfish when camping along the coast. Due to disease and battles with settlers, they became extinct as a tribal group many years ago.
  
  

Geography

• The Karankawa lived along the coast of Texas, in an area that stretched from Galveston Bay to present day Houston and then around to Corpus Christi Bay. During the winter they stayed at the coast, but in the summer months they moved inland to escape the harsh weather and hurricanes.
  
  

Identification

• The Karankawa were very tall, and covered their bodies with tattoos from head to foot. They also pierced their lips and nipples to wear bones or stone jewelery. Because of the climate they lived in, it was not necessary to wear heavy clothing, so instead they wore as little as possible. While the women would put on grass skirts, often the men wore light linen cloths or went completely naked.
  
  

History of

• In 1768, a Spanish priest wrote an account of seeing the Karankawa hold a flesh eating ceremony. He said they would tie a live captive enemy to a stake and then begin cutting off pieces of their flesh. They would then cook the flesh and eat it in front of the captive. According to the priest, the Karankawa belived that eating the meat of their enemies would transfer power and strength to them.
  
  

Misconceptions

• There were several Native American tribes that lived along the coasts of Texas and Louisiana who did participate in flesh-eating rituals, and so it is possible that the Spanish priest who first reported witnessing the Karankawa eating human flesh may have confused them with a different tribe. The Atakapa were also heavily tattooed, lived in the coastal region, and did perform cannibalistic rituals, so it could have been one of their ceremonies the priest saw. Because of other accounts of the Karankawa, such as that of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, it seems the Karankawa were more likely disgusted by human eaters. While de Vaca was on an expedition to Mexico, he and his men became shipwrecked and met the Karankawa. The Native Americans not only lamented with them the loss of their ships and supplies, but looked down on the members of the failed expedition that began resorting to cannibalism. Because the Karanakwa died out before modern anthropology could study them, it may never be truly known whether they were fierce man-eaters, or just a gentle tribe of people that have been misunderstood.