Dylan Violette (CopperViolette) (in Maine) and Damien Marie AtHope (in Texas) seek to learn more about the indigenous peoples of the Americas (First Nations/Native Americans) where they both live.

Dylan Violette (CopperViolette) (in Maine) and Damien Marie AtHope (in Texas) seek to learn more about the indigenous peoples of the Americas (First Nations/Native Americans) where they both live.

Native Americans in Maine are: collectively known as the Wabanaki or “People of the Dawnland.” Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians (Maliseet/Wolastoqiyik), Miꞌkmaq Nation (concentrated in Northern Maine, specifically Aroostook County), Passamaquoddy Tribe (with communities at Motahkomikuk/Indian Township and Sipayik/Pleasant Point), and Penobscot Nation (headquartered on Indian Island).

Native Americans in Texas: More than 30 organizations claim to represent historic tribes within Texas; however, these groups are unrecognized, meaning they do not meet the minimum criteria of federally recognized tribes and are not state-recognized tribes. There are three federally recognized tribes in Texas, each with their own reservation: 

• Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas: Located near Livingston in the Big Thicket area, the reservation is the oldest in Texas.
• Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas: Based in Eagle Pass, the tribe maintains strong cultural ties and resides on a reservation along the Rio Grande on the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (Tigua): Located in El Paso, this is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in Texas, established in 1682. 

Before European settlement, numerous tribes lived across the varied Texas landscape, developing distinct cultures

Southeastern & East Texas: The Caddo built large, permanent villages and elaborate ceremonial mounds, developing extensive trade networks. Other groups included the Atakapa and Wichita peoples.

Gulf Coast: Tribes like the Karankawa and Coahuiltecans were semi-nomadic, adapting to the coastal environment through fishing, hunting, and gathering.

Plains (North & West Texas): The powerful, horse-mounted Comanche and Kiowa dominated a vast territory known as the Comanchería, hunting bison and conducting trade and raids. The Apache, including the Lipan and Mescalero groups, were also prominent in West and Central Texas before being pushed out by the Comanche and later by Anglo settlers.

West Texas: The Jumano people lived along rivers and practiced farming and extensive trading before eventually joining Apache groups.

Damien and Dylan live around a 33 hr. drive apart.

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Maine’s “Prehistory”

AI Overview: Maine’s prehistory spans at least 13,000 years, beginning with Paleoindian caribou hunters inhabiting a post-glacial, tundra-like landscape. Indigenous populations evolved through the Archaic (notably the “Red Paint People“) and Ceramic (Woodland) periods, developing specialized maritime economies. The Wabanaki nations, including the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy, are descendants of these early inhabitants.

Key Periods and Cultures

• Paleoindian Period (approx. 11,000–8,000 years ago): Small, mobile bands hunted caribou and likely hunted mammoth/mastodon in a cold, spruce-forest environment. They utilized distinctive fluted, stone projectile points.
• Archaic Period (approx. 8,000–3,000 years ago): As the climate warmed and forests grew dense, people adapted to local resources. The Maritime Archaic culture, or “Red Paint People,” is known for unique burials containing red ochre.
• Ceramic/Woodland Period (approx. 3,000 years ago– CE 1600s): The introduction of pottery, increased reliance on shell middens, and eventually some horticulture in southwestern Maine characterized this era.
• Wabanaki (“People of the Dawnland”): By the time of European contact, the region was inhabited by Algonquian-speaking groups including the Abenaki, Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot.

Environmental Changes

• Post-Glacial Landscape: The retreating glacier (c. 12,000–13,000 years ago) left behind tundra, large bogs, and a significantly different coastline, eventually forming the modern, deeply indented coast.
• Climate Shifts: The climate transitioned from cold/tundra to a warmer, drier period (roughly 6,000–5,000 years ago) with a higher percentage of hardwood forests.

Archaeological Evidence

• Shell Middens: Prehistoric waste piles, such as those dating from 200 BCE to CE 1000, have provided significant information about the Gulf of Maine ecosystem and ancient diets.
• Burial Sites: Red ochre graves provide evidence of complex, spiritual, social, and cultural practices.
• Artifacts: Excavations have revealed stone tools, pottery, and animal bones that indicate a hunter-gatherer lifestyle without large, complex architectural constructions.

I received this message: “I am Mikmaq. All these names are European terms, even Mikmaq. This was done to separate one people and create false division between each other. These are all lnu one people separated by dogma. The original governance system was called the Midewiwin. We’re each tribe would meet up to discuss ways to benefit the other tribe, they were not allowed to make decisions about their own tribe only others, this way the goal was to benefit each other and not yourselves. My people are the ones who broke up with the system when we accepted the Norse peoples’ pagan rights and kept in the system. The Mikmaq are responsible for breaking apart this old system when we started trading with the Norse and Gaelic people, and we started practicing paganism and warring with everyone around us because we started raiding them to benefit the seafaring tribes.” – David Nathan Jerome

Dylan Violette (CopperViolette) (in Maine) is close to the Mi’kmaq. He passes by their reservation whenever he heads south (the nearest city is that way; He is almost in the middle of nowhere).

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“The eight districts of Mi’kma’ki:   (Light-Purple) Gespe’gewa’gi.   (Dark-Purple) Siknikt.   (Yellow) Epekwitk aq Piktuk.   (Dark-Green) Sipekni’katik.   (Light-Red) Kespukwitk.   (Tan) Eskikewa’kik.   (Orange) Unama’ki, the capital district of Mi’kma’ki.   (Dark-Red) Ktaqmkuk.   (Light-Green) The other national territories of the Wabanaki Confederacy.   (Dark-Grey) The southern territories of the Dawnland region.   (Light-Grey) Turtle Island (North America).” ref

“The Mi’kmaq; singular: Mi’kmaw, also L’nuk and formerly Micmac) are an Indigenous group of people of the Northeastern Woodlands, native to the areas of Canada’s Atlantic Provinces, primarily Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as Native Americans in the northeastern region of Maine. The traditional national territory of the Mi’kmaq is named Mi’kma’ki (or Mi’gma’gi); it is one of the five confederated Wabanaki (or Dawnland) countries. As of 2023, there are 66,748 Mi’kmaq people in the region; this includes 25,182 members in the more recently formed Qalipu First Nation in Newfoundland. According to the Canadian 2021 census, 9,245 people claim to speak Mi’kmawi’simk, an Eastern Algonquian language. Once written in Mi’kmaw hieroglyphic writing, it is now written using most letters of the Latin alphabet.” ref

“The Mi’kmaq, Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet), and Pasamaquoddy nations signed a series of treaties known as the Peace and Friendship Treaties with the British Crown throughout the 18th century; the first was signed in 1725, and the last in 1779. The Mi’kmaq maintain that they did not cede or give up their land title to Mi’kma’ki or other rights through these Peace and Friendship Treaties. The landmark 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision in R v Marshall upheld the 1752 Peace and Friendship Treaty “which promised Indigenous Peoples the right to hunt and fish their lands and establish trade.” The Mi’kmaq Grand Council is the official authority that engages in consultation with the Canadian federal government and the provincial government of Nova Scotia, as established by the historic August 30, 2010, agreement with the Mi’kmaq Nation, resulting from the Mi’kmaq–Nova Scotia–Canada Tripartite Forum.” ref

“This collaborative agreement, which includes all the First Nations within the province of Nova Scotia, was the first in Canadian history. Historically, the Sante’ Mawio’mi, or Grand Council—which was made up of district councils and chiefs, or saqamaq, of Mi’kma’ki—was the traditional senior level of government for the Mi’kmaq people. The 1876 Indian Act disrupted that authority, by requiring First Nations to establish representative elected governments along the Canadian model, and attempting to limit the Council’s role to spiritual guidance. Mi’kmaq (singular: Mi’kmaw) comes from the word ni’kmaq meaning “my friends”. There exist various spelling conventions resulting in forms like Mi’gmaq (sing.: Mi’gmaw) and Míkmaq (sing.: Mígmaw). The singular form (Mi’kmaw) is also used as the adjectival form, as seen in “Mi’kmaw Nation”. Alternatively, Mi’kmaq use the terms L’nu (plural: L’nuk, meaning “the people”) to describe themselves.” ref

“On August 30, 2010, the Mi’kmaq Nation and the Nova Scotia provincial government reached an historic agreement, affirming that the Mi’kmaq Grand Council was the official consultative authority that engages with the Canadian federal government and the provincial government of Nova Scotia. The Mi’kmaq–Nova Scotia–Canada Tripartite Forum preceded the agreement. The August 2010 agreement is the first such collaborative agreement in Canadian history; it includes representation for all the First Nations within the entire province of Nova Scotia. Historically the Sante’ Mawio’mi, or Grand Council, which was made up of chiefs of the district councils of Mi’kma’ki, was the traditional senior level of government for the Mi’kmaq people. The 1876 Indian Act disrupted that authority, by requiring First Nations to establish representative elected governments and attempting to limit the Council’s role to that of spiritual guidance.” ref

“In addition to the district councils, the Mi’kmaq have been traditionally governed by a Grand Council or Sante’ Mawio’mi. The Grand Council was composed of Keptinaq (“captains” in English), who were the district chiefs. There were also elders, the putús (wampum belt readers and historians, who also dealt with the treaties with the non-Natives and other Native tribes), the women’s council, and the grand chief. The grand chief was a title given to one of the district chiefs, who was usually from the Mi’kmaq district of Unamáki or Cape Breton Island. This title was hereditary within a clan and usually passed on to the grand chief’s eldest son. On June 24, 1610, Grand Chief Membertou converted to Catholicism and was baptised. He concluded an alliance with the French Jesuits. The Mi’kmaq, as trading allies of the French, were amenable to limited French settlement in their midst.” ref

“Gabriel Sylliboy (1874–1964), a respected Mi’kmaq religious leader and traditional Grand Chief of the Council, was elected as the Council’s Grand Chief in 1918. Repeatedly re-elected, he held this position for the rest of his life. In 1927, Grand Chief Sylliboy was charged by Nova Scotia with hunting muskrat pelts out of season. He was the first to use the rights defined in the Treaty of 1752 in his court defence. He lost his case. In 1985, the Supreme Court of Canada finally recognized the 1752 treaty rights for Indigenous hunting and fishing in their ruling on R v Simon. On the 50th anniversary of Sylliboy’s death, the Grand Council asked the Nova Scotia government for a pardon for the late Grand Chief. Premier Stephen McNeil granted the posthumous pardon in 2017.” ref

“Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, John James Grant, McNeil, and the Justice Minister Diana Whalen, pardoned Sylliboy and issued a formal apology: it was the “second posthumous pardon in Nova Scotia’s history”. His grandson, Andrew Denny, now the Grand Keptin of the Council, said that his grandfather had “commanded respect. Young people who were about to get married would go and ask for his blessing. At the Chapel Island Mission boats would stop if he was crossing.” Traditionally, the Grand Council met on a small island, Mniku, on the Bras d’Or Lake in Cape Breton. In the early 21st century, this site is now within the reserve known as Chapel Island or Potlotek. The Grand Council continues to meet at Mniku to discuss current issues within the Miꞌkmaq Nation. Taqamkuk (Newfoundland) was historically defined as part of Unama’kik territory. (Later the large island was organized as a separate district in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.)” ref

“The Mi’kmaq language was written using Mi’kmaq hieroglyphic writing using a hieroglyphic system created in 1677 by French Catholic missionary Chrestien Le Clerq. Le Clerq noted that the Mi’kmaq children were memorizing prayers utilizing the counting of marks, but did not claim to have incorporated any of this system into the hieroglyphs he created. It is likely that this pre-Le Clerq writing system was part of a writing tradition by the Mi’kmaq similar to that observed in 1651 amongst the Eastern Abenaki of Maine. Today, it is written mainly using letters of the Latin alphabet. At the Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site, petroglyphs of “life-ways of the Mi’kmaq”, include written hieroglyphics, human figures, Mi’kmaq houses and lodges, decorations including crosses, sailing vessels, and animals, etched into slate rocks.” ref

“These are attributed to the Mi’kmaq, who have continuously inhabited the area since prehistoric times. The petroglyphs date from the late prehistoric period through the nineteenth century. Jerry Lonecloud (1854 – 1930, Mi’kmaq) is considered the “ethnographer of the Mi’kmaq nation”. In 1912, he transcribed some of the Kejimkujik petroglyphs, and donated his works to the Nova Scotia Museum. He is credited with the first Mi’kmaq memoir, which was recorded from his oral history in the 1920s. In southwestern Nova Scotia, there is archaeological evidence that traces traditional land use and resources to at least 4,000 years. In Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site, there are canoe routes that have been used for thousands of years by Indigenous people travelling from the Bay of Fundy to the Atlantic ocean.” ref 

“Research published in 1871 showed that some Mi’kmaq believed they had emigrated from the west, and then lived alongside the Kwēdĕchk. According to Mi’kmaq traditions recorded by S. T. Rand, the Kwēdĕchk were the original inhabitants of the land. The two tribes engaged in a war that lasted “many years”, and involved the “slaughter of men, women, and children, and torture of captives”, and the eventual displacement of the Kwēdĕchk by the victorious Mi’kmaq. In his Memorial University master’s thesis, Mi’kmaq elder Roger Lewis investigated how pre-contact Mi’kmaq populations had a reciprocal relationship with the environment that was reflected in subsistence fishing, hunting and gathering, as well as in settlement locations. Lewis, who has held the position of ethnology curator at the Nova Scotia Museum in Halifax, since 2007 focused his MA research specifically on pre-contact fish weirs in southwestern Nova Scotia.” ref

“In the chapter “Late Prehistory of the East Coast” in the Smithsonian’s 1978 Handbook of North American Indians, archaeologist Dean Snow says that the fairly deep linguistic split between the Mi’kmaq and the Eastern Algonquians to the southwest suggests the Mi’kmaq developed an independent prehistoric cultural sequence in their territory. It emphasized maritime orientation, as the area had relatively few major river systems. In the chapter “Early Indian-European Contact” in the 1978 Handbook, ethnologist T. J. Brasser, described how pre-contact small semi-nomadic bands of a few patrilineally related families who lived in a climate unfavorable for agriculture, had subsisted on fishing and hunting. Developed leadership did not extend beyond hunting parties.” ref 

“In the same 1978 Handbook, anthropologist Philip Bock described the annual cycle of seasonal movement of pre-contact Mi’kmaq. Bock wrote that the Mi’kmaq had lived in dispersed interior winter camps and larger coastal communities during the summer. The spawning runs of March began their movement to converge on smelt spawning streams. They next harvested spawning herring, gathered waterfowl eggs, and hunted geese. By May, the seashore offered abundant cod and shellfish, and coastal breezes brought relief from the biting black flies, deer flies, midges, and mosquitoes of the interior. Autumn frost killed the biting insects during the September harvest of spawning American eels. Smaller groups would disperse into the interior where they hunted moose and caribou. The most important animal hunted by the Mi’kmaq was the moose, which was used in every part: the meat for food, the skin for clothing, tendons and sinew for cordage, and bones for carving and tools. Other animals hunted/trapped included deer, bear, rabbit, beaver, and porcupine.” ref

“Braser described the first contact between the Mi’kmaq and early European fishermen. These fishermen salted their catch at sea and sailed directly home with it, but they set up camps ashore as early as 1520 for dry-curing cod. During the second half of the century, dry curing became the preferred preservation method. Brasser said that trading furs for European trade goods had changed Mi’kmaq social perspectives. Desire for trade goods encouraged the men to devote a larger portion of the year away from the coast, trapping in the interior. Trapping non-migratory animals, such as beaver, increased awareness of territoriality. Trader preferences for good harbors resulted in greater numbers of Mi’kmaq gathering in fewer summer rendezvous locations. This in turn encouraged their establishing larger bands, led by the ablest trade negotiators.” ref

“According to the Nova Scotia Museum, bear teeth and claws were used as decoration in regalia. The women used porcupine quills to create decorative beadwork on clothing, moccasins, and accessories. The weapon used most for hunting was the bow and arrow. The Mi’kmaq made their bows from maple. They ate fish of all kinds, such as salmon, sturgeon, lobster, squid, shellfish, and eels, as well as seabirds and their eggs. They hunted marine mammals such as porpoises, whales, walrus, and seals. Mi’kmaq territory was the first portion of North America that Europeans exploited at length for resource extraction. Reports by John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, and Portuguese explorers about conditions there encouraged visits by Portuguese, Spanish, Basque, French, and English fishermen and whalers, beginning in the 16th century.” ref 

“European fishing camps traded with Mi’kmaq fishermen, and trading rapidly expanded to include furs, according to Thomas B. Costain, (1885–1965), a journalist who wrote historical novels. By 1578, some 350 European ships were operating around the Saint Lawrence estuary. Most were independent fishermen, but increasing numbers were exploring the fur trade. Some Mi’kmaq people practice the Catholic faith while some only practice traditional Mi’kmaq beliefs. However, many have adopted both because of the compatibility between both systems. The Mi’kmaq people had very little in the way of physical recording and storytelling; petroglyphs, while used, are believed to have been rare. In addition, it is not believed that pre-contact Mi’kmaq had any form of written language.” ref

“As such, almost all of Mi’kmaq traditions were passed down orally, primarily via storytelling. There were traditionally three levels of oral traditions: religious myths, legends, and folklore. This includes Mi’kmaq creation stories and myths which account for the organization of the world and society; for instance, how men and women were created and why they are different from one another. The most well known Mi’kmaq myth is that of Glooscap. Good storytellers are highly prized by the Mi’kmaq, as they provide important teachings that shape who a person grows to be, and are sources of great entertainment.” ref 

“One myth explains that the Mi’kmaq once believed that evil and wickedness among men is what causes them to kill each other. This causes great sorrow to the creator-sun-god, who weeps tears that become rains sufficient to trigger a deluge. The people attempt to survive the flood by traveling in bark canoes, but only a single old man and woman survive to populate the earth. One spiritual capital of the Mi’kmaq Nation is Mniku, Unama’ki, the gathering place of the Mi’kmaq Grand Council or Sante’ Mawio’mi, Chapel Island in Bras d’Or Lake of Nova Scotia. The island is also the site of the St. Anne Mission, an important pilgrimage site for the Mi’kmaq. The island has been declared a historic site.” ref

Mi’kmaq Creation Story (Click to read)

The Mi’kmaq people do not explain how the Great Spirit came into existence, only that Creator is responsible for everything being where it is today. Creator made everything. Kisu’lk (gee-soolg) is the one who made everything. Sometimes Kisu’lk is referred to as Kji Niskam (Jee nis-gam), or the Great Spirit. Neither word implies gender, because it is not important whether the Great Spirit is a he or a she.

MI’KMAW CULTURE – ORAL TRADITION: Kisu’lk, Naku’set, The Creation of Wsitqamu’k, The Creation of Kluskap, The Coming of Nukumi, The Coming of Netawansum, The Coming of Ni’kanaptekewi’skw, Kluskap’s Life, Kluskap’s Departure, and Final Teachings (Click to read more)

History of Maine

“During the roughly 13,000 years since people first moved into Maine, there have been dramatic environmental changes, some within the last few thousand years.  These environmental changes include relative sea level rise, moderate climate change, and related response by the forest and land plant cover, and change in water temperatures and tidal range within the Gulf of Maine with associated changes in fish, bird, and marine mammal populations.” ref

“For a thousand years after people arrived about 13,000 years ago, Maine was sub-arctic in character, at least on the land.  Northern Maine and higher elevations were grassy tundra, with open spruce forest (parkland) in central Maine, and dense spruce conifer forest in southernmost Maine and southern New England.  This environmental gradient is similar to that of Labrador today, and it supported large, migratory caribou herds.  We don’t know much about the nature of the Maine coast, but oysters and clams were present in at least localized areas by 10,000 to 9000 years ago.” ref

“The first people to inhabit Maine, called  Paleoindians by archaeologists, moved into New England from west of the Hudson River about 13,000 calendar years ago.  The terrestrial environment in Maine at the time was analogous to Labrador today — patches of tundra and grassland, isolated spruce trees, and open spruce forest with small remnant patches of ice cap in the northern Maine mountains.  The Laurentide ice sheet had pulled back to the north of what is now the St. Lawrence river.  The St. Lawrence valley and Champlain lake basins were a cold, subarctic sea full of walrus, seals, whales and fish.  We don’t know much about conditions on the Maine coast, because it was miles offshore, compared to today.  That 13,000 year old coast is now marked by the 200 foot depth contour, approximately, or 33 fathoms underwater.” ref

“Based on what were then inland archaeological sites (the ones archaeologists have access to today above current sea level), the Paleoindians made part of their living by hunting caribou, and perhaps the last of the mammoth and mastodon, and moving over vast areas of land on foot.  Their small camp sites, marked by distinctive stone tools, are spread across New England and the Maritimes provinces.  We trace their movements in part by the distance between stone tool quarries and where stone tools were dropped on sites, sometimes up to 500 km.  Maybe the Paleoindians had a coastal, seasonal economy based on shellfish and fish, but we don’t know.” ref

“Beginning about 11,000 years ago, the climate warmed over a few millennia to a condition (by 8000 years ago) a bit warmer and dryer than we have experienced in Maine over the last century or two.  Forest cover was dense and had changed dramatically by 7000 to 6000 years ago, with a higher percentage of hardwoods and nut-bearing trees than today, especially in southern Maine.  (It was perhaps more like the forest of Massachusetts or Connecticut was at the time Europeans arrived). The warmer and drier climate resulted, in part, in lowered fresh water levels in Maine and New England lakes, sometimes by a few feet (around 6000 to 5000 years ago).  Lower water flow in streams and rivers was also probable.  Although there has been minor variation, it seems as if the general trend over the last few millennia (roughly the last 3000 years) had been toward slightly cooler and wetter overall conditions (until the last 50 years).” ref

“The regional climate in general warmed up rapidly after 11,000 years ago.  Various tree species continued to “move” northward (as their seeds were spread in various ways), and Maine was covered by a dense, hardwood-dominated mixed forest.  The coastal waters warmed in parallel with the forested interior. Small Native American seasonal villages concentrated at the inlets and outlets of major and medium-sized lakes, along the main river valleys, and in coastal sites.  Travel on the ocean, main rivers and major lakes in dugout canoes characterized the Archaic period.  For about 7000 years Maine Indians used heavy, wooden dugout canoes, which are not readily portable.  We have not found any of the dugouts, but heavy woodworking stone gouges and chisels that were used to make the dugouts, and perhaps other large wooden objects, are common.  Travel between “flat water” must have been by foot trail.” ref

“A series of cultures, named by archaeologists usually after a specific stone spear head type, must have occupied the Maine coast.  Their coastal sites are under water, and only a few have been found preserved in deposits on the bottom of the inshore Gulf of Maine (Kelley et al. 2010).  For the most part, we assume that the people on the coast were similar culturally to the ones we find living along interior rivers and lake shores.  In a very few places along the central Maine coast, camp sites with deposits formed around 4500 to 4000 years ago, have survived above the rising sea level. The Nevin site is one of these.  All of these coastal camp sites before 4000 years ago include swordfish bone, when food bone is preserved at all.  The cultural names given to these coastal people are Small Stemmed Point (before about 4200 years), and Moorhead phase (between about 4200 and 3800 years).  These people, and their predecessors, participated in a religious tradition commonly called “Red Paint” for the red ochre pigment added to their graves.  Archaeologists now call the religion the Moorehead Burial tradition (from about 6000 to about 3800 years).” ref

Then, sometime between 4000 and 3500 years ago, the coastal ecology changed, and the Gulf of Maine became increasing tidal and cold.  At about 3600 years, a culture called the Susquehanna tradition  (perhaps carried by an immigrant population, with extensive debate about the issue), moved into or was adopted across New England and the Maritimes provinces.  The Susquehanna tradition has origins (slightly older by a century or two), with very similar stone and bone technology, as far south as the Savannah River valley on the Georgia/North Carolina border.  The Northeastern variant was first recognized in the Susquehanna River valley.  Along the Gulf of Maine, the Susquehanna tradition people (or culture) were less maritime-oriented than their immediate predecessors (the Moorehead phase).  They also made extensive use of the vast Maine Maritimes interior.  Their stone tools included large, broad-bladed, stemmed knives, and stone drills that must have been used to make something out of wood that was put together with lashings or pegs about the diameter of a modern pencil.  (It is possible that these were lightly-framed boats, or some new variant of the dugout canoe.)” ref 

“These people hunted for terrestrial mammals (deer, moose, bear, furbearers), and congregated seasonally at locations that were good for harvesting fish runs.  Their burial practices were different from the preceding Moorehead Burial tradition. Their culture changed slowly over the centuries, and may have been related to the first of the Ceramic period cultures in the region. Environmental change in the Gulf of Maine and along the immediate coast has been more dramatic.  Although these environmental changes would have primarily affected life along the Maine coast and near-coast, they might also have changed the relative population levels of interior and coastal Maine, seasonal movements of people between the coast and interior, and cultural relationships between coast and interior.” ref

“Before about 3500 years ago, the Gulf of Maine had a low tidal amplitude (a few feet), and generated warm surface water, at  least during summer.  At 4200 to 3800 years ago, surface water was warm enough to allow swordfish to swim inshore around the Gulf of Maine.  The over-arching environmental trend along the coast has been relative sea level rise.  This is a complex effect of bedrock reaction from removal of the weight of the ice at the end of the ice age and world-wide sea level rise as ice melted.  First the bedrock rebounded quickly after ice melt, but since about 12,500 (calendar, or 10,500 radiocarbon) years ago, Maine coastal bedrock has been sinking at various rates.  The maximum exposure of the shore (maximum relative sea level retreat and land exposure) at 12,500 years, is now about 65 m (roughly 200 feet) under sea level in the Gulf of Maine.  (There are hints of an erosional shoreline from 12,500 years ago under the Gulf of Maine at this depth.)” ref

“Sea level has been rising at varying rates, but  inexorably, since 12,500 years ago (or about 10,500 radiocarbon).  The rate of rise was at first very quick, to about -20 m at 10,500 calendar years, then slower to about – 5 m (16 feet) at 6000 years, and – 3 m (10 ft) at 4000 years.  As sea levels rose, the estuaries and bays of the Maine coast would have progressively flooded, moving shellfish habitat and the limited intertidal zone slowly “inland.”  As a result, any shoreline camp sites (archaeological sites) would be successively flooded (mostly eroded).  Fishermen (scallop draggers) find stone tools of appropriate style (and age) at appropriate depths underwater around the Gulf of Maine. Archaeologists and geologists have documented stone tools from former beach deposits, with “fossil” or dead shellfish beds nearby at several places on the central Maine coast. These associated deposits probably mark coastal camp sites from which shellfish were harvested, likely producing shell middens.  The only remaining evidence of the camp sites is the stone tools.” ref

“About 3500 to 3400 years ago, something dramatic happened as relative sea level continued its slow rise in the Gulf of Maine.  This dramatic effect contradicts a model of slow sea level rise and slow, gradual increase in tidal amplitude that had been commonly accepted by geoscientists and archaeologist until recently. The evidence (Shaw et al. 2010) points to rising sea level cutting through a glacial till ridge, and flooding into what is now the Minas Basin (inner Bay of Fundy). Such a geographic change had an effect on Gulf of Maine tides (resonance) such that the amplitude of the tides increased dramatically in a few hundred years.  (Perhaps the tides increased from a few feet to 6 feet – 8 feet.) The effect was noticeable around the Gulf of Maine, as seen in a change from mud to sand deposition (increased tidal current flow) in Boston Harbor (Rosen et al. 1993).  As sea level has continued to rise, tidal amplitude has increased further, to the 8 to 13 foot tides now present on most of the Maine coast.  So, added on to the effect of average sea level rise in the Gulf of Maine (a few feet) is the increase in tidal amplitude, rising the highest (spring) tide water levels faster than “sea level.” As tidal amplitude has increased, of course, so has the width and extent of the intertidal zone exposed at low tide.  The increase in intertidal zone shellfish populations probably also had an effect on inshore ecology, and the people dependent upon it.” ref

“Over the last few millennia, cold water from the Labrador current increased in flow around the headland of Nova Scotia and into the bottom waters of the Gulf of Maine. As an effect of increasing tidal amplitude, tidal mixing has driven an increasingly strong up-welling of that cold bottom water along the eastern Maine coast, and counterclockwise circulation of that colder water around the Gulf of Maine. The warm, summer surface waters that supported inshore swordfish about 4000 years ago are now replaced with colder water and wide intertidal zones. This cold water upwelling, plus the tidal mixing, now supports a cold water inshore fishery, including lobster (of course) and clams, seals, birds, flounder, sculpin, sturgeon, and winter or spring spawning cod fish. What we have now is radically different from the 4000 year old warm summer surface water fishery. At the same time, the cold Gulf of Maine causes fog and cooler, wetter summer conditions on the coast than in the interior, supporting a coastal spruce forest that is more favorable to moose than to deer.” ref

Ceramic Period of Maine (2,800 years ago)

“We do not understand the details of the link between the environmental changes and Native American technological and  culture changes, if there is a direct link.  But there were a series of dramatic technological changes in Indian life between about 3500 and 2500 years ago.  The outcome of these changes was Native American life more or less as recorded by the first European explorers. Sometime between about 3500 and 2400 years ago, it seems, Maine Indians invented or adopted the birch bark canoe. Whether the birch bark canoe was invented here, or perhaps in southern Canada, we don’t know.  It may have begun as a skin-covered boat of light frame construction, and developed into the “perfected” forms we know as the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy and other tribe’s canoe designs of the 1800s.  But the Maine forest certainly grew large, plentiful paper birch at the time (3000 years or afterward), and has since. As we all know because of its modern canvas, plastic and aluminum copies, the birch canoe is back portable, can be poled upstream, can float in a few inches of water as well as being useable on larger bodies of water, and can carry a decent load of gear.  One can pole and drag a birchbark canoe up a beaver-dammed stream, and portage it between drainages, but one can not do that with a dugout.” ref

“We have not found any birchbark canoe pieces archaeologically, but the Maine and northern New England archaeological record changes dramatically between 3500 and 2400  years ago.  The large, heavy stone gouges and axes of the Archaic period become rare, and archaeological sites of about 3000 years of age and younger show up on good camping places on smaller drainages where one can easily go with a lighter canoe but not with a dugout. Canoes enabled an increasingly dispersed settlement pattern around lakes and smaller streams during the and Ceramic period, as well as increased long-distance travel.  Based on stone tools and the distribution of settlements, we are certain that a well-developed, effective birch canoe was in widespread use in Maine (and adjacent Maritimes and northern New England) by 2300 ro 2200 years ago, at least.  Rivers and large streams became highways, in a complex network that involved both upstream (with a pole, as needed) and downstream travel, with connecting portages.  Certain waterways were useful for upstream or downstream travel at certain times of the open water season depending on water flow conditions. Thus the network of canoe routes at times included “one way” routes and they changed with the seasons.” ref

“Another technological change occurred at about 2800 years ago, as Maine native Americans adopted or borrowed, from further south along the Atlantic coast, the making of fired clay pottery. Archaeologists call the last 2800 to 3000 years or so of Maine pre-contact culture the “Ceramic period.”  Prior to the advent of ceramic pots, boiling cooking was done by heating rocks in a fire and dropping the hot rock into a wooden or bark container. During the Ceramic period,  Native Americans developed a generalized hunting, fishing and gathering economy based upon the mobility of birchbark canoes and cooking food in ceramic pots.  They combined subsistence and settlement strategies to move people to seasonally available resources, or to move food (such as baskets of clams, or dead moose) and other resources to camp or village locations.” ref

“Another technological change that created what we think of as traditional Native American life was the introduction of the bow and arrow, sometime around 2000 to 1500 years ago (around CE 500).  The technology that preceded the bow and arrow was a thrown spear, thrown with the help of a throwing stick.  The throwing stick we today call an atlatl, which is an Aztec word.  Bows, arrows, spears and throwing sticks are mostly made of wood, so how do we know?  Throwing sticks sometimes were fitted with bone hooks, and the throwing sticks or the thrown spears were sometimes weighted with bone or stone weights of symmetrical shape. Moreover, an arrow must be tipped with a point that weighs less than a certain weight – a few ounces. So, all stone points that weight too much for an arrow are either spear points or knives.  The stone weights disappear from the archaeological record of our region about 3000 years ago, and small stone points, possible arrow points, become common after about 2000 years ago.” ref

“About 900 years ago (around CE 1100)  corn, bean and squash horticulture, the final major addition to affect Native life in Maine before European-introduced changes, arrived in southernmost Maine (York, Cumberland counties, along the coast to Pemaquid and up the Kennebec River to Norridgewock). Life over most of Maine was based almost entirely upon harvesting wild resources until after contact with Europeans, except in southwestern Maine where corn, bean and squash gardening was adopted (from southern New England).  Only in southwestern Maine, Native people adopted the practice of growing corn and beans in gardens during the summer.  This agriculture affected southwestern Maine primarily causing population growth and larger village size; but eastern Maine remained outside the influence of agriculture.” ref

“Agricultural villages, where they occurred, may have been more dispersed hamlets with individual farmsteads, each with an acre of corn.  Champlain’s illustration of Native American corn fields around what is now Saco and Biddeford, circa 1605, is schematic but probably useful.  We know from accounts dating to about 1605, also, that some of these agricultural “villages” had populations of up to 1000 people.  But the buildings seem to not have been concentrated into palisaded, fortified villages as was common among the Iroquoian-speakers of New York, for example.” ref

First Europeans

“John Cabot in CE 1498 surveyed the New England coastline, including Maine, representing England. Giovanni da Verrazzano, in CE 1524, a Florentine explorer sailing for France, who documented the coast. European contact with Maine began with John Cabot in 1498, followed by Giovanni da Verrazzano, who first stepped ashore in 1524. The French established early, short-lived settlements in 1604, while the English established the unsuccessful Popham Colony in 1607. Other early, albeit temporary, European encounters included explorers in 1605.

“There are many stories of Norsemen exploring as far south as Maine, but there is currently no documented evidence for that. In 1497 John Cabot made the first of two documented voyages to explore the New World on behalf of Henry VII of England and it’s very likely on one of the voyages reached as far south as the coast of Maine. Cabot’s expeditions were based out of the fishing port of Bristol, England, and Bristol merchant William Weston followed up on Cabot’s efforts in 1499. Cabot’s crews reported (as written in a letter to the Duke of Milan in 1497): “The Sea there is swarming with fish which can be taken not only with the net but in baskets with a stone, so that it sinks in the water.“ In fact, Bristol fishermen had already been sailing to Iceland for cod fishing, and after Weston’s return there is anecdotal evidence that Europeans from England to Portugal regularly fished the waters of the northeast waters, including the Gulf of Maine, immediately afterwards.” ref

“Following disputed rights over the northeast coasts between Spain and England, the next documented Europeans to explore the coast of Maine were by Giovanni da Verrazzano under the French flag in 1524, and then the Portuguese explorer Estêvão Gomes, in service of the Spanish Empire, in 1525. They mapped the coastline (including the Penobscot River) but did not settle, though Verrazzano’s efforts added a French claim to the area. The first European settlement in the area was made on St. Croix Island in 1604 by a French party that included Samuel de Champlain and Mathieu da Costa. The French named the area Acadia. French and English settlers would contest central Maine until the 1750s (when the French were defeated in the French and Indian War). The French developed and maintained strong relations with the local Indian tribes through Catholic missionaries.” ref

“English colonists sponsored by the Plymouth Company founded a settlement in Maine in 1607 (the Popham Colony at Phippsburg), but it was abandoned the following year. A French trading post was established at present-day Castine in 1613 by Claude de Saint-Étienne de la Tour, and may represent the first permanent European settlement in New England. The Plymouth Colony, established on the shores of Cape Cod Bay in 1620, set up a competing trading post at Penobscot Bay in the 1620s. The territory between the Merrimack and Kennebec rivers was first called the Province of Maine in a 1622 land patent granted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason. The two split the territory along the Piscataqua River in a 1629 pact that resulted in the Province of New Hampshire being formed by Mason in the south and New Somersetshire being created by Gorges to the north, in what is now southwestern Maine. The present Somerset County in Maine preserves this early nomenclature.” ref

“One of the first English attempts to settle the Maine coast was by Christopher Levett, an agent for Gorges and a member of the Plymouth Council for New England. After securing a royal grant for 6,000 acres (24 km²) of land on the site of present-day Portland, Maine, Levett built a stone house and left a group of settlers behind when he returned to England in 1623 to drum up support for his settlement, which he called “York” after the city in England of his birth. Originally called Machigonne by the local Abenaki, later settlers named it Falmouth and it is known today as Portland. Levett’s settlement, like the Popham Colony also failed, and the settlers Levett left behind were never heard from again. Levett did sail back across the Atlantic to meet with Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop at Salem in 1630, but died on the return voyage without ever returning to his settlement.” ref

“The New Somersetshire colony was small, and in 1639 Gorges received a second patent, from Charles I, covering the same territory as Gorges’ 1629 settlement with Mason. Gorges’ second effort resulted in the establishment of more settlements along the coast of southern Maine, and along the Piscataqua River, with a formal government under his distant relation, Thomas Gorges. A dispute about the bounds of a 1630 land grant led in 1643 to the short-lived formation of Lygonia on territory that encompassed a large area of the Gorges grant (modern Portland, Scarborough and Saco). The 1629 Charter of Massachusetts Bay set the northern sea-to-sea boundary three miles north of the northernmost part of the Merrimack River.” ref

“After the parliamentary victory in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and installation of the Puritan Oliver Cromwell, a 1652 survey by the Massachusetts reported the source of the Merrimack as Lake Winnipesaukee, and set the boundary at three miles north of 43°40′12″N (which would put it at 43°43′12″N). Surveyors reckoned on the Maine coast this corresponded to Upper Clapboard Island in Casco Bay, just north of modern-day Portland, Maine. This meant Massachusetts’ patent encompassed all the English colonial settlements in the Mason’s lands (New Hampshire), and both Lygonia and Gorges’ lands (western Maine, which ended around modern-day Bath, Maine). The Parliamentarian, Puritan colony of Massachusetts sent commissioners to the Anglican, Royalist colonies to enforce jurisdiction. Opponents were arrested and jailed until the leader of the resistance, Edward Godfrey, capitulated.” ref

“Both Gorges’ Province of Maine and Lygonia had been absorbed into the Massachusetts Bay Colony by 1658. The Massachusetts claim would be overturned in 1676, but Massachusetts again asserted control by purchasing the territorial claims of the Gorges’ heirs. In 1669, the Territory of Sagadahock, between the Kennebec and St. Croix rivers (what is now eastern Maine) was granted by Charles II to his brother James, Duke of York. Under the terms of this grant, all the territory from the Saint Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean was constituted as Cornwall County, and was governed as part of the duke’s proprietary Province of New York. At times, this territory was claimed by New France as part of Acadia.” ref

“In 1674, the Dutch briefly conquered Acadia, renaming the colony New Holland. In 1686 James, now king, established the Dominion of New England. This political entity eventually combined all of the English colonial territories from Delaware Bay to the St. Croix River. The dominion collapsed in 1689, and a new patent was issued by William III of England and Mary II of England in 1691. This became effective in 1692 when the territory between the Piscataqua and the St. Croix (all of modern Maine) became part of the new Province of Massachusetts Bay as Yorkshire, a name which survives in present-day York County.” ref

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Texas’ “Prehistory” 

AI Overview: Texas prehistory covers a vast span of time, from the earliest human migrations to the arrival of European explorers in the 16th century. Archaeologists generally divide this era into four distinct stages. 

1. Paleo-Indian Period (approx. 20,000 – 7,000 BCE) 

The earliest known Texans were nomadic hunters who arrived during the last Ice Age. 

• Pre-Clovis Evidence: The Gault Site in Central Texas provides evidence of human occupation dating back roughly 16,000 to 20,000 years, predating the previously held “Clovis First” theory.
• Big Game Hunting: Early groups like the Clovis and Folsom cultures used fluted spear points to hunt megafauna, including mammoths and giant bison.
• Key Sites: Bonfire Shelter (the oldest mass bison-kill site in the Americas) and Lubbock Lake. 

2. Archaic Period (approx. 7,000 BCE – 800 CE) 

As the climate warmed and megafauna went extinct, native groups shifted toward a more varied hunter-gatherer lifestyle. 

• Technological Shifts: The atlatl (spearthrower) remained the primary weapon, and the introduction of grinding stones indicates a greater reliance on harvesting wild plants and nuts.
• Regional Specialization: Groups became more territorial, leading to more specialized regional cultures and the appearance of the first large-scale cemeteries.
• Rock Art: Many of the world-class pictographs in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands date to this era. 

3. Woodland / Late Prehistoric Period (approx. 800 – 1600 CE)

This era saw dramatic technological and social advancements. 

• Bow and Arrow: The introduction of the bow and arrow around 700–800 CE revolutionized hunting and warfare.
• Agriculture & Pottery: Many groups, particularly the Caddo in East Texas and Jornada Mogollon in West Texas, established settled villages, began farming (corn, beans, and squash), and produced distinctive pottery.
• Mound Building: The Caddo people constructed massive earthwork mounds for ceremonial and burial purposes, such as those at Caddoan Mounds State Historic Site. 

4. Protohistoric / Contact Era

The prehistoric era ended in 1528 when Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions were shipwrecked on the Texas coast. At this time, Texas was inhabited by diverse groups including the Karankawa on the coast, the Jumano in the west, and the Caddo in the east. 

Damien Marie AtHope (in Texas) lives in Corpus Christi, which is in the Gulf Coast Tribes area, like the Karankawa and Coahuiltecans.

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Karankawa people

“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 a language and some culture. From the onset of European colonization, the Karankawa had violent encounters with the Spanish. 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.” In the 1800s, white American settlers arrived in their land under the leadership of Stephen F. Austin. He commissioned a captain to expel the Karankawa from the Austin land grant, leading to multiple attacks, including the Skull Creek massacre of 19 Karankawa. Tribes within the Karankawa include: the Copano people, the Cujane, and the Coco.” ref 

“In 1824, Austin sent Captain Randal Jones with a group of 23 soldiers to what is now Brazoria County to fight and disperse the Karankawa Indians from their encampment. 15 Indians were killed, and the remaining fled the area. This event is known as the Battle of Jones Creek. 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. In 1858, Mexican rancher Juan Nepomuceno Cortina led a group of Mexicans and Texan colonists against what was believed to be the Karankawa’s last known refuge, killing many. By 1891, the Karankawa ceased to exist as a functioning tribe. Today, however, there are unrecognized tribes who claim Karankawa descent.” ref 

“The Karankawa’s autonym is Né-ume, meaning “the people”. The name Karakawa has numerous spellings in Spanish, French, and English. Swiss-American ethnologist Albert S. Gatschet wrote that the name Karakawa may have come from the Comecrudo terms klam or glám, meaning “dog”, and kawa, meaning “to love, like, to be fond of.” The plural form of kawa is kakáwa, so the term would mean “dog-lovers” or “dog-raisers.” The Tonkawa called them Wrestlers (“Keles” or “Killis”). They alternatively called them the barefooted or those without moccasins (“Yakokon kapa-i”), but this name was also applied to other groups with which the Tonkawe were acquainted.” ref

The Lipan Apache called the Karankawa the “people who walk in the water” (“Nda Kun dadehe”), possibly referring to their mode of fishing and catching turtles, or simply their location near the swampy coast. The Karankawa called themselves “Karankawa” as well. Later speculation placed the Karankawa language in the Cariban linguistic stock. Linguistic data suggests that the Karankawa name originated from the old Spanish Main, “Kalina,” and a suffix from a Northern Carib tribe, “kxura, “meaning “people.” A compound emerges: Karinxkxura, meaning “Carib people.” But this theory is disputed, and ultimately, the origins of the name “Karankawa” remain unknown. Alternate spellings of the name Karankawa have historically included: Carancahua, Carancagua, Carancaguase, Carancahuare, Caranchuasye, Carancahuase, Carancahuaye, Carancahuaze, Carancohuace, Caray, Carrai, Carray, Saray.” ref

AI Overview: Based on historical and anthropological accounts, the “Carib” people (specifically the Kalinago or Island Caribs) were native to the Caribbean islands and parts of South America, not natively to Texas. However, there are significant connections and, in some cases, confusion between the Caribbean peoples and indigenous groups that lived along the Texas Gulf Coast. The Karankawa Indians (Texas Gulf Coast) indigenous group in Texas often associated with, or historically confused with, Caribbean peoples are the Karankawa. They lived along the Texas coast from Galveston Bay to Corpus Christi Bay for centuries. Early European settlers and explorers sometimes conflated the Karankawa with the Caribs due to their coastal, fishing-based lifestyle and unfounded, sensationalized, or exaggerated reports of cannibalism. Like the Caribbean Caribs, the Karankawa used dugout canoes to navigate the inlets and bays, feeding on fish, oysters, and turtles.

“Little is known of the extinct Karankawa language, which may have been a language isolate. The Karankawa also possessed a gesture language for conversing with people from other Native American tribes. The Karankawa were noted for their skill in communicating with each other over long distances using smoke signals. The Karankawa could make the smoke of a small fire ascend toward the sky in many different ways, and it was as intelligible to them across long distances as their language. Their methods are unknown. The Karankawa had a specific way of conversing. They carefully repressed their breath while speaking; at the end of their sentences, they exhaled heavily, releasing the air they held back during speaking. Moreover, their expression was interpreted by Europeans as impassive, especially because they never looked at the person to whom they were speaking. Their pronunciation was very exact, and they ridiculed poor elocution by the whites who tried to learn their language. The Europeans described their general demeanour as surly and fatigued.” ref

“According to some contemporary sources, the migrations of their ancestors were entirely unknown to the Karankawa of the early 19th century. Linguist Herbert Landar, however, argues that based on linguistic evidence, the Karankawa language and people originated from a Carib subgroup, which remains to be discovered. Their exact migratory path northward is equally indistinct. Migration northward is theorised to have occurred during the late 15th century. The route north was from the original land north of the Amazon River toward Tamaulipas and Texas, and was probably done over a long period of time by short bursts of migration. Scholars have speculated that the Karankawa were descended from a group of Carib Indians who arrived by sea from the Caribbean basin. This is partially based on the similarity of their physical appearance to Caribbean natives, but no ethnographic or archaeological evidence has been found for this speculation. Recent archaeological records that used radiocarbon dating for artefacts indicated that these Native groups had been in the area as early as the fifth millennium BCE.” ref

“Carib or Kari’nja is a Cariban language spoken by the Kalina people (Caribs) of South America.” ref

“The Karankawa voyaged from place to place on a seasonal basis in their dugouts, made from large trees with the bark left intact. They travelled in groups of thirty to forty people and remained in each place for about four weeks. After European contact, canoes were of two kinds, both being called “awa’n”: the original dugout and old skiffs obtained from the whites. Neither was used for fishing but for transportation only, and their travels were limited to the waters close to the land. The women, children, and possessions travelled in the hold while the men stood on the stern and poled the canoe. Upon landing at their next destination, the women set up wigwams (called ba’ak in their native language) and the men hauled the boats on the shore. Their campsites were always close to the shoreline of the nearby body of water.” ref

“They constructed houses by arranging willow branches in a circle, bending the tops of the branches toward the centre, and interlocking them in wickerwork. This wickerwork was fastened with deerskin. Upon this framework, the Karankawa lay deer, wildcat, panther or bear skins, again fastened with deer hide thongs. The next step was to make a fire. After European contact, the Karankawa sought matches or tinderboxes from settlers; otherwise, they resorted to the traditional method of using their firesticks, which they always carried in a package of deerhide thongs. The fire was always made in the centre of their dwellings and kept burning day and night. They used animal hides and pelts to sit and sleep on within their dwellings. Their household goods and utensils included wooden spoons, ceramic vessels, fishbone needles, and fine deer sinew.” ref

“The Karankawa travelled to the coastal region. They hunted and gathered food from rivers and by the shore. In the region that the Karankawa inhabited, numerous small chunks of asphaltum have been found along the coast from oil seepage beneath the Gulf of Mexico. These chunks were used to bind arrowheads to their shafts; as a coating for pottery such as ollas, jars, and bowls; and as a way to waterproof woven baskets. Karankawa cuisine included venison, rabbit, fowl, fish, turtles, oysters, and other shellfish. Their cuisine also included food gathered from the wild, such as berries, persimmons, wild grapes, sea-bird eggs, tuna and nopales (prickly pear cactus fruit and paddles, respectively), and nuts. They boiled food in ceramic pots or roasted entrés and seasoned their dishes with chile.” ref

“After European contact, the Karankawa made bread from imported wheat flour. They laid the dough on a flat stone and then baked it on an open fire. They also enjoyed imported sweet coffee. The Karankawa were skilled at obtaining pure, fresh water. White settlers did not know where they obtained it, because the wells of the whites had a brackish taste. There is nearly 340 years of information written about the Karankawa Indians of Texas from La Salle’s first landing at Matagorda Bay in 1685 until the close of the Rosario Mission. The Karankawa had been described for centuries as cannibals. There is incontrovertible evidence that the Karankawa practised ritual cannibalism on their enemy. Just as their Aztec and Guachichiles and Guamares cousins to the south in Northern Mexico, “they ate their enemy for vengeance.” ref

“Their bones, scalps and genitals were displayed in victory celebrations.” The first person to document the Karankawa’s cannibalism was French Jean Baptiste Talon, who lived as a captive among the tribe for several years, and stated in 1689: “We all went naked like them, and every morning at daybreak, in any season, they went to plunge into the nearest river. Like them, they ate meat from the hunt, fresh or cured in the sun, but most often half raw. The only meals that horrid them were those they made of human flesh, as they are cannibals, but toward their savage enemies only. They never ate a single Frenchman that they had killed because, they said, [simply that] they do not eat them. And the same Jean-Baptiste Talon vouches that he once went three days without eating, because nothing presented itself during that time except some human flesh of the Ayenis whom they had killed on one of the expeditions.” ref

“Several years before this, French castaway Henri Joutel, a captain of the La Salle Expedition, lived among the Cenis [Tejas] tribe and hunted with their neighbouring bands who had an identical culture and language as the Karankawa. He wrote in his manuscripts that, “The warriors returned from a grand raid, parading around 48 scalps and body parts of which some of the warriors partook in cannibalising, as it was apparently thought, in order to gain the deceased warrior’s bravery. Karankawa never communicated their native names to the whites. However, they all adopted English or Spanish names. Many men adopted American military epithets and Christian names, and they would change these frequently.” ref

“Among the Karankawa existed an in-law taboo. Once a man and his wife had become, in the Karankawa sense, married, the husband and his children were no longer allowed to enter the residence of his wife’s parents, nor could his wife’s parents enter his or his children’s home. These two groups were also no longer allowed to talk with one another and never came face to face with one another. If a situation of coming face to face with one another arose, both parties averted their eyes and moved away from each other. This taboo only seemed to apply to the husbands and their children, most likely due to the inconvenience on the wife’s part, as Karankawans were typically patrilocal.” ref

“The groups of Karankawa were commonly led by two chiefs – a civil government chief with a hereditary succession in the male lines, and a war chief, probably appointed by the civil government chief. No evidence of a confederacy, like that of the Caddo or Creeks, was found. The Karankawa were probably a loose-knit body living under separate chiefs only united by the common language and shared war expeditions. The ritual to become a chief has been studied by 18th-century Spaniards. They have stated that a selection starts from many candidates, and each is injured by a comb created from the spines of a sea fish, long wounds being dug into their skin from the top of their heads to the soles of their feet and then tied to a pole for several days to either emerge thin or emaciated and close to death. While this description can indeed be a ritual to choose a chief, a diary of Fray Gaspar Jose De Solis states that he suspects these rituals could simply be a puberty rite or an initiation ritual to a brotherhood.” ref

“One aspect of the Karankawa culture was their recognition of three gender roles: male, female, and a third role taken on by some men and women. Men who took on this third role are called monanguia (see Two-Spirit for similar concepts in Native American cultures generally). Monanguia generally took on female roles and activities in daily life, while also playing a special role in religious rites. According to some accounts, the berdache also performed as passive sexual partners for other men. The written accounts of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca mentions bride price and bride service as part of a Karankawa marriage. While the bride price is assumed to be the generalized system in the Indigenous population found by Cabeza de Vaca where the groom gives presents to the parents of the girl he wishes to marry, to secure their permission, the bride service is based on a ritual where the husband must give every morsel of food he managed to collect or hunt to his wife.” ref

“His wife then delivers the bounty to her parents and in return is given food to give back to her husband. This ritual goes on for an unknown number of months, but when it is concluded, the pair typically then engages in patrilocal residence. In terms of marriage, divorce is a common aspect typically only to marriages that have not created any children and is unlikely if children have been born from the marriage. Between the husband and wife, no signs of fondness, intimacy, or special treatment were observed. The Karankawa reacted strongly and sometimes violently to Europeans interfering in marital or familial affairs. The Karankawa were said to have great compassion and tenderness for their children. Mothers carried babies, not yet able to walk, on their backs, wrapped in a loop of animal hide.” ref

“Karankawa people practiced forehead flattening. They shaped the foreheads of babies by first with a piece of cloth, then a thin board, and then a wadded cloth. Each of these was tied to the head with a bandage and left to stay there about one year. The men wore hide breechcloths, while the women wore deerhide skirts. They did not wear headcovers or shoes. Some women of the tribe obtained European clothing occasionally, but would only tear them apart or wear them temporarily. European blankets were of greater use to the tribe, worn fastened to their bodies during cold weather and pinned with thorns. Both men and women wore a small bracelet of undressed deer skin. In the warm climate, children did not wear clothing until they were about 10 years old.” ref

“The Karankawa had distinctive tattoos, notably, a blue circle tattooed over each cheekbone, one horizontal blue line from the outer angle of the eye toward the ear, three perpendicular parallel lines on the chin from the middle of the lower lip downward, and two other lines extending down from under each corner of the mouth. Moreover, 16th-century European explorers wrote that Karankawa people had labrets, or piercings of cane on the lower lips, nose, and other parts of the body. The woman in some tribes such as the Coco group also had a tattoo of concentric black circles from their nipple to circling their entire breast.” ref

“Men, women, and children alike rubbed sharks’ oil on their entire bodies regularly to deter mosquitoes effectively and to keep their skin soft and supple. Europeans who encountered the Karankawa were disgusted by the odor. The women wore no ornaments, while the men wore many ornaments. Men’s long hair was braided with three strands. They inserted bright items (such as ribbons or colored flannel). The women never braided their hair nor combed it regularly. The men wore necklaces of small shells, glass beads, pistachios, and thin metal disks on their throats (never on their chests). They also wore finger rings.” ref

“Europeans knew limited information about the rituals of the Karankawa because the latter did not reveal the purposes of their actions or their beliefs. When Joutel, an explorer and companion of Robert Cavalier de La Salle, questioned their religious beliefs, the Karankawa only pointed at the sky. At the full moon and after very successful hunting or fishing expeditions, the Karankawa traditionally held a ceremony. After gathering around a central fire, they boiled a strong and bitter brew from the leaves of the yaupon tree and stirred it until the top was covered with a yellowish froth. This brew was shared and all the Karankawa drank freely.” ref

“Although this brew was said to be intoxicating, Europeans did not notice any visible effects on the natives. One native stood within the circle of men, wrapped up to his head in skins, and he bent over as he walked around the fire. They chanted in chromatic ascending and descending tones, and all the natives joined in the chorus. This ceremony continued throughout the night. Other than this, only a few other rituals were observed, and their purposes are unknown. The Karankawa stared at the sun when it disappeared into the sea, like some other native groups of the area. They also smoked tobacco through their nostrils first to the north, then to the east, west, and south. They frequently whistled at certain times and apparently for some objective, but ultimately for unknown purposes.” ref

“Jean-Baptist Talon, in response to interrogation, reported, “one could only infer that they have some confused impression of the immortality of their souls and the resurrection of the dead by the ceremonies that they observe in the burial of their dead. After having wrapped the corpse in a well-prepared buffalo hide, the same one that he had used in life to cover himself, they bury him with his club, his bow, and his arrows, a quantity of smoked meat, some corn and vegetables, and two pieces of a certain rock that they use instead of gun flint to make fire.[[For this purpose they make a little hole in one of the pieces of wood, which is flat, and which they lean against something; and having sharpened the other, which is round, they adjust the point of i in the hole and make some fire by rubbing these two pieces of wood, by turning the one that is round between their hands, as fast as they can]] and all that in order that he may use them (so they say) when he wakes up.” ref

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AI Overview: Karankawa religious beliefs centered on a, largely unrecorded, set of spiritual practices focused on ceremonial gatherings, reverence for nature, and, according to historical accounts, ritualistic behaviors. Their spirituality was deeply connected to their coastal environment, with ceremonies aimed at ensuring successful hunts and fostering communal strength. The core of their religious life involved large, social, and spiritual gatherings known as mitotes. These events included intense dancing, singing, and chanting, often lasting through the night. During these ceremonies, men consumed an intoxicating, stimulating beverage brewed from the leaves of the yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria). This “black drink” was used to facilitate rituals and to thank spirits for successful hunts. Medicine men or shamans were believed to heal illnesses by sucking the sickness out of a patient’s body. It is noted that, unlike some, the doctors of the tribe were not to be eaten after death, but rather cremated. The Karankawa recognized a third gender, often referred to by Europeans as berdache (Karankawa: monanguia), which included males who took on female roles and played a special, often spiritual, role in religious rites. The Karankawa people’s traditional beliefs involved recognizing the sun and moon as divinities and centered around communal ceremonies called mitotes. They did not practice the “savage” mythology often portrayed in colonial-era accounts, which were largely myths spread by Europeans to justify their actions. The Karankawas considered the sun and the moon as forms of divinity, although historical accounts suggest they did not offer them formal worship.

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Coahuiltecan people

“The Coahuiltecans are a historic indigenous nation of what is now northeastern Mexico and southern Texas. They once spoke a variety of possibly unrelated languages known as the Coahuiltecan languages. The various Coahuiltecan groups were originally nomadic hunter gatherers. The Coahuiltecan languages are a collection of related languages. It should not be confused with the Coahuilteco language. The Coahuiltecan languages are extinct, but there are efforts by scholars such as Jessica L. Sánchez Flores (Nahua descent) to revive them. Linguists have suggested that Coahuiltecan belongs to the Hokan language family of present-day California, Arizona, and Baja California.” ref 

“Most modern linguists, however, discount this theory for lack of evidence; instead, they believe that the Coahuiltecan were diverse in both culture and language. At least seven different languages are known to have been spoken, one of which is called Coahuiltecan or Pakawa, spoken by a number of bands near San Antonio. The best-known of the languages are Comecrudo and Cotoname, both spoken by people in the delta of the Rio Grande and Pakawa. Catholic Missionaries compiled vocabularies of several of these languages in the 18th and 19th centuries, but the language samples are too small to establish relationships between and among the languages. The Karankawa and Tonkawa were possibly linguistically related to the Coahuiltecan. The Coahuiltecan languages are a collection of related languages. It should not be confused with the Coahuilteco language. The Coahuiltecan languages are extinct, but there are efforts by scholars such as Jessica L. Sánchez Flores (Nahua descent) to revive them.” ref 

“Linguists have suggested that Coahuiltecan belongs to the Hokan language family of present-day California, Arizona, and Baja California. Most modern linguists, however, discount this theory for lack of evidence; instead, they believe that the Coahuiltecan were diverse in both culture and language. At least seven different languages are known to have been spoken, one of which is called Coahuiltecan or Pakawa, spoken by a number of bands near San Antonio. The best-known of the languages are Comecrudo and Cotoname, both spoken by people in the delta of the Rio Grande and Pakawa. Catholic Missionaries compiled vocabularies of several of these languages in the 18th and 19th centuries, but the language samples are too small to establish relationships between and among the languages. The Karankawa and Tonkawa were possibly linguistically related to the Coahuiltecan.” ref 

“First encountered by the Spanish in the 16th century, their population declined due to Old World diseases and numerous small-scale wars fought against the Spanish, Apache, and other indigenous groups. After the Texas secession from Mexico, Coahuiltecan peoples were largely forced into harsh living conditions. In 1886, ethnologist Albert Gatschet found the last known survivors of Coahuiltecan bands: 25 Comecrudo, one Cotoname, and two Pakawa, living near Reynosa, Mexico. The Coahuiltecan lived in the flat, brushy, dry country of northern Mexico and southern Texas, roughly south of a line from the Gulf Coast at the mouth of the Guadalupe River to San Antonio and westward to around Del Rio. They lived on both sides of the Rio Grande. Their neighbors along the Texas coast were the Karankawa, and inland to their northeast were the Tonkawa. To their north were the Jumano.” ref 

“Later, the Lipan Apache and Comanche migrated into this area. Their indefinite western boundaries were the vicinity of Monclova, Coahuila, and Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, and southward to roughly the present location of Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, the Sierra de Tamaulipas, and the Tropic of Cancer. Although living near the Gulf of Mexico, most of the Coahuiltecan were inland people. Near the gulf for more than 70 miles (110 km) both north and south of the Rio Grande, little fresh water is available, so bands were limited in their ability to survive near the coast and were deprived of its other resources, such as fish and shellfish and other coastal resources.” ref 

“Texas historian Jennifer Logan wrote that Coahuiltecan culture represents “the culmination of more than 11,000 years of a way of life that had successfully adapted to the climate and resources of south Texas.” The peoples shared the common traits of not farming, living in small autonomous bands, and having no political unity above the level of the band and extended family. They were nomadic hunter-gatherers, who carried few possessions on their backs as they adaptively moved to acquire seasonal food sources without depleting them. At campsites, they built small circular huts with frames of four bent poles, which they covered with woven mats. Adapted to the warm climate, they wore minimal clothing. At times, bands came together in large groups of hundreds of people, but most of the time their encampments were small, consisting of a few homes with a few dozen people.” ref  

“Along the Rio Grande, some Coahuiltecan lived more sedentary lives, perhaps constructing more substantial dwellings and using palm fronds as a building material. Coahuiltecan peoples hunted deer, bison, peccary, armadillos, rabbits, rats, mice, snakes, lizards, frogs, salamanders, and snails for meat. They fished and caught shellfish. Fish was probably most important as food for groups living near the Rio Grande delta. Most foods could be eaten raw, but they used an open fire or fire pit when cooking. Plants provided most of their diet. Pecans were an important protein source, gathered in the fall and stored for future use. They cooked the bulbs and root crowns of the maguey, sotol, and lechuguilla in pits, and ground mesquite beans to make flour.” ref  

“Prickly pear was an important summer food, from its paddles to its fruits. It also provided water when that resource was scarce. In the winter, plant roots provided important sustenance. Most of the Coahuiltecan seemed to have had a regular round of travels in their food gathering. The Payaya band near San Antonio had ten different summer campsites in a 30 square-mile area. Some of the Indians lived near the coast in winter. Little is known about the original religion of the Coahuiltecan. They came together in large numbers on occasion for all-night dances called mitotes. During these occasions, they danced and took peyote as medicine. The meager resources of their homeland resulted in intense competition and frequent, although small-scale, warfare.” ref 

AI Overview: The Coahuiltecan people of southern Texas and northern Mexico practiced an animistic, nature-based religion centered on communal, all-night dances known as mitotes. Key elements included spiritual connection with the earth and sky, and the use of peyote for healing and rituals. Their creation stories often involve emergence from the underworld through sacred water sources. Peyote was used ceremonially as a sacred medicine. Coahuiltecans honored elements of nature, including animals and plants, which they believed held spiritual power. Their beliefs were deeply tied to specific geographic locations, particularly water sources like the Sacred Springs (San Marcos Springs). A core belief involves the pilam (people) emerging from an underworld into the upper world with the help of a sacred deer and water bird.

Numerous bands made up the Coahuiltecan peoples. They include the: Abasusiniguara, Acancuara, Acatoyan, Aranama, Bibit, Bobole, Cacaxtle, Cana, Catujano, Cenizo, Comecrudo, Ervipiame, Geier, Gueiquesale, Hape, Hiabu, Mariame, Mescal, Muruam, Ocana, Pachal, Pacuache, Pacpul, Paguan, Pajalat, Papanac, Pastia, Pataguo, Payaya, Pinanaca, Quepano, Saesse, Sijame, Taimamar, Teaname, Terocodame, Tilijae, Unpuncliegut, Xarame, and Yorica

History of Texas

“Indigenous people lived in what is now Texas more than 10,000 years ago, as evidenced by the discovery of the remains of prehistoric Leanderthal Lady. In 1519, the arrival of the first Spanish conquistadors in the region of North America now known as Texas found the region occupied by numerous Native American tribes. The name Texas derives from táyshaʼ, a word in the Caddoan language of the Hasinai, which means “friends” or “allies.” In the recorded history of what is now the U.S. state of Texas, all or parts of Texas have been claimed by six countries: France, Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederacy during the Civil War, and the United States of America.” ref

“Texas lies at the juncture of several major cultural areas of Pre-Columbian North America: the Southwestern, Southern Plains, Southeastern Woodlands, and Aridoamerica. Several major precontact groups with ties to Texas, known from Indigenous oral history, linguistics, and archaeology, include:

• Ancestral Pueblo peoples from the upper Rio Grande region, centered west of Texas
• Mound Builders of the Mississippian culture which spread throughout the Mississippi Valley and its tributaries; the Caddo nation are considered among its descendants
• Indigenous peoples of Aridoamerica, with south and western Texas being part of the region of Aridoamerica.^[8] Some of these tribes had trade and cultural connections with the more densely populated Mesoamerica in Mexico and Central America. The influence of Teotihuacan, in Mexico, peaked around CE 500 and declined over the 8th to 10th centuries.” ref

“The Paleo-Indians who lived in Texas between 9200 and 6000 BCE may have links to Clovis and Folsom cultures; these nomadic people hunted mammoths and bison latifrons using atlatls. They extracted Alibates flint from quarries in the panhandle region. Beginning during the 4th millennium BC, the population of Texas increased despite a changing climate and the extinction of giant mammals. Many pictograms from this era, drawn on the walls of caves or on rocks, are visible in the state, including at Hueco Tanks and Seminole Canyon.” ref

“Native Americans in East Texas began to settle in villages shortly after 500 BCE, farming and building the first burial mounds. They were influenced by the Mississippian culture, which had major sites throughout the Mississippi basin. In the Trans-Pecos area, populations were influenced by Mogollon culture. Early Ceramics date back to ca. 500 BC. In Eastern Texas, the Tchefuncte tradition of ceramics flourished from around 500 to 100 BCE. Local hunters adopted bows and arrows around the 8th century, replacing the long-distance but less accurate atlatl. Native peoples hunted bison for food, clothing, shelter, and more. They imported obsidian from suppliers in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains.” ref

“After Spanish explorers entered the area, Texas was largely divided between six cultural groups. Caddoan language-speaking peoples occupied the area surrounding the entire length of the Red River, and at the time of European contact, they formed four collective confederacies of the Wichita, Natchitoches, the Hasinai, and the Kadohadocho. Along the Gulf Coast region were the Atakapa tribes. Southward from the Atakapa, along the Gulf Coast to the Rio Grande river, at least one Coahuiltecan tribe (a culture group primarily from Northeast Mexico) was located. The Puebloan peoples, situated largely between the Rio Grande & Pecos river were part of an extensive civilization of tribes that lived in what are now the states of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado & Utah.” ref

“While the northernmost Ancestral Pueblo groups faced a cultural collapse due to drought, many of the southern tribes survive to the present. North of the Pueblos were the Apache peoples, who included several tribes with distinct languages. By the late 17th century, in the Texas Panhandle region, the Comanches settled and later expanded their territories. Native Americans determined the fate of European explorers and settlers depending on whether a tribe was kind or warlike. Friendly tribes taught newcomers how to grow indigenous crops, prepare foods, and hunting methods for the wild game. Warlike tribes made life difficult and dangerous for explorers and settlers through their attacks and resistance to European conquest. Many Native Americans died of new infectious diseases, which caused high fatalities and disrupted their cultures in the early years of colonization.” ref

Ceramic Period of Texas (800 CE)

AI Overview”Caddo Pottery (East Texas): Starting around 800 CE, the Caddo produced the most elaborate ceramics in Texas, characterized by coiled construction, engraving, and carinated (inward-turning) rims. They created both functional, coarse pottery and finely engraved, burnished ceremonial vessels, with styles evolving to include, complex designs symbolizing the cosmos. Indigenous pottery in Texas is a rich, ancient tradition, with ceramic technology appearing as early as 500 B.C. in East Texas and continuing through the 19th century across various regions. Different Indigenous groups across the state developed unique pottery styles, ranging from the highly decorated wares of the Caddo in East Texas to the asphaltum-painted pots of the Karankawa on the coast.

First Europeans

“The first European to see Texas was Alonso Álvarez de Pineda, who led an expedition for the governor of Jamaica, Francisco de Garay, in 1520. While searching for a passage between the Gulf of Mexico and Asia, Álvarez de Pineda created the first map of the northern Gulf Coast. This map is the earliest recorded document of Texas history. Between 1528 and 1535, four survivors of the Narváez expedition, including Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and Estevanico, spent six and a half years in Texas as slaves and traders among various native groups. Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to explore the interior of Texas. In 1543, the Hernando de Soto expedition entered Texas from the east, becoming the first Europeans to visit the Caddo peoples. Searching for an overland path to Mexico, the expedition turned back to the Mississippi River after leaving Caddo territory and finding nomadic tribes without food stores to sustain the Spanish.” ref

“Although Álvarez de Pineda had claimed the area that is now Texas for Spain, the area was essentially ignored for over 160 years. Its initial settlement by Europeans occurred by accident. In April 1682, French nobleman René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle had claimed the entire Mississippi River Valley for France. The following year, he convinced King Louis XIV to establish a colony near the Mississippi, essentially splitting Spanish Florida from New Spain. La Salle’s colonization expedition left France on July 24, 1684, and soon lost one of its supply ships to Spanish privateers. A combination of inaccurate maps, La Salle’s previous miscalculation of the latitude of the mouth of the Mississippi River, and overcorrecting for the Gulf currents led the ships to be unable to find the Mississippi.” ref 

“Instead, they landed at Matagorda Bay in early 1685, 400 miles (644 km) west of the Mississippi. In February, the colonists constructed Fort Saint Louis. After the fort was constructed, one of the ships returned to France, and the other two were soon destroyed in storms, stranding the settlers. La Salle and his party searched overland for the Mississippi River, traveling as far west as the Rio Grande and as far east as the Trinity River. Disease and hardship laid waste to the colony, and by early January 1687, fewer than 45 people remained. That month, a third expedition launched a final attempt to find the Mississippi. The expedition experienced much infighting, and La Salle was ambushed and killed somewhere in East Texas. The Spanish learned of the French colony in late 1685.” ref

“Feeling that the French colony was a threat to Spanish mines and shipping routes, King Carlos II‘s Council of war recommended the removal of “this thorn which has been thrust into the heart of America. The greater the delay the greater the difficulty of attainment.” Having no idea where to find La Salle, the Spanish launched ten expeditions—both land and sea—over the next three years. The last expedition discovered a French deserter living in Southern Texas with the Coahuiltecans. The Frenchman guided the Spanish to the French fort in late April 1689. The fort and the five crude houses surrounding it were in ruins. Several months before, the Karankawa had become angry that the French had taken their canoes without payment and had attacked the settlement sparing only four children.” ref