Texas

Karankawa Tribe

Karankawa Indians. A term that seems to have the Brazos in 1823 began the decline of been given originally to a small tribe near the tribe near Matagorda Bay, Texas, but its application has been extended to include a number of related tribes between Galveston Bay and Padre Island.  The signification of the name has not been ascertained.  Although the linguistic material obtained is not sufficient to show positive relation to any other language, there are very strong indications of affinity with the dialects of the Pakawa group, Pakawa Comecrudo, and Cotonam, still recognized as a part of the Coahuiltecan … Read more

Lenape Tribe

Lenape Tribe, Lenape Indians, Lenape People, Delaware Indians, Delaware tribe, Delaware People, Lenni-Lenape, Lenni-Lenapi People, Lenni-Lenape Tribe, Lenni-Lenape Indians. A confederacy, formerly the most important of the Algonquian stock, occupying the entire basin of Delaware river in east Pennsylvania and south New York, together with most of New Jersey and Delaware. They called themselves Lenape or Leni-lenape, equivalent to ‘real men,’ or ‘native, genuine men’; the English knew them as Delaware, from the name of their principal river; the French called them Loups, ‘wolves,’ a term probably applied originally to the Mahican on Hudson rivers, afterward extended to the Munsee … Read more

Koasati Tribe

Koasati Indians. An Upper Creek tribe speaking a dialect almost identical with Alibamu and evidently nothing more than a large division of that people. The name appears to contain the word for ‘cane’ or ‘reed,’ and Gatschet has suggested that it may signify ‘white cane.’ During the middle and latter part of the 18th century the Koasati lived, apparently in one principal village, on the right bank of Alabama river, 3 miles below the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, where the modern town of Coosada, Alabama, perpetuates their name; but soon after west Florida was ceded to Great Britain, … Read more

Comanche Tribe

Comanche Indians. One of the southern tribes of the Shoshonean stock, and the only one of that group living entirely on the plains. Their language and traditions show that they are a comparatively recent offshoot from the Shoshoni of Wyoming, both tribes speaking practically the same dialect and, until very recently, keeping up constant and friendly communication. Within the traditionary period the two tribes lived adjacent to each other in south Wyoming, since which time the Shoshoni have been beaten back into the mountains by the Sioux and other prairie tribes, while the Comanche have been driven steadily southward by … Read more

Coahuiltecan Tribe

Coahuiltecan Indians, Coahuila Indians, Coahuila Tribe, Cahuilla Tribe, Cahuilla Indians. A name adopted by Powell from the tribal naive Coahuilteco used by Pimentel and Orozco y Berra to include a group of small, supposedly cognate tribes on both sides of the lower Rio Grande in Texas and Coahuila. The family is founded on a slender basis, and the name is geographic rather than ethnic, as it is not applied to any tribe of the group, while most of the tribes included therein are extinct, only meager remnants of some two or three dialects being preserved. Pimentel says: “I call this … Read more

Push-ma-ta-ha, Choctaw Indian Chief

Grave in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC, a National Historic Landmark. Peter Perkins Pitchlynn, d. 1881, Choctaw chief

Push-ma-ta-ha – Pushmataha (Apushim-alhtaha, ‘the sapling is ready, or finished, for him.’ Halvert). A noted Choctaw, of unknown ancestry , born on the east bank of Noxuba Creek in Noxubee County, Mississippi in 1764; died at Washington D.C., Dec 24, 1824.  before he was 20 years of age he distinguished himself in an expedition against the Osage, west of the Mississippi.  The boy disappeared early in a conflict that lasted all day, and on rejoining the Choctaw warriors was jeered at and accused of cowardice, whereon Push-ma-ta-ha replied “Let those laugh who can show more scalps than I can,” forthwith producing five … Read more

Tawakoni Tribe

Tawakoni Indians (Ta-wa’ko-ni “river bend among red sand hills” (?) -Gatschet) A Caddoan tribe of the Wichita group, best known on the middle Brazos and Trinity Rivers, Texas, in the 18th and 19th centuries. The name “Three Canes,” sometimes applied to them, is a translation of the French form Troiscanne,” written evidently not as a translation of the native name, as has been claimed, but to represent its vocal equivalent. Mezières, for example, writing in French, used “Troiscanne” obviously as a vocal equivalent of Tuacana, a usual form of his when writing in Spanish In 1719 La Harpe visited, on … Read more

Waco Tribe

Waco Indians. One of the divisions of the Tawakoni, whose village stood until after 1830 on the site of the present city of Waco, Texas. The name does not seem unmistakably to appear until after 1820, occurring first in Anglo-American accounts. As the Tawakoni evidently are the Touacara, whom La Harpe visited in 1719 on Canadian river, it is not impossible (and it has been assumed) that the Honecha, or Houecha, given by La Harpe and Beaurain as one of the Touacara group, are identical with the Waco. Yet, if the later Waco had kept this name throughout the 18th … Read more

Caddo Indian Research

Map of Caddoan Mississippi Culture

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Kichai Tribe

Kichai Indians (from K’itsäsh, their own name). A Caddoan tribe whose language is more closely allied to the Pawnee than to the other Caddoan groups. In 1701 they were met by the French on the upper waters of the Red river of Louisiana and had spread southward to upper Trinity river in Texas. In 1712 a portion of them were at war with the Hainai, who dwelt lower down the Trinity. They were already in possession of horses, as all the Kichai warriors were mounted. They seem to have been allies of the northern and western tribes of the Caddoan … Read more

Caddo Tribe

Caddo Indians (contracted from Kä’dohädä’cho, ‘Caddo proper,’ ‘real Caddo,’ a leading tribe in the Caddo confederacy, extended by the whites to include the confederacy). A confederacy of tribes belonging to the southern group of the Caddoan linguistic family. Their own name is Hasínai, our own folk.’ See Kadohadacho Tribe. Caddo Indian History According to tribal traditions the lower Red river of Louisiana was the early home of the Caddo, from which they spread to the northwest, and south. Several of the lakes and streams connected with this river bear Caddo names, as do some of the counties and some of … Read more

Eyeish Tribe

Eyeish Indians. A tribe of the Caddo confederacy which spoke a dialect, now practically extinct, very different from the dialects of the other tribes; hence it is probable they were part of an older confederacy which was incorporated in the Caddo when the latter became dominant. The early home of  the tribe was on Eyeish Creek between the Sabine and Neches rivers of Texas.  Moscoso led the troops through their country in 1542, encountering herds of buffalo. From the statements of Joutel and Douay, the Eyeish were not on good terms with the tribes west of them on the Trinity, … Read more

Anadarko Tribe

Anadarko Indians (from Nädä´ko, their own name). A tribe of the Caddo confederacy whose dialect was spoken by the Kadohadacho, Hainai and Adai.  The earliest mention of the people is in the relation of Biedma (1544); who writes that Moscoso in 1542 led his men during their southward march through a province that lay east of the Anadarko.  The territory occupied by the tribe was southwest of the Kadohadacho.  Their villages were scattered along Trinity and Brazos Rivers, Texas, higher up than those of the Hainai, and do not seem to have been visited so early as theirs by the … Read more

Bidai Tribe

Bidai (Caddo for ‘brushwood,’ probably referring to the peculiar growth characteristic of the region). An extinct tribe, supposed to have belonged to the Caddoan stock, whose villages were scattered over a wide territory, but principally about Trinity river , Texas, while some were as far north as the Neches or beyond. A creek emptying into Trinity river between Walker and Madison Counties, Texas, bears the name of the tribe, as did also, according to La Harpe, a small bay on the coast north of Matagorda bay. A number of geographic names derived from this tribe survive in the region. The … Read more

Cotonam Tribe

Cotonam Indians. A tribe affiliated with the Carrizos of the Coahuiltecan family and living in their vicinity, though their dialect differs largely from the Comecrudo language. The last of this tribe were at La Noria rancheria, in south Hidalgo County, Texas, in 1886, and one man at Las Prietas was slightly acquainted with the native dialect. They call an Indian χaíma, and are the Xaimame or Haname of the Texan tribes farther north. The Tonkawa say that the Cotonam were not cannibals and that they wore sandals instead of moccasins.

Chorruco Tribe

Chorruco. A tribe, formerly on the Texas coast, to whom Cabeza de Vaca fled from the Coaque with whom he had lived nearly a year after shipwreck on Malhado Island in 1528. The people, he said, took their name from the woods in which they lived. He stayed with this tribe about 6 years, traveling and trading with others in the vicinity and inland. The region was probably the home of the Karankawan family at that time. The Chorruco are now extinct. For Further Study The following articles and manuscripts will shed additional light on the Chorruco as both an … Read more

Chaquantie Tribe

Chaquantie Indians. A tribe in 1700, described by Bienville, on Indians information, as living on Red River of Louisiana…

Lipan Apache Tribe

Lipan Apache Indians (adapted from Ipa-n’de, apparently a personal name; n’de=’people’). An Apache tribe, designating themselves Náizhan (‘ours,’ ‘our kind’), which at various periods of the 18th and 19th centuries roamed from the lower Rio Grande in New Mexico and Mexico eastward through Texas to the Gulf coast, gaining a livelihood by depredations against other tribes and especially against the white settlements of Texas and Mexico. The name has probably been employed to include other Apache groups of the southern plains, such as the Mescaleros and the Kiowa Apache. The Franciscan mission of San Saba was established among the Lipan … Read more

Apache Tribe

Apache Indians (probably from ápachu, ‘enemy,’ the Zuñi name for the Navaho, who were designated “Apaches de Nabaju” by the early Spaniards in New Mexico). A number of tribes forming the most southerly group of the Athapascan family. The name has been applied also to some unrelated Yuman tribes, as the Apache Mohave (Yavapai) and Apache Yuma. The Apache call themselves N’de, Dĭnë, Tĭnde, or Inde, `people.’ They were evidently not so numerous about the beginning of the 17th century as in recent times, their numbers apparently having been increased by captives from other tribes, particularly the Pueblos, Pima, Papago, … Read more