Texas History Indians

Caddo

- Lived in Piney Woods and further west

- Westernmost Mississippian culture, traced descent through women

- Permanent villages; beehive-shaped houses

- Women did most of the farming and held high status

- Word "Texas" comes from their language

Bidais

- College Station area

- Practiced agriculture, but also hunted on plains occassionally

Wichitas

- Along Brazos and Red Rivers

- Permanent towns, agriculture (beehive houses)

- Middlemen in trade networks (traded with Pueblo, Caddo, and Plains tribes)

- Hunted buffalo for part of the year

Atakapa

- Southwest Louisiana to Bolivar Peninsula

- Nomadic hunter-gatherers; focused on aquatic resources (fish, shellfish)

- Used palmetto or willow dome tents

- Hunted deer, bison, and even alligators

- Used plant poisons to catch fish

Karankawa

- Galveston to Padre Island

- Tall, strong people; nomadic hunter-gatherers and fishers

- Practiced limited/agricultural opportunism

- Used longbows; migrated seasonally inward

Tonkawa

- Central Texas

- Nomadic hunter-gatherers; got horses early from Spanish

- Opportunistic farmers, similar houses to Atakapa

Coahuiltecans

- Far-south Texas (San Antonio area)

- Very primitive, small bands, hunter-gatherers

- Ate anything available (cacti, roots, etc.), earth ovens

- Most heavily targeted by Spanish missions; lost tribal identity due to forced assimilation

Jumanos

- Trans-Pecos (far west Texas)

- Nomadic, NO agriculture; known for long-distance trade

Tiguas

- Only Puebloan people in Texas (El Paso area)

- Built pueblos; agriculturalists

Apache

- Central/west Texas; migrated down from Canada

- Early adopters of Spanish horses; nomadic and skilled horsemen

- Bands were organized, slept in teepees

- Reliant on bison; some opportunistic farming

Comanche

- Late arrivals (~1600s), northern origins

- Became the dominant Plains tribe, expert horse breeders/riders

- Nomadic hunter-gatherers, lived in teepees

- Controlled horse trade; "Comanche Empire" in Texas

- No agriculture; split into bands, no overall chief