Karankawa Indians of Texas
The image below points to one of several Karankawa Rockport phase spring/summer campsites (41SP159-64) perched on the hilltops on the south side of the
confluence of Moody Creek and Aransas River.
The Karankawa Indians of Texas
An Ecological Study of Cultural Tradition and Change
Page 78, figure 17.
Robert A. Ricklis (University of Texas Press 1996)Karankawa Artifacts
A selection of
Perdiz points
collected by
Charles Husak and kept at the
Calhoun County Museum
301 S. Ann St
Port Lavaca, TX 77979
Before Saluria, the only occupants of Matagorda Island were the wintering
Karankawa Indians of Texas. The tribe were reportedly over six feet tall on average and ate human flesh of their enemies
(but are not considered cannibals and, in fact, found cannibalism
abhorrent when the Europeans ate the human flesh of their dead
friends to survive) according to François Simars de Bellisle in his biography
De Bellisle on the Texas Coast translated by Henri Folmer
and
The Journey of Álvar Núñez Cabeza De Vaca (1542) translated by Fanny Bandolier.