All about the ancient tribes
The Choctaw used the name Atakapa, meaning “people eater” (hattak ‘person’, apa ‘to eat’), for them. It referred to their practice of ritual cannibalism related to warfare.
Herein, what crops did the atakapa grow? They grew corn, beans and other crops. They also hunted when they could for meat. The area they lived in was on the southern edge of the East Texas Piney Woods.
Atakapa (/əˈtækəpə, -pɑː/, natively Yukhiti) is an extinct language isolate native to southwestern Louisiana and nearby coastal eastern Texas. It was spoken by the Atakapa people (also known as Ishak, after their word for “the people”). Atakapa language.
Atakapa | |
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Glottolog | atak1252 |
Pre-contact distribution of the Atakapa language |
Coastal Inhabitants What is now known as the Texas Gulf Coast was home to many American Indian tribes including the Atakapa, Karankawa, Mariame, and Akokisa. They were semi- nomadic, living on the shore for part of the year and moving up to 30 or 40 miles inland seasonally.
Most of their diet was fish and seafood (including oysters, shrimp, and crabs.) Atakapa men also hunted big game like deer, buffalo, and alligators, and women gathered fruit, nuts, and wild honey. Here is a website with more information about Indian food.
The Karankawa have been described for centuries as ” cannibals,” now believed by many to be a falsehood initially perpetuated by the Spanish after they failed to convert them to Catholicism at missionary settlements in La Bahía and Refugio.
Caddo Indian men wore breechcloths, sometimes with leather leggings to protect their legs. Caddo women wore wraparound skirts and poncho tops made of woven fiber and deerskin. Both genders wore earrings and moccasins. Caddo men did not usually wear shirts, but in cold weather, both men and women wore buffalo robes.
Karankawa, several groups of North American Indians that lived along the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, from about Galveston Bay to Corpus Christi Bay.
They lived in tall, grass-covered houses in large settlements with highly structured social, religious and political systems. The Caddos raised corn, beans, squash and other crops. They also hunted the bear and deer of East Texas and headed west for annual buffalo hunts.
Two Apache groups settled in Texas. These are the Lipan and Mescalero. Apaches were organized into bands that traveled, hunted and fought together. The Apaches were skilled horsemen and often teamed up when hunting buffalo.
The Tonkawa were a nomadic buffalo hunting people roaming from somewhere around what is now Hillsboro, Texas to the vicinity of present day San Antonio, Texas. They lived in scattered villages of tepees constructed from buffalo hides or arbors made from brush and grass.
To solidify this location, when the Jumano were encountered along the eastern edge of the Edwards Plateau in 1691, they stated that their homeland was the “Rio Salado” or Pecos River. In sum, at least as late as 1691 the Jumano maintained their homeland between the Pecos and Concho rivers of Texas.
Atakapa Indian Language ( Atakapa -Ishak) Language: Atakapa is a Gulf language, once spoken along the Louisiana and East Texas coast. The Atakapas were nearly destroyed by a smallpox epidemic in the 18th century, and their language, like other Gulf/Tunican languages, has not been natively spoken for more than a century.
The Karankawas lived in wigwams – circular pole frames covered with mats or hides. They did not have a complex political organization. The Karankawas were unusually large for Native Americans. The men grew as tall as six feet and were noted for their strength.