What Kinds of Houses Did the Karankawas Live in?
The Karankawa Indians lived in southern Texas along the Gulf of Mexico and have been extinct as a group since the mid-1800s. Because of this, we do not have a lot of information on them, but we do know some interesting things about their way of life. They traveled from place to place hunting and gathering food, and so the types of shelter they built either were temporary lean-to structures or semi-permanent pole huts.
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Geography
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The Karankawa were nomadic bands of people living in southern Texas, who migrated between the coastal areas in winter and inland during warmer weather. The area they lived in is semi-tropical, hot and humid most of the time in the summer, and generally warm in the winter with a few occasional cool days.
Types
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The Karankawa built semi-permanent shelters in the winter and stayed in large camps for several months. They became more nomadic in warmer weather and moved inland, migrating from place to place as food supplies grew scarcer.
In summer when traveling, they made simple shelters of tree limbs leaned against each other, and covered the shelters with palm leaves or woven grass mats. In winter, they lived in huts made of a circular framework of wooden poles, one end inserted into the ground and the tops bent over and tied together. The wood needed to be flexible for bending, so they used saplings or willow limbs. They covered this structure with grass mats or palm leaves, or sometimes with animal hides. The floors were also covered with grass mats.
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Features
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Information is lacking about whether the Karankawa formed villages large enough to require a more complicated tribal system. From notes by European explorers, it seems that they mainly lived in small groups, and their community structure was probably that of a band rather than the more socially and politically complex tribe.
Considerations
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The Karankawa obtained food by hunting, gathering, and fishing. The swampy, wet land they lived on was not suitable for farming or raising gardens. Fishing was good in the winter, when large schools of fish moved into the bays and lagoons, which were shallow enough for people to wade in. They typically caught fish using long arrows shot by bows. The Karankawa also used dugout canoes to travel among the barrier islands.
They crafted long bows which were as tall as they were. They also made limited amounts of pottery, as well as baskets and basic tools. Since they were nomadic, they had to consider the sort of items which would be easy to carry along.
Time Frame
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The Spanish slave trade, battles with the French, disease, colonization by Europeans, and genocide by white settlers all contributed to the demise of the Karankawa. By the 1850s, the people as a group no longer existed.
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