Coahuiltecan

Co-a-huil-tec-an

Long before the arrival of the first Spaniards on the shores of New Spain (present-day Mexico), nomadic Indians roamed the vast region that would become South Texas. The Coahuiltecans of South Texas included several subgroups the Katuhanno, Bobole, Pachal, Kesale-Terkodams, Payayas, Aranamas, Tamiques and Oregons as well as the Carrizo, the most numerous in the region. Within these groups were autonomous bands, possibly numbering as many as two hundred, but with little social, economic and political cohesiveness.

The lives of the Coahuiltecans were affected greatly by the South Texas environment. Their only domesticated animal was a peculiar, barkless dog, evidently similar to those Christopher Columbus saw during his first voyage to the New World. Except for bison, large animals were few in South Texas. The Coahuiltecans mainly depended on smaller animals such as deer, antelope and peccaries. Rabbits, rodents, reptiles, birds and insects were also consumed. Various traps and snares were used to catch animals, especially rabbits. Pits were dug and camouflaged for peccaries. With amazing stamina, Coahuiltecan men would often pursue a deer for an entire day, or until the deer dropped from sheer exhaustion. Living along the Rio Grande, Salado and the San Juan Rivers, the tribes often supplemented their diet with fish taken with bow and arrow or nets. The bulk of the Coahuiltecan diet was vegetarian, however, with their staples being prickly pear tuna and mesquite beans. Large quantities of the beans were often gathered and thrown into a hole dug in the ground where they were pounded with a wooden club into pulp. Mescal, a potent intoxicating drink made from the leaves of agave, was often consumed by the Coahuiltecans. The peyote cactus was usually dried, ground into powder, and commonly used as a kind of "tea." Peyote was also eaten green or dried. Although neither a narcotic nor habit forming, it had a tremendous hallucinatory effect and was commonly used in religious ceremonies. At the present time, peyote is still gathered by natives of the area and sold legally to members of the Native American Church in South Texas, especially in Mirando City, not far from the Rio Grande.

Warfare among the Coahuiltecans was intense. Feuds among tribal leaders were common. Combat usually consisted of small battles employing hit-and-run techniques, similar in many ways to the guerrilla warfare of the modern era. When enemy attacks were anticipated, the Coahuiltecans would place their huts in a dense mesquite thicket. Little strategy was involved; the primary objective was to secure better hunting land. Trenches were used in defense. Although not well developed, the trenches were usually deep enough to protect the defenders as they shot arrows at their attackers.

Women often acted as "war hawks," gathering around the campfire to rave and chant, reminding the men of atrocities committed against their loved ones by some enemy band. This chanting would continue until an emotional climax was reached, at which time the men would go to their huts to prepare for war. They would return shortly thereafter, armed and adorned with war paint. Both males and females would then join in one last war dance. Upon approaching an enemy camp, an emissary would issue a "declaration of war" by shooting an arrow into a tree and performing a war dance. Peace could be concluded in a similar manner with arrows being shot into the air, followed by a peace dance. Victorious warriors often returned to camp with scalps and captives. Like the Spartan women of ancient Greece, the women who had sent their men off to battle with great emotion joyously greeted the warriors on their return.

By modern standards, the Coahuiltecans would appear to have been cruel and inhumane. Most bands kept slaves and treated them with extreme cruelty. The elderly or sick were often abandoned to die in the semi-arid landscape. It was contact with the Spanish in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that proved to be the greatest disaster for the Coahuiltecans. Disease, brought to the New World by the Spanish, took thousands. By 1675, missionaries reported smallpox spreading to the Indians and decimating entire bands and villages. Contact also meant assimilation, for some Coahuiltecans were brought into the Spanish missions. The Carrizo band, for example, settled many families at Mission Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, downriver from Laredo, where they farmed and accepted Christianity. http://www.texasindians.com/coah.htm

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