TEXAS HISTORY Chapter 3 Section 2 Early people A. Most Native Americans in Texas lived in small groups, were led by men, and believed that spirits caused rain, fire, and the change of seasons. They had different languages. B. The early cultures also believed that animals, plants, and humans once understood each other’s languages. C. Some of them were peaceful, and some were warriors; some lived in communities, and others were nomads.

TEXAS HISTORY Chapter 3 Section 2 Southeastern and Gulf Farmers and Gatherers Some of the Native Americans of the Southeastern and Gulf cultures were farmers, others were mainly coastal fishers, and still others gathered their food. During the 1600s new Native American groups joined these three groups in southeastern Texas and began raising crops and building permanent settlements.

TEXAS HISTORY Chapter 3 Section 2 The Caddos CADDO people were made up of 24 different groups. Two of the large groups, or confederacies, of Caddo people, the Kadohadacho and Hasinai, lived in present-day Texas. The Caddos often warred with other Native American nations, sometimes with other members of the confederacies, and sometimes with European settlers. Smallpox eventually reduced their numbers to a few hundred, and in 1859 they were forced to move to present-day Oklahoma.

TEXAS HISTORY Chapter 3 Section 2 The Search for Food Native Americans, such as the Coahuiltecans and the Karankawas, led a nomadic life along the Gulf of Mexico because marshy lands did not support agriculture. They ate small game and gathered nuts, cacti, and other plants.

Indians who lived on the Western Gulf or the Coastal Plains were collectively called Coahuiltecans.  They were hunters and gatherers.  Men wore little or no clothing much of the time; women wore simple skirts of buckskin.  The Coahuiltecans moved often in search of food, so they did not build permanent homes.  Their huts were made from wooden branches covered with animal skins or reed mats.

The Coahuiltecans spent much of their time searching for food The Coahuiltecans spent much of their time searching for food.  Their main diet consisted of roots and bulbs of wild plants, fruit of the prickly pear cactus, and beans of mesquite trees.  They also ate deer, rabbits, birds, and javelinas.  In this dry region of Texas, only a few people could live together in one place.  There was not enough food for large groups.  Instead of living in tribes, the Coahuiltecans lived in small family groups.

TEXAS HISTORY Chapter 3 Section 2 The Coahuiltecans The Coahuiltecans moved from campsite to campsite in the dry, brushy land of the South Texas Plain. They hunted javelina, deer, and bison with bows and arrows, and they gathered dried plants and grounded them into flour. By the time Texas became a state, most of the Coahuiltecans had disappeared from the Gulf region.

TEXAS HISTORY Chapter 3 Section 2 The Karankawas The Karankawas lived among the Gulf Coast and on islands between Galveston and Corpus Christi Bays. In the 1820s, when North American settlers moved into the area, fighting with settlers erupted.

TEXAS HISTORY Chapter 3 Section 2 Other Southeastern Cultures After Europeans explored Texas in the early 1500s, Native American people from other regions arrived just west of Caddo country. They moved to escape warring neighbors or to find a better place to live.

TEXAS HISTORY Chapter 3 Section 2 The Wichitas Wichitas moved from present-day Kansas to lands along the Trinity, Red and Brazos Rivers. Women held leadership positions and shared work with the men. The Wichitas traded with the French but often fought Spanish settlers.

TEXAS HISTORY Chapter 3 Section 2 More Native American Groups Arrive The Atakapans lived along the coast between Galveston Bay and the Sabine River. In about 1820 Cherokees moved to Texas from the Allegheny Mountains in the eastern United States. Between 1795 and 1816, the Alabama and the Coushatta nations moved from east of the Mississippi River to settle a village by the Trinity River.

KIOWAS Wichitas Tiguas