1. Native Americans in Texas

2. Where did they come from?
No one knows exactly when the first people arrived in North America. It is believed they arrived as far back as 30,000 years ago, near the end of the last ice age.

3. Where did they come from?
Today a water passage called the Bering Strait connects the Artic and Pacific Oceans.

4. During the last ice age, ocean levels fell enough that the bottom of the Bering Strait became dry land. Early people are believed to have crossed this land into North America. This is called the Bering Land Bridge.

5. Native Americans in Texas
The first Americans did not arrive here all at one time. It is believed that they arrived in small bands over thousands of years. These bands were migrating in search of food and ended up spread throughout North America. Early people were hunters and gatherers.

6. Migration- to move from place to place.
Native American tribes often migrated for
1. Hunting & gathering
2. Conflict with other Tribes
3. Conflict with European and American Settlers
Tigua
Concho
Migration- to move from place to place.

7. Tigua
Concho

8. Southeastern Tribes Regions:
Coastal Plains and the North Central Plains
Tribes:
Wichita
Caddo,
Atakapan,

9. Southeastern Tribes: Survival
Farmers of corn, squash, seeds, beans and melons
Lived in permanent villages
Caddo were the most advanced of these tribes.

10. Who were the Caddo Indians?
Caddoes were the most advanced of the Indian Tribes in Texas
Lived in what today is called the Piney Woods
Lived in villages and furnished homes with colored rugs, pottery and baskets
Larger villages of Caddoes settled near major rivers of the Southeastern regions of Texas.
Were part of a confederacy of Indian governments
The Chief of their confederacy was their High Priest or religious leader.

11. Caddo homes were permanent, dome-shaped grass and timber houses held up by poles.
Some were 60 feet in diameter and held 8 to 10 families.
Their religious ceremonies
were held inside of
large temples that were
built up on mounds by the
entire community. A sacred
fire always burned in this
temple.

13. Wichita Indians Lived along the Red River
The men had tattoos around their eyes and called themselves “raccoon eyes”
The women tattooed their faces with zig-zag lines, circles and triangles
Acquired horses from the Kiowa tribe (from the Great Plains area)
In the winter months they moved around following herds of buffalo and living in tipis (teepees). This was unusual because most of the Southeastern Tribes were not migratory.

14. PlainsTribes Regions: Great Plains North Central Plains Tribes:
Comanche
Apache
Kiowa
Tonkawa

15. Plains Tribes: Survival
The Plains Indian tribes were great hunters and were the first to use horses for hunting. The use of horses changed the lives of the Plains Indian tribes forever.
Because the moved following buffalo herds, the Plains Indians lived in Tipi’s (teepee) which were easily transported by horse.
Tipis

16. Gov’t/Beliefs/ Accomplishments Hunters and Warriors
Chief – generally two chiefs (one for war and one for religion & medicine)
Medicine Men were called shamans
Very, very skilled horsemen
They were the culture that survived the longest in Texas after the Europeans came primarily because of their fighting skills

17. Comanche Lived in Tipi’s (teepees) which were portable
Were fierce warriors and used shields, lances and bows and arrows
Nomadic and constantly moving because their entire way of life depended upon the buffalo herds
They butchered their kill where they died and would dry the meat to preserve it for meals later. This “jerky” was perfect food for their nomadic life style.

18. Apache Apache Camp The word Apache means “enemy.”
They were named this because they
posed a threat to other tribes wherever they went.
They were the first of the Plains Tribes to use horses to move and hunt.
Apache Food

19. Tonkawa
These are the Native Americans that you would have seen most often in the “Austin” area
They tried to compete for buffalo with the Comanche and Apaches, but were pushed off their land into regions where few buffalo lived. They became hunters of small game and gatherers instead

20. Kiowas Smaller Plains Indian tribe They were nomads, hunters
of buffalo and rode horses like
all Plains Indians
They held a celebration called the “Sun Dance.” They would build a 20’x 60’ lodge of wooden poles and cover the ground inside with sand. The men would dance without food or water sometimes for 3 days. They believed the dance would bring them good fortune.

21. GULF CULTURE
Region: Coastal Plains
Karankawa
Coahuiltecans

22. Coahuiltecans
They lived in a small region between San Antonio and Corpus Christi. Because this area was too small to support huge tribes, they lived in hundreds of small groups; never organizing into a tribe.
Lived in moveable grass huts
Large game like buffalo were scare where they lived so they ate just about anything such as lizards, armadillo, worms and even rotten wood.
Moveable Hut

23. Karankawas Lived along the gulf coast
They were fisherman and gatherers
Lived in houses that held about 8 people
Communicated by sending smoke signals
Were killed by disease brought to them by the
Spanish who entered the coastal land
Some evidence shows that they practiced cannibalism (eating the flesh of other humans, mostly their enemies)

24. Karankawas Karankawa Gulf Coast Plains
Traveled by foot and by canoes made from hollowed-out logs
Fished with bows and arrows
Explorer Cabeza de Vaca lived with this culture for years after he shipwrecked near Galveston Island
Karankawa
Gulf Coast Plains

25. PUEBLO CULTURE
Region: Mountains and Basins (desert)
Tiguas
Jumanos

26. The Pueblo Indians
Jumano
Concho
Tiguas

27. Puebloan Peoples
Lived in the desert lands of the American Southwest (El Paso, Presidio and New Mexico today).
They lived in large structures called Pueblos.
Skilled at farming in a desert region
Traded with other Indian groups and the Spaniards who explored the region

28. Jumano People
Pueblos were made of adobe- wet clay and straw made into bricks and dried in the sun
Were able to grow corn, beans, and squash because they settled near rivers and streams and had reliable sources of water.
Traded with other tribes for meat, hides and items from the Plains area of Texas
Driven out of their land by the Apaches and forced to work in mines by the Spanish

29. Concho Indians
Smaller tribe that was close allies with the Jumano tribe. They were very much like the Jumano and some historians even believe that they disappeared because they merged their tribe with the Jumanos. Other historians believe that they all died as a result of diseases brought to them by the Spanish.

30. Tigua Indians The oldest Native Americans still living in Texas today
Life was similar to the other Puebloan Tribes, they were farmers and ate corn, beans and squash they grew.
They stored and cooked food in home made pottery
Built kivas- a large room for worship and meetings
Many Tiguas have become part of today’s hispanic culture

31. Kiva- large rooms used for religious ceremonies
and council/leadership of the tribe to meet

32. Review of Cultures and the Tribes in Each
Southeastern
Caddo
Wichita
Cherokee
Puebloan
Tigua
Jumano
Gulf
Karwanakwa
Coahuiltecans
Plains
Comanche
Apache
Tonkawa*