This archive will host all extant primary sources related to the Karankawa Indians.
Kept busy by Southern Methodist University’s Ph.D. program, I work on this archive when time allows. Currently, there are over 2,500 unique documents. I add new sources monthly. If you have sources of your own that you wish to contribute, please get in touch.
If looking to do heavy-duty research with this source base, I highly recommend downloading Adobe Acrobat DC (free but make sure to remove McAfee add-ons) and using the “advanced search” function to browse through multiple PDFs. If searching by keyword, beware that the Anglo-Americans, the Spaniards, and the French all refer to the Karankawas in different ways. I have made a list of these “Karankawa” variations as a guide.
– Tim Seiter
Committed to First Archivists Circle’s “Protocols for Native American Archival Materials”
Primary Sources:
(1528) Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, La Relación and the Joint Report
(1678-1683) Henri de Tonti, Concerning the Explorations of La Salle
(1685-1688) Henri Joutel Journal
(1685-1698) Talon Brother’s Interrogation in Brest France
(1687) Juan Enríquez Barroto’s Voyage and Diary
(1689) Juan Bautista Chapa Journal
(1689-1690) Alonso De León’s Expeditions
(1690-1828) Robert Bruce Blake Research Collection
(1691) Captain Francisco Martinez Diary
(1691-1692) Governor Domingo Terán de Los Ríos’s Expedition
(1714) Louis Juchereau de St. Denis’s First Expedition Through Texas
(1716) Domingo Ramón Journal
(1718) Diaries of the Martín de Alarcón Expedition Into Texas
(1720) Jean Béranger Journal
(1720-1722) Jean Baptiste Bénard de La Harpe Journal
(1745) Wreck of La Superb
(1747-1749) José de Escandón
(1754-1805) Bexar Archives
(1765-1791) Lawrence Kinnaird’s Spain in the Mississippi Valley
(1767-1768) Fray Gaspar José de Solís Inspection Tour
(1767-1771) Pierre Marie François de Pagès, Travels Round the World
(1768-1780) Athanase de Mézières y Clugny
(1772) Antonio Bonilla‘s Brief Compendium of the History of Texas, 1772
(1777-1783) Father Juan Agustín Morfi, Indian Excerpts, History of Texas
(1785) Fray Jose Franco Lopez, The Texas Missions
(1790-1791) Father Jose Mariano Reyes
(1808-1812) José Antonio Pichardo On the Limits of Louisiana and Texas
(1821) Stephen F. Austin Diary
(1821-1825) Voices from the Goliad Frontier, Municipal Council Minutes
(1827-1829) Jean Louis Berlandier, Mexican Boundary Commission
(1828) Stephen F. Austin’s Descriptions of Texas
(1829-1850s) Reminiscences of Mrs. Annie Fagan Teal
(1830-1852) Memoirs of Mrs. Annie P. Harris
(1831-1833) Mary Holley Austin, Texas Observations, Historical, Geographical, and Descriptive
(1833-1834) Eduard Ludecus Letters of Beales’s Colony
(1846) Benjamin Franklin French, Historical Collections of Louisiana
(1850) William Bollaert, Indian Tribes of Texas
(1852) William Bluford DeWees, Letters of an Early Settler of Texas
(1856) Henderson K. Yoakum, History of Texas
(1857) Jonathan Hampton Kuykendall, Reminiscences of Early Texans
(1858) William Bluford DeWees, Letters from an Early Settler
(1860) F.M. Buckelew, Life of F.M. Buckelew
(1883) John J Linn, Reminiscences of Fifty Years in Texas
(1884) Andrew Jackson Sowell, Rangers and Pioneers
(1888) Albert Samuel Gatschet, The Karankawa Indians, The Coastal People of Texas
(1889) John Wesley Wilbarger, Indian Depredations
(1890) Andrew Jackson Sowell, Early Settlers and Indian Fighters
(1900) Noah Smithwick, Evolution of a State
(1900-1925) Joseph Osterman Dyer Papers
(1966-1967) Galveston County
Secondary Sources
(Source Publication Date) Source Name
(Birth and Death) Author
Also see the Karankawa historiography
(1896) The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought
(1865-1914) Alexander Francis Chamberlain
(1906) “The Founding of Mission Rosario: A Chapter in the History of the Gulf Coast”
(1870-1953) Herbert Eugene Bolton
(1913) Guide to Materials for the History of the United States in the Principal Archives of Mexico
(1870-1953) Herbert Eugene Bolton
(1915) Texas in the MIddle Eighteenth Century
(1870-1953) Herbert Eugene Bolton
(1916) “The Beginnings of Mission Nuestra Senora Del Refugio,” pgs 400-404
(1870-1953) Herbert Eugene Bolton
(1916) Spanish Exploration in the Southwest 1542-1706
(1870-1953) Herbert Eugene Bolton
(1888-1966) William Edward Dunn
(1919) “Les Indiens du Texas et les expéditions françaises de 1720 et 1721 à la « Baie Saint-Bernard”
(1867-1936) & (1876-1958) Marc de Villiers du Terrage and Paul Rivet
(1925) “The Hokan Affinity of Subtiaba in Nicaragua,” in American Anthropologist
(1884-1939) Edward Sapir
(1929) “Notes on Some Texas Coast Campsites”
(1885-?) George Castor Martin
(1901-1984) Marion A. Habig
(1935) Prehistoric skeletal remains from the Texas coast
(1902-1973) & (1890-1935) George Woodbury and Edna Woodbury
(1935) El Copano and the Ancient Port of Béxar and La Bahía
(1893-1983) Hobart Huson
(1936) Our Catholic Heritage, Volume 1 – 1519-1693 The Finding of Texas
(1896-1958) Carlos E. Castañeda
(1936) Our Catholic Heritage, Volume 2 – 1693-1731 The Winning of Texas
(1896-1958) Carlos E. Castañeda
(1938) Our Catholic Heritage, Volume 3 – 1731-1761 The Missions at Word
(1896-1958) Carlos E. Castañeda
(1939) Our Catholic Heritage, Volume 4 – 1762-1782 The Passing of the Missions
(1896-1958) Carlos E. Castañeda
(1939) “The Indians of Texas: the Atákapa, the Karankawa, the Tonkawa,” dissertation, University of Texas
(1902-1987) Mildred P. Mayhall
(1939) A History of Texas: Land of Promise
(1881-1969) Joseph L. Clark
(1942) Our Catholic Heritage, Volume 5 – 1780-1810 The End of the Spanish Regime
(1896-1958) Carlos E. Castañeda
(1942) History of Refugio Mission
(1899-1983) William H. Oberste
(1950) Karánkaway Country
(1878-1959) Roy Bedichek
(1951) The Bidai Indians of Southeastern Texas
(1924-2018) Andrée Frances Sjoberg
(1953-1955) Refugio: A Comprehensive History of Refugio County from Aboriginal Times to 1953
(1893-1983) Hobart Huson
(1955) The Coahuiltecan Indians of Southern Texas and Northeastern Mexico
(?-?)Frederick Henry Ruecking
(1956) “A Reappraisal of the ‘Cultural Sink’ of Texas”
(1921-2010) William W. Newcomb, Jr.
(1959) Cannibal Coast – Extraordinarily biased
(1896-1969) Edward W. Kilman
(1962) “The Last Years of Spanish Texas, 1778-1821”
(1933- ) Odie B. Faulk
(1964) “The Human Side of Science: Karankawas Left Puzzles,” in Brazosport Newspaper
(1927-2014) Blair Justice
(1964) “Jean Lafitte and the Karankawa Indians”
(1941-2020) David B. Gracy II
(1964) Conquistadores and Cannibals
(1920-1977) Vernon Smylie
(1965) “Karankawa Indians,” Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico
(1864-1956) Frederick Webb Hodge
(1966) Presidio La Bahía
(1883-1979) Kathryn Stoner O’Connor
(1968) San Antonio’s Mission San José
(1901-1984) Marion A. Habig
(1968) San Juan Bautista: Gateway to Spanish Texas
(1921-2015) Robert Weddle
(1968) “The Karankawa Invasion of Texas” – Ill-informed
(1928-2003) Herbert Landar
(1969) “The Karankawa Indians: Their Conflict with the White Man in Texas”
(?-?) Thomas Wolff
(1970) The Spanish Borderlands Frontier: 1513-1821
(1905-1986) John Francis Bannon
(1971) “Juan de Ugalde (1729-1816) and the Provincias Internas of Coahuila and Texas”
(1943-2021) Gary Bertram Starnes
(1971) Spanish Texas: Yesterday and Today
(?-?) Gerald Ashford
(1971) “The Karankawas,” in Indian Tribes of Texas
(1932-2005) James Day
(1972) The Indians of Texas: From Prehistoric to Modern Times
(1921-2010) William W. Newcomb, Jr.
(1972) “La Salle’s Survivors”
(1921-2015) Robert Weddle
(1972) “A Narrative History of Corpus Christi”
(1914-2004) Eugenia Reynolds Briscoe
(1973) “Original residents left no records; Original Brazoria Countians lost out to whites,” in Brazosport Facts
(?-?) Peggy Case
(1973) Wilderness Manhunt: The Spanish Search for La Salle
(1921-2015) Robert Weddle
(1973) “The Influence of Epidemics on the Indian Populations and Cultures of Texas”
(1909-1997) John C. Ewers
(1973) The Empresario Don Martín de León
(?-?) A.B.J. Hammet
(1974) Captain Phillip Dimmitt’s Commandancy of Goliad, 1835–1836
(1893-1983) Hobart Huson
(1975) The Leather Jacket Soldier
(1933- ) Odie B. Faulk
(?-?) Elizabeth John
(1976) Nothingness Itself, Selected Writings of Ven. Fr. Antonio Margil, 1690–1724
(1901-1984) Marion A. Habig
(1976) Our First Residents: The Karankawas
(?-?) Harriett Johnson
(1976) “The Brackish Water Clam (Rangia cuneata): A Prehistoric “Staff of Life” or a Minor Food Resource”
(?- ) Kathleen Mary Byrd
(1977) Indianola: The Mother of Western Texas
(1910-1999) Brownson Malsch
(1982) “Sources for the La Salle Expedition of 1682,” in La Salle and His Legacy
(?- ) Patricia Galloway
(1983) “Coahuiltecans and Their Neighbors” in Handbook of North American Indians
(1941-1992) Thomas Nolan Campbell
(1983) Indians of the Upper Texas Coast – High Quality, too much content to link, must buy.
(1940-2019) Lawrence E. Aten
(1983) “Karankawa” in Handbook of North American Indians
(1921-2010) William W. Newcomb, Jr.
(1984) “The Indians of Mission Rosario”
(1914-2010) Kathleen Gilmore
(1985) City by the Sea: A History of Corpus Christi, 1519-1875
(1914-2004) Eugenia Reynolds Briscoe
(1985) Spanish Sea: The Gulf of Mexico in North American Discovery
(1921-2015) Robert Weddle
(1986) “Was there really a cannibal coast?” in The Brazosport Facts
(?-?) Dona Vaughn
(1986) Los Mesteños: Spanish Ranching in Texas, 1721-1821
(1941-2006) Jack Jackson
(1986) Galveston: A History
(1934- ) David G. McComb
(1986) “Prehistoric Settlement and Subsistence Patterns of the Baffin Bay Area of the Lower Texas Coast”
(1938-2000) Herman A. Smith
(1986) Cannibals and Condos: Texans and Texas along the Gulf Coast
(1947- ) Robert Lee Maril
(1987) “In Search of Cabeza de Vaca’s Route across Texas: An Historiographical Survey”
(?- ) Donald Chipman
(1991) The French Thorn: Rival Explorers in the Spanish Sea, 1682-1762
(1921-2015) Robert Weddle
(1991) Galveston: A History of the Island
(1934-2017) Gary Cartwright
(1992) El Fuerte Del Cíbolo: Sentinel of the Béxar-La Bahía Ranches
(1939-2015) Robert H. Thonhoff
(1992) The Spanish Frontier in North America
(1940-2010) David J. Weber
(1994) Remember Goliad: A History of La Bahía
(1954-2020) Craig H. Roell
(1995) Changing Tides: Twilight and Dawn in the Spanish Sea, 1763-1803
(1921-2015) Robert Weddle
(~1995) “Prehistoric and Early Historic People and Environment in the Corpus Christi Bay Area,” for the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory
(1948- ) Robert Ricklis
(1996) Indian Groups Associated with Spanish Missions of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
(1941-1992) & (?-?) T.N. Campbell and T.J. Campbell
(1996) The Karankawa Indians of Texas: The Karankawa Indians of Texas : an ecological study of cultural tradition and change – High Quality, too much content to link, must buy.
(1949- ) Robert Ricklis
(1997) Aransas: The Life of a Texas Coastal County
(?-?) William Allen and Sue Hastings Taylor
(1999) Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas
(1958- ) Gregg Cantrell
(1999) The Indian Southwest, 1580-1830: Ethnogenesis and Reinvention
(1948- ) Gary Clayton Anderson
(1999) The Conquest of the Karankawa and the Tonkawas, 1821-1859
(?- ) Kelly Himmel
(2000) Lone Star: A History of Texas and Texans – Highly Ill-Informed
(1925-2013) T. R. Fehrenbach
(2000) Spanish Expeditions Into Texas
(1929-2015) William C. Foster
(2000) 1999 Excavations at Mission Rosario
(?-?) David L. Nickels
(2001) The Wreck of the Belle, the Ruin of La Salle
(1921-2015) Robert Weddle
(?-?) Cynthia L. Tennis
(2002) We Came Naked and Barefoot: The Journey of Cabeza de Vaca Across North America
(1911-1991) Alex D. Krieger
(2003) Gone to Texas: The Lone Star State
(1940- ) Randolph B. Campbell
(2005) Bárbaros: Spaniards and Their Savages in the Age of Enlightenment
(1940-2010) David J. Weber
(2005) The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land 1820-1875
(1948- ) Gary Clayton Anderson
(2005) From Dominance to Disappearance: The indians of Texas and the Near Southwest, 1786-1859
(?- ) Foster Todd Smith
(2007) A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca
(1970- ) Andres Reséndez
(2007) Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands
(?- ) Juliana Barr
(2007) Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga: A Frontier Mission in South Texas
(1969- ) Tamra Lynn Walter
(2008) The Comanche Empire
(1967- ) Pekka Johannes Hämäläinen
(2008) “Population Dynamics of Prehistoric Foraging Groups Along the Upper Texas Coast”
(?- ) Darren Schubert
(2008) Historic Native Peoples of Texas
(1929-2015) William C. Foster
(2009) The Wrecking of La Salle’s Ship Aimable and the Trial of Claude Aigron
(1921-2015) Robert Weddle
(2009) The Lipan Apaches: People of Wind and Lightning
(1964- ) Thomas A. Britten
(?- ) Debbie S. Cunningham
(2010) Spanish Texas: 1519-1821 (revised, originally published in 1992)
(?- ) & (?- ) Donald Chipman and Harriett Denise Joseph
(2010) Slavery in Indian Country
(?- ) Amanda Snyder
(?-?) Vivien Geneser
(2012) “The Karankawa Indians”
(?- ) Rolf Edward Moore
(1982- ) Jay T. Harrison
(2013) The Texas Indians
(1957- ) David La Vere
(2014) “Native Americans,” in Discovering Texas History
(?- ) Matthew M. Babcock
(2014) Louisiana and the Gulf South Frontier
(?- ) Foster Todd Smith
(2015) Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 1800-1850
(?- ) Andrew J. Torget
(2015) Pioneering Archaeology in the Texas Coastal Bend
(?-2018) & (1974- ) John W. Tunnell and Jace Tunnell
(2015) Where Texas Meets the Sea: Corpus Christi and Its History
(1959- ) Alan Lessoff
(2016) Conquering Sickness: Race, Health, and Colonization in the Texas Borderlands
(1978- ) Mark Goldberg
(2017) “I’m an expert in the Karankawa, natives of the Texas Gulf. I have deep knowledge of our origins and culture. AMA” – Highly Ill-Informed
(2017- ) Reddit User/Milkhemet_Melekh
(2017) “Identifying the Isla de Malhado”
(?-?) David Carson
(2018) The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas
(1984- ) Monica Muñoz Martinez
(2020) The Texas Tonkawas
(1947- ) Stanley S. McGowen
(2020) Los Adaes: The First Capital of Spanish Texas
(1968- ) Francis X. Galan
(2021) A Prehistory of Houston and Southeast Texas: Landscape and Culture – High Quality, too much content to link, must buy.
(?- ) Dan M. Worrall
Miscellaneous
Sources for Southwestern Historical Quarterly article “The Karankawa-Spanish War from 1778 to 1789: Attempted Genocide and Karankawa Power” : Documents (zip)
General Disclaimer and Takedown
Karankawas 