Galveston Isle, Volume 3, Number 1, July 1949 Page: 5
20 p. : ill., maps ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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colonists used to call them, have been described
by everyone from Cabeza de Vaca to Ed Kilman
as “the black sheep of the American Indian tribes,”
“the carnal, cannibalistic Carancahuas," “cruel,
treacherous, vicious, and of perverse mind.”
Even though this semi-aquatic tribe cinched the
title of “America’s lowest-class Indian,” the fact
remains that it also made its permanent mark on
the maps of the Galveston area. Today, we still
refer to Carancahua Lake, Carancahua Bayou,
Carancahua Point. Not far from St. Louis Pass was
once a famous Carancahua watering place.
The first “Galvestonian” to glimpse this canni-
balistic people was Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca,
who had the foresight to be shipwrecked on Gal-
veston Island in November of 1528. For six years
this brilliant Spaniard and three companions lived
among the Cronks and other Texas Indian tribes.
What Cabeza de Vaca learned about the Cronks
would fill a book. And did.
The explorer’s journal gave a vivid picture of
the first residents of the island. He described the
Carancahua bucks as being very tall and well pro-
portioned. their unclothed bodies light in color,
with sunburned black hair (plaited with rattlesnake
buttons) which fell to their waists. Offsetting any
GALVESTON ISLE
No one, it seems, has ever
had a good word to say for
the Carancahua Indians. And
that’s exactly as it should be.
The Cronks, as the Texas
possible physical attractiveness, however, was the
stench of shark oil they smeared on themselves as
a protection against stinging insects.
Carancahua women, following the old Indian
custom, were the work horses of the tribe. From
the day they were born, female Cronks wore a
pa bi go, or G-string made of seaweed, which they
kept on until they died.
Cabeza de Vaca, in his celebrated journal, main-
tains that the diet of the Carancahuas was so indi-
gestible for the small fry that the squaws would
nurse them until they were ten or twelve years old.
The infants were carried on the mother’s back,
papoose fashion, and when the tribe was on the
march, the considerate mother would feed the child
by nursing it from over her shoulder.
Home life of the tribespeople was nothing to
write home about. Bucks and squaws, even on the
best of terms, rarely spoke to each other. And when
they did, the language consisted of a few hoarse
and throaty grunts. Parents and children, however,
were extremely affectionate—especially mother and
daughters. Fathers usually took fierce pride in
their young sons, but were careful not to reveal
their true feelings.
The general diet of the Carancahuas (the book
says) consisted of half-decayed fish, alligator,
snails, crabs, worms, water birds, and roots of cer-
tain marsh plants. The favorite seasoning was chile.
M. J. Atkinson, an authority on Texas Indian life,
CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
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Maceo, Sam & Llewellyn, Edwin E. Galveston Isle, Volume 3, Number 1, July 1949, periodical, July 1949; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1427495/m1/7/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rosenberg Library.