La Belle, the Ship That Changed History

Native Americans

37 Native A�ericans Juliana Barr A t the time of European arrival in the seventeenth century, the landscape of Texas was criss-crossed with lines drawn between Indian groups that had long occupied the land that Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Anglos would attempt to occupy for themselves. Individual Indian group homelands brushed up against one another , their edges and peripheries creating zones of shared and contested indigenous power. Of the groups that encountered Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, in the 1680s, Karankawas found economic strength and political security in barrier islands and coastal estuaries. Caddos maintained inland ancestral landscapes that had been forged over centuries. Jumanos enjoyed territorial grasp through the mobility of their trading economies and communication networks. Karankawa Marine-adapted hunting and gathering groups of Akokisas, Atakapas, and Karankawas (Cocos, Copanes, Cujanes, Guapites, and Karankawas proper) held the length of the Gulf Coast. They lived in small, kin-based bands, and their territory encompassed the mainland, coast, and barrier islands . Each of the five Karankawa groups occupied clearly defined territory no matter what time of year. In the spring and summer, smaller kin-related bands dispersed throughout the marshes and prairies of the coastal plains to hunt bison, deer, and small animals, as well as to gather nuts, roots, fruits, and greens. Hunting camps located along the inland Karankawa territorial line suggest that they shared the camps with inland dwellers at the same times of the year and perhaps hunted together, though they divided the Map of Native Americans in Texas Texas was inhabited by numerous Native American groups in the seventeenth century. La Salle encountered the Karankawa, Caddo, and Jumano, among many other native groups, during his exploration. 38 La Belle, The Ship That Changed History camps into northern and southern halves for separate residency . In the fall and winter Karankawa people returned to the coast, where they gathered with others from the five groups and converged around different bays, lagoons, and barrier islands. The islands and coastal environment provided plentiful saltwater fish and shellfish as well as invaluable defensive positions for their marine encampments, isolating them from the displacement pressures that later befell other Indian groups in Texas. With such clear boundary lines and security measures in place, it is interesting to consider the political implications of Karankawa response to the establishment of the French Fort St. Louis by La Salle’s expedition in 1685. The Frenchmen erected six structures using ship timbers, poles, and mud plaster that huddled together along Garcitas Creek a league and a half (four miles) from Matagorda Bay. Three years passed before the Karankawas decided the camp had to be destroyed in the winter of 1688 and 1689. While sporadic fighting occurred between La Salle’s colonists and the Karankawas, the native people appear not to have considered the French presence to be an invasion of their territory and instead shared the land and its resources with them. The animosity that existed between La Salle and the Karankawas was the fault of the French. Early in La Salle’s stay on the coast, some of his men stole Karankawa canoes. These vessels were essential to Karankawa subsistence and defensive mobility between the shoreline and islands during the winter months. The theft of the canoes merited the Indians’ anger and ultimately incited retaliatory raids that brought about the end of the French encampment. Thirty-three years later, Spaniards tried to reoccupy the spot of La Salle’s settlement, but their attempt met similar failure after only five years when they too violated Cocos Illustration by Lino Sánchez y Tapía, ca. 1828. The Cocos, a Karankawa group, relied on the bow and arrow for hunting and fishing. The French might have learned a great deal from the Karankawa had they not angered the group by stealing their canoes. From the collection of the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Arrow point A single Cuney arrow point was found on La Belle. Its tip is broken off, which often happens during impact. Cuney points have triangular blades with barbs and were used between 1300– 1700. How it ended up on the wreck is unknown. Dimension .78”l x .51”w x .07”h BULLOCK TEXAS STATE HISTORY MUSEUM 39 Karankawa rules of coexistence. Thereafter no further European invasions were attempted; Karankawa geographical , economic, and political positioning afforded them much security and independence. Historical accounts from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century...