The Karankawa Indians played an important role in the early history of Texas. The name Karankawa became the accepted designation for several groups or bands of coastal people who shared a common language and culture. Those bands included the Capoques (Coaques, Cocos), Kohanis, Kopanes (Copanes), and Karankawa proper (Carancaquacas). They inhabited the Gulf Coast of Texas from Galveston Bay southwestward to Corpus Christi Bay. The Karankawa were a hunter-gatherer tribe, but they also were fishermen. The men were builders of dugout canoes and fine long bows. The Karankawa were probably the first Native Americans to make contact with any Europeans. In the early 1530s Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and three others were shipwrecked off the Texas coast. Cabeza de Vaca lived among the Karankawa before making his way to Mexico City in 1536.

The Karankawa did not welcome the efforts of the Spanish missionaries to become civilized and as the Anglo-Americans settlers came into their lands they were in constant conflict. The Karankawa were basically exterminated by the 1850s.

For more on all the Indian cultures of Texas check out Texas Indians.

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