Lawmen of Texas Part 2:

The Rangers Ambush Outlaws
by Martha Rogers

The legacy of the Texas Rangers ranges from heroic stories in battle, capturing or killing of notorious bandits like Sam Bass or Bonnie and Clyde to legends of the Lone Ranger and T.V. shows like Walker: Texas Ranger. Most of the legends and stories contain some elements of truth even if they are embellished with retelling.

For some reason, many history buffs and western writers have chosen these lawmen to be heroes of their stories and novels. One thing is certain; they are one of the longest running law enforcement agencies in the country still in existence today.

Although today they mainly patrol our highways in Texas and assist other law enforcement agencies, they live up to the legacy of all those who have gone before.

Two of their more famous encounters with outlaws and fugitives were the ones with Sam Bass and Bonnie and Clyde. One took place in the 19th century, the other in the 29th, but they both ended the deaths of the criminals. 

Sam Bass, born in Indiana in 1851, ran away from home in 1859 and ended up in Texas. Then he was on the move again and traveled to Deadwood, South Dakota. There he formed his first gang of six men. As the gang robbed banks and trains, all but Sam either were killed or fled the territory, leaving Sam alone.

Jim Murphy, Sam Bass, Seaborne Barnes

He returned to Texas in 1871 and formed another gang. Sam is pictured above with two of his main gang members. After more robberies, many law groups were then on their tail, including the Rangers. Jim Murphy, one of the gang, cut a deal with the law to save his father. He led the group to Round Rock, Texas where a skirmish took place. Sam was wounded but Frank Jackson, a loyal friend of Bass as well as gang member, rescued Sam and took him out of town. The Rangers later found him propped against a tree.

Sam identified himself, but unsure if it was really him, Frank Murphy gave confirmation and Bass was arrested. Who actually fired the shot that wounded Bass and caused his subsequent death has been argued about, but the official ruling was that the fatal blow came from Ranger Dick Ware. At right is the headstone and memorial set up for Sam at Round Rock Cemetery.

More information can be found at: http://www.forttumbleweed.net/historybass.html

One of the most famous confrontations with known criminals is that of Bonnie and Clyde. Frank Hamer, pictured at right, is the man who led the investigation and subsequent ambush of the couple in 1934.

Clyde Barrow, age 21, met Bonnie Parker in January of 1930 in Texas when she was 19. Barrow was single, but Bonnie was married to a man in prison after a murder conviction. Clyde went to jail for burglary, but Bonnie helped him escape by smuggling a gun to him. He was captured and sent back to prison but was paroled in 1932.

He met up with Bonnie again, and they headed into a two year crime spree that included auto theft, burglaries, robberies and at least thirteen murders. The couple quickly became famous for their crimes which included a suspicion of killing two Joplin, Missouri policemen and the kidnapping of a couple in rural Louisiana. They later released the couple in the small town of Waldo, Texas.

Their crimes spread across Texas and into Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Louisiana where they robbed and killed numerous people including law officers.

Picture from:https://www.history.com/news/8-famous-texas-rangers 

The Texas Rangers commissioned Frank Hamer as Highway Patrol officer and then as a special investigator charged with tracking down Bonnie and Clyde. Hamer began a study of Barrow’s movements and found pattern of circling the

state and skirting along state borders to elude the law. Four other men, Manny Gault, Bob Alcorn, Ted Hinton and Prentiss Oakley joined Hamer in the final ambush in Louisiana that ended in the deaths of Bonnie and Clyde.

Here's a picture of the car after the ambush:

For more information about this infamous couple and their deaths, visit the website: https://www.thevintagenews.com 

You can always visit the museum in Waco and see the artifacts, pictures, and stories of these men who protected our state.

Although the Rangers do not participate in confrontations today like that of Bonnie and Clyde, they are instrumental in helping to keep Texas’ roads and highways safer. Their patrol cars can be seen along every highway in Texas whether a State or Interstate, and they don’t hesitate in pulling over those who are exceeding the posted speed-limits.

In celebration of my 83rd birthday this month, I am giving away a copy of my novella: Lasso Around Her Heart. In the comment section, tell me about your best birthday so far. I'll announce the winner by the 15th. 

Allie Logan promised her mother to take care of the family after her death, and she’s kept that promise for over five years, but now Jarrod Wright comes into her life and threatens that promise. When she learns her of her father’s attempts to arrange a marriage between her and Jarrod by offering him land, she shuts herself off from Jarrod only to find he’s already lassoed her heart. But how can she forgive her father for offering to pay a man to marry her and Jarrod for accepting the offer? 

Martha Rogers is a free-lance writer and multi-published author from Realms Fiction of Charisma Media and Winged Publications. She was named Writer of the Year at the Texas Christian Writers Conference in 2009. She is a member of ACFW and writes the weekly Verse of the Week for the ACFW Loop. ACFW awarded her the Volunteer of the Year in 2014. Her first electronic series from Winged Publications, Love in the Bayou City of Texas, debuted in the spring of 2015.  Martha is a frequent speaker for writing workshops and the Texas Christian Writers Conference. She is a retired teacher and lives in Houston with her husband, Rex. Their favorite pastime is spending time with their twelve grandchildren and five great-grandchildren

Texas Rangers . . . Not the Baseball Team

Lawmen of Texas
By Martha Roges

Many western novels, TV shows, and movies have featured the law enforcement group known as the Texas Rangers. From the early days of their organizing to modern times, the Texas Rangers are often seen as larger-than-life heroes. Texas even has a major league baseball team based in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro-plex, named for them.

The history of the organization is colorful and full of tall tales from the days of Judge Roy Bean. I’ve always been fascinated by stories about these men who have served our state for over 175 years and are still going strong.

Stephen F. Austin unofficially created the group in a call-to-arms action written in 1823. Austin called ten men to act as rangers to protect the 600-700 new settlers who arrived in Texas following the war with Mexico. Although Austin

may not have officially called them Rangers, lore of the men dates this year as the one in which they named themselves. Austin named Captain Morris to be its head. Then, on August 10, 1835, Daniel Parker presented a resolution to the Permanent Council and created a body of rangers to protect the southern border of Texas. Robert McAlpin Williamson serves as the first Major of the Texas Rangers.

Then, following the Texas Revolution, Mirabeau B. Lamar, president of the Republic of Texas led a force of fifty-six men to fight the Cherokee and the Comanches who had supported the Mexicans in the Revolution. After the second election of Sam Houston as president, the Ranger force increased from 56 to 150 men.

Their duties ranged from participating in Counter-guerilla warfare against the Mexicans and Indians to enforcing the law in frontier towns. With the annexation of the Republic into the United States, several companies of the Ranges were mustered into federal service for the Mexican-American War.

Photo of a group of Rangers in the early 20th Century

Twice the group disbanded only to be reformed. At the end of the war in 1848, they largely disbanded until Governor Richard Runnels in 1857 allocated $70,000 to fund the Rangers under John Salmon Ford, a veteran of the Mexican War. The Rangers, now with about one hundred men, fought in skirmishes with   the Indians to protect settlers and their property.

Although dissolved by federal authority during the Civil War Reconstruction era, it was reformed as soon as Texas reinstituted home government.  A series of battles in the 1860’s proved to be a turning point in their history. Due to the lack of U.S. Army forces needed to protect the huge expanse of Texas, the Rangers were called into duty and dealt with threats from Indians and Mexicans. Their successes in these battles earned them the reputation of force that could handle about any situation because of knowledge and familiarity with the land.

The second disbandment came at the end of the Civil War when federal authorities disbanded them during the era of reconstruction. However, as soon as home government for Texas was re-established, the group reformed.

Badges were made out of of old coins.

The duties of the Rangers ranged from fighting off Mexicans at the border and protecting property, to protecting presidents visiting in Texas, to capturing famous outlaws. Such was their reputation that writers built on it to create a mythology of the Old West such as in the character of the Lone Ranger who is said to have drawn his alias from having once been a Texas Ranger. This group is from 1896.
            

 A museum in Waco, Texas is dedicated to the stories of the Texas Rangers with pictures and artifacts to satisfy even the most avid fan of the history of the Rangers. 

A historical marker is placed at the site of Camp Roberts, the first Ranger Station in the Panhandle established in 1879. 

Next month I will share more about these daring and brave men who still serve Texas and some of their more famous captures and battles.

Martha Rogers is a free-lance writer and multi-published author from Realms Fiction of Charisma Media and Winged Publications. She was named Writer of the Year at the Texas Christian Writers Conference in 2009. She is a member of ACFW and writes the weekly Verse of the Week for the ACFW Loop. ACFW awarded her the Volunteer of the Year in 2014. Her first electronic series from Winged Publications, Love in the Bayou City of Texas, debuted in the spring of 2015.  Martha is a frequent speaker for writing workshops and the Texas Christian Writers Conference. She is a retired teacher and lives in Houston with her husband, Rex. Their favorite pastime is spending time with their twelve grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Cynthia Ann Parker

Susan Page Davis here. You can’t study Texas history without hearing the name Cynthia Ann Parker. Several of my books are set in the Lone Star State, and she is one of the first famous Texans I learned about.

    Cynthia was about eleven years old when she was captured by Comanches, and here is how it came about.

    She was born about 1825, in Illinois. Her parents moved to central Texas when she was nine or ten years old. Her father, John Parker, headed the move and took a large number of people from his extended family with them. They built a stockade, Fort Parker, on the headwaters of the Navasota River, in what is now Limestone County.

    The fort was built on a hill, giving the inhabitants a good view of anyone approaching. The settlers lived in log cabins inside the walls. Each day, they went outside the walls to farm. At night, they would drive their grazing animals inside the fort and bar the gate.

Source of this picture of Fort Parker unknown, public domain

    On May 19, 1836, several of the Parker men went out to tend their fields. They left the gate open. A short time later, a child looking out the gate saw about 150 mounted warriors (some accounts estimate up to 500) outside.

The Indians, mostly Comanche, claimed to be friendly at first. Benjamin Parker went out to talk to them. They asked for some beef and directions to the nearest water—and yet, the river ran nearby. Parker went inside the gate told the others he would go and talk to them some more. Still those inside did not close the gate, not wanting to shut out the men in the fields.

     The warriors killed Benjamin Parker and attacked the fort. They killed several of the settlers and captured five people, including Cynthia and her younger brother, John Parker. Then they chased the men who had been working outside the fort. Some were killed, and others managed to hide and escape.

Comanche chief Quanah Parker on horseback, late 1800s. Public Domain

      The other captives were released in a relatively short time, but not Cynthia Ann. She grew up among the Comanche people and became one of them. They gave her the name Nadua, and she darkened her hair to make her look more like her adopted people. She became the wife of Peta Nocona, a leader among the Comanche. They had two sons, Quanah and Pecos, and a daughter, Topsannah.

    Her brother, John, who had been ransomed, reportedly asked Cynthia to return to their family in the mid-1840s, but she refused. She told him she loved her husband and children too much to leave them. Another undocumented report tells of an Indian trader inviting her to return to the white settlements with him a few years later, again without success.

     Several federal officials and military officers reported seeing her over the years and attempting to ransom her and being refused by the Comanche elders, who said she was a member of the tribe.

Cynthia with her daughter, Topsannah

    In December, 1860, Cynthia Ann and her baby, Topsannah (“Prairie Flower”), were captured by a group of Texas Rangers during an attack on a Comanche hunting camp. The Rangers were surprised to find that one of their captives had blue eyes. They described her as a non-English-speaking white woman with an infant daughter. She was later identified by Col. Isaac Parker as his niece, Cynthia Ann.



    Cynthia at the time thought her husband was dead and cut her hair short, a Comanche tradition of mourning. She begged to be allowed to return with her daughter to the Comanche, but was refused. She agreed to accompany Col. Parker on the condition that her sons would be sent to her if they were found. This did not happen. She returned to the Parker family. She had lived with the Comanche for more than twenty-four years. By now, Cynthia Ann had disappeared. She considered herself Nadua, a Comanche woman.

Cynthia's son Quanah

    The Texas legislature voted her a grant of $100 a year for five years and a piece of land. Two of the Parker family men were appointed her guardians. Desperately unhappy and longing to be with her sons and her husband, Nadua tried several times to escape. She was placed under guard.

    When Topsannah died within three years of coming to the white community, Nadua grieved as a Comanche woman would, horrifying her relatives. She howled and slashed her arms and breasts with a knife. She refused to eat and died mourning at the home of one of her brothers, having never seen her Comanche family again. She was approximately forty-three years old.

    Her son Quanah became the most influential Comanche leader of the reservation era and took his mother’s last name, Parker. He moved her body in 1910 to the Post Oak Mission Cemetery near Cache, Oklahoma. Later, Cynthia Ann’s remains and Quanah Parker’s were reinterred at the Fort Sill Post Cemetery in Lawton, Oklahoma.

To enter a drawing for a copy of Susan Page Davis’s Captive Trail, a historical novel set in Texas, leave a comment and your contact information. The drawing will be held Oct. 28.

Susan Page Davis is the author of more than sixty published novels. She’s always interested in the unusual happenings of the past. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com .
All photos on this post are in the public domain.

"Rip" Ford of the Texas Rangers

                                                

Laurie Kingery here—this month I decided to tell you about one of the most famous Texas Rangers of all, John Salmon Ford, who was better known as "Rip" Ford for his practice of listing "R.I.P." (Rest in peace) after every name on his company's casualty lists when he served in the Mexican-American War.

                                         

Rip Ford was not born in Texas, but in South Carolina, in 1815. He grew up in Tennessee. He married Mary Davis there, but when the marriage ended in divorce, he left for Texas, which was then fighting for its independence from Mexico, but he arrived too late to assist Texas in that.

He served in the Texas army until 1838, then opened a medical practice in San Augustine. He also became a lawyer before winning election to the state legislature in 1844, and was a proponent of annexation of the republic to the U.S. as a state. He then moved to Austin and ran the Texas Democrat newspaper.

                                               

When the Mexican War began, Ford joined John Coffee Hays' regiment of Texas Mounted Rifles. He was immediately appointed a lieutenant and served as a medical officer, adjutant and scout. It was here he earned his nickname of "Rip."

Following the war, he explored the country between San Antonio and El Paso. He was made a captain in the Texas Rangers and stationed between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers, where he had several fights with the Indians.

In 1858, he became a senior captain in the state troops, and defeated hostile Indians in the Battle of Little Robe Creek. In 1859, he joined other Texas Rangers to fight the notorious Mexican bandit/general  Juan Cortina at the Battle of Rio Grande City.

                                               

In 1861, Ford was part of the Secession Convention, and initiated a trade agreement between Mexico and the Confederacy. A Colonel in the Conferate army, he had command of the Rio Grande Military District. The same year, he defended Zapata County in the Second Cortina War against Mexicans who didn't want Texas in the Confederacy. He ran the Bureau of Conscription for Texas, and in May, 1865, he led Confederate forces against the Union in the Battle of Palmito Ranch, the last battle of the Civil War—which took place one month after Lee's surrender at Appomatox, but word of the surrender had not reached south Texas.

In the battle, some of the 62^nd Colored Regiment of the Union Forces were captured. They had been told if captured they would be shot or returned to slavery, but Ford had them all paroled and released with the white prisoners. After the war he insisted the negroes had the right to vote.

In later years, Ford acted as a guide for the U.S. military operating against "cow thieves and other disturbers of peace and quietude" and was a correspondent for the Galveston News, and also worked for other newspapers. He died in 1897.

With thanks to Wikimedia Commons for the images—

                      Blessings, Laurie Kingery

                                                

THE COUNCIL HOUSE FIGHT

                                                                

Laurie Kingery here, and this month I'd like to tell you about an attempt at peace between the whites and the Comanches that went tragically wrong, the Council House fight of 1840 in Texas.

The meeting took place under a truce after years of conflict between the Texas settlers and the Comanches. The Comanches wanted recognition of the boundaries of  the Comancheria, their homeland, upon which they saw the settlers encroaching. The Texans wanted release of all the captives that had been taken. The meeting had been asked for by a group of powerful Comanches who approached Colonel Wax Karnes in San Antonio to negotiate a peace treaty in return for captives.

Except for Sam Houston, most Texans did not understand that the Comanches were not a unified nation as they understood one—there were at least twelve divisions of them and thirty-five roaming bands, known as rancherias or villages. There was no unified authority. The Comanches had suffered from the years of war and a smallpox epidemic. They returned a boy as a show of their sincerity. One of the other chiefs, Buffalo Hump, warned that the Texans could not be trusted.

The Comanche delegation arrived for the negotiation in San Antonio on March 19, and consisted of twelve chiefs, warriors, women and children. The warriors were dressed in their best and had painted faces. The meeting took place in a one-story building on the corner of the Main Plaza and Market Street called the Council House. They brought along one white captive child, Mary Lockhart, and several Mexican captive children.

Some Texans reported that Mary Lockhart had been raped and beaten and her nose burned away—though other eyewitnesses reported no such injuries to the child.  Mary reported about other whites who were still captives, and that the Indians wanted to see how high a price they could get for her (before bringing other captives?).  The Texans believed this violated the conditions of the proposed peace treaty as all captives were supposed to be released. The Texans demanded to know where the other captives were. Chief Muguara explained that the other captives were held by other bands, but that he thought they could be negotiated for in return for a lot of blankets, ammunition, and other supplies, finishing with the words "How do you like that answer?"

In response, the Texas militia came into the room and positioned themselves around the walls. The officials said the chiefs would be held until all captives were released, but the interpreter warned them not to deliver this message, for there would be a fight. They insisted it be delivered as they said it, so he left the room as soon as he'd done so. As he predicted, the chiefs attempted to fight their way out of the room, and the soldiers opened fire, while the Indian women outside, hearing the commotion, began to fire arrows. As Indians escaped into the streets, Texans joined in the battle. In the commotion, both Indian women and seven innocent spectators were killed. Of the sixty-five members of the delegation, thirty males, three women and two children were killed. Seven Texans died in the crossfire, and ten were wounded.

There was a German surgeon named Weidman who treated the citizens. He was sent by the Russian czar to make observations about the Texans. After the battle, it was learned that he had taken the heads and bodies of two Indians back to Russia. To do so, he boiled the bodies until they were skeletons and dumped the water into the San Antonio water supply.

A Comanche woman escaped San Antonio and reported back to her camp what had happened, along with the demand that the sixteen captives be released in twelve days. In response, thirteen were tortured to death. The three that were spared were spared because they had been adopted into the tribe. This response took place because native Americans believed a council to be sacred, and that sanctity had been violated by the whites.

When the truce deadline expired, the Comanches brought the three captives back to San Antonio and they were returned to their families. The Comanche jail prisoners were given to families for whom they agreed to work, but they ran away.

In response to the slaughter at the Council House, Chief Buffalo Hump launched the Great Raid of 1840, attacking many villages and killing at least twenty-five settlers and capturing others and taking thousands of dollars worth of goods. The militia responded, and the Battle of Plum Creek resulted, but the raids continued. The Texas Rangers began to be recruited in 1823, specifically to combat the threat of the Comanches. They didn't make much headway against them until they began to fight like the Comanche, and until they got the Colt revolver. During the Civil War, the frontier was rolled back 100 miles because the Rangers had gone to fight for the South.

                                                                      

Those who have read Larry McMurtry's LONESOME DOVE and its sequels will already be familiar with Buffalo Hump and his actions.  I think a quote from the book illustrates the degree of threat the Comanches posed—"If there's ever been a thousand Comanches in a single band, they'd have taken Washington D.C."

One has to wonder how different things might have been if they'd been a little more patient in their negotiations at the Council House. What do you think?

                                  Blessings, Laurie Kingery

Pictures courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

DEAF SMITH, TEXAS HERO--AND A GIVEAWAY!

Laurie Kingery here, and this month I'm continuing my series on Texas heroes by telling you about Deaf Smith.

Deaf Smith, pronounced "Deef," was so named because of an illness that affected his hearing in his thirties. I was unable to find out what his original first name was. He was born in New York in 1787. His family moved to Natchez in 1798, and he went to Texas for "health reasons" in 1821, but moved back to Natchez in 1822. The same year, he married a Tejana (a Texas woman of Hispanic origin) named Guadalupe Ruiz Duran and had four children with her. She died, and he then married her sister Simona. He was known as a man of few words.

                                               

When trouble began in Texas between the Anglo settlers and the Mexican government, Deaf Smith wanted to remain neutral, but when he and his son-in-law were refused entrance to his home in Bexar (present-day San Antonio) after going on a hunting trip this apparently changed his mind, telling Houston, "I now tender you my services as the Mexicans acted rascally with me."

Since he moved easily between the Mexican and Texans, his intelligence-gathering was invaluable. He served as courier to Travis at the Alamo and carried Travis's letter from the Alamo on February 15. He met Houston at Washington-on-the-Brazos when he signed the Texan Declaration of Independence, and after the Alamo fell, he escorted Mrs. Dickinson, the lone survivor, to General Houston and reported on the fate of the Alamo.

He was assigned to Karnes' Cavalry Company of the 1^st Regiment of Volunteers. At Harrisburg, he captured a Mexican courier with information on the strength and possession of Santa Anna's army. He and his men destroyed Vince's Bridge before the battle of San Jacinto that won Texas's independence. This bridge was the way of retreat or reinforcements for both armies. He later captured Mexican General Cos.

He later raised a company of Texas Rangers, who then fought and won a battle with a superior force of Mexicans near present-day Laredo, a year after San Jacinto.

                                                         

For his services, the Republic of Texas legislature granted Smith any house and lot in the city of Bexar (San Antonio.) He died at age 50 in Richmond, and was buried at the Episcopal churchyard with a marker that read "Deaf Smith, the Texas Spy." A plaque at his museaum in Hereford, Texas, commemorates him by saying: "A man more brave and honest never lived." A county in Texas was named after him, and it's also pronounced "Deef" Smith.

                                                                             

Thanks for sticking with me to the end. If you'll be kind enough to leave a comment, I'll enter you into a drawing for the latest installment in my "Brides of Simpson Creek" series for Love Inspired Historicals, A HERO IN THE MAKING. And please, if you comment, please watch in that same space for the news that you've won so I can get your snail mail address for you. In my last giveaway, the prize was never claimed, despite numerous attempts on my part to notify the winner. :/

                       Blessings, Laurie Kingery

HEROES OF TEXAS--BIGFOOT WALLACE

                                                     

For my blog this month I'd to start a series on "Famous Texans" with William A. Wallace, who was more popularly known in legend as "Bigfoot Wallace." He was a Texas Ranger who took part in many of the conflicts both of the Republic of Texas and the U.S. when it fought the Mexican-American War.

He was born in 1817 in Virginia. Learning that he had lost a brother and a cousin in the massacre at Goliad in the Texas war for independence, he left for Texas to, as he put it, "take pay out of the Mexicans." He was a large man at six feet two inches. He was given his name by a compadre, who took the name from a large Indian known for stealing livestock. The man who jokingly gave him the nickname, ironically, was later killed by Bigfoot the Indian.

He fought in the battles of Salado Creek, the Hondo River, and survived being in Perote Prison at Mier after the "Black Bean Incident" in which the Mexicans executed every man who had picked a black bean in a drawing. Wallace noted that the black beans had been poured in at the top of the jar and "drew deep," fortunately picking a white bean. (Curiously, in Larry MacMurtry's western DEAD MAN'S WALK, a prequel to LONESOME DOVE, he wrote that Bigfoot had picked a black bean and was executed after the drawing—I wonder why he did that?) He later participated in the Battle of Monterrey and the Comanche Wars.

After the Mexican-American War, and Texas became a state, Wallace had his own Ranger company and fought border bandits as well as Indians. He was such a good tracker that he was frequently asked to catch runaway slaves trying to make it to Mexico. He also drove a mail stage and once, after Comanches killed his mules, he walked to El Paso and consumed 27 eggs at the first household he stopped at, then went on to town for a "full" meal.

During the Civil War he guarded the white settlers on the frontier against Comanches. The state of Texas granted him a ranch on the Medina River.

He spent the last years of his life at a small village named Bigfoot. He was reputed to be a mellow person who like to tell exaggerated stories of his career, though he was known to be honest in his personal dealings. He never married.

He died in 1899 and his body was moved to the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. 

            Blessings, Laurie Kingery

                                         

LESSER-KNOWN TEXAS TRIBES--THE KARANKAWA

Laurie Kingery here--I'd like to continue my series on the lesser-known tribes of Texas with the Karankawa tribe. They became extinct by 1860, but they certainly made an impression while they existed because of their reputation as cannibals.

                                                   

The Karankawas, known in their language as the Auia, inhabited the coastal area of Texas from Galveston Bay in the Houston area south to Corpus Christi Bay. The meaning of their name is not certain; it may mean "dog-lovers" or "dog helpers" because they had dogs that were fox- or coyote-like.

There is speculation that the Karankawas came from the Carib Indians because they were so tall—the males averaged six to seven feet. But this has never been proven. The men were striking in appearance, usually naked and heavily tattooed and with pierced nipples and lower lips. The women wore their hair long and painted their entire bodies if married; single women had only a stripe from forehead to chin. Women wore deerskin shirts and breechclouts. Both sexes used shark and alligator oil to repel mosquitoes. The tribe practiced head-flattening.

                                                                

                                                                      

They did not farm, being a nomadic people that migrated between the barrier islands and inland present-day Texas. They took advantage of the bays and lagoons as well as the Gulf, eating oysters, clams, crabs, redfish, spotted seatrout and black drum. In the summer months, the shellfish were not safe to eat, and the fish migrated out of pass between the mainland and the barrier islands, so the Karankawa migrated inland. They may also have done so to get away from hurricanes. The picture below is a plaque marking the site of a Karankawa settlement on the west end of Jamaica Beach, Galveston Island.

                                                         

The tribe had some interesting customs. For example, they had three gender roles: male, female and a third group made up of men called berdache because they took on female roles and activities and played a special role in their religion. They were also passive sexual partners for some of the other men. The women sold and traded or even offered themselves to get things. Divorce was easily obtained before children were born to a marriage, but rare afterwards. They made a distinctive pottery with an inside coating of asphaltum, a natural tar that washes onto Gulf beaches, and lived in circular 10-12 foot huts covered with hides and mats. They travelled in dugouts made by the women of twisted-together poles. Their bows were of cane and 5-6 feet long, with arrows three feet long—the better to retrieve fish they had shot.

                                                                

The first Europeans to come across this tribe were the Spanish, such as the explorer Cabeza de Vaca, who wrote favorably about them because they took care of him and his band when they ran aground in Galveston Bay in the 1530's. He then lived with the tribe for several years. Some of the tribe became Christians and lived in missions; others went to live with the Lipan Apache.

DeVaca denied the Karankawas were cannibals; in fact he admitted he and his own men had resorted to cannibalism when they shipwrecked. Others insisted that the tribe did indeed indulge in ritual cannibalism of their enemies, believing that eating their captives' flesh would transfer their power to the Karankawa. Some sources indicate the victims were not always dead when this flesh was taken, but sliced off while the victims were tied to a stake. The flesh was roasted in front of the victims and eaten.

                                                        

When the pirate Jean Lafitte was kicked out of Louisiana and came to live in Galveston in 1817, the Karankawas tried to retrieve one of their women who had been taken to his so-called "kingdom of Campeche" but had to retreat after the pirates inflicted heavy casualties. The Indians didn't get along with the Anglo settlers in Stephen Austin's Mexican colony either, and sided with the Mexicans in the Texas war for Independence. Their chief, Jose Maria, and most of his warriors were killed. An early Texas Ranger, Noah Smithwick, called them "The most savage-looking human beings I ever saw."

The last known remaining Karankawa was killed by Mexican general Juan Cortinas in 1858, though in 2009 an army veteran of Vietnam, Bosnia and Desert Storm claimed to be the last descendant.

                                                                  

I hope you've enjoyed this look at a very colorful, vanished Indian tribe.

                  Blessings, Laurie Kingery

                                             

All photos courtesy of Wikimedia and Wikipedia

ENCHANTED ROCK, TEXAS

                    

Laurie Kingery here, and for my blog this month I'd like to tell you about a magical place in my favorite part of Texas, the Hill Country. Enchanted Rock, an enormous dome of pink granite in the basin of the Llano Uplift, lies fifteen miles north of Fredericksburg at 16710 Ranch Road 965. The Enchanted Rock State Natural Area lies on the border between Gillespie and Llano Counties, and covers 645 acres. It was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1936.

                                              

Why is it magical? Legends of the Comanche, Apache and Tonkawa tribes in this part of Texas assigned spiritual powers to this rock, which they believed was a portal to other worlds. The Tonkawa tribe believed that ghost fires flickered at the top of the dome, and that the creaking and groaning noises they heard at night was caused by spirits. Another legend says the rock is haunted by an Indian princess who threw herself off the rock after witnessing the slaughter of her people. It's said that bad fortune and death will befall any who climb the rock with bad intent. There are supposedly footprints imprinted in the stone that belong to an Indian chief who sacrificed his daughter there, and was condemned to walk on Enchanted Rock into eternity. 

                                                                     

Geologists explain that the sounds are actually the contraction of the stones after their heating during the day. The rock has also been called "Crying Rock" and "Spirit Song Rock." The first European to visit it was probably Spanish explorer Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1536.

 

Indians hid from settlers on top of this rock, unseen by the settlers below. In 1841, from its summit, famous Texas Ranger Captain John C. Hayes fought a battle against Comanches who had cut him off from his company, and repulsed them, inflicting heavy losses against the Indians. 

                                                           

I climbed to the top of the dome with my husband on our honeymoon in 2005. It is about 425 feet to the top by a steep, winding trail, so no scary climbing gear or danger was involved, but I doubt I could do it now! :) The view was amazing from atop the windy dome, as the picture demonstrates. 

                                                                

One can camp on the grounds, but we didn't, being too busy filling ourselves with good German food in nearby Fredericksburg! I'd like to say I will camp there another time--but probably not. I'm into my comforts, which doesn't include primitive camping in an area populated by snakes, bats and other wild creatures. J But I would've liked to hear the singing of Enchanted Rock at night…

                                       Blessings, Laurie Kingery