Karankawa People

Karankawa People

Karankawa (also Karankawan, Carancahua, Clamcoëhs, and called in their language Auia) were a group of Native American peoples, now extinct as a tribal group, who played a pivotal part in early Texas history.

The term Karankawa has been popularly applied to a group of Native American tribes who had a common dialect and culture. These people can be more specifically identified as the Capoques (Cocos), Kohanis, Kopanes, Kronks, and Karankawa (Carancaquacas) bands. They inhabited the Gulf Coast of Texas from Galveston Bay in the present-day Greater Houston area, then south toward Corpus Christi Bay.

Exposure to new infectious diseases, loss of control over territory, conflict with the newly arrived Europeans, and war brought them to extinction before 1860.