DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the voice passin' it along. Somewhere right around here, people made camp. Not once, not twice — this is one of several known Karankawa campsites or burial grounds along this stretch of the Texas coast.
And the story of who those people were reaches back a long, long way. The Karankawa were nomadic, moving with the seasons, moving with the Gulf. That water wasn't scenery to them — it was survival.
They read that coastline the way some folks read a map, and they knew every bend and bay of it. Now, 1528. A Spanish explorer named Cabeza de Vaca finds himself in a bad way on this coast, and it's the Karankawa who aid him.
Remember that — because the generosity doesn't last in both directions. By 1685, when La Salle's French expedition comes pushing into their territory, the Karankawa are done extending the welcome mat. From that point on, they resist.
Intruders of every kind — they resist them all. And here's where the story turns heavy. Disease moves through.
Then comes warfare — with pirates, with Anglo-American settlers. The tribe that had held this coastline for generations begins to decline. The Karankawa were known for tall tribesmen, and for what some accounts called ceremonial cannibalism — though whether that reputation was fair or just the kind of story outsiders tell about people they want to push aside, well, the marker doesn't say.
What it does say is this: by the 1840s, they had virtually disappeared from Texas. Virtually. That word does a lot of work, doesn't it.
This particular campsite was discovered in 1962. Sitting right here, quiet, all that time. Just waiting for someone to notice what the Gulf already knew.
What the marker says
In this area is one of several known Karankawa campsites or burial grounds. Now extinct, the nomadic Indians lived along the Texas coast, depending on the Gulf for survival. In 1528 they aided Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca, but resisted all intruders from the time of the French expedition of La Salle in 1685. The tribe later declined because of disease and warfare with pirates and Anglo-American settlers. Known for tall tribesmen and alleged practices of ceremonial cannibalism, they had virtually disappeared from Texas by the 1840s. This campsite was discovered in 1962. (1966)