Study Area IV includes the historic Native peoples of South Texas (see Map 4.1). The area boundary follows the lower Gulf Coast from Baffin Bay south to the Rio Grande, tracks the Rio Grande upstream to the river’s intersection with the Pecos River west of Del Rio, follows the southern edge of the Balcones Escarpment eastward to the San Antonio River, and then turns southward downriver to the inland boundary of Study Area III. Area IV has also been identified as the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain and as a part of the Southern Plains during the study period. The northeastern part of the study area is drained by the San Antonio River, the northeastern boundary line of Area IV. The Nueces River system (which includes the Frio, Hondo, Leona, and Atascosa Rivers) drains the central part of the area. A large number of creeks that originate in South Texas flow southward into the Rio Grande or eastward into the Laguna Madre and the Gulf of Mexico. The area includes all or part of thirty-two counties.1
For the purposes of this study, the San Antonio River forms an ethnogeographic boundary, separating the tribes that lived east of the river (in Area II) from tribes living to the southwest (in Area IV).2 The Balcones Escarpment from the Rio Grande to the San Antonio River served as a natural boundary during the historic period, separating the Plains Indians (principally the Apache) who occupied the Hill Country north of the Balcones from the Native peoples living to the south on the coastal plain. Unlike the San Antonio and Colorado Rivers, the Rio Grande did not serve as a Native cultural boundary.
Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century historic documents describe the topography of the region, the local flora and fauna, and the climatic conditions during the study period. The dramatic change from a 450-year warmer climatic period called the Medieval Warm period (ca. AD 900 to 1350) to a 500-year wetter and colder period called the Little Ice Age (ca. AD 1350 to 1850) accounts for expedition diary descriptions of weather conditions that were much colder and wetter than we know today. There are numerous reports of spring snowstorms and large bison herds on the lower Rio Grande in the 1600s and early 1700s and observations of full and flowing rivers that are today small streams. With the Little Ice Age came a significant increase in moisture to the coastal plain that attracted huge bison herds (reported to number 3,000 to 4,000 head) into the present study area and smaller herds that roamed south of the Rio Grande into present-day northern Coahuila.
According to Alonso de León (the elder) and Juan Bautista Chapa, Native tribes in the area immediately south of Area IV below the Rio Grande were numerous and diverse in the 1600s. Chapa writes that European diseases had a serious impact on the Native population in Nuevo León and Coahuila during the study period, and the historian names over 160 tribes or small bands in Nuevo León, Coahuila, and South Texas that had been depopulated or annihilated by European-introduced diseases and wars by the close of the seventeenth century.
Undoubtedly, numerous river crossings were available to Native peoples along the lower Rio Grande, but two significant and popular fording areas were referenced repeatedly in seventeenth-century Spanish accounts. One crossing, called Paso de Francia (near San Juan Bautista), was used by the Indians who guided De León across the river in 1688 to capture the Frenchman Jean Géry and was used subsequently on expeditions throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (see Map 4.1). There were several other associated fords nearby with favorable natural features such as a hard bottom and shallow water in the crossing area. A second natural crossing on the lower Rio Grande was north of Cerralvo; that ford served traffic moving between Nuevo León and the lower Texas coastal area.
In the late 1600s the most popular Indian crossing area on the middle Nueces River in Zavala County was located a few miles north of modern-day Crystal City, where the river widens into multiple shallow streams. On the Frio River in Frio County one crossing was called “Las Cruces,” and a second crossing was in the flat terrain about twelve miles downriver, immediately below the junction of the Frio with the Hondo. A customary crossing on the middle San Antonio River was located in Karnes County; it is the natural hard-rock shallow ford designated the Conquista Crossing on many contemporary maps.
On movements through Area IV in the late seventeenth century, a Native trail ran out of Coahuila, through Paso de Francia and “Las Cruces” northeast toward modern-day San Antonio and Austin; a second travel route ran from Coahuila northeast across the lower Frio crossing eastward toward the Texas coastal prairies and then northeastward to East Texas. As indicated on Map 4.1, Spanish and French documents permit a rather precise location of these old Native trails through Area IV.
A rich archival collection of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish documents is available that identify by name many of the Native tribes and bands found in Area IV. Ethnographic information is given in expedition accounts, official testimony, letters, associated reports, diaries, and journals. To summarize, our documentary story of the Native peoples in Area IV begins with Cabeza de Vaca and his party’s trek across Area IV in 1535. Cabeza de Vaca crossed the lower Rio Grande near the present-day International Falcon Reservoir and then generally moved westward through Coahuila following the Río Sabinas upriver. Although a part of this journey is across northern Coahuila and thus outside Area IV, the full account of Cabeza de Vaca’s journey through Coahuila is critical to understanding the relationship between the Native peoples in South Texas and their relatives and neighbors in northeastern Mexico. Near the close of the sixteenth century, Castaño de Sosa led a colonizing expedition from Monclova through northern Coahuila to the Rio Grande crossing and into Area IV near Eagle Pass. The ultimate destination of the Castaño party was New Mexico, and the expedition route through Areas V and VI is covered in the study of Area VI.
The most comprehensive relevant document from the first half of the seventeenth century that pertains to Native tribes in Area IV was prepared by Alonso de León (the elder), a very observant historian who describes the Native peoples in Nuevo León and on the lower Rio Grande. Juan Bautista Chapa gives an excellent account of Native people in northeastern Mexico and parts of South Texas covering the period 1650–1690. We also have accounts of the expeditions into Area IV by Fray Juan Larios and Fray Francisco Peñasco de Lozano in 1670 and 1674 and by Fernando del Bosque in 1675.
During the last two decades of the seventeenth century, La Salle’s French chroniclers and diarists from Spanish overland expeditions from Monterrey and Monclova recorded accounts of Native life in Area IV. La Salle’s soldiers explored from the lower San Antonio River across the 250-mile east-west stretch of Area IV to the mouth of the Pecos River. The record of French exploration in Area IV is found in notarized statements of French soldiers, in letters of Spanish officials, and in testimony of Area IV Indians.
Between 1686 and 1693 six Spanish expeditions crossed into or passed through Area IV. During the first two decades of the eighteenth century, Spanish authorities dispatched four more large expeditions through Area IV to explore and later colonize the San Antonio area and locations in East Texas. Multiple diary accounts and associated documents provide the core ethnographic information supporting this study of Area IV historic Native people.
In the previous chapter, we left Cabeza de Vaca as he was entering Area IV on his journey southwest with the Mariame to visit the rich prickly pear fields west of modern-day Corpus Christi in Jim Wells, Nueces, and Duval Counties.3 Cabeza de Vaca lists the name and location of sixteen tribes in Area IV living southwest of the lower San Antonio River and northeast of the lower Rio Grande crossing in Zapata County. Tribes identified by Cabeza de Vaca in northeastern Area IV include the Yguaze in the Refugio County area, Guaycone living closer to the coast, Atayo in Refugio County, and the Acubadao in Live Oak County. The Avavare, Como, Cuthalchuche, Maliacone, Susola and possibly the Coayo lived inland from the Quitole between present-day Corpus Christi and Copano Bay. The Camole and People of the Figs lived closer to the coast, south of Corpus Christi Bay. Closer to the Rio Grande in Zapata and Jim Hogg Counties lived the Arbadao and Cuchendado.
After escaping from the Mariame, Cabeza de Vaca and his party moved along a well-traveled route toward the Rio Grande crossing. On his escape from the prickly pear field near the lower Nueces River, Cabeza de Vaca and his party moved southward toward the present-day Falcon Reservoir. Oviedo gives a day-by-day diary account of the initial movement out of Texas, which began about August 1, 1535 (according to Oviedo), and ended about August 30 when the party crossed the Rio Grande.
The following is a condensation, using direct quotes from Oviedo’s diary account, of Cabeza de Vaca’s short, month-long trip from the location where his Indian captors held him near the Nueces to the Rio Grande. Oviedo writes as follows: “The month of August arriving, these three noblemen … fled from the place and the Indians mentioned before. And that same day that they departed [August 1, 1535], they walked seven leagues … and they remained there eight days. That day [August 9] they walked five or six leagues … and they stayed there with those Indians fifteen days. From there [on August 25], they went to other Indians two leagues ahead … and after they departed from there [on August 26], women followed the Christians … two or three leagues. And from then [August 27] they [the women] went with them, and they walked that day eight or nine long leagues [leguas grandes] without stopping all day long as they were able. Before the sun set [on August 27] they arrived at a river that appeared to them wider than the Guadalquivir at Sevilla [the Rio Grande].”4
Thus Cabeza de Vaca’s party walked from the location of his captors to the Rio Grande about sixteen to eighteen Spanish leagues (ca. 2.6 miles per Spanish league) plus eight to nine “long” leagues (ca. 3.5 miles per Spanish long league), or approximately a total of seventy to seventy-eight miles.5 If Cabeza de Vaca crossed the Rio Grande near the Falcon Reservoir, as suggested by Alonso de León (the elder) and Alex D. Krieger,6 we can project that the Spanish party departed from their captors living near Freer in Duval County.
The projected Rio Grande crossing area is near the modern-day Falcon Reservoir into which the Río Salado flows from the west. Soon after crossing the big river, the Spaniards found an encampment of local Indians who celebrated their arrival with song and dance. Large dried gourds filled with small pebbles were used as musical instruments in the celebration. According to the Indians, the gourds were not locally grown but rather were found along the banks of the Rio Grande and originated from an unknown source far upriver. The Indians gave Estevan a special large gourd to carry on the remainder of his journey as a symbol of authority.7
About a week later, when Cabeza de Vaca’s party was traveling along a pathway that ran beside a river (probably along the Río Salado or its tributary, the Río Sabinas),8 they met two women who were walking in the opposite direction, downriver. To Cabeza de Vaca’s amazement, the Indian women were carrying large bags of finely ground maize. Knowing that the local Indians did not cultivate maize, gourds, or any other cultigen, Cabeza de Vaca asked where the women got the maize. The women replied that they had received the maize from people whom the Spaniards would find farther upriver.
As the Indian women said, several days later Cabeza de Vaca met a large, friendly, foreign trading party that apparently had provided the maize to the women. The foreigners had been visiting farther east toward the Gulf, but now the long-distance trading party was traveling west, returning to their homeland. Cabeza de Vaca’s description of the trading party encountered en route across Coahuila suggests that the Spaniards and the trading party may have been following an ancient east-west trade route connecting northeast and northwest Mexico.
The visiting traders gave Cabeza de Vaca two surprising gifts—cotton blankets and a cast copper bell or crotal (cascabel) with a human facial imprint on its side.9 Cabeza de Vaca had not seen Indian cotton goods or Native cast copper bells elsewhere on his long journey across the continent and had not seen ground maize since he left Florida.
Local Natives in Coahuila who knew and apparently had traded on other occasions with the foreigners told Cabeza de Vaca that the traders resided far to the west at a highly populated permanent settlement where there were many large houses and that the foreign traders cultivated fields of maize, cotton, and other crops and mined copper.10 Cabeza de Vaca was greatly impressed and added that the visiting traders must also have an understanding of metallurgy, a technology that was unknown to Mississippian people.
The closest and most obvious source of cast copper bells and cotton goods to the west of northern Coahuila was the Casas Grandes people residing about 500 miles away in northwest Chihuahua. For several hundred years before Cabeza de Vaca’s journey, a large cultural center called Paquimé, located on the Río Casas Grandes, had produced and traded extensively in colorful cotton blankets, cast copper bells, and premature scarlet macaw parrots.
Cotton and copper were produced locally near Paquimé, but scarlet macaw had to be imported into Paquimé and other points in the American Southwest from the closest source, namely, the lowland rain forests of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León in northeast Mexico where Cabeza de Vaca encountered the trading party.11 Premature scarlet macaw, hatched in the spring, were available for trade and travel by late summer, when the trading party was visiting northern Nuevo León and Coahuila. Macaw bird handlers at Paquimé fed the caged parrots a mush of ground maize and amaranth.12 The traders brought ground maize with them; amaranth was available all along the route between Nuevo León and the Río Casas Grandes.13
As the city of Paquimé had been abandoned by ca. AD 1450 and residents had moved downriver perhaps only fifty miles,14 it appears that Casas Grandes traders, as late as the 1530s, were still dispatching longdistance trading parties to northeast Mexico to procure premature scarlet macaws. Later, as we will note, Cabeza de Vaca’s party visited the Casas Grandes river valley.
After finding ground maize and receiving the copper bell and cotton blankets in northern Coahuila, Cabeza de Vaca’s party continued to move westward, following generally the Río Sabinas upstream. We will pick up Cabeza de Vaca in the following chapter where he reenters Texas near the junction of the Río Conchos and the Rio Grande in the Big Bend (Area V).
In the 1570s Spanish explorers moved inland and northwest from Pánuco and the Huasteca area on the Gulf of Mexico. In 1579 the Spanish Crown granted Luis Carvajal an area that extended from Pánuco over 500 miles north along the Gulf Coast of Mexico and northward inland into present-day Central Texas and over 500 miles westward. In executing his responsibilities under the grant, Carvajal explored parts of present-day Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, and Coahuila and in 1580 established León, a small silver mining community (near modern Cerralvo) thirty miles south of the lower Rio Grande.
In his history of Nuevo León, Alonso de León (the elder) describes the exploration of Carvajal and his second-in-command, Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, in the 1590s and provides information on Native tribes that lived at the time in northeastern Mexico and along the lower Rio Grande.15 Both Alonso de León (the elder) and Juan Bautista Chapa give extensive firsthand accounts of Natives on the lower Rio Grande in the early and middle 1600s.16
Chapa writes that based on official government records of the former governor of Nuevo León, Don Martín de Zavala, 160 specifically named and recorded tribal groups or Indian bands in the area had been seriously depopulated or entirely extinguished by Spanish-introduced diseases. Chapa adds that the rapid Native depopulation forced Spanish officials and colonists to “gather” (to capture by force) another 88 named tribes or bands that resided within a range of 130 miles of Monterrey or Cerralvo or possibly well inside Area IV.17
As mentioned, De León wrote that Cabeza de Vaca had crossed the Rio Grande from Texas into Mexico about fifty miles north of Cerralvo, or near the present-day Falcon Reservoir.18 The route projected in this study crosses the Rio Grande at the reservoir about thirty to forty miles above the reservoir dam itself. As mentioned by Krieger, a careful review of the sixteenth-century Spanish documentary record of Cabeza de Vaca’s journey suggests that Spanish authorities, including the cartographers, had a very accurate picture of his route.19
As would be expected during the Little Ice Age, De León (the elder) describes the weather in the 1650s as being much colder and wetter than we know today. The historian lists both the wild and domesticated animals and plants in the region near the lower Rio Grande. For purposes of our study, it is significant that De León lists watermelons as one of the melons grown locally by Spaniards in the early 1600s on the lower Rio Grande and says large parrots (perhaps the large macaws) were raised in northern Nuevo León for trade.
De León writes that in the general area along the lower Rio Grande there were hundreds of small independent tribes or bands, each with its own name and language. Their lifeways, however, were similar. They planted no crops, but they hunted deer and smaller game and gathered local plant products. De León describes how the Natives would harvest the heart and fleshy part of the lechuguilla and cook the product for two days and three nights before consuming the juicy parts and chewing and sucking the stringy leaves. This is one of the few historic accounts that describes how Indians cooked sotol, yucca, and lechuguilla on the lower Rio Grande.
De León was also clear that in addition to the large number of local tribes, the area at that time was visited by members of large foreign tribes that resided several hundred miles to the south and southwest. He describes skirmishes that occurred near Monterrey involving the Tepehuan, a large tribe from the Durango area, the Guachachile from southwestern Chihuahua, and the Chichimeca and Borrodo from the Tamaulipas Mountains. The friendly Otomi and Tlaxcala were brought by the Spaniards from central Mexico. This information is significant because it demonstrates that the Native peoples living along the lower Rio Grande in the middle 1600s included representatives of major tribes whose principal residence was over 300 miles to the west and to the east of Monterrey. In Chapa’s account, Texas tribes living 100 miles north of the Rio Grande are also identified and described as raiders that periodically visited Monterrey 100 miles south of the Rio Grande to steal horses and capture slaves.
In addition to identifying Native tribes that customarily lived a substantial distance from the lower Rio Grande, De León identified the major trade routes that connected the Monterrey area with the Gulf of Mexico to the east and with Chihuahua to the west. The historian mentions specifically a military road that crossed northern Mexico from Chihuahua running eastward to the Monterrey area and on farther southeast to the Gulf Coast. This road may have followed in part the earlier Native route that Cabeza de Vaca used traveling westward from the lower Rio Grande to western Chihuahua.
Chapa picks up the history of Nuevo León and the Native people of the lower Rio Grande beginning in the 1630s. Chapa writes that the Indians from the north (north of the Rio Grande in Area IV) continued to raid Spanish communities near Cerralvo and Monterrey to acquire horses and slaves. It appears that during the middle 1600s, Texas tribes from Area IV may have captured large horse herds on raids of Spanish communities, missions, and military posts. In response to this threat from Texas Indian raiding parties from Area IV, Spanish authorities initiated from Monterrey and Saltillo two military expeditions in the 1660s to punish the Texas tribes.
On the first punitive expedition, initiated in October 1663, Mayor Juan de la Garza led a company of Spanish troops and a company of friendly Tlaxcala Indians from Saltillo along with Spanish colonists from Nuevo León to attack the Cacaxtle Indians in South Texas. The seriousness of the 1663 military effort is reflected in its duration (six months in the field) and its size—over 100 enlisted Spanish troops and 800 horses. In comparison, the 1663 expedition matched in size and duration Governor De León’s 1689 and 1690 expeditions to locate and torch La Salle’s fort on the central Texas coast.
The land of the Cacaxtle was reported to be more than 150 miles from Monterrey, but the account fails to mention whether the Spanish troops crossed the Rio Grande. However, most authorities suggest that Garza’s troops in the 1663–1664 campaign engaged the Cacaxtle along the middle Rio Grande near Eagle Pass. During this engagement the Spaniards killed about 100 Area IV Indians and captured 125, counting all ages and both sexes. The historical record indicates that the captured Area IV Texas Indians were sent to Zacatecas to work in the local mines.
The year after Garza’s troops returned, a second military expedition was organized, the objective of which was to enter the land of the Cacaxtle in South Texas and to eradicate the base of the Cacaxtle encampments. Don Fernando de Azcué formed a company of 103 soldiers from Saltillo, augmented by a company of 30 enlisted troops from Monterrey, to march northward across the Rio Grande into Area IV. To support the Spanish troops, a friendly Indian leader named Don Nicolas de Carretero assembled more than 300 local Indians, mostly Boboles. According to Chapa’s account, Ambrosio de Cepeda was designated the captain of the Indian troops. Significantly, Chapa adds that Cepeda was fluent in many languages of the tribes in Area IV, which suggests that tribes within one hundred miles of the lower Rio Grande intermixed, although they spoke different languages.
After a six-day march that probably took the expedition over sixty miles north of the Rio Grande into Area IV, the Spanish troops surrounded the Cacaxtle, who were gathered in thick brush and woods within a barricade that the Spaniards could not penetrate. In the middle of the battle a Cacaxtle leader who had been given the name Juan and who spoke Spanish well asked for a truce. The Spaniards refused, considering his request a trick to give the Indians time to strengthen their fortification with more limbs, brush, and prickly pear. Toward the end of the battle, after the Natives’ supply of arrows had long been exhausted, the Cacaxtle fought with clubs. During the battle, over one hundred Cacaxtles were killed, twenty-two Spaniards were wounded, and two Indians fighting with the Spaniards were killed.
Chapa writes that during the battle an elderly Indian woman who was being held captive by the Spaniards began playing a flute to give courage to her encircled Cacaxtle family and friends. In retribution for her action in support of the Cacaxtle, the Boboles wanted to cook and eat her that evening, but the Spaniards would not permit this. Nevertheless, the Boboles prevailed indirectly, as Chapa says, by secretly cooking and eating a young captive boy who was related to her. Chapa adds that after the battle Nuevo León was, for a time, relatively free of Indian raids from the Texas tribes in Area IV.
According to late seventeenth-century clerical reports, about five years after Azcué’s expedition, a small Franciscan contingent arrived south of the Rio Grande in the area opposite Area IV.20 Later this area in northern Mexico was formally organized as the province of Coahuila. Fray Juan Larios was one of the principal early leaders in the exploration of the area. In his reports from the early 1670s, Larios identifies by name a number of tribes that were encountered near the Rio Grande by the priests, including the “Catzales” (Cacaxtle), Toboso, Obayo, Bobole (who also lived near the Río Sabinas), and Gueiquesale. On one trip Larios spent three weeks in Area IV north and east of present-day Eagle Pass. The priest records crossing into Texas over a wide ford, in the middle of which was an island of sand. This description fits generally the Rio Grande crossing area that was used by De León in 1689 and that was subsequently named Paso de Francia.
The priest Francisco Peñasco de Lozano crossed the Rio Grande from Coahuila into Area IV in the summer of 1674.21 He was in search of the Manosprieta Indians, who were at the time hunting bison north of the river. On his trip Peñasco also met the Giora Indians, who were holding a boy of the Quezale tribe. At their mission at Santa Rosa, near the Río Sabinas, the priests wrote of prickly pear growing in abundance and noted that the pear fruit, or tuna, would last until November. The fathers added that in the winter, if there was heavy snow and the weather was very cold (which apparently was expected), they would have only fish to eat. This comment on the weather tends to confirm other reports indicating that the climate in the region was much colder in the late 1600s than we know today.
In early May 1675, following the earlier steps of Larios and Peñasco, Fernando del Bosque commanded an expedition from the town of Guadalupe (Monclova) that proceeded northward into present-day Texas and Area IV.22 Larios was at his side. Like other Spanish diarists in the late seventeenth century, Bosque maintained an expedition account that includes information on the direction and number of leagues traveled daily, the names of rivers and large creeks crossed, the names (and occasionally a brief description) of Indian tribes met and the flora and fauna recognized. For example, Bosque describes the fish taken from the Río de los Nadadores (the same name that is used for the small dry creek bed today) at a location a few leagues north of Monclova and identifies the fish as large river catfish, bream, bobos, and mojarras. The party also found mud turtles and eels.
A week later, at the Río Sabinas, Bosque describes tall grass growing on wide plains dotted with cottonwood, willows, mesquite, and huisache. About four leagues north of the Rio Grande (in Area IV), near present-day Eagle Pass, the expedition party found fifty-four adult Yorica and Jeapa Indians who said that their enemies were the nearby Ocane (Ocana), Pataguaque, and Yurbipane. After moving northward eight to ten leagues, Bosque met with several other nomadic tribes—the Bibit, Jume, Pinanaca, Xaeser, Tenimama, Cocoma, Xoman, Teroodan, Teaname, and Teimamar. He also recovered a twelve-year old Spanish boy who was held captive by the Cabeza. As the Spaniards moved farther north into Area IV, the Geniocane, Catujano, Tilijae, Ape, Pachaque, and Jeniocane were encountered; at the end of May Bosque returned southward to cross the Rio Grande and return to Monclova.
Bosque’s account confirms the names of many tribes living in the Eagle Pass area of Area IV in the 1670s, the presence of rich grazing lands and bison herds hunted by the Natives, and the availability of substantial fishery and other aquatic resources. The account also suggests that the small tribes or bands lived in shared encampments, engaged in slave trading, and frequently were at war. It also supports the thesis that the climatic conditions in the middle Rio Grande area in the late 1600 were much wetter and colder than those we know today.
In 1685 France, a rival European power to Spain, established a fort and colony on the central Texas coast and sent scouts from the post into Area IV.23 The historical record is not clear as to whether La Salle, the leader of the French expedition, accompanied the French soldiers to the Rio Grande. But the record is clear that French troops visited Area IV, seeking information about Spanish silver mines at Parral in southern Chihuahua.24
We also know that one of La Salle’s party, Jean Géry, was captured by Captain Alonso de León near the Rio Grande in Area IV in 1688.25 Géry’s story is one of the most astonishing tales associated with La Salle’s expedition and deserves special attention because Géry identifies the names of more tribes in Area IV than any other French source.
For a European, Géry forged a unique relationship with the Native population in South Texas. Cabeza de Vaca and his companions lived in Area II often as mistreated servants or slaves who were trying to escape. On the other hand, the Frenchman Géry was at home with the Native people of Area IV, happily living a new life with his Indian wife and child and functioning as a respected leader over numerous tribes openly loyal to him.
Géry was obviously enjoying the comforts of Native life and able not only to communicate freely in the Native tongue of tribes with whom he lived in Area IV but also to speak the Native languages of distant tribes living in Area II over one hundred miles northeast of the Rio Grande. Alonso de León, who developed a respect and true fondness for Géry, wrote of his sadness and loss when Géry later slipped away from Spanish authorities and returned back across the Rio Grande to rejoin his Indian family and friends in Area IV. As Géry is the sole firsthand French source of information on Area IV, his capture and ethnographic contributions will be reviewed in more detail.
In 1688 a friendly Tlaxcala resident of the newly established frontier province of Coahuila informed the provincial governor, Alonso de León (the younger), that he had visited a large Indian encampment about eighty miles north of the Rio Grande on his last bison hunt and that he had seen a European who was said to be a Frenchman. This report startled De León, who had conducted two expeditions to the Gulf Coast to search for evidence of a French presence north of the Rio Grande. This Indian report, if true, meant that information about the French colony was attainable from a Frenchman living only about 175 miles north of Monclova, the provincial capital.
Based on the Native’s information, De León in May 1688 found Jean Géry in a large enclosed lodge roofed with bison hides located about fifty miles north of the Rio Grande, probably in Dimmit County.26 De León later wrote that Géry had gained the loyalty of local tribes in the area while waiting for the opportune moment to advise his fellow countrymen at the French colony to send troops to attack the Spanish frontier towns. De León adds that such an attack might have been successful because few Spanish forces were available to resist a French attack.
De León writes that within the large Indian shared encampment of five tribes, 300 warriors were gathered around Géry like bodyguards. Géry himself was tall, had light skin and gray hair, and appeared to be about fifty years of age. His face was painted with stripes as the Indians painted their faces. Géry was seated alone on a large pile of bison robes. He told De León that his motive in seeking the loyalty of the Natives in Area IV was to make them subjects of the king of France. He said he had been living among the tribes near the Rio Grande for about three years (since 1685), during which time he had married within the tribe and had a little girl. Significantly, Géry added that before coming to the Rio Grande he had “reduced” or pacified in a similar manner tribes that lived north of the French settlement. Also significant for purposes of this study, Géry said that about a year earlier (in the summer of 1687) he had been visited by sixteen French soldiers (not mentioning La Salle personally) who had come to see how his efforts were progressing.
De León returned to Monclova with Géry as his captive and later sent the Frenchman south to the viceroy in Mexico to be interrogated again. The viceroy learned little new from Géry, who was returned to De León with a directive that Géry serve as a guide to locate the French post on the central Texas coast. Géry had assured the viceroy that the journey between the Rio Grande and the French fort had taken him twelve days and that he knew and had marked the route well.
As directed by the viceroy, De León used Géry as a guide on his 1689 expedition to find the French post, and several events occurred on the expedition journey that indicated the accuracy of Géry’s testimony and his credibility as a source of information.27 First, his services as a guide on the expedition proved very valuable, as acknowledged by De León, and the time required to march from the Rio Grande to the French post was approximately the time estimated by Géry. Second, Géry’s services as an interpreter among the Sanan-speaking tribes living in Area II and the open and joyous reception he received by Area II tribes confirmed that he in fact had been at work pacifying and recruiting tribes in Area II before he traveled west to the Rio Grande and Area IV. Finally, Géry skillfully led De León over fifty miles from the ravaged Fort St. Louis area to the entrance of Matagorda Bay, where he told De León that he had arrived with La Salle through the pass identified. These events substantiated Géry’s earlier testimony and, along with other factors, suggest that reliance can be given to Géry’s reports on the activities of Frenchmen on the Rio Grande and the names and locations of Texas tribes.
Another report of Frenchmen visiting the lower Rio Grande is found in a letter dated June 15, 1686, from the governor of Nuevo León, the Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo, to the viceroy who had written in early May of that year ordering Governor Aguayo to solicit support to reconnoiter the Bay of Espiritu Santo and the French settlement on the bay. The letter was written by Aguayo about two weeks before General Alonso de León began his 1686 expedition down the Rio Grande to the coast.28 Aguayo wrote that the Blanco and Pajarito Indians (living near the Rio Grande) had reported that very friendly white people, who looked like the Spaniards, had visited the lower Rio Grande. The Indians added that these white men cared for and liked Indians, giving them clothes to dress themselves. They had seen an Indian servant of these white men dressed in trousers, a jacket, and a big hat. The Indian servant of the white men was staying with the Blancos while recovering from an injury. This report suggests that in the spring of 1686 Frenchmen with an Indian servant visited the lower Rio Grande and that the Frenchmen had contacted the Blanco and Pajarito Indians.
Although Géry provided his Spanish captors with a list of Indian tribes from Areas II and IV that were loyal to him, the Blanco and Pajarito were not included in his list.29 Géry gave to Chapa the following list of names of Indian tribes he considered loyal to him and to France: Cuba, Emot, Sanatoo (Sana, Toho?), Poguan, Cosmojoo, Piyai, Piguen, Panaa, Pataoo, Tamireguan, Cagremoa, Agaaunimi, Chile, Cobapo, Huiapico, Etayax, Cuajin, Caomopac, and Saurum.
On his 1689 expedition De León records finding good pasture across northern Coahuila en route to the Rio Grande and meeting the Jumano, Mescale, Hape, and Xiabu (or Ijiaba) at the Rio Grande crossing in Maverick County in late March.30 In addition to De León’s own diary account of the 1689 expedition, Juan Bautista Chapa and the priest Damián Massanet wrote accounts of the trip.
According to Chapa, the four tribes on the Rio Grande prepared a celebration in honor of the return of their dear friend and leader the Frenchman Jean Géry. Géry’s wide and deep popularity among Area IV Indians surprised the Spaniards. The tribes were gathered in a shared encampment that numbered 490 individuals, as recorded by Chapa based on a head count. Chapa adds that this number did not include members who were nearby on a bison hunt. This is just one of a number of reports of bison ranging near and south of the Rio Grande into Coahuila in the 1680s. But the report that the number of Indians at the encampment was determined by an actual head count is unusual; generally only estimates are given by the diarist.
In the Indian encampment De León noticed that the tribes had on display the skulls of their enemy atop tall poles around their lodges. This display was not intended as a sign to the Spaniards that the Natives were unfriendly. By 1689 the Spaniards had been in that general area of the Rio Grande with small and large forays for over twenty years. De León expected, and received, no opposition or trouble from the Indians. To confirm his friendship, De León contributed two steers for the Indians to barbecue that evening.
About a week after crossing the Rio Grande, the Coahuila Indian guides led the expedition across the Nueces River (which De León named) and farther northeast to the present-day Frio River, which De León named the Río Hondo because of the river’s steep banks. At the location where the Indian guides suggested that he camp, De León observed a large white rock on which a cross had been carved and pecked many years earlier.
A site in the bed of the Frio where De León is projected to have camped has been recorded recently by archeologists associated with the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory. The crossing, which was later called Las Cruces, is located on a stretch of the Frio River in which numerous distinctive, three- to four-meter-wide turtle-back white rocks are located, and one white rock has a large cross, measuring three feet by two feet, carefully chipped and pecked deeply into it. After crossing the Frio, De León recorded no other Indians on the expedition until the party was east of the San Antonio River and outside Area IV.
In 1690 the same tribes (which De León calls “the Frenchman’s Indians”) were at the Rio Grande crossing when the De León expedition crossed the river moving northeastward.31 But a short time before the 1690 trip was organized, Jean Géry had slipped away from Spanish control in Coahuila and returned to his Indian family and followers in Area IV. De León writes that he missed his loyal friend Géry, and when the expedition party reached the Frio and the camp location called Las Cruces, De León stopped for a day to search for Géry. Although about fifteen miles upriver from Las Cruces De León encountered a group of Indians that included members of tribes that Géry had been living with when he was captured, the Spaniards did not find Géry. But De León does note significantly that one of the Indians in the group had in his possession a French musket.
After leaving the Frio, De León continued across Area IV toward Matagorda Bay but again reported no engagements with any Indians en route through the area. However, he reports a curious event that suggests that Indians may have been aware of his party even if he failed to observe them. Near the same location that De León’s large horse herd had been spooked and had broken away in 1689, part of his remuda of over 800 horses went on a rampage and ran loose again in 1690. We should note that on De León’s return trip to Monclova that year, he engaged a band of Toho Indians at the same location. De León knew that Indians would intentionally spook Spanish horse herds at night to collect the stray horses the next day. De León’s horses had also gone on a rampage near a Toho encampment in DeWitt County on his first expedition in 1689.
On Terán’s 1691 expedition the governor reported meeting near the Rio Grande crossing the Mescal, Odoesmade, and Momon.32 Massanet writes that the Mescal, Yorica, Jumano, Parchaca, Alachome, and Pamai Indians followed the expedition party after crossing the river. Several days later, near modern-day Comanche Creek in southwestern Zavala County, Massanet records encountering the Quem, Pacpul, Ocana, Chaquash, Pastaloca, and Paac Indians. Three days later, on the Frio River in northwestern Frio County, Massanet records meeting the Sampanal, Patchal, Papanac, Aguapalam, Samampac, Vauca, Payavan, Patavo, Pitanay, Apaysi, and Patsau. As Massanet’s account of the 1691 expedition closes when he reached the Tejas in East Texas and Terán’s account closes when he departed Texas from Matagorda Bay in 1692, these sources contain no further references to encounters with tribes in Area IV in 1691 and 1692.
Governor Salinas Varona in 1693 followed De León’s route across Area IV on his march to East Texas.33 Near the Rio Grande crossing he found the Cacaxtle, Ocana, and Piedras Blancas Indians on the south side of the river and the Agualoke on the north bank. The Pacuache were encountered between the Rio Grande and the Nueces in northeast Dimmit County, and the following day near Comanche Creek he found the Tepacuache and Sacuache. Near the Leona River he saw another gathering of friendly Pacuache.
On his return march, Governor Salinas visited the San Antonio area and met the Payaya Indians, as Massanet had in 1691. On the following day, along his route through Area IV, a Saquita Indian guide told the governor that the hills between the Hondo and San Miguel creeks were named for the Cacaxtle Indians. When he reached the Rio Grande, Salinas received the assistance of Mescale, Hape, and Cacase in the crossing. Soon after Salinas returned to Monclova, the Caddo drove Massanet and his clerical group out of East Texas and closed East Texas to the Spaniards.
In 1709 the mission at San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande received word that the Caddo Indians in East Texas would be pleased to meet a Spanish delegation on the lower Colorado River. As a result of this promising news, Spanish authorities sent a small military and clerical expedition from the Rio Grande across Area IV to the Colorado.34 Although the report turned out to be incorrect and the expedition unfruitful, valuable ethnographic and natural ecological information was obtained by the leaders Fray Isidro de Espinosa and Captain Pedro de Aguirre during the movement through Area IV.
Between the Rio Grande and the Frio River in northern Area IV, Espinosa’s party met small groups and hunting parties of the Pacuasin and Xarame Indians. The diarists reported crossing several named rivers and creeks lined with oak, elm, mulberry, and pecan trees. Between the Frio River and the San Antonio area, the expedition hunted wild turkey and deer. Espinosa adds that the wildlife included bison, bear, cougar, and jaguar.
The Spaniards encountered the Payaya and Pampopa Indians near San Antonio. It is significant for the present study that when Espinosa reached San Antonio he also encountered over 500 Indians from three large tribes whose homeland was in northern Mexico.35 Members of the three tribes—the Siupam, Xarame, and Sijame—served the Spaniards in their march farther east toward the Colorado River. The ethnographic information tends to confirm the cosmopolitan nature of Texas Indians because the homeland of the three tribes was over 250 miles southwest of the Colorado River destination.
When Espinosa and the Spanish troops returned to San Juan Bautista, they filed a negative report acknowledging that the Caddo would not meet with or receive a delegation from the church or the Spanish government. There was no thought of forcing the issue further at the time.
For reasons not fully understood, the position of the Caddo nation was reversed in 1716, and Caddo leaders agreed to accept the establishment of one or more missions and presidios in East Texas. In response to the Caddo invitation, a Spanish expedition led by Captain Domingo Ramón and the priest Isidro de Espinosa left San Juan Bautista in late April 1716.36 The expedition party basically followed the route pioneered by De León in 1689 and by Espinosa in 1709 through Area IV. Espinosa repeatedly comments on the pecan, cottonwood, palmetto, mulberry, yucca, mesquite, prickly pear, grapevine, and mottes of live oak seen along the way. The Pacuache, Mesquite, and Pataguo were encountered when the Spaniards approached the San Antonio area and marched beyond Area IV. As the purpose of the expedition was to establish a permanent Spanish presence in East Texas, the diarists conclude the narrative with the arrival in Caddo country.
Two years after the Ramón-Espinosa expedition reached East Texas, Spanish authorities dispatched a second colonizing expedition through Area IV to expand the East Texas area served by the Spanish missions and presidios. In 1718 Governor Martín de Alarcón, the expedition leader, tracked Espinosa’s 1709 route through Area IV from the Rio Grande to San Antonio.37 Although no bison were reported en route, the party found many deer and wild turkey. Only the friendly Pacuache Indians were encountered near the Nueces River.
The last large expedition sent by the Spanish government through Area IV during the colonizing period was led in 1721 by Governor Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo.38 Unlike most previous expeditions, Aguayo’s party crossed the Rio Grande in the winter rather than during the warmer spring months. Snow and ice storms delayed the crossing of the river for over a month. These weather reports on the crossing area in South Texas during January and February tend to confirm that the Little Ice Age that occurred across North America between ca. AD 1350 and 1850 was reflected in the much colder and more mesic period in Area IV at the same time.
Juan Antonio de la Peña, Aguayo’s principal expedition diarist, noted the local fauna observed en route across Area IV. He recorded wild turkey, quail, prairie chicken, jackrabbits, cottontails, deer, and antelope. The diarist counted over 300 deer and antelope in one group. Whereas wild game was abundant, no Indian tribes were reported in Area IV.
The purpose of this section is to review several regional histories and archeological overviews covering Area IV that help interpret and supplement the ethnographic and environmental information found in the expedition records. First, we will note the historical studies and overviews.
The seventeenth-century Spanish historian and frontiersman Alonso de León (the elder) writes that in northern Nuevo León and Coahuila there were hundreds of small bands and that each had its own language or dialect.39 In addition, distant tribes from West Texas and northwestern Mexico such as the Jumano, Toboso, and Tepehuan were frequent visitors to Area IV and the lower Rio Grande. De León notes that Europeanintroduced diseases seriously depopulated local Area IV tribes and visiting tribes as well.
De León describes several forms of ritual cannibalism practiced on the lower Rio Grande and the use of peyote during ceremonial dances involving one hundred or more dancers and singers streaked with red ocher. The musical instruments played to accompany the dancers-singers included gourds filled with tiny pebbles gathered from ant beds, grooved ebony sticks, and tambourines.
De León provides a list of wild animals and colorful birds found on the lower Rio Grande in the early 1600s. The historian includes herds of up to fifty deer moving together, many large parrots (macaws?), antelope, cottontail rabbits, jackrabbits, prairie chickens, javelinas, armadillos, bobcats, and lynx.
A more recent study of South Texas that focuses on historic Indian groups was written by T. N. Campbell and T. J. Campbell.40 The Campbell study helps locate the seventeen named tribes or bands identified by Cabeza de Vaca plus seventeen other Native groups in the area. This information is referenced in the chapter supplement, which lists alphabetically the historic Indians of Area IV. In 1990 Martin Salinas prepared a comprehensive study of the Indians of the Rio Grande delta.41 Salinas’s study covers the period from 1596 through and beyond our study period, which closes in the early 1700s.
The most recent overview of the prehistoric Native population in Area IV was published in 2004.42 In this work, entitled The Prehistory of Texas, Thomas Hester focuses on the interior of South Texas, Robert Ricklis writes about the eastern Gulf shore area of Area IV, and Solveig Turpin reviews the lower Pecos River region of the present subject area.
Thomas Hester reviews with informative comment and the use of drawings the principal Paleo-Indian and Archaic period spear and dart points used by the Native hunters in South Texas.43 The author also includes illustrations of the tubular stone pipes, Oliva shell tinklers, tubular bone beads, and precious stone pendants recovered at archeological sites in the area. As there are numerous cemetery sites, many of the listed artifacts were found in a mortuary context in the area.
Hester provides detailed close comparisons between the design elements in South Texas and Huastecan pottery from the northeast coast of Mexico. Hester also details other evidence of long-distance trade or interaction between South Texas and Mesoamerica. Black opaque obsidian found in Cameron County is tied to sources in the Mexican state of Hidalgo; green obsidian flakes have been linked possibly to the famous Cerro de las Navajas source. Artifacts have been recovered that are made of jadeite, a “green stone” closely associated with Mesoamerican cultures. The author finds that the connecting link between the lower Rio Grande delta people and Mesoamerica ran through the Huastecan frontier villages and campsites excavated within 300 miles south of Brownsville. Trade moving south was probably shell ornaments produced in the delta.
In his review of the prehistory of the lower Texas Gulf Coast in the eastern part of Area IV, Robert Ricklis notes that the Paleo-Indian material found included dart points in possible association with bones of mammoth and archaic bison (Bison antiqus).44
Ricklis expands on the comments made by Hester on the evidence of exchange between the Brownsville-area people and the Huastecans living south of the Rio Grande near the Mexican coast. The author also notes that ethnohistorical research indicates that the Rio Grande delta was a rich biotic area that supported a relatively dense and stable population.
The western corner of Area IV, which includes the lower Pecos River region, is covered in the recently published book The Prehistory of Texas by Solveig A. Turpin, who has studied and written extensively on early bison hunting and the rock art in the area.45 Turpin reviews the evidence of Paleo-Indian dart points associated with the remains of now extinct bison driven over the cliff above Bonfire Shelter. The record suggests that on several occasions large bison herds numbering over one hundred animals were killed or disabled (by the fall over the cliff), butchered, and processed. According to Turpin, the location represents the oldest known example of Paleo-Indians killing herd animals such as bison employing the jump technique.
During the middle Archaic period (6000 to 3000 BP), there emerged in the same area the earliest of the Pecos River pictographic rock art styles. These monumental polychrome rock art paintings are, according to Turpin, among the oldest and also the most elaborate, presently known religious art forms in the Americas. The pictograph paintings on the walls of the shelter include religious leaders (called shamans), anthropomorphic figures, and images of lions, panthers, deer, and birds.46
Turpin reviews four prehistoric pictograph styles that emerged in the area prior to the present study period. One late style incorporated abstract geometric designs in petroglyphs as well as pictographs. Although some parallels may be seen between the abstract rock art in the American Southwest and northern Mexico and the rock art in Area IV, Turpin concludes that the similarities are unlikely to be from contact or diffusion.
The documentary record describing the physical ecology of Area IV makes abundantly clear that a mesic climatic interlude was occurring during the study period and probably had been present for several decades or centuries. The weather reports and descriptions of the flora and fauna given in the numerous diary accounts confirm that the much colder and wetter Little Ice Age that arrived in the Northern Hemisphere in ca. AD 1350 was reflected, as expected, in South Texas as well. During the period rich grasslands of the Southern Plains extended throughout Area IV and into northern Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Chihuahua. The presence of large bison herds in northern Mexico confirms the unusually favorable mesic climatic conditions in Area IV.
In addition to reports of good pasturage in northern Mexico and in Area IV generally, there are also reports of thick mottes of oak trees as well as large mesquite, pecan, cypress, and willow trees in the area. Diarists write of Indians and Spanish soldiers hunting not only bison but also deer and wild turkey near the Frio and Hondo Rivers. Below the Rio Grande, Alonso de León reported javelinas, armadillos, large parrots, and lynx.
Spaniards described Area IV Natives generally as cultivating nothing but pursuing a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, moving frequently in small family-related bands of under one hundred. The customary dress was simple, and frequently the Indians were naked. Each small group had its own language or dialect. The hunters used the bow and arrow and had earlier employed the spear thrower or atlatl. For rabbit hunting, hunters had specially designed arched sticks to throw, and some hunters or fishermen had carefully crafted small stone objects called “sinkers” by archeologists.
The deep spiritual component in the world view of the Native peoples of Texas is found in numerous aspects of the daily lives of the Area IV population. As in other areas in the state, Area IV Natives buried their dead accompanied with grave goods, indicating a world view that included an active physical afterlife. The spectacular colorful rock art paintings of religious shamans on the broad canvaslike brown-gray-cream walls of rock shelters in Area IV illustrate graphically the strong spiritual impulse of the Native people living near the lower Pecos River.
Evidence of the spiritual foundation of the Indians’ daily lives is seen also in the peyote-stimulated dance-song bonfire ceremonies celebrated in Area IV and other regions to the south and west. Cabeza de Vaca indicates that special occasions where cannibalism was practiced could be understood within their spiritual purposes.
The cosmopolitan lifestyle of the people reported in Area IV is perhaps best represented in the evidence of trade between the people of the lower Rio Grande and the Huastecan culture a few hundred miles to the south. But as Cabeza de Vaca indicates, there was a trade network running between the lower Rio Grande and the Río Casas Grandes people in northwest Chihuahua. It certainly appears that the turquoise and cotton blankets found by Moscoso among the East Texas Caddo in the 1540s arrived at their destination along a sixteenth-century or earlier trade route that ran from northern Coahuila through Area IV to East Texas.
Long-distance interaction is noted also in the presence in Area IV of many hunters and traders from distant lands. Jumano, Cibolo, and Toboso Indians—all from the Big Bend area and northern Mexico—were seen and reported in Area IV hunting or moving through the area. The Tepehuan from the Durango, Mexico, area were also recorded. Although there is limited documentary evidence that the numerous small Native groups were of a cosmopolitan character, there is ample evidence that Area IV Indians participated fully in broader regional trade patterns.
SOUTH TEXAS
This supplement lists alphabetically the names of Indian tribes or bands reported in Study Area IV in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century French and Spanish expedition documents. It should be noted that the author of one documentary source, Juan Bautista Chapa, gives the names of 70 tribes or bands on the lower Rio Grande that had been extinguished during the seventeenth century and the names of another 80 tribes that had been relocated from distant lands to replace those that perished on the lower Rio Grande. The names of these 150 tribes given by Chapa are not included below.
In compiling this supplement, I consulted the following sources: Rolena Adorno and Patrick Charles Pautz, trans., Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: His Account, His Life, and the Expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez; Alex D. Krieger, We Came Naked and Barefoot: The Journey of Cabeza de Vaca across North America; Carl L. Duaine, Caverns of Oblivion; Juan Bautista Chapa, Texas and Northeastern Mexico, 1630–1690; Mariah F. Wade, The Native Americans of the Texas Edwards Plateau, 1582–1799; Herbert E. Bolton, ed., Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542–1706; and William C. Foster, Spanish Expeditions into Texas, 1689–1768.
1. Acubadao. Cabeza de Vaca described the location of the Acubadao as inland from the Atayo.
2. Agaaunimi. Géry told Chapa that the Agaaunimi were loyal to him and to France.
3. Agualoke. In 1693 Salinas met the Agualoke near the customary crossing of the Rio Grande into Maverick County.
4. Aguapalam. Terán met the Aguapalam and twelve other tribes gathered on the Frio River in Frio County.
5. Alachome. In 1691 Massanet and Terán met the Alachome near the customary crossing of the Rio Grande in Maverick County.
6. Anagado (Enagado). In 1535 Castillo was living with the Anagado, who released him to join Cabeza de Vaca’s party in their escape across Area IV.
7. Apaysi. In June 1691 Terán encountered the Apaysi encamped with twelve other tribes near the Frio River in Frio County.
8. Ape (Api, Hape). On May 23, 1763, Bosque wrote that the Ape were allied with the Catujano in South Texas. Massanet wrote that in 1688 Governor De León found Géry living with the Api and seven other tribes in Area IV about fifty miles north of the Rio Grande.
9. Arbadao. Cabeza de Vaca wrote that the Arbadao lived south of the Maliacone toward the Rio Grande.
10. Atayo. Cabeza de Vaca identified the location of the Atayo as near the coast southwest of the Guaycone and Yguase. The Atayo were at war with the Susola.
11. Avavare (Chavavare). Cabeza de Vaca describes the location of the Avavare as inland from the coastal Quitole.
12. Bacora. On June 1, 1675, Bosque met the Bacora near the Rio Grande in the Maverick County area.
13. Bibit. On May 14, 1675, Bosque wrote that the Bibit were encountered in Area IV about thirty-five miles north of the Rio Grande. About two weeks later, Bosque met them again in Maverick County.
14. Bobole. Chapa wrote that over a hundred Boboles joined the Fernando de Azcué expedition of 1663 against the Cacaxtle near the Rio Grande.
15. Borrodo. Chapa wrote that the Borrodo raided Spanish settlements in northern Nuevo León in the 1660s.
16. Cabeza. During Bosque’s 1675 expedition to South Texas, the Spanish party was told that the Cabeza held Spanish children as slaves. The children apparently were captured by the Cabezas near Parral and subsequently traded.
17. Cacaxtle. Chapa recorded that the Cacaxtle in Area IV were attacked by Spanish forces in late 1663 and early 1664.
18. Cagremoa. Géry told Chapa that the Cagremoa were loyal to him and to France.
19. Camole. Cabeza de Vaca identified the Camole on the coast south of the Quitole.
20. Caomopac. Géry told Chapa that the Caomopac were loyal to him and to France.
21. Catujano. On May 23, 1675, Bosque wrote that he found the Catujano allied with the Tilijae, Ape, and Pachaque in Area IV.
22. Caurame. On his 1686 expedition to the mouth of the Rio Grande, General Alonso de León was accompanied by forty-four Caurame.
23. Chaguan. Massanet recorded meeting the Chaguan with Terán in Zavala County in 1691.
24. Chichimeca. Alonso de León (the elder) reported engaging the Chichimeca in Tamaulipas in the 1640s.
25. Chile. Géry told Chapa that the Chile were loyal to him and to France.
26. Chomene. Massanet wrote that in 1688 Governor De León located Géry living with the Chomene and seven other tribes in Area IV about fifty miles north of the Rio Grande.
27. Coayo. Cabeza de Vaca identified the location of the Coayo near the Cuthalchuche and Maliacone.
28. Cobapo. Géry told Chapa that the Cobapo were loyal to him and to France.
29. Cocoma. On May 14, 1675, Bosque wrote that his expedition party encountered the Cocoma in Area IV.
30. Como. Cabeza de Vaca identified the location of the Como as near the Avavare.
31. Contotore. On June 10, 1675, Bosque met the Contotore near the Río Sabinas.
32. Cosmojoo. Géry told Chapa that the Cosmojoo were loyal to him and to France.
33. Cuajin. Géry told Chapa that the Cuajin were loyal to him and to France.
34. Cuchendado. Cabeza de Vaca identified the Cuchendado as living near the crossing area on the Rio Grande.
35. Cuthalchuche. Cabeza de Vaca placed the Cuthalchuche in an area next to the Avavare.
36. Etayax. Géry told Chapa that the Etayax were loyal to him and France.
37. Geniocane. On May 20, 1675, Bosque wrote that his expedition party, marching into Area IV, encountered the Geniocane, numbering 178 individuals and including women, boys, and girls.
38. Guachachile (Hatachichile). Alonso de León (the elder) reported that the Guachachile raided Spanish settlements in northern Nuevo León in the 1620s.
39. Guaycone. Cabeza de Vaca described the location of the Guaycone as along the coast southwest of the Quevenes.
40. Huiapico. Géry told Chapa that the Huiapico were loyal to him and to France.
41. Ijiaba (Xiabu). On his 1689 expedition to Texas, Governor De León met the Xiabu at the Rio Grande crossing in Maverick County.
42. Jeapa. Bosque wrote that the Jeapa were encountered on May 13, 1675, about ten miles north of the Rio Grande in Area IV.
43. Jeniocane. On May 23, 1675, Bosque wrote that he instructed the Jeniocane to remain in South Texas to await conversion.
44. Jume (Jumene). On May 14, 1675, Bosque says that the Jume were met in Area IV about thirty-five miles north of the Rio Grande. On his 1689 expedition to Texas, Governor De León encountered the Jumene at the Rio Grande crossing.
45. Machomenesa. Massanet wrote that in 1688 Governor De León located Géry living with the Machomenesa and seven other tribes in Area IV about fifty miles north of the Rio Grande.
46. Maliacone. Cabeza de Vaca identified the residential area of the Maliacone as next to the Avavare.
47. Manosprieta. On June 5, 1675, Bosque met the Manosprieta between the Rio Grande and the Río Sabinas.
48. Mescal. Massanet wrote that in 1688 Governor De León found Géry living with the Mescal and seven other tribes in Area IV about fifty miles north of the Rio Grande.
49. Momon. Governor Terán in 1691 wrote that the Momon lived in Maverick County near the Rio Grande crossing area.
50. Ocana (Ocane, Acani). Terán met the Ocana on Comanche Creek in Zavala County in 1691. Salinas found the tribe near the customary Rio Grande crossing in 1693.
51. Ocare. On Bosque’s 1675 expedition into South Texas, the diarist recorded that the Ocare was one of three tribes that had attacked the Yorica and Jeapa.
52. Odoesmade. Governor Terán in 1691 wrote that the Odoesmade lived in Maverick County near the Rio Grande.
53. Otomi. Chapa reported that the Otomi were brought from central Mexico into Nuevo León by the Spaniards in the 1650s to serve as herders or workmen.
54. Paac. In June 1691 Terán met the Paac in Zavala County with the Quem, Pachal, Ocana, and other tribes.
55. Pacausin (Pacuachiam). In 1691 Terán encountered the Pacuachiam in Frio County. In 1709 Espinosa met the tribe in Zavala County.
56. Pachaque. On May 23, 1675, Bosque wrote that Pachaque were allied with the Catujano in South Texas.
57. Pacpul. Massanet wrote that a Pacpul served as a guide on Governor De León’s 1689 expedition to locate the French settlement on Matagorda Bay.
58. Pacuache (Pacoche). In 1693 Salinas met the Pacuache near the customary crossing of the Rio Grande into Maverick County.
59. Pacuasim (Paquasin). Massanet and Terán encountered the Pacuasim in Frio County in Area IV. Espinosa, in 1709, met the tribe in Zavala County and the following day near the Leona River.
60. Pajarito. On July 23, 1686, Governor De León met the Pajarito on the San Juan River near the Rio Grande in Nuevo León.
61. Pamaya (Pamai). In 1691 Massanet and Terán encountered the Pamaya near the customary crossing area of the Rio Grande in Maverick County.
62. Panaa. Géry told Chapa that the Panaa were loyal to him and to France.
63. Papanac (Panac). According to Massanet, Terán’s expedition party found the Papanac in Frio County in June 1691.
64. Paquachiam. Massanet wrote that in 1688 Governor De León found Géry living with the Sampanal and seven other tribes in Area IV about fifty miles north of the Rio Grande.
65. Parchaca (Parchaque). In 1691 Massanet recorded meeting the Parchaca near the Rio Grande crossing in Maverick County and in Frio County.
66. Pastaloca. Terán met the Pastaloca in Zavala County in 1691 according to Massanet’s account of the expedition.
67. Pastia (Paxti). Espinosa encountered the Paxti in the San Antonio area in April 1709.
68. Pataguaque. On May 13, 1675, Bosque wrote that his party was informed that the Pataguaque had attacked the Yorica and Jeapa in Area IV.
69. Pataguo (Patavo). Terán met the Patavo in 1691 near the Frio River in Frio County. Later the tribe was seen near the presentday ZavalaFrio county line.
70. Pataoo. Géry told Chapa that the Pataoo were loyal to him and to France.
71. Patchal (Pachal). In June 1691 Terán met the Patchal near the customary crossing of the Rio Grande in Maverick County.
72. Patsau (Patzau). In June 1691 Terán met the Patsau in Frio County.
73. Payaguan (Payavan). In 1691 Terán met the Payaguan in Frio County. Later the tribe was reported in Coahuila.
74. Payaya (Peyaye). In 1691 Terán met the Payaya near present-day San Antonio. In 1693 Salinas met the tribe at the Medina River near San Antonio.
75. Pelon. Chapa reports that in the 1660s the Pelon lived about thirty miles south of the Rio Grande in Nuevo León.
76. People of the Figs. Cabeza de Vaca placed the People of the Figs at a coastal area south of Camoles. The name of the tribe may indicate that the tribe had a special connection to the cactus fruit called tuna (or figs) by Spanish writers.
77. Piedras Blancas. In 1693 Salinas encountered the Piedras Blancas near the Rio Grande crossing in Maverick County.
78. Piguen. Géry told Chapa that the Piguen were loyal to him and to France.
79. Pinanaca. On May 14, 1675, Bosque recorded that the Pinanaca were encountered in Area IV about thirty-five miles north of the Rio Grande.
80. Pitahay (Pitanay). Terán met the Pitahay and twelve other tribes near the Frio River in Frio County in 1691.
81. Piyai. Géry told Chapa that the Piyai were loyal to him and to France.
82. Poguan. Géry told Chapa that the Poguan were loyal to him and to France.
83. Pujai. Géry told Chapa that the Pujai were loyal to him and to France.
84. Quem. Massanet wrote that a member of the Quem tribe told him that he had visited the French post on Matagorda Bay. The Quem served as a guide on De León’s 1689 expedition to the French post.
85. Quitole. Cabeza de Vaca identified the Quitole as residing on the coast south of the Atayo.
86. Sacuache (Saquache). Salinas encountered the Sacuache in May 1693 on Comanche Creek and near the Leona River.
87. Samampac. In June 1691 Terán met the Samampac in Frio County.
88. Sampanal. Massanet wrote that in 1688 Governor De León found Géry living with the Sampanal and seven other tribes in Area IV about fifty miles north of the Rio Grande.
89. Sanatoo (Sana? Toho?). Géry told Chapa that the Sanatoo were loyal to him and to France. As the Sana and Toho were often found camped together, Géry may have considered them one tribe.
90. Saquita. In 1693 a Saquita served as a guide for Salinas through Area IV near the junction of the Hondo and Frio Rivers.
91. Saurum. Géry told Chapa that the Saurum were loyal to him and to France.
92. Susola. Cabeza de Vaca described the residential area of the Susola as next to the Avavare. The Susola were at war with the Atayo.
93. Tamireguan. Géry told Chapa that the Tamireguan were loyal to him and to France.
94. Teaname. In 1675 Bosque encountered the Teaname with the Xoman in South Texas.
95. Teimamar. On the 1675 Bosque expedition to South Texas, the party found the Teimamar with the Xoman.
96. Tenimama. On May 14, 1675, Bosque says that his expedition party met the Tenimama in Area IV.
97. Tepacuache (Tepaquache). In 1693 Salinas found the Tepaquache in Zavala County.
98. Tepehuan. Alonso de León (the elder) reported that the Tepehuan raided Spanish communities in northern Nuevo León near the lower Rio Grande during the 1630s and 1640s. In 1616 the Tepehuan revolted in Nueva Vizcaya, which was their permanent residence. The tribe was also reported in Area V.
99. Teroodan. Bosque wrote that on his 1675 expedition to South Texas, he found the Teroodan with the Xoman.
100. Tetecore. On June 12, 1675, Bosque met the Tetecores near the Rio Grande crossing area in Maverick County.
101. Tilijae. On May 23, 1673, Bosque says that the Tilijae were allied with the Catujano in South Texas.
102. Tilpayay. Massanet wrote that in 1688 Governor De León found Géry living with the Tilpayay and seven other tribes in Area IV about fifty miles north of the Rio Grande.
103. Tlaxcala. Chapa wrote that a company of Tlaxcala accompanied Spanish soldiers during the 1663–1664 expedition to fight the Cacaxtle near the Rio Grande. Their original homeland was in central Mexico, but Spanish authorities brought willing Tlaxcala families as settlers into northern Mexico.
104. Toboso. In May 1693 Salinas was warned by the Pacuache in Area IV that the Toboso and Jumano were planning an attack on his convoy. The Toboso were permanent residents of Nueva Vizcaya.
105. Toho (Thooe, Tohau). On General De León’s 1689 expedition to Texas, the party met the Thooe in Area IV between the Nueces and San Antonio Rivers. The traditional residence of the tribe was in Area II.
106. Vanca (Vauca). Massanet wrote that Terán’s party encountered the Vanca and twelve other tribes on the Frio River in Frio County in 1691.
107. Xaeser. On May 14, 1675, Bosque wrote that his party encountered the Xaeser in Area IV.
108. Xoman. Bosque wrote that on his 1675 expedition to South Texas, his party found a Xoman Indian who had met Spaniards before and who spoke “Mexican,” meaning the Aztec language.
109. Yguaze. Cabeza de Vaca wrote that the Yguaze lived in northeastern Area IV.
110. Yorica (Yorca). In 1675 Bosque wrote that he met the Yorica on May 13 about ten miles north of the Rio Grande in Area IV. Massanet wrote that Governor De León in 1688 found Jean Géry living in a shared encampment of eight tribes, including the Yorica, about fifty miles north of the Rio Grande.
111. Yurbipane. On May 13, 1675, Bosque wrote that the Yurbipane had attacked the Yorica and Jeapa in Area IV.
112. Zacatil. A friendly leader of the Zacatil accompanied General Alonso de León on his 1686 expedition to the Rio Grande.