PRESENTATION OUTLINE
The Karankawa lived in between Corpus Christi and Galveston in the Coastal plains region.
The Karankawa's are a nomadic tribe.
Since the Karankawa tribe lived where they did it meant that fish,buffalo,deer,clams,and shell fish was there main food source.
The Karankawa tribe made dugout canoes because they lived near water ways.
The Karankawa tribe lived in huts made out of animal skins and saplings, often called wikiups.
Atakapa is pronounced "ah-tah-kah-pah." It comes from a Choctaw word meaning "man-eaters." They called themselves Ishak, "the people." Does that mean the Atakapas were cannibals?
One false myth is that they were cannibals. Yes, they sometimes ate the captured enemy warriors and leaders after a battle or war. They did not do this for food. They did it to get the magic power of the dead warrior or leader.
No proof of Atakapa cannibalism has been found, and the Europeans who met the Atakapas did not witness this behavior themselves. It's possible the Choctaw name "Atakapa" was actually intended to refer to the Karankawas, who were known for their cannibal war practices, and the French misunderstood the stories.
The Karankawa didn't wear long headdresses like the Sioux. Some warriors wore porcupine hair roaches and shaved their heads in the Mohawk style. Other men wore their hair long, like the women.
The Karankawa tribe was also known to have dogs, or wolf/coyote like creatures.
