Scientific evidence suggests that the first people to live on the continents of North America and South America were migrants like everyone else since.  They may have come from Asia as well as Europe, overland as well as hugging the coastlines in boats.

When did these early people arrive on these continents?  Perhaps they came as early as 25,000 B.P. [Before the Present].  Migration within the continent continued for thousands of years.  These first “Americans” reached Texas between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago.  New evidence is continually being discovered, so these numbers may change. As Europeans arrived in North America as early as 1000 B.P., they called the native peoples by many different names.  Christopher Columbus used the name “Indians” to support the idea that he had found parts of Asia, perhaps the Spice Islands or the East Indies.

The earliest people left no written records.  So how do we know about them? Archeologists find clues to what we know about them by digging in places where they think early people lived.

In certain regions of Texas such as the lower Pecos and the trans-Pecos, artifacts such as sandals, arrow points, scrapers, needles, ornaments, grinding stones, and even the bones of the people themselves have been discovered.  Other areas of Texas provide similar kinds of clues, and much has been learned.  The actual number of Native Americans in the Texas area was never large.  One estimate is 45,000 before the Europeans came, declining to only a few thousand in the mid-19^th century.

           Groups called bands or tribes by Europeans were known by the names that the Native Americans called themselves or, in later years, by location names transliterated into Spanish, French, and English.

In Texas four groups of Indians met and blended:  Western Gulf, Southeast, Southwest, and Plains.  While groups were different in the way they lived, they had one thing in common.  Most traded together, although there was fighting between groups.

Indians who lived on the Western Gulf or the Coastal Plains were collectively called Coahuiltecans.  They were hunters and gatherers.  Men wore little or no clothing much of the time; women wore simple skirts of buckskin.  The Coahuiltecans moved often in search of food, so they did not build permanent homes.  Their huts were made from wooden branches covered with animal skins or reed mats.

The Coahuiltecans spent much of their time searching for food.  Their main diet consisted of roots and bulbs of wild plants, fruit of the prickly pear cactus, and beans of mesquite trees.  They also ate deer, rabbits, birds, and javelinas.  In this dry region of Texas, only a few people could live together in one place.  There was not enough food for large groups.  Instead of living in tribes, the Coahuiltecans lived in small family groups.

             The Karankawas lived along the Texas coast and perhaps were the first natives met by the Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and his men. Like the Coahuiltecans, the Karankawas had to search for food.  Because they lived near the coast, they also ate fish, turtles, and oysters.     

When the Karankawas built a shelter, they stuck thin poles in the ground in a circle.  The tops of the poles were bent and tied together.  Skins and reed mats were used to cover the poles.  In warm weather, only one side of the shelter was covered.

The Karankawas banded together in family groups, and parents taught their children how to find food.  Everyone had to work together to find food for all. 

           The Caddos lived in the Piney Woods region of Texas’s Coastal Plain.  The rich soil and plentiful rainfall made it possible for them to grow crops.  The Caddos were skilled farmers and grew squash, beans, pumpkins, melons, sunflowers, tobacco, and corn.  Corn was their main crop, and they used it in several different ways.  Green ears of corn were roasted in ashes or boiled with other vegetables.  Dried corn was ground into meal and used to make soup and bread.  Also, the Caddos hunted deer and rabbits and fished in the nearby streams.

Caddos framed their houses, which were 15 to 30 feet high, with cedar logs.  Willow poles and coarse grass were tied over the frame to complete the house.

It was a custom among the Caddos to help each other build their houses.  The date to build a new house or a replacement was selected by a high official in the tribe.  The men cut the logs and built the framework.  While the house-raising was in progress, the family that would live there made a dinner of corn and roasted meat for all to eat.

           The leader of each of the Caddo groups was named the caddi.  He made decisions for the Caddos.  The religious leader was named the xinesi, and he held the harvest ceremony for the community.