Seco will you help me with some questions?

[Cluton]

The tribes along the coast, mainly the Karakawas, how did they find sufficient drinking water (fresh water)? And did they practice cannibalism? One more question! How was there main source of catching fish? And dolphins to eat? I've always wondered this while I wadefish every year, those islands had to have been a harsh living!!! Thank you sir!!

[Shannon Graham]

Here's a good link...check out the quote below on the bow & arrow skills/methods.

The link contains descriptions from ealy explorers and missionaries about the lifestyle, appearance and ways of life.

The Karankawa Indians

Jean Louis Bernaldier, a French naturalist who studied the Indians of Texas in 1800, had written several things about the Karankawa Indians. Berlandier reported that," the Karankawa wore their hair loose to the shoulders but cut in the front to level of the eye brows, like the Mexicans. They wear Coak feathers behind their ears and wreath of Indian grass or Palm leaves on their heads, they paint lines of Vermillion around their eyes and of ten smear their brown bodies with white or black or red paint. They never wear Teguas, which is Buckskin footgear. Their Peregoso, or breechcloth, is white, and their favorite weapons are the Bow and Dagger. The Bow and Arrows which Caranchuases use are of extraordinary size; the Arrows are two-and-a-half to three feet in length and the bow is the height of the Indian who used it. Among the other Indians of Texas, these weapons do not have such large dimensions. When they used the Bow unhurriedly, it is well seated using the Knee to support it. Thus they launch arrows with a truly surprising force, capable of piercing a Bull from one side to the other. When some obstacle prevents them from seeing the object at which they are shooting, like artillery men with a shell, they shoot their Arrows in such a way that they will fall perpendicularly on the object they wish to kill. A matter which surprised me was their fishing. After beating the water and gathering together in a small inlet the fish which they encountered, they kill the largest with Arrows, and with such skill that often they designate the species of fish which they thus want to catch."


Shannon

[Shannon Graham]

Another good reference.

KARANKAWA INDIANS | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)

[Cluton]

Thanks Shannon!