Coahuiltecan

The Coahuiltecans were a diverse grouping of various Indigenous peoples of Aridoamerica who lived in present-day northeastern Mexico and southern Texas. They once spoke a variety of possibly unrelated languages known as the Coahuiltecan languages. The various Coahuiltecan groups were originally nomadic hunter-gatherers. First encountered by the Spanish in the 16th century, their population declined due to Eurasian diseases and numerous small-scale wars fought against the Spanish, Apache, and other Indigenous groups. After the Texas secession from Mexico, Coahuiltecan peoples were largely forced into harsh living conditions. In 1886, ethnologist Albert Gatschet found the last known survivors of Coahuiltecan bands: 25 Comecrudo, one Cotoname, and two Pakawa, living near Reynosa, Mexico. The Coahuiltecans lived in the flat, brushy, dry country of northern Mexico and southern Texas, roughly south of a line from the Gulf Coast at the mouth of the Guadalupe River to San Antonio and westward to around Del Rio. They lived on both sides of the Rio Grande. Their neighbors along the Texas coast were the Karankawa, and inland to their northeast were the Tonkawa. To their north were the Jumano. Later, the Lipan Apache and Comanche migrated into this area. Their indefinite western boundaries were the vicinity of Monclova, Coahuila, and Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, and southward to roughly the present location of Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, the Sierra de Tamaulipas, and the Tropic of Cancer. Although living near the Gulf of Mexico, most of the Coahuiltecans were inland peoples. Near the gulf for more than 70 miles (110 km) both north and south of the Rio Grande, little fresh water is available, so bands were limited in their ability to survive near the coast and were deprived of its other resources, such as fish and shellfish and other coastal resources.