​Native Americans of Texas

​Nomadic Shelters

​Tipis and Wigmans

​​Nomadic Native Americans lived in shelters that were quick and easy to put up, take down, and move to a new location as they followed animal herds.

These shelters were called tipis and wigwams (wickiups) and they were like tents.

​Tipis and wigwams are easy to put up and take down. This makes them a perfect way to follow buffalo and other animals for food

Karankawa

​They lived on the Gulf Coast of the Coastal Plains.

• They were a hunting & gathering community.

• They also fished because they lived on the Gulf

  Coast.

• They moved along the coast in dugout canoes,

  carrying skins furs for use in camps or wickiup

  shelters (temporary house).

• They often decorated themselves with

  elaborate tattoos, nose plugs, lip plugs,

  jewelry and many feathers in their hair.

Coahuiltecan

●Lived in the desert land of South Texas, in the southern
part of the Coastal Plains region.

●They were a hunting and gathering community.

●Because they never stayed in one place for very long their homes were made of animal skins.

They hunted wild pigs called javelinas.

​Apaches

​Apaches

• The lived in West Texas in the Great Plains AND Mountains and Basins region

• They lived in tipis and wickiups (wigwams)

• They lived in communities that

  were nomadic during
  certain times of year.

• They would organize large buffalo hunts that
  lasted until it was time to plant crops.

Comanche & Kiowa

●They lived in the Great Plains
region of Texas.

●They lived in a nomadic communities
that followed buffalo herds.

●They lived in teepees.

●Both tribes were friends and allies.

●They became great horsemen after the Spanish introduced horses to North America.

Sedentary (farming) Shelters

Grass houses and pueblos

​Sedentary Native Americans lived in permanent shelters that took ALOT of time to build.

​

Sedentary Native Americans lived in permanent shelters BECAUSE they were farmers.

​

All of their food is readily available and they did not have to constantly follow animals to hunt and eat them.

Houses made of adobe brick (pueblos) and grass-thatched houses were permanent structures. Perfect for keeping warm and safe in your permanent, farming settlement

Caddo

●Lived in East Texas in the Coastal Plains Region.

●They lived in permanent villages with homes made up of
grass huts.

●They were a farming community.

●The Caddo word “tejas” means friend or ally- this word
would become Texas.

​GRASS HUTS

Jumano

●Pueblo tribe that lived in the Mountains and
Basins region.

●They lived in permanent homes made of adobe, called pueblos.

●They were mainly a farming community.

●Because of the dry climate they had to use a form of irrigation; dig ditches to carry water from
the Rio Grande River to their fields.

●They occasionally hunted buffalo and organized
trade with other tribes.

​PUEBLOS