= Karánkawa, Gatschet in Globus, XLIX, No. 8, 123, 1886 (vocabulary
of 25 terms; distinguished as a family provisionally). Gatschet in
Science, 414, April 9, 1887.
The Karankawa formerly dwelt upon the Texan coast, according to Sibley,
upon an island or peninsula in the Bay of St. Bernard (Matagorda Bay).
In 1804 this author, upon hearsay evidence, stated their number to be
500 men.[56] In several places in the paper cited it is explicitly
stated that the Karankawa spoke the Attakapa language; the Attakapa was
a coast tribe living to the east of them. In 1884 Mr. Gatschet found a
Tonkawe at Fort Griffin, Texas, who claimed to have formerly lived among
the Karankawa. From him a vocabulary of twenty-five terms was obtained,
which was all of the language he remembered.
[Footnote 56: Am. State Papers, 1832, vol. 4, p. 722.]
The vocabulary is unsatisfactory, not only because of its meagerness,
but because most of the terms are unimportant for comparison.
Nevertheless, such as it is, it represents all of the language that is
extant. Judged by this vocabulary the language seems to be distinct not
only from the Attakapa but from all others. Unsatisfactory as the
linguistic evidence is, it appears to be safer to class the language
provisionally as a distinct family upon the strength of it than to
accept Sibley’s statement of its identity with Attakapa, especially as
we know nothing of the extent of his information or whether indeed his
statement was based upon a personal knowledge of the language.
A careful search has been made with the hope of finding a few survivors
of this family, but thus far not a single descendant of the tribe has
been discovered and it is probable that not one is now living.