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Coaque Indian
Tribe History
Coaque. A tribe formerly living on Malhado Island, off
the coast of Texas, where Cabeza de Vaca suffered shipwreck in
1527. This was almost certainly Galveston Island. Cabeza de Vaca
found two tribes, each with its own language, living there, one
the Han, the other the Coaque. The people subsisted from
November to February on a root taken from the shoal water and on
fish which they caught in weirs; they visited the mainland for
berries and oysters. They displayed much affection toward their
children and greatly mourned their death. For a year after the
loss of a son the parents wailed each day before sunrise, at
noon, and at sunset. As soon as this cry was heard it was echoed
by all the people of the tribe. At the end of the year a
ceremony for the dead was held, after which "they wash and
purify themselves from the stain of smoke." They did not lament
for the aged. The dead were buried, all but those who had
"practiced medicine," who were burned. At the cremation a
ceremonial dance was held, beginning when the fire was kindled
and continuing until the bones were calcined. The ashes were
preserved, and at the expiration of a year they were mixed with
water and given to the relatives to drink. During the period of
mourning the immediate family of a deceased person did not go
after food, but had to depend on their kindred for means to
live. When a marriage had been agreed on, custom forbade the man
to address his future mother-in-law, nor could he do so after
the marriage. According to Cabeza de Vaca this custom obtained
among tribes "living 50 leagues inland." The houses of the
Coaque were of mats and were set up on a "mass of oyster
shells." The men wore a piece of cane, half a finger thick,
inserted in the lower lip, and another piece two palms and a
half long thrust through one or both nipples. Owing to the
starvation which faced the Spaniards after their shipwreck, they
were forced to eat their dead; this action gave the natives such
great concern that "they thought to kill" the strangers, but
were dissuaded by the Indian who had Cabeza de Vaca in charge.
Gatschet (Karankawa Inds., 1, 34, 1891)
is correct in identifying these Indians with the Cokes of
Bollaert, but he is probably wrong in supposing the Cujanos are
also the same. That the Coaques and the Cujanos or Cohani were
disfillet seems to be indicated by the statement of an early
Texan settler (Texas Hist. Quar., vi, 1903)
that "the Cokes and Cohannies" were "but fragments of the
Carancawa tribe." Probably the latter are Cabeza de Vaca's
Quevenes. That the Coaque spoke a dialect of Karankawa is
indicated as well by Bollaert (Jour. Ethnol. Soc.
Lond., ii, 265, 1850), since he refers to them as a
branch of the Koronks," a variant of Karankawa. In 1778,
according to Moziéres, about
20 families of Mayeyes and Cocos lived between the Colorado and
the Brazos, opposite the island of La Culebra. The mounds and
graves found on the coast of Texas probably belonged to the
Coaque and kindred tribes, which are now extinct.
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