The Comecrudo people were an

Indigenous people of Mexico Indigenous peoples of Mexico ( es, gente indígena de México, pueblos indígenas de México), Native Mexicans ( es, nativos mexicanos) or Mexican Native Americans ( es, pueblos originarios de México, lit=Original peoples of Mexico), are those ...

, who lived in the northern state of

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...

. They were a

Coahuiltecan people The Coahuiltecan were various small, autonomous bands of Native Americans who inhabited the Rio Grande valley in what is now southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. The various Coahuiltecan groups were hunter-gatherers. First encountered by Europ ...

Territory

The Comecrudo lived in northern Tamaulipas in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the late 18th century, they lived on the southern bank of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

, not far from

Reynosa Reynosa () is a border city in the northern part of the state of Tamaulipas, in Mexico. It is also the municipal seat of Reynosa Municipality. The city is located on the southern bank of the Rio Grande in the international Reynosa–McAllen Me ...

Language

They spoke the

Comecrudo language Comecrudo is an extinct Pakawan language of Mexico. The name ''Comecrudo'' is Spanish for "eat-raw"; ''Carrizo'' is Spanish for "reed". It was best recorded in a list of 148 words in 1829 by French botanist Jean Louis Berlandier (Berlandier call ...

, one of the

Pakawan languages The Pakawan languages were a small language family spoken in what is today northern Mexico and southern Texas. All Pakawan languages are today extinct. Classification Five clear Pakawan languages are attested: Coahuilteco, Cotoname, Comecrudo, ...

. Swiss-American ethnologist Albert S. Gatschet worked with eight Comecrudo elders who remembered some of the language to record vocabulary words in 1886.

Name

The name ''Comecrudo'' means "raw meat eaters" in Spanish. Spanish colonists also called them the Carrizo, meaning "reed." In 1886, they told Gaschet they preferred the name Comecrudo over Carrizo. The

Tonkawa The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe indigenous to present-day Oklahoma. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct, is a linguistic isolate. Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the federally recognized Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. ...

and

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and eve ...

called them the "shoeless people."

History

In 1886, about 30 to 35 Comecrudo lived near Charco Escondido in

. Their last elected chief, Marcelino, died in 1856. The Kiowa took some Comecrudo captive.

Heritage group

An organization in

Floresville, Texas Floresville is a city in Wilson County, Texas, United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population was at 7,203 at the 2020 Census. It is the county seat of Wilson County. The city is also part of the San Antonio Metropolitan Statis ...

, claims descent from the Comecrudo and formed the Carrizo Comecrudo Nation of Texas Inc. As an unrecognized organization, they are neither a federally recognized tribe nor a

state-recognized tribe State-recognized tribes in the United States are organizations that identify as Native American tribes or heritage groups that do not meet the criteria for federally recognized Indian tribes but have been recognized by a process established unde ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Comecrudo People Coahuiltecan Ethnic groups in Mexico Indigenous peoples of Aridoamerica Indigenous peoples in Mexico Native American tribes in Texas Pre-statehood history of Texas