Comecrudo People
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The Comecrudo people were an Indigenous people of Mexico, who lived in the northern state of Tamaulipas. 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.


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 and Kiowa called them the "shoeless people."


History

In 1886, about 30 to 35 Comecrudo lived near Charco Escondido in Tamaulipas. 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 This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...
nor a state-recognized tribe.


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