The Quems were an
indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
who lived along the
Rio Grande in what is now the U.S. state of
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
and the Mexican state of
Coahuila in the 17th and 18th centuries. They are known to have settled around present-day
Eagle Pass and
Piedras Negras Piedras Negras may refer to:
* Piedras Negras, Coahuila, a city in the state of Coahuila, Mexico
** Piedras Negras Municipality, a municipality in Mexico, with the center in the eponymous city
* Piedras Negras (Maya site)
Piedras Negras is the ...
.
Damián Massanet Damián Massanet was a Spanish Franciscan priest who co-founded the College of Santa Cruz de Querétaro, the first missionary college in New Spain.
Biography
Not much is known of Massanet's early life, but he is trusted to have been born in Majo ...
also recorded them, in 1691, as one of six groups of Indians encountered along a stream called "Caramanchel";
[ this appears to correspond with today's Comanche Creek in the southwestern part of Zavala County. Massenet implied that all six groups spoke a language now known as Coahuilteco.
The Quems were among the most prominent Native Americans living between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande.][Gary Clayton Anderson, ''The Indian Southwest, 1580–1830: Ethnogenesis and Reinvention'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999) p. 39]
In 1689, Alonso De León was led by two Indian guides to the site of Fort St. Louis, built by Sieur de la Salle
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seignor ...
along Matagorda Bay. One of the guides was a Quems, who claimed that he had visited the fort while it was still occupied by the French. Massenet, in his account of this expedition, recorded that the Quems guide used a sign language then common in the area of southern Texas; he was also tattoo
A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing ...
ed.[
When the San Phelipe de Valladares Mission was founded near modern-day ]Candela
The candela ( or ; symbol: cd) is the unit of luminous intensity in the International System of Units (SI). It measures luminous power per unit solid angle emitted by a light source in a particular direction. Luminous intensity is analogous t ...
in 1700, some Quems entered; they were recorded under the name Quexamos. Little else is known of the tribe, except that between 1726 and 1748 two families, constituting six people, were recorded as being in the San Antonio de Valero Mission of San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_t ...
.[
Spanish chronicallers also spelled their name Cems, Qems, Quimzo, and Quinze.][
]
References
Extinct Native American peoples
Indigenous peoples of Aridoamerica
Native American tribes in Texas
Indigenous peoples in Mexico
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