The Comecrudo people were an

Indigenous people of Mexico Indigenous peoples of Mexico (), Native Mexicans () or Mexican Native Americans (), are those who are part of communities that trace their roots back to populations and communities that existed in what is now Mexico before the arrival of Europe ...

, who lived in the northern state of

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas, is a state in Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 43 municipalities. It is located in nor ...

. 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 northeastern Mexico and southern Texas. The various Coahuiltecan groups were hunter gatherers. First encountered by the ...

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 ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

, not far from

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

Language

They spoke the

Comecrudo language Comecrudo, also , is an extinct Comecrudan language of Mexico. The name ''Comecrudo'' is Spanish for "eat-raw". It was best recorded in a list of 148 words in 1829 by French botanist Jean Louis Berlandier (Berlandier called it "Mulato") (Berla ...

, one of the

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

. 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 from Oklahoma and Texas. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct language, extinct, is a linguistic isolate. Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the Federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Tonkawa ...

and

Kiowa Kiowa ( ) or Cáuigú () people are a Native Americans in the United States, 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 Colora ...

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, 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 A federally recognized tribe is a Native American tribe recognized by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs as holding a government-to-government relationship with the US federal government. In the United States, the Native American tribe ...

nor a

state-recognized tribe State-recognized tribes in the United States are Native American tribes or heritage groups that do not meet the criteria for federally recognized Indian tribes but have been recognized by state government through laws, governor's executive orders ...

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