<P> Coahuiltecan culture, in the words of one scholar, represents "the culmination of more than 11,000 years of a way of life that had successfully adapted to the climate and resources of south Texas ." The peoples shared the common traits of being non-agricultural and living in small autonomous bands, with no political unity above the level of the band and the family . They were nomadic hunter - gatherers, carrying their few possessions on their backs as they moved from place to place to exploit sources of food that might be available only seasonally . At each campsite, they built small circular huts with frames of four bent poles, which they covered with woven mats . They wore little clothing . At times, they came together in large groups of several bands and hundreds of people, but most of the time their encampments were small, consisting of a few huts and a few dozen people . Along the Rio Grande, the Coahuiltecan lived more sedentary lives, perhaps constructing more substantial dwellings and using palm fronds as a building material . </P> <P> The Coahuiltecan made good bows and arrows and hunted small game . Occasionally they killed bison that had strayed into their region from the Great Plains to the north . During times of need, they also subsisted on worms, lizards, ants, and undigested seeds collected from deer dung . They ate much of their food raw, but used an open fire or a fire pit for cooking . Most of their food came from plants . Pecans were an important food, gathered in the fall and stored for future use . In summer, large numbers of people congregated at the vast thickets of prickly pear cactus south - east of San Antonio, where they feasted on the fruit and the pads and interacted socially with other bands . They cooked the bulbs and root crowns of the maguey, sotol, and lechuguilla in pits, and ground mesquite beans to make flour . Most of the Coahuiltecan seemed to have had a regular round of travels in their food gathering . The Payaya band near San Antonio had ten different summer campsites in an area 30 miles square . Some of the Indians lived near the coast in winter . In the summer they would travel 85 miles (140 km) inland to exploit the prickly pear cactus thickets . Fish were perhaps the principal source of protein for the bands living in the Rio Grande delta . </P> <P> Little is known about the religion of the Coahuiltecan . They came together in large numbers on occasion for all - night dances called mitotes . During these occasions, they ate peyote to achieve a trance - like state for the dancing . The meager resources of their homeland resulted in intense competition and frequent, although small scale, warfare . </P> <P> In the early 1530s Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions, survivors of a failed Spanish expedition to Florida, were the first Europeans known to have lived among and passed through Coahuiltecan lands . In 1554, three Spanish vessels were wrecked on Padre Island . The survivors, perhaps one hundred persons, attempted to walk southward to Spanish settlements in Mexico . All but one were killed by the Indians . In the early 1570s the conquistador Luis de Carabajal y Cueva campaigned near the Rio Grande, ostensibly to punish the Indians for their 1554 attack on the shipwrecked sailors, more likely to capture slaves . </P>

Native american tribes in the rio grande valley