Indians
After the white men came, records show the Karankawa Indians lived on the island periodically, existing on fish and other marine life. This tribe's origin is a mystery. They were different in appearance and customs from other tribes belonging to the low-cultured Coahuiltecan group of Indians occupying the coastal area and were shunned by them. The men are said to have been exceptionally tall, fair and strong. Long after the last of the Karankawas passed down Padre Island into Mexico and oblivion, researchers discovered a record of many words in their language had been made by a little girl. The child, who lived with her parents at Matagorda during the American colonization period in Texas, had become a favorite of the tribal chief. It was not extraordinary, since she had been taught by her mother to be observant in her strange surroundings and unafraid. Though it was the cus-tom of the Indians to be on guard against revealing their real names to the white people, the chief taught the child many words in his language. Because she was proficient in French as well as English, her education as well as her perception was very advanced. Spelling phonetically, she wrote down many words used by the savage coastal Indians, producing the only record ever made of their language.
The miracle was in its preservation-at least partially. After the little girl had become a very old lady living in Pennsylvania, she was sought out by an ethnologist who was making a study of the extinct Karankawas. He had little source material to consult and had learned through a member of the girl's family of her childhood project. Her notes had been lost and at first she could not remember what she had been taught. But under the knowledgeable prodding of the ethnologist she was able to recall many of the Karankawa words, words that are preserved today in the Peabody Museum.