Rancho Campo del Gato = location of the final 1945 to 1950 - era Karankawa Indian mitotes?!

Yeah!

The Texas newspaper, the Brownsville Herald, tells us so...

Well, o.k.!

Sort of...

"... a secluded area called El Gato, south of what is now Alamo and Donna..."


These random snippets are adapted from a fascinating interview by the Herald's ace reporter Travis Whitehead with Enrique Gonzalez, titled "Gonzalez believes he is part of Karankawa Indian lineage."

Original article posted online 2009 - 09 - o5 @ 21:35:38.

"While numerous sources claim the Karankawa were driven to extinction by the mid - 1800s, Gonzalez claims descent from a band of the tribe that retreated into a secluded area called El Gato, south of what is now Alamo and Donna.

"Gonzalez says that by the mid - 1900s, the Karankawas who had moved into this little village had spread into the surrounding communities, but they still congregated around a huge mesquite tree for their mitotes, the Karankawa version of a pow - wow.

"Gonzalez remembers his father taking him to these mitotes when he was just a boy, and he'd watch as between five and 10 Karankawas danced.

"He remembers tall powerful figures wearing only loin cloths and moving in rhythmic circles, arms with titanic hands rising into the air, huge bare feet stepping mightily into the ground, dust sticking to perspiring skin.

"They slapped tambourines, with flattened coke bottle tops attached to them to eject loud metallic sounds, into the air while the dancers moved in rhythm to drums..."


But!


"Tony Zavaleta, anthropology professor at U.T. Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, is skeptical of Gonzalez's claims."

Instead!


"[H]e said . It's not impossible, but it's highly unlikely. Karankawa Indians were gone for the most part in the early historic period. Gone, disappeared. What information does he have to lead him to believe that he has a direct connection ...?"

Yet!

"If Gonzalez's claim is correct, the lifeway of the Karankawa has continued to evolve well into the 21st Century..."

Good points all, ladies and gentlemen! :)