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Vocabulary—Great Plains, North Central, and Coastal Plains
1. Comanche-nomadic tribe in the Great Plains. They were VERY skilled horse riders and
fighters. Many tribes and settlers were afraid of them.
2. Mustangs- wild offspring of the horses the Spanish brought to the Americas
3. Nomadic-- A person with no fixed residence who roams about; a wanderer.
4. Band-small group made up of a few families
1. Kiowa- nomadic tribe in the Great Plains. They were the last plains group to arrive into
Texas. They hunted buffalo and were hunter gatherers. The men kept their hair long on
the left side and short on the right side.
5. Apache- nomadic tribe that lived in the Great Plains. They were very fierce fighters, rode
horses to hunt buffalo, and often raided neighbors and Spanish towns. They were driven
out of Texas by other tribes and eventually migrated to New Mexico.
6. North Central Plains- a north-central region of Texas with rolling prairies and grasslands
and abundant natural resources. Home to the Tonkawa and Wichita Native groups.
7. Tonkawa-a hunter-gatherer nomadic Native group that lived in the North Central Plains
region. They were eventually driven out by the Apaches. Many joined other tribes and
by 1900 this tribe a no longer existed as a separate Native group.
8. Wichita- a sedentary Native group that lived in the North Central Plains region. They
built their villages along creeks and farmed. They tattooed themselves under their eyes
and called themselves “raccoon eyes.”
9. Coastal Plains- Eastern most region of Texas that extends along the whole coastline of
Texas and inland a few hundred miles. It is the most populated region, receives the most
annual precipitation, and thus is the most humid.
10. Karankawa- nomadic Native group that lived along the coast of the Coastal Plains
region of Texas. They were hunter-gatherers and fished, hunted sea turtles and deer,
and ate birds’ eggs. They often wore little clothing and lived in wigwams.
11. Coahuiltecan- Nomadic hunter gatherers in the Coastal Plains region. Known for their
unique diet (lizards, snakes, spiders, worms) and their religious celebrations that lasted
all night
12. Caddo- sedentary Native group in the Coastal Plains region. They are known for their
crop rotation system of agriculture but also fished in the rivers and hunted.
13. Crop rotation- a system of growing different crops on the same land over a period of
years
14. Natural Resources: the natural wealth of a place, consisting of land, forests, and water.