Ancient Karankawa Settlement Resurfaces at Donnel Point, Spurring Preservation Push

An ancient Indigenous settlement believed lost for decades has been rediscovered on the north shore of Corpus Christi Bay, spurring an effort to protect a site that could be slated for heavy industrial expansion.

Ingleside on the Bay resident Patrick Nye made the discovery while boating, spotting a dense shell deposit in an eroded bluff at Donnel Point along the La Quinta Channel. Local archaeologists confirmed the deposit as an archaic shell midden in a location that matched historical accounts of Karankawa tribal camps dating back about 2,300 years. The Karankawa were among the earliest-known Indigenous people in recorded history to inhabit the Coastal Bend region.

The site, one of four Karankawa camps on the point documented by researchers in the 1930s, was long presumed destroyed. When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredged the La Quinta Channel in the 1950s, it cut directly through Donnel Point. Subsequent surveys in the 1970s and early 2000s failed to detect remaining middens, leading experts to conclude they were lost to the dredging or erosion. Nye’s discovery overturns that assumption and suggests more artifacts may still lie intact.

“If this is in fact one of the historic Donnel Point settlements, there could be many other important artifacts on the site that hold key information about Karankawa life along the Gulf Coast,” said Nye, who serves as co-president of local environmental advocacy group Coastal Watch Association (CWA).

Coastal Bend Indigenous leaders celebrated the discovery. “They once claimed the Karankawa no longer existed, but we are all along the Texas Gulf Coast,” said Love Sanchez, founder of Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend and a member of the Karankawa Kadla tribe. “They also claimed that the Karankawa settlements no longer existed. This gives me hope that there is something to preserve from my ancestors’ lives and culture.”

But with the land at Donnel Point owned by the Port of Corpus Christi, advocates like Sanchez and Nye fear a repeat of 2006, when a large Karankawa campsite on port-owned land at McGloin’s Bluff was deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Despite this, and over the objection of advocates, the port commissioned the excavation of artifacts then sold the land to Occidental Petroleum.

In an effort to prevent a similar outcome, Nye’s group, CWA, has formally notified the Texas Historical Commission (THC) of the Donnel Point discovery. Archeologists from the THC are expected to conduct a detailed assessment of the site, investigating whether to designate it as a State Antiquities Landmark (SAL). SAL designation would recognize the settlement’s historical importance and provide it legal protection under state law, requiring that any development be reviewed and permitted by the state.

For the Karankawa people, Donnel Point and the artifacts it holds are a living link to their ancestors – one they want to honor and keep intact for future generations. Cari Villarreal Varner, Five Rivers Council Member and Rematriation Point of Contact for the Karankawa Tribe of Texas, emphasized the need to permanently safeguard the site. “We are very hopeful that our ancestors’ settlement will be rightfully preserved,” Varner said, expressing that formal protection could help remedy historical wrongs. “It would go a long way to address the past attempted erasure of our tribe.”

The rediscovery is drawing national attention as momentum builds to save the site. The Archaeological Conservancy and other interested groups have shared news of the find on social media, calling the settlement a crucial link to Texas’ pre-colonial past. Media outlets have also picked up the story, noting that protecting the site would be a significant win for Indigenous rights and historical preservation.

Making the stakes of THC’s pending investigation clear, a recent report by Dr. Peter Moore of Texas A&M Corpus Christi described the site’s shell middens as “the archaeological equivalent of an endangered species,” warning that without protection they could vanish. If that were to happen, Moore noted, it would be “to the irreparable loss of an important part of our history.”

“Immediate steps must be taken to protect these cultural resources and preserve this place, which may be the last intact Indigenous settlement on the north shore of Corpus Christi Bay,” Moore’s report urged.