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The History of the Copane Indians: A Karankawan Tribe

By: Thomas N. Campbell

Published: 1976

Updated: July 1, 1995

The Copane (Cobane, Coopane, Kopano) Indians were Karankawans who, in the eighteenth century, lived in the middle section of the Texas coast, mainly on and between Copano and San Antonio bays. Little is known about the Copanes other than that they were represented at the coastal missions of Nuestra Señora del Rosario and Nuestra Señora del Refugio between 1751 and 1828. It seems likely that the Copane Indians who survived the mission period joined remnants of other Karankawan groups that became known as the Karankawa Indians. All Karankawan groups became extinct by 1858.

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Bibliography:

Herbert E. Bolton, "The Founding of Mission Rosario: A Chapter in the History of the Gulf Coast," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 10 (October 1906). H. E. Bolton, "Records of the Mission of Nuestra Señora del Refugio," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 14 (October 1910). Herbert Eugene Bolton, Texas in the Middle Eighteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1915; rpt., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1970). William E. Dunn, "The Founding of Nuestra Señora del Refugio, the Last Spanish Mission in Texas," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 25 (January 1922). Frederick Webb Hodge, ed., Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico (2 vols., Washington: GPO, 1907, 1910; rpt., New York: Pageant, 1959). William H. Oberste, History of Refugio Mission (Refugio, Texas: Refugio Timely Remarks, 1942).

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

Thomas N. Campbell, “Copane Indians,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed May 19, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/copane-indians.

TID: BMC86

Original Publication Date:
1976
Most Recent Revision Date:
July 1, 1995