Sunday, April 23, 2000

In search of attack survivors

While archaeologists continue excavating the remains of Fort St. Louis and Presidio La Bahía in Victoria County, a local museum educator is following the trail of yet another piece of this historical puzzle.
   The archaeological site is where French explorer Rene Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, established Texas' first European colony in 1685 in what was then Spanish-held territory. It is also the same soil where, 37 years later, the Spanish built La Bahía, the presidio that was eventually moved in 1749 to its present-day site in Goliad.
   But it is neither La Salle nor Spanish explorer Alonso de León prompting Sandra Linderman, a Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History educator, to pore over books, other materials and sift through leads for 21st-century answers to some 17th-century questions.
   Linderman's research revolves around the spellbinding story of Fort St. Louis' only survivors - five children whom the Karankawas spared when they attacked the fort on Christmas of 1688. The story Linderman's research yields will eventually be featured at Discovery Hall, which the museum hopes to have completed by 2001.
   Story of ordinary people
   "So much of history concentrates on the big players," Linderman said. "But when you find a story of ordinary people who have been made extraordinary because of what they lived through, it makes for a story people are interested in."
   Linderman has begun her research with books already published on the topic, gleaning from them what she hopes will lead her to descendants believed to have settled in New Mexico and Louisiana.
   What is known is that at the time of the fort's demise, disease had reduced the French colony to no more than 25. Among them were four siblings (Marie Magdelaine, Jean-Bauptiste, Lucien and Robert Talon) and another boy, Eustache Bréman, son of the colony's paymaster. After Karankawa women took pity on these children, they were taken into the tribe, tattooed on the face and body as was the custom, and brought up as Karankawas.
   All were found during Spanish expeditions from 1689 to 1691. The first was Pierre, oldest of the Talon brothers, found living among the Tejas Indians. Pierre was not living at the fort at the time of the massacre, having been placed years earlier to live among the Tejas, a French trading strategy of the time.
   Missing Indian families
   According to historical record, Linderman said, Pierre was reluctant to leave the Tejas; his siblings also didn't want to leave the Karankawas. In the end, however, they did go with the Spanish and became household servants for the viceroy of Mexico City. Records indicate they were treated well in their new surroundings, Linderman said, but it was evident that the children missed their Indian brethren.
   Ultimately, one remained in Mexico, one in Canada, two in France, one in the Louisiana area and one in Mobile, Ala.
   "The demise of the fort was not the end of the story," said Robert P. Drolet, an archaeologist with the museum. "Finding out what happened generations after is an important connection between now and the past.
   "This is such a great, great story, although a small aspect of our South Texas history. But you can't tell the big story of South Texas just by artifacts and old coins. It's about people's lives and when we get an opportunity to bring it to life this way it brings it home to the average museum visitor. That's how you make that person-to-person connection."
  
 

---

  © 2000 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.