This centuries-old burial ground was once used by the Karankawa Indians, a little-known coastal tribe that cared for Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca after he was shipwrecked in Texas in 1528. Although previously looted, the site produced over 20 skeletons when archeologists excavated it in 1927 and later, along with large quantities of burned human bones suggesting ritual cannibalism, potsherds, arrowpoints, flint tools, fire implements, and shells. European explorers found the Karankawas unusually tall and muscular, but were repelled by their tattooing and body painting and by their use of alligator grease to keep off insects. Karankawa death rituals were elaborate, especially for boys and young men, who were mourned for an entire year as family members wept three times a day, after which the mourners purified themselves with smoke in a special rite. Ordinary people were buried in shallow graves with some tools and ornaments, but shamans were cremated during a ceremonial dance. Never very numerous, the Karankawas drifted into Mexico after diseases brought by whites and hostility reduced them to a handful of survivors.