Tamauliteco

The Tamauliteco, or Tamaholipa, were the many mutually independent tribes of central and southeastern Tamaulipas in northeastern Mexico. Nothing of their language survives, so scholars can only suggest that it was related to Coahuilteco or to Karankawa. Waves of northern nomads had pushed the Huastecs back to the Pánuco River before the Spanish arrived.

In 1544 the friar Andrés de Olmos founded the village of Tamaholipa, from which Tamaulipas takes its name, and Tampico became the first permanent Spanish settlement in 1554. From 1732 José de Escandón carried out an aggressive program of colonization and pacification, and in 1746 the region was formally organized as the province of Nuevo Santander.

Through most of the colonial era its rebellious natives were hunted down, enslaved or killed. The Tamauliteco tribes dissolved under the missions and settlements.