Cacaxtles

The Cacaxtle were an Indigenous people of the southern Texas and northeastern Mexican borderlands. Their range took in the country from the Nueces River south across the Rio Grande. Their name refers to a netted frame used to carry loads on the back. Between 1653 and 1663 the Cacaxtle and their allies repeatedly attacked Spanish frontier settlements in Coahuila and Nuevo León. Spanish expeditions crossed the Rio Grande in 1663 and 1665 and fought two decisive battles, in which about two hundred Cacaxtle were killed and about as many captured. The captives were sold into slavery and put to work in the mines of Chihuahua and Zacatecas. After these campaigns the name rarely appears in the records.