The Last Karankawa

In 1885, along the Gulf Coast of Texas, the once-numerous Karankawa Indians had all but disappeared. The story unfolds as an orphan Indian boy, Kola, finds that he is the last living member of his people. Kola is taken in by W. S. and Jane Deats and their family, after their son, Sparkman, finds him floating in a canoe in Dickinson Bay. The Deats family soon realizes that Kola is extremely smart and more than willing to do his part in becoming a member of their family. After W. S. Deats gives Kola a gray filly as his own to ride, for the daily ranch work that is expected of the boys, an unusual bond develops between horse and boy. Kola soon becomes one of the best cowboys on the open prairies of the Gulf Coast. His roping skills soon become legendary.

Many of the white settlers still had memories of problems with the nomadic Karankawa tribes as they roamed along the coast line of Texas. The embellished tales of these conflicts, over the years, had been passed on to new arrivals in Galveston County.

When the Deats family enrolled Kola in school, there was an outcry from many of the citizens of Dickinson. An Indian boy in the classroom with white children was unacceptable in their eyes. How WS and Jane handle the violence that erupts makes for an intriguing story.