Pajalat

The Pajalat were a Native American group who lived in the area just south of San Antonio, Texas, prior to the arrival of the Spanish to the region in the 18th century.

Pajalat

Manuscript about the language of the Pajalats in this language and Spanish by Fray Gabriel de Vergara dated 1732
Total population
extinct as a tribe
Regions with significant populations
Texas
Languages
a Coahuiltecan language
Related ethnic groups
other Coahuiltecan peoples

Language

The Pajalat spoke a dialect of the Coahuiltecan language.^[1] They spoke the same language as the Tiplacopal and Patumaco peoples.^[2]

Territory

At the time of European and African contact, the Pajalat lived between the Frio River and the San Antonio River.^[1] The Tiplacopal people shared their territory.^[2] A 1727 Spanish map shows the Pajalat and Siquipil lived in what is now Goliad County, Texas.^[2]

18th-century history

When Spaniards settled San Antonio, Pajalats moved there and to the Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña and San Francisco de la Espada Missions when they were founded in 1731.^[1] At Mission Concepción members of the tribe alternated holding gobernador and alcalde offices with Tacame people. Historians have found records of 23 to 82 Pajalats living at Mission Concepción.

By 1791, some Pajalat joined the Nuestra Señora del Refugio Mission in present-day Refugio, Texas.^[1]

Name

The Pajalat were also called the Cajalate, Pajal,^[2] Pajalac, Pajalache, Pajalatam, Pallalat, Paxolot, and many other variations.^[1]

They are not to be confused with the distinct Pachalaque people.^[2]

Further reading

• Barr, Juliana. Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. especially page 128.