Historical Marker
Site of the Mission Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga
Goliad, Goliad County · Texas
Erected 1936
The Aranamas this mission served lived along the lower Guadalupe and San Antonio rivers, and most scholars class them as Coahuiltecan speakers, though the evidence is thin. Many followed the mission to this site in 1749. Several times in the late 1700s they left it to live farther north, especially with the Tawakonis, and each time the Spaniards persuaded them back. A few lived at Valero in San Antonio and at Refugio. Their numbers fell slowly, and they disappeared as a people about 1843, the last survivors probably absorbed into Spanish-speaking communities near the coastal missions.
What the plaque says
Site of the Mission Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga First established at the site of La Salle's fort on Garcitas Creek, Victoria County, among the Coco, Cujanes, Karankawa and other Indian tribes in 1722. Moved to Mission Valley, Victoria County, on the Guadalupe River among the Jaranames and Tamiques in 1726. Located on the present site in 1749 for the same Indian neophytes. Secularized in 1794. Here Franciscan friars attempted to civilize and Christianize even the cannibalistic Indians of the region. (Near Goliad)
Where it stands
28.65705, -97.38696 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Aranama College — steps away
- Cattle Drive from La Bahia — steps away
- Don Rafael Antonio Manchola — 0.7 mi
- John Mason Brewer — 0.7 mi