Goliad Road
Indian Hills is located on Goliad Road.  Goliad Road is named after "Old Goliad Road," which was very nearby, and ran parallel to the famous Gonzales Road as both roads approached historic San Antonio.
 
Old Goliad Road was established about 1720 by Spain as "El Camino Real A La Bahia Del Espiritu Santo," or King's Highway To Goliad.   The old road served for more than 150 years as a major emigrant, military, and trade route into San Antonio.  The road became a segment of the Chihuahua Road, which connected the Texas Gulf Coast with Mexico City.  Native peoples, soldiers from Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, The United States and Confederacy used the road during their campaigns.   Upon the fall of the Alamo, survivors Mrs. Susana Dickinson and her child very likely walked along Goliad Road after General Santa Ana issued orders that they were not to be interred.  (Santa Ana wanted a white skinned "norte" survivor to spread news of his victory against the Texians).   Traffic on the Goliad Road diminished only after railroads were established in Texas.   Indian Hills is very close to the "Second Battle of Salado" fought in the 1840's, in which the two sides met on Goliad Road. 
 
The Karankawas
The Karankawas, on whom the Karankawa Homes name is based.  The Karankawas were a fascinating people who lived along the Texas Gulf Coast, and were exterminated by the beginning of the Civil War (1861).  By the early 1800’s, this people’s population was already very small due to fighting with the growing Anglo-Texan population, and also due to the unsettling effect of the white’s emigration upon the Tonkawas and Comanches, who were the Karankawas enemies.  The last of the Karankawas were killed by Texas ranchers.  The Karankawas are today quite a mysterious people – it is known that they were highly adapted to life along the Texas Coast from the Bay of Galveston to Corpus Christi Bay, yet less than a hundred words survive from their native tongue.
 
Historical accounts start in 1528 when two small boats carrying survivors of the ill-fated Narvaez expedition from Spain became shipwrecked on a small island to the west of Galveston Island. That island, named Malhado by the Spanish, was inhabited by Karankawas.  Cabeza de Vaca lived among these hunter / gatherers for almost six years, and was the sole survivor of the original group of about 80 Spaniards.  De Vaca provided a remarkable account upon his return to Spain.  Many were nearly seven feet in height, with large heads that the males often kept clean shaven along the sides, and had a terrifying appearance accentuated by body tattoos and piercing, and by covering themselves with alligator and shark grease.  They were dark skinned, and there are three competing theories generally discussed about their origin.  That they migrated from a tribe of giants found on the Coast of California, that they came from an aborigines group known to have inhabited the Texas Big Bend area thousands of years ago (this group is tied to the “Abilene man,” the oldest known type of human to reside in Texas), or that they were related to the Caribe Tribes of the West Indies.  Others believe that they migrated to Florida, where they were driven out by other tribes to Louisiana , then later to the Texas coast.