Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people, who have lived in the Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European and African contact, they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas,

The descendants of the Lipan Apache live primarily in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona, and northern Mexico. Some are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes: the Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico, the Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, The Lipan Apache, however, are not a federally recognized tribe.

Name

thumb|Two Lipan Apache children, Kesetta Roosevelt (d. ca. 1906) and Jack Mather (d. 1888) from New Mexico, at [[Carlisle Indian School, ca. 1885.]]

The name "Lipan" is a Spanish adaption of their self-designation as Łibaį́ Ndé or Lébai-Ndé ("Light Gray People"), reflecting their migratory story. The earliest known written record of the Lipan Apache identified this tribe as Ypandes.

Nancy McGown Minor wrote that the word Lipan stems from the Lipan words Łibaį́, which means 'gray', and ndé, which means 'people', which would make Lipan mean 'The Light Gray People'. The name Apache may be of Zuni origin, coming from the word apachu, which means 'enemy', or perhaps from the Ute, who referred to this group as Awa'tehe.

Apaches' autonym is Inde or Nde, meaning "the people."

The terms Eastern Apache and Texas Apache can also include them as well as the Chiricahua and Mescalero. I Fought a Good Fight: A History of the Lipan Apaches notes that Spanish explorers recorded their encounters with the Chipaines, Conejeros, Rio Colorados, and Anchos living along the Canadian River, who were ancestors of the Lipan.

Language

Lipan Apache is a Southern Athabaskan language, considered to be closely related to the Jicarilla Apache language. As of 2009, there may be no remaining speakers, and the language is considered almost extinct or dormant. By 1981, only two or three elderly speakers of Lipan remained on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. There are ongoing efforts and funding aimed to revitalize the language.

History

Confederated eastern Apache bands had a homeland that spanned from the Southern Great Plains to the Gulf of Mexico, with significant presence in what is now Texas. While there is little archeological evidence of the Lipan Apache, some pictographs in Paint Rock, Texas–located in Concho County–depict the Lipan's stories of emergence, sacred ceremonies, monsters, and mythic heroes. These pictographs span 12,000 years and may have contributions from as many as 300 tribes. The nomadic Lipan Apache, Jumanos, Tonkawa, and Comanche peoples inhabited the Concho Valley and are believed to have contributed to the drawings found at the pictograph site.

16th and 17th centuries

thumb|300px|Map with locations of Lipan Apache territory in the 17th and 18th centuries

Ancestors of the Lipan Apache living along the Canadian River made the first known European contact during the Expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, who traveled there in 1541, and were still in the region when Diego de Vargas arrived in 1694.

Lipan Apache obtained horses from the Spanish by 1608 and adopted a nomadic lifestyle. They were excellent horsemen and freely raided settlements. Throughout the 17th century, Spaniards raided Apache communities for slaves. The Acho, a branch of Lipan, fought with Taos Pueblo and Picuris Pueblo people against the Spanish in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.

In 1684, Spanish colonists completed the Mission San Francisco de los Julimes near Presidio, Texas, to serve Jumano, Julime, and neighboring tribes. These tribes taught the peyote ceremony to the Tonkawa and Lipan, who in turn, shared it with the Comanches, Mescalero Apaches, and Plains Apaches.

In 1749, two Lipan Apache chiefs joined other Apache leaders in signing one of the earliest recorded peace treaties with Spain in San Antonio. Some Lipan Apache people settled northwest of San Antonio during the mid-18th century. A mission on the San Sabá River was completed in 1757 but destroyed by the Comanche and the Wichita. That same year, the Lipan Apache fought the Hasinais, a band of Caddo people. The Lipan participated in a Spanish expedition against the Wichita and Comanche in 1759 but were defeated in the Battle of the Twin Villages. Missions established for the Lipan at Candelaria and San Lorenzo were destroyed by the Comanche in 1767.

By 1767, all Lipan had completely deserted the Spanish missions. In the same year, Marquis of Rubí started a policy of Lipan extermination after a 1764 smallpox epidemic had decimated the tribe.

19th century

thumb|180px|Illustration of a Lipan Apache warrior, 1857

In the early 19th century, Lipan Apache primarily lived in south and west Texas, south of the Colorado River to the Gulf of Mexico and east to the Rio Grande. To resist their enemies the Comanche and the Mexicans, the Lipan Apache allied with the Republic of Texas in the 1830s. They served as scouts to the Texas Militia during the Texas Revolution of 1835–36.

The State of Texas owned massive war debts and used land sales to raise funds following statehood, leaving almost no land to American Indians. Texas established the Brazos Reservation in 1854, where around 2,000 members of the Caddo, Anadarko, Waco, and Tonkawa tribes, but then the tribes to relocate to Indian Territory by 1859.

In 1855, some Lipan Apache joined the Brazos Reservation; however, most did not. Some joined the Plains Apache in Oklahoma; others joined the Mescalero in New Mexico, and others fled to Mexico. Chief Magoosh (Lipan, ca. 1830–1900) led his band from Texas and joined the Mescalero Apache on the Mescalero Reservation in 1870. From 1875 to 1876, United States Army troops undertook joint military campaigns with the Mexican Army to eliminate the Lipan from the state of Coahuila in northern Mexico. In 1879, a group of 17 Lipan settled near Fort Griffin, Texas, but in 1884 they were forcibly removed to Indian Territory, where they joined the Tonkawa.

20th century

In October 1903, 19 Lipan Apaches who fled Texas into Coahuila were taken to northwest Chihuahua and kept as prisoners of war until 1905. They were released to the Mescalero Reservation. By the early 18th century, the Lipan were divided into regional groupings/divisions comprising several bands - the Forest Lipan division (Lower Lipan bands), the Plains Lipan division (Upper Lipan bands), and bands who lived primarily in northern Mexico (Mexican Lipan bands).

Lower Lipan bands; Forest Lipan division

  • Red Hair People (Tséral tuétahäⁿ): absorbed later into the Sun Otter band or the Green Mountain band, lived south of the Nueces River in Texas, no longer existed in 1884.
  • Sun Otter band (Tcheshä’ⁿ): ranged from San Antonio, Texas, south to the Rio Grande.
  • High-Beaked Moccasin band (Kóke metcheskó lähäⁿ): lived south of San Antonio as far as northern Mexico.
  • Tall Grass band (Cuelcahende): lived from southwestern Kansas to northeastern Durango.
  • Heads of Wolves People (Tsés tsembai): lived above the Colorado River, possibly in the Lubbock area. May represent an early Lipan presence in north Texas before the Commanche moved in.
  • Trees Tall Standing People (Tcic n’ti óané) & Red Mud People (Gocłic Łit’xuné): merged to form the Canneci Tinné, the easternmost band of Apache, whose territory includes present-day St. Martin & Lafayette parishes in Louisiana. The Canneci were noted as early as 1700 by Jean-Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville

Upper Lipan / Plains Lipan division

  • Fire or Camp Circle band (Ndáwe ɣóhäⁿ): lived west to southwest of Fort Griffin, from the San Saba River to the Rio Grande River.
  • Uplander band (Täzhä'ⁿ): lived along the upper Rio Grande in southern New Mexico but would migrate to the upper Nueces River in Texas to hunt buffalo.

Mexican Lipan bands

  • Big Water band (Kú’ne tsá): in the mid-18th century, this band broke from their kin in San Antonio and moved into northern Coahuila near Zaragos,  lived along the Escondido and San Rodrigo Rivers and in the Santa Rosa and Sierra El Burro Mountains of Mexico.
  • Natagés (Mescal People): culturally affiliated with the Mescalero Apache, lived along the Pecos River and were strong allies of the Lipan Apaches.
  • Pelones (Bald/Hairless Ones): name given to the Forest Lipan division by the Spaniards probably in reference to Lipan custom of plucking facial hair, lived in the upper Brazos area along the Red River of north-central Texas.

Population

Ethnographer James Mooney estimated that there were 500 Lipan Apache in 1690. In 1778, Spanish military commanders meeting in Monclova, Coahuila, estimated the population of Lipan men to be 5,000. Opler and Ray estimated that the Lipan population between 1845-1855 ranged from 500 to 1000.

  • Canneci Tinné Apache Tribe,

The State of Louisiana recognized the Choctaw-Apache Community of Ebarb by legislative action, House Concurrent Resolution 2, in 1978.

Texas

  1. Apache Council of Texas in Alice, Texas
  2. Cuelgahen Nde Lipan Apache of Texas in Three Rivers, Texas
  3. Lipan Apache Band of Texas in Brackettville, Texas.
  4. Lipan Apache Tribe of Bracketville Texas, Bracketville, TX
  5. Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas in McAllen, Texas state recognition can occur through various means, including state law, administrative actions, legislation, and gubernatorial proclamations or executive orders, but most often through legislation. On March 18, 2009, Senate Resolution 438 and House Resolution 812, both titled "Recognizing the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas," were passed by their respective chambers during the 81st Texas Legislative Session. These jointly issued congratulatory resolutions expressed the sentiments of both chambers in acknowledging the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas as a historical tribe and commended the tribe's contributions to the state. In 2019, State of Texas 86th Legislature, adopted concurrent resolutions, Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 61 and House Concurrent Resolution No. 171, that affirmed the Texas Legislature's views that the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas was "the present-day incarnation of a proud people who have lived in Texas and northern Mexico for more than 300 years". The resolutions also commended the Tribe for its valuable contributions to the state. The Senate, House, and the Governor signed each concurrent resolution.

Texas senate bills for formal state recognition of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas were introduced in 2021 and in 2022. Both bills died in committee.

In December 2024, the Choctaw-Apache Community of Ebarb and the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas were registered members of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) as state-recognized tribe tribes. NCAI requires annual registration with membership dues.

Notable Lipan Apache chiefs

Below are historical chiefs with estimated times of when they were active.

  • Bigotes () (middle of the 18th century): In 1751, he left Texas and crossed the Rio Grande into Coahuila. About this date, they lived along the Rio Escondido and Rio San Rodrigo in Coahuila.
  • Poca Ropa () ( 1750 – 1790) was Chief of the Little Breech-clout band along the lower Pecos River
  • Cavezon/el Gran Cavezon (): 1760 – 1790) was Chief of the Fire/Camp Circla band, lived along the San Saba River towards the upper Nueces River.
  • Cuelgas de Castro ( 1821 – 1842) was Chief of the Sun Otter band in the territory of San Antonio across the Rio Grande in Tamaulipas and played a large role in interactions between the Republic of Texas and the Lipan Apache. He was an ally of chiefs Flacco and Yolcha Pocarropa.
  • Magoosh (Ma’uish): 1850 – 1900) was Chief of the Sun Otter band in southeastern Texas. Because of a severe epidemic, one part of this band went to Zaragosa in Coahuila, while the other part of Magoosh's band took refuge by the Mescalero and accompanied them in 1870 onto the Mescalero Reservation.

Notes

References

Further reading

  • Carlisle, JD. Dissertation. "Spanish Relations with the Apache Nations East of the Rio Grande". The University of North Texas, May 2001
  • Dunn, William E. "Missionary activities among the eastern Apaches previous to the founding of the San Sabá missions." Texas State Historical Association Quarterly, 15.
  • Dunn, William E. "The Apache mission on the San Sabá River, its founding and its failure." Texas State Historical Association Quarterly, 16.
  • Opler, Morris E. (1936). "The kinship systems of the southern Athabaskan-speaking tribes." American Anthropologist, 38, 620-633.
  • Opler, Morris E. (1938). "The use of peyote by the Carrizo and the Lipan Apache." American Anthropologist, 40 (2).
  • Opler, Morris E. (1940). Myths and legends of the Lipan Apache. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society (Vol. 36). New York: American Folk-Lore Society, J. J. Augustin Publisher.
  • Opler, Morris E. (1945). "The Lipan Apache Death Complex and Its Extensions." Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 1: 122-141.
  • Opler, Morris E. (1959). "Component, assemblage, and theme in cultural integration and differentiation." American Anthropologist, 61 (6), 955-964.
  • Opler, Morris E. (1968). "Remuneration to supernaturals and man in Apachean ceremonialism." Ethnology, 7 (4), 356-393.
  • Opler, Morris E. (1975). "Problems in Apachean cultural history, with special reference to the Lipan Apache." Anthropological Quarterly, 48 (3), 182-192.
  • Opler, Morris E. (2001). Lipan Apache. In Handbook of North American Indians: The Plains (pp. 941–952). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
  • Mescalero Apache Tribe, official website
  • Lipan Apache Band of Texas, official website
  • Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, official website
  • Spanish Relations with the Apache Nations East of the Río Grande.
  • Treaty between the Republic of Texas and the Lipan and other Indian tribes, 1844
  • Apache Relations in Texas, 1718-1750
  • Missionary Activities among the Eastern Apaches Previous to the Founding of the San Saba Mission
  • The Apache Mission on the San Sabá River; Its Founding and Failure