Our institution in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas sits on the ancestral land of the Karankawa, Tāp Pīlam Coahuiltecan, Ndé Kónitsąąíí Gokíyaa (Lipan Apache), Carrizo/Comecrudo, and Rayados/Borrados. We acknowledge and pay respect to their Elders and their past, present, and future peoples, cultures, languages, and communities.
This research guide aims to help students interested in researching the Ndé Kónitsąąíí Gokíyaa (Lipan Apache) peoples of South Texas. The guide links to resources held by UTRGV Special Collections and Archives in our physical and digital repositories. Primary sources on the Lipan Apache available at our institution are limited. However, research materials can be found among external and secondary sources, especially publications and noted Lipan Apache websites.
IMPORTANT: UTRGV Special Collections and Archives recognizes Native American Sovereignty and seeks to accurately and respectfully honor and represent the heritage, history, and culture of indigenous people using their preferred terminology. Therefore, our staff welcomes suggestions for restorative efforts to improve description and representation.
We strongly recommend visiting the official Lipan Apache website linked below and checking out the Native Land is an app to help map indigenous territories, treaties, and languages.
Social and Economic Development Strategies Grant - Lipan Apache Band of Texas (LOS), 2001, Container: 146, Box: 112, Folder: 39. Rubén Hinojosa Congressional Papers, ELIBR-0146. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Special Collections and Archives, Edinburg Campus.
Economic Development Strategies Grant - Lipan Apache Band of Texas (LOS), 2002, Container: 146, Box: 95, Folder: 50. Rubén Hinojosa Congressional Papers, ELIBR-0146. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Special Collections and Archives, Edinburg Campus.
Social and Economic Development Strategies Grant - Lipan Apache Band of Texas, Inc. (LOS), 2004, Container: 146, Box: 110, Folder: 25. Rubén Hinojosa Congressional Papers, ELIBR-0146. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Special Collections and Archives, Edinburg Campus.
South Texas Indian Dancers [newsletter]. Reference Files, ELIBR-0062. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Special Collections and Archives, Edinburg
Soto, Robert [The Son Tree newsletter]. Reference Files, ELIBR-0062. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Special Collections and Archives, Edinburg Campus.
The Bexar Archives are described on the Briscoe Center for American History website as “the official Spanish documents that preserve the political, military, economic, and social life of the Spanish province of Texas and the Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas. Both in their volume and breadth of subject matter, the Bexar Archives are an important source for the history of Hispanic Texas up to 1836.” Included with these documents of the past of Spanish Texas are the interactions between the Spanish settlers and the indigenous peoples of Texas. These sources are useful for getting a sense of how the Spanish settlers interacted with natives, what they thought about them, and overall how they treated them. The Bexar Archives contents can be viewed translated or in their original form online or through the UTRGV Special Collections and Archives microfilm collection in Brownsville
UTRGV Special Collections & Archives in Edinburg houses research material (photocopies only) relating to the former Spanish colonies of Texas and Mexico, including Nuevo Santander. You can make an appointment to use the Colonial Spanish Research Materials photostatic copies, ELIBR-0114 in person or access digitized materials via PARES: Portal de Archivos Españoles (see below).
The research guides compiled by UTRGV staff and students are intended to assist patrons who are embarking upon new research endeavors. Our goal is to expand their knowledge of the types of resources available on a given topic, including books, archival materials, and websites. In so doing, our compilers have taken care to include collections, digital items, and resources that may be accessed not only through UTRGV but also via other institutions, repositories, and websites.
We wholeheartedly respect the research interests of others. Therefore, please contact us if you wish to submit a resource for consideration, or if you have a question about or an issue with a specific cited resource.
Chevato by
Here is the oral history of the Apache warrior Chevato, who captured eleven-year-old Herman Lehmann from his Texas homestead in May 1870. Lehmann called him "Bill Chiwat" and referred to him as both his captor and his friend. Chevato provides a Native American point of view on both the Apache and Comanche capture of children and specifics regarding the captivity of Lehmann known only to the Apache participants. Yet the capture of Lehmann was only one episode in Chevato's life. Born in Mexico, Chevato was a Lipan Apache whose parents had been killed in a massacre by Mexican troops. He and his siblings fled across the Rio Grande and were taken in by the Mescalero Apaches of New Mexico. Chevato became a shaman and was responsible for introducing the Lipan form of the peyote ritual to both the Mescalero Apaches and later to the Comanches and the Kiowas. He went on to become one of the founders of the Native American Church in Oklahoma. The story of Chevato reveals important details regarding Lipan Apache shamanism and the origin and spread of the type of peyote rituals practiced today in the Native American community. This book also provides a rare glimpse into Lipan and Mescalero Apache life in the late nineteenth century, when the Lipans faced annihilation and the Mescaleros faced the reservation.
I Fought a Good Fight by
This history of the Lipan Apaches, from archeological evidence to the present, tells the story of some of the least known, least understood people in the Southwest. These plains buffalo hunters and traders were one of the first groups to acquire horses, and with this advantage they expanded from the Panhandle across Texas and into Coahuila. Around 1700, the Comanches began forcing Eastern Apaches from their haunts, but they didnoOe1/4Oaot yield easily and from then on were the ComanchesoOe1/4Oao stubborn enemies. For a small group, the Lipans had an outsized impact through three centuries. They were as clever, fearless, and resourceful as the better known Chiricahua Apaches. With a knack for making friends and forging alliances, they survived against all odds, and were still free long after their worst enemies were corralled on reservati
The Indians of Texas: From Prehistoric to Modern Times (eBook) by
"Newcomb's book is likely to remain the best general work on Texas Indians for a long time." -- American Antiquity "The Indians of Texas, by W. W. Newcomb, Jr., is an excellent and long-needed survey of the ethnography of the Indian tribes who resided within the present limits of Texas since the beginning of the historic period.... The book is the most comprehensive. scholarly, and authoritative account covering all the Indians of Texas, and is an invaluable and indispensable reference for students of Texas history, for anthropologists, and for lovers of Indian lore." -- Ethnohistory "Dr. Newcomb writes persuasively and with economy, and he has used his material very well indeed.... his presentation makes good reading of what might have been a book only for the specialists." -- Saturday Review
The Light Gray People by
Although Lipan Apache culture was studied by one of the most eminent anthropologists of the twentieth century, many important questions remain. What is the meaning of the tribal name Lipan? Did Morris Opler's 1935 study of historical Lipan culture conform to practices seen by eighteenth century Spaniards? Only four in situ observations of Lipan Apache culture survive - observations made by a Spanish priest, a Spanish military officer, a Swiss botanist and an Anglo captive. Each source reveals fascinating insights into a hitherto unseen world of Lipan beliefs and practices. The sources reported, for example, that the Lipans were able to predict both solar and lunar eclipses, a practice which went far beyond the vision quest posited by Opler. The Light Gray People seeks to complete a comparative analysis of traditional Lipan Apache culture, as seen through the eyes of four eighteenth and nineteenth century observers and Morris Opler's theories.
The Lipan Apaches by
Despite the significant role they have played in Texas history for nearly four hundred years, the Lipan Apaches remain among the least studied and least understood tribal groups in the West. Considered by Spaniards of the eighteenth century to be the greatest threat to the development of New Spain's northern frontier, the Lipans were viewed as a similar risk to the interests of nineteenth-century Mexico, Texas, and the United States. Direct attempts to dissolve them as a tribal unit began during the Spanish period and continued with the establishment of the Republic of Texas in 1836. From their homeland in south Texas, Lipan migratory hunter-gatherer bands waged a desperate struggle to maintain their social and cultural traditions amidst numerous Indian and non-Indian enemies. Government officials, meanwhile, perceived them as a potential danger to the settlement and economic development of the Rio Grande frontier. Forced removal from their traditional homelands diminished their ability to defend themselves and, as they attached themselves to the Mescalero Apaches and the Tonkawas, the Lipans faded from written history in 1884. Thomas Britten has scoured U.S. and Mexican archives in order to piece together the tangled tribal history of these adaptable people, emphasizing the cultural change that coincided with the various migrations and pressures they faced. The result is an interdisciplinary study of the Lipan Apaches that focuses on their history and culture, their relationships with a wide range of Indian and non-Indian peoples, and their responses to the various crises and burdens that seemed to follow them wherever they went.
A Snake Falls to Earth (JUV) by
Newbery Honor Winner National Indie Bestseller National Book Award Longlist Minneapolis Star Tribune Best of the Year Publishers Weekly Best of the Year Kirkus Best the Year Apple Best of the Year Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best New York Public Library's Best of the Year Autostraddle's Best Queer Books of the Year "A spellbinding tale."--Texas Monthly "Genre-bending."--TIME "Undeniably charming."--Tor.com ★ "Evokes the timeless feeling of listening to traditional oral storytelling."--Kirkus (starred) ★ "Fun, imaginative, and deeply immersive, this story will be long in the minds of readers."--Publishers Weekly (starred) ★ "Magical, stunning, and wholly original."--Booklist (starred) "A highly descriptive story which absorbs the audience into its world, readers will become invested in reading until the very end."--School Library Connection A Snake Falls to Earth is a breathtaking work of Indigenous futurism. Darcie Little Badger draws on traditional Lipan Apache storytelling structure to weave another unforgettable tale of monsters, magic, and family. It is not to be missed. Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She's always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories. Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he's been cast from home. He's found a new one on the banks of the bottomless lake. Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli's best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven't been in centuries. And there are some who will kill to keep them apart.
Turning Adversity to Advantage by
Turning Adversity to Advantage is the story of the Lipan Apaches, who are now one of the forgotten Indian tribes of Texas and northern Mexico, yet they were once one of the largest and most aggressive tribes of the Rio Grande region. They were as much a part of the landscape as mesquite trees or cactus and proved just as deadly to their enemies as the rattlesnakes coiled among the rocks. Modern borderland residents are left with only a few vague rumors of their past presence and even scholars fail to credit the tribe's impact on the history of the region. The historical record is replete with examples of what the Lipans did; now it is time to discover the why. The story of the history of the Lipan Apaches is a tale of survival and preservation in the face of incredible challenges. Time and again, the Lipan Apaches were able to overcome obstacles and turn them to the tribe's advantage.
Chief Cuelgas de Castro ( unknown–1842) was a leading Apache chief in 1821 when Mexico won its independence from Spain. In 1838, he signed the Treaty of Live Oak Point, which formally established and recognized "Peace and Perpetual friendship" between the Republic of Texas and the Lipan people.
Lipans are said to have ridden with the Texas militia and the Rangers, including Chief Flacco (circa. 1790-1850), who led a Lower Lipan band that ranged from east of San Antonio to areas southwest of San Antonio (particularly Medina and Uvalde counties). He was a close associate of Ranger Capt. Jack Hays and Gov. Sam Houston. In 1843, Sam Houston wrote, "The name of Flacco brought joy to all hearts!"
Continue learning about relations between the indigenous peoples of Texas and Mexico in the six-volume set of The Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest 1825-1916, by Dorman H. Winfrey and James M. Day. The Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest 1825-1916: Volumes 1–6, via University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History.
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We also invite you to schedule an appointment to meet one-on-one with a member of our Special Collections & Archives staff. Schedule an on-campus research visit or choose to meet online (video chat).
