Lipan Apache people

**Lipan Apache** are a band of Apache, an Indigenous people of the United States. They lived in the U.S. Southwest and Southern Plains for hundreds of years. About 500 years ago, they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and northern Mexico. They were the easternmost band of Apache in historical times.

Lipan Apache descendants today are enrolled members of the Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico. Other Lipan descendants are enrolled with the Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma and Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, also known as the Kiowa Apache or Plains Apache. Other Lipan Apache descendants live primarily in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona, and northern Mexico.

## Name

The name "Lipán" comes from Spanish. It is the Spanish way of pronouncing the name _Łibaį́ Ndé_ or _Lépai-Ndé_ ("Light Gray People"), which they used to call themselves. The name is related to their own stories of where they came from. The earliest known written record of the Lipan Apache identified this tribe as _Ypandes_. The words meanings are: _lépai,_ which means 'the color gray', and _ndé,_ which means 'the people'. Lipan thus means 'The Light Gray People'. Today, Apaches call themselves themselves as 'the people', which in their language was _Inde_ or _Diné_.

The Lipan Apache people were first called the _Ypandes_. Captain Felipe de Rábago y Terán first wrote the term _Lipanes_ in 1761. The terms _Eastern Apache_ and _Texas Apache_ can also include them as well as the Chiricahua and Mescalero. The Spanish wrote their names as _Achos_, _Chipaines_, _Conejeros_, and _Rio Colorados_ (or _Canadian River Apaches_). The Spanish also wrote that the Tucubante were a band of Lipan Apache.

## Language

The Lipan Apache language belongs to the Southern Athabaskan group of languages. It is similar to the Jicarilla Apache language. In 1981, two elders on the Mescalero Apache Reservation were fluent Lipan speakers. The Lipan Apache people now have programs to teach the language to tribal members.

## Bands

The Lipan Apache came from a combination of several Eastern Apache bands. As a confederacy (group), they came together to defend themselves against the Comanche and their allies. By about 1720, the Comanche drove the Lipan Apache away from the southern Great Plains. By the early 1700s, the Lipan were made up of regional groupings/divisions, which were in turn made of several bands – the Forest Lipan division (Lower Lipan bands), the Plains Lipan division (Upper Lipan bands), and bands who lived mostly 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.
- **Green Mountain band** (_Tsél tátlidshäⁿ_): absorbed later by the High-Beaked Moccasin band, lived in the lower Texas Gulf Plains along the lower Colorado, Guadalupe and Nueces Rivers.
- **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.

### 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.
- **Pulverizing or Rubbing band** (_Tchóⁿ kanäⁿ_): absorbed later by the Little Breech-clout band, lived west of Fort Griffin, Texas, to the western side of the Rio Grande, believed extinct by 1884.
- **Little Breech-clout band (Tchaⁿshka ózhäyeⁿ)**: lived along the lower Pecos River in Texas.
- **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.
- **Prairie Men** (_Kó'l kukä'ⁿ_): known as the _Llaneros_ by the late 1700s, lived west of Ft. Griffin along the upper Colorado and Concho Rivers and ranged to west of the Pecos River.
- **Wild Goose Band** (_Teł kóndahäⁿ_): possibly absorbed by the Prairie Man band in the late 1700s, lived along the upper Colorado River west of Fort Griffin in Texas, were renowned and fierce warriors.
- **North Band** (_Shä-äⁿ_): lived in the mid-1800s in northwestern Texas in territory inhabited by the Kiowa Apache.

**Mexican Lipan bands**

- **Big Water band** (_Kú’ne tsá_): in the mid-1700s, this band broke from their kin (relatives) 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.
- **Painted Wood People** (_Tsésh ke shénde_ or _Tséc kecénde_): lived in Lavón, Coahuila, Mexico, between Zaragosa and Morelos, believed extinct by 1884.

The Spanish considered these groups to be Lipan:

- **Lipiyánes**: a coalition of Lipans, _Nastagés_, and other Lipans who lived along the Pecos, joined together by 1780 under the leadership of _Picax-Ande-Ins-Tinsle_ (Strong Arm), to battle the Comanche’s southern expansion.
- **Natagés** (_Mescal People_): culturally similar to 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.

## History

Confederated eastern Apache bands had a homeland that stretched from the Southern Great Plains to the Gulf of Mexico. Much of this area was in Texas. The Mescalero Apache may have drawn the pictographs at Hueco Tanks, which were made between 1500 and 1879.

### 1500s and 1600s

Ancestors of the Lipan Apache who were living along the Canadian River first met Europeans during the Expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado. Coronado traveled there in 1541 and was still in the region when Diego de Vargas arrived in 1694. Historians believe the Teya Indians of the Texas Panhandle likely merged into the Lipan.

Lipan Apache got horses from the Spanish by 1608 and adopted a nomadic lifestyle. They were excellent horsemen and freely raided settlements. Throughout the 1600s, 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 1620 Pueblo Revolt.

In 1684, Spanish colonists built the Mission San Francisco de los Julimes near Presidio, Texas. At the mission, there were Jumano, Julime, and neighboring tribes. These tribes taught the peyote ceremony to the Tonkawa and Lipan. They then shared it with the Comanches, Mescalero Apaches, and Plains Apaches. In the 1860s, the Spanish wrote that some Lipan Apache lived near the Gulf Coast and adopted the lifestyle of the neighboring Karankawa.

### 1700s

By 1700, Lipan lived across southern Texas and in Coahuila, Mexico. They still lived in agricultural settlements, where they farmed native crops such as pumpkins, corn, and beans, as well as watermelons, which were originally brought from Africa. French explorer Bénard de La Harpe found the Lipan Apache near what is now Latimer County, Oklahoma, in 1719.

Spanish records first mentioned the Lipan in 1718 when they raided Spanish settlements in San Antonio. They often raided Spanish supply trains traveling from Coahuila to San Antonio.

In 1749, two Lipan Apache chiefs and other Apache leaders signed a peace treaty with Spain in San Antonio. It was one of the earliest peace treaties signed in that city. Some Lipan Apache people lived northwest of San Antonio during the mid-1700s.

Spanish colonists built forts and missions near Lipan settlements. 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 peoples in 1759. However, they 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 left the Spanish missions. In the same year, Marquis of Rubí started a policy of killing the Lipan after a 1764 smallpox epidemic had killed many Lipans.

### 1800s

In the early 1800s, Lipan Apache mostly lived in south and west Texas, south of the Colorado River to the Gulf of Mexico and east to the Rio Grande. They were allied with the Tonkawa beginning in tge 1800s. To resist their enemies the Comanche and the Mexicans, the Lipan Apache allied with the Republic of Texas in the 1830s. They served as United States Army Indian Scouts to the Texas Militia during the Texas Revolution of 1835–36.

After it became a state, the State of Texas had many war debts and sold land to make money. The state left almost no land to Native Americans. Texas established the Brazos Reservation in 1854. About 2,000 members of the Caddo, Anadarko, Waco, and Tonkawa tribes lived there. Then the tribes had to move to Indian Territory by 1859.

In 1855, some Lipan Apache joined the Brazos Reservation, but most did not. Some joined the Plains Apache in Oklahoma; others joined the Mescalero in New Mexico, and others fled to Mexico.

In 1869, Mexican soldiers from Monterrey were brought to Zaragosa to kill the Lipan Apache, who were blamed for starting conflict. Chief Magoosh (Lipan, ca. 1830–1900) led his band from Texas and joined the Mescalero Apache on the Mescalero Reservation in 1870. Soldiers attacked many Lipan camps; survivors fled to the Mescaleros in New Mexico. From 1875 to 1876, United States Army soldiers undertook joint military campaigns with the Mexican Army to kill 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.

In 1891, the Lipans negotiated with President of Mexico Porfirio Diaz to preserve the Lipan’s tribal land in Zaragosa. This agreement lasted about 12 years until they were displaced from Zaragosa, after resisting joining the Mexican Army.

### 1900s

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.

### 2000s

Today, Lipan live mostly in northern Mexico and the U.S. Southwest, in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and in urban and rural areas throughout North America (Mexico, United States, and Canada). Lipan Apache descendants are enrolled with the Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico, Tonkawa Tribe in Oklahoma, and the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma.

There are three Lipan Apache communities in Texas whose members are descendants of Lipan Apache. These Texas Lipan communities are:
1. Lipan Apache Band of Texas in Brackettville, Texas in Alice, Texas
1. Lipan Apache Nation of Texas, in San Antonio, Texas
1. Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas in McAllen, Texas

On March 18, 2009, SR 438, titled "Recognizing the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas", was adopted in the Texas Senate, legislative session 81(R). Jointly, on the same day, HR 812 titled "Recognizing the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas" was adopted in the Texas House of Representatives. Although not signed by the Governor or law, these resolutions expressed the views of the Senate and the House in recognizing the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas as "the present-day incarnation of the clans, bands, and divisions historically known as the Lipan Apaches, who have lived in Texas and northern Mexico for 300 years" and commending the people of this Tribe for their contributions to the state.

In August 2014, after nine years of litigation by Robert Soto (Vice-chairman of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas) and other plaintiffs against the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI), the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found that the seizure of 50 eagle feathers during a 2006 Lipan Apache pow wow violated Robert Soto's rights as a "sincere adherent to an American Indian religion" under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993. They concluded that Congress did not specifically aim to safeguard the religious rights solely of federally recognized tribe members. The Court accepted that he was "without dispute an [American] Indian" and a member of the Lipan Apache Tribe acknowledged to have "long historical roots" in Texas and who had a history of "government-to-government" relationships with the Republic of Texas, State of Texas, and the United States. The opinion discussed and was limited only to "Soto's RFRA claim based on his and his tribe's status". They remanded to the lower district court for proceedings consistent with their opinion, and the case was cabined to "Native American co-religionists" (referring to the "religious practices of real Native Americans"). The DOI and the plaintiffs settled the case on June 3, 2016. Through the settlement, the DOI granted lifetime permits to over 400 Native Americans plaintiffs who were not members of federally recognized tribes to "possess, carry, use, wear, give, loan, or exchange among other Indians, without compensation, all federally protected birds, as well as their parts or feathers" for their "Indian religious use", in accordance to "the terms set forth in the DOI's February 5, 1975 'Morton Policy'". The case was officially closed on February 17, 2017.

In 2019, State of Texas 86th Legislature, adopted concurrent resolutions, Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 61 (SCR 61) and House Concurrent Resolution No. 171 (HCR 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" and commended the people of this Tribe for their contributions to the state. Each concurrent resolutions was signed by the Senate, House, and the Governor.

They are members of the National Congress of American Indians as a state-recognized tribe under courts of claims. The Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas is headquartered in McAllen, Texas.

## Population

Ethnographer James Mooney estimated that there were 500 Lipan Apache in 1690. Missionary priest Friar Diego Ximenez estimated that the Lipan Apache population was 5,000 in 1762, 3,000 in 1763, and 4,000 in 1764. In 1778, Spanish military commanders meeting in Monclova, Coahuila, estimated the population of Lipan men to be 5000. By 1820, Mexican government official Juan Padilla estimated that there were 700 Lipans in Texas. Opler and Ray estimated that the Lipan population between 1845-1855 ranged from 500 to 1000. The 1910 census lists 28 Lipan Apache people who were enrolled in federally recognized tribes.

## Chiefs

Below is a list of Lipan Apache chiefs. The years show when they were likely active as chiefs.

- **Bigotes** () (middle of the 1700s): 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.
- **Yolcha**/**Yolcna Pocarropa** ( 1822 –  1828) was Chief of several bands of the Littel Breech-clout band in western Texas, grandson of Poca Ropa. He was allied with Cuelgas de Castro. He moved his band from the lower Pecos River area in West Texas to the Laredo and lower Rio Grande region in late 1820s.
- **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.
- **Flacco** ( 1821 –  1843) was Chief of the High-Beaked Moccasin band east of San Antonio who had a history of aiding Texas Militian units. He was a friend of President of the Republic of Texas Sam Houston.
- **Magoosh** (**Ma’uish**):  1850 – 1900) was Chief of the of 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.

## Related pages

- Apache
- Native Americans
- Plains Indians
- Indigenous people

## 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.

## Other websites

- Lipan Apache Band of Texas, official website
- Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, official website

## Infobox (ethnic group)

- **group**: Lipan Apache
- **population**: 5,000–8,000 (2013).
- **popplace**: United States:
New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas
- **pop1**: Mexico:
 Coahuila
- **langs**: English language, English, Spanish language, Spanish, formerly Lipan Apache language, Lipan Apache
- **related**: other Apache peoples