About the Texas Apache Indians
The Texas Apache Indians were a nomadic tribe that dominated the western part of the state for centuries. Among the first Native Americans to make use of the horse, the Texas Apache were able to follow buffalo herds across large ranges and war with other tribes and the Spanish more effectively. Of the different bands of Apache Indians, the two most significant to Texas history are the Lipans and the Mescaleros.
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History of
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The Texas Apache Indians were actually a southern branch of the Athabascan group of Indians that was pushed south by enemy tribes. The Lipan and Mescalero were the two primary groups of Apache to settle in Texas. When the Spanish arrived in Texas, the Texas Apache Indians attacked missions and outposts in hopes of driving off the foreign settlers. As the strength of the Comanche Indians in north and central Texas grew, the Apache became their primary target of aggression, leaving the Texas Apache Indians devastated--a mere shadow of their former might. As a result, the Texas Apache Indians made peace with the Spanish in 1749, but the relationship remained rocky. The Apache befriended Anglo settlers to Texas in hopes that the whites could help them against the Comanche, but by the 1840s the relationship between the groups became strained. The Lipan Apache then left Texas to join the Mescaleros in Mexico, where they jointly conducted raids on south Texas for decades. In the 1870s the U.S. Army killed or imprisoned virtually all of the remaining Lipan Apache in Mexico, with survivors sent to the Mescalero reservation in New Mexico.
Features
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The Texas Apache Indians were unique in the fact that they were a nomadic tribe that subsisted primarily off of the buffalo and its by-products but also planted crops like maize, pumpkins and beans. This farming helped to improve their diet and ensure supplemental food sources, but it also made the Texas Apache Indians susceptible to attack by the Comanche during planting and harvesting when they could not leave their land.
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Identification
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While many Native American tribes were made up of smaller groups or bands, the band identification of the Texas Apache Indians took precedence over their unity as a tribe. Apache bands consisted of extended families led by their most distinguished clansman, but the Lipan Apache of Texas had no formal governing structure on the tribal level. This caused problems for the Texas Apache Indians in their interactions with other tribes and European settlers because some bands might decide to war with their enemies while other bands of the same Apache tribe might be at peace with that "enemy" and vice versa. This primary association with the small band or familial unit instead of the tribe as a whole played a major role in the decimation of the Texas Apache Indians by the Comanche and settlers to the region.
Evolution
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The Texas Apache Indians evolved from the powerful rulers of west Texas to a weak band of few survivors in a short period of time. Over time the Apache were weakened by the continuous onslaught of the Comanche, and the Texas Apache suffered immensely from diseases like smallpox brought by European settlers. By the early 1700s there were roughly 6,000 Apache Indians in Texas, but by the end of the 1800s almost all of the Lipan were dead or forced onto reservations.
Significance
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Once rulers of the vast landscape of west Texas, the Texas Apache Indians were a significant part of the state's history and of the intensity of the Native Americans' plight to protect their lands from settlers. The Texas Apache fought for centuries to protect their lands in Texas from onslaught by the Spanish, the Comanche, the Mexicans and finally the Texans. Surrounded by so many aggressors, the Texas Apache Indians were not able to keep their homeland from their Indian enemies and the settlers, but their plight is symbolic of the Native American consuming desire to maintain their autonomy and territories.
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