The Lipan Apaches

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, coming into conflict with the Comanches. Robinson tracks the Lipans from their earliest interactions with Spaniards and kindred Apache groups through later alliances and to their love-hate relationships with Mexicans, Texas colonists, Texas Rangers, and the US Army.

This book tells the story of the Lipan Apaches, once one of the largest and most aggressive tribes of the Rio Grande region. The story of the history of the Lipan Apaches is a tale of survival and preservation in the face of incredible challenges.

This study of one of the least known Apache tribes utilizes archival materials to reconstruct Lipan history through numerous threats to their society.

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.

This study of one of the least known Apache tribes utilizes archival materials to reconstruct Lipan history through numerous threats to their society.

Lipan Apache are Southern Athabaskan (Apachean) Native Americans whose traditional territory included present-day Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas, prior to the 17th century. Present-day Lipan live mostly throughout the U.S. Southwest, in Texas, New Mexico, and the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, as well as with the Mescalero tribe on the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico; some currently live in urban and rural areas throughout North America (Mexico, United States, and Canada). “The myths and tales of this volume are of particular significance, perhaps, because they have reference to a tribe about which there is almost no published ethnographic material. The Lipan Apache were scattered and all but annihilated on the eve of the Southwestern reservation period. The survivors found refuge with other groups, and, except for a brief notice by Gatshet, they have been overlooked or neglected while investigations of numerically larger peoples have proceeded. “It is gratifying, therefore, to be able to present a fairly full collection of Lipan folklore, and to be in a position to report that this collection does much to illuminate the relations of Southern Athabaskan-speaking tribes and the movements of aboriginal populations in the American Southwest. “The myths and tales of this volume were recorded during the summer of 1935.”—Claremont Colleges

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. ø 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. ø 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.

Cochise. Geronimo. Apache Indians known to generations of readers, moviegoers, and children playing soldier. They enter importantly into this colorful and complex history of the Apache tribes in the American Southwest. Frank C. Lockwood was a pioneer in describing the origins and culture of a proud and fierce people and their relations with the Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans. Here, too, is a complete picture of the Apache wars with the U.S. Army between 1850 and 1886 and the government's dealings with them. When The Apache Indians was first published in 1938, Oliver La Farge called it "the best study we have of . . . the military campaigns." Dan L. Thrapp, noted historian of the Apache wars, has written a foreword for this Bison Book edition.