Indigenous Peoples On The U.S. – Mexico Border

Main Points for Discussion

View the Texas, U.S. and A.P. History Standards from the perspectives of Indigenous peoples

Standard chronological periods have different implications for Native Peoples

Terms such as: citizenship, progress, settler, assimilation, equality, etc. have different meanings for Native Peoples

The “Indian Wars” of the 19th century did not end tribal culture or history

“The West” and “The Border” were/are foreign concepts for Indigenous Peoples

Issues to Consider

Cultural Survival and Adaptation Syncretism Case Studies as examples of persistence Critical thinking in history Preparation for citizenship and/or cultural

awareness Embrace contending views on the past Historical roots for contemporary debates Stereotypical Images of Indians and diversity of

Indigenous cultures

Historiography

Indians as obstacles to progress & expansion Indians as doomed to disappear or assimilate Indians as passive victims of whites Indians as complex actors and agents of historical

change Indigenous histories, cultures, and worldviews Indigenous Nations as sovereign entities Native languages & oral history

Conquest

“Cycles of Conquest” Spanish, British, French, American Biological Imperialism

– Plants, food, disease, animals Distortion of Indigenous institutions Encapsulation of populations Divide and conquer Multiple alliances, allegiances, and complex

reactions “Ethnogenesis”

Spanish Borderlands

Ethnic Cleansing and Indian Wars

U.S. Indian Removal Act of 1830 relocated tribes west of the Mississippi River and placed them in Indian Territory

Manifest Destiny, post U.S.-Mexico War & nation building Gold Rush and California Indian Law of 1850 Texas, New Mexico, Arizona Treaties as a recognition of independence AND a tool of

conquest and land acquisition Ethnic Cleansing in Texas and Wars against the Apaches

and Comanches Fled into Mexico or chose status as “Mexican” to gain

citizenship and hide ethnic identity Mexico did not legally recognize a distinct race of Native

People: all declared citizens. No reservations held in trust by federal government

On and Off Reservations

Policy of concentration on reservations Colonialism: control by the Indian Bureau Assimilation = cultural genocide

– Land, language, religion, children, families

Many people refused to live on reservations Some had treaties, others did not Oklahoma had most tribes from Texas Statehood included the erasure of Native lands

Twentieth Century

Fluctuations in degree of control by Bureau of Indian Affairs– 1887-1934; 1934-1942; 1942-1970s; 1975-Present

Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 Multi-tribal organizations for independence and sovereignty

– National Congress of American Indians (1944)– American Indian Movement (1968)– Native American Rights Fund (1970)

Control over natural and cultural resources Limited sovereignty and independence Conflicts with states over jurisdiction, casinos, etc. Contemporary Issues and concerns:

– Membership, economic development, health care, education, youth drug use, language retention, sacred sites

Cultural Adaptation and Persistence

Culture is not a static structure or entity Indigenous groups impacted each other and changed each

other The “traditional culture” that non-Indians ascribed to

Indigenous peoples was not a baseline or starting point of their culture—it constantly changed—if only slightly

Ongoing change and continuity in cultural characteristics, beliefs, values, etc.

Culture defined by meaning in symbols, actions, performance, and relationships that transcend outward appearance

Land and geography, religion, language, family, economies perpetuate cultural identities

Kickapoo

History of movement and profound sense of expansive space

Algonquian Language Migrations from the Great Lakes Treaties, relocation and removal Splinter bands into Texas and Mexico: El

Nacimiento and Eagle Pass Treaties and reservation in Texas A federally recognized tribe, 1983 Land held in trust, semi-sovereign Unique status of tribal lands in Texas

Eagle Pass, Kickapoo Reservation

Kickapoo, Oklahoma

Kickapoo Women

Tonkawas

Central Texas Allied with Texans during Independence, Texas guaranteed

them land in 1860s 1870s revoked the agreement and relocated them to

Oklahoma 1960s and 1970s began campaign to reclaim lands in

central Texas The Tonkawa President, Virginia Combrink, “The state of

Texas still owes us,” she said. “We just want our land.” U.S. District Court Judge ruled against them in 1994,

stating that their land had been converted to public land, which the state of Texas sold in the 1870s to pay off debts.

Lino Sánchez y Tapia, in Jean Louis Berlandier, The Indians of Texas in 1830 (1969). Texas Collection Library

Jumanos

Debatable origins of Jumanos and complex relationship with Apache, Pueblos, Kiowa, Comanche

– Possibly Uto-Aztecan language family– Possibly related to Manso, Suma, Concho, Jano

Highly mobile peoples Incorporated into, and borrowed from,

surrounding tribes and ethnic groups West Texas, Northern Chihuahua, Southern New

Mexico Some were “detribalized” and incorporated into

surrounding Mexican ethnic community

Jumanos Today

Redford, Texas Jumano leader Enrique Madrid, recognition

would “help us overcome what we’ve had to live with for 150 years as Americans.”

Jumano member Gabriel Carrasco, “want our identity back.”

Ignacio Menchaca de la Vega, who is in charge of their application for recognition: “If you said you were Native American, if you said you were Jumano Apache, you were a dead Jumano Apache. Simple as that.”

De la Vega added that many Indians tried to “blend in with Mexicans for survival.”

Isleta del Sur (Tiguas)

Northern Pueblos and Spanish Conquest El Paso Region and Mission Spanish Land Grants U.S. and Juarez Land theft and encroachment, laws, taxes Related to Piros in Socorro and Senecu Federal Recognition Casino, blood quantum, relations with the state,

and Jack Abramoff

Land Grant & Reservation

Mescalero Apaches

Southeastern New Mexico, Western Texas, and Northeastern Chihuahua

Athapaskan language group Migratory, horse culture, multiple decentralized bands Trade relations with Mexicans, Pueblos, Americans Hunted by American soldiers, corralled onto Reservations Hundreds in Mexico Mescalero Reservation has multiple bands

– Mescalero, Chiricahua, Lipan Economic Development Wendell Chino

Old Photographs….

New Images

The New Cowboys and Indians

Mescalero Rodeo

Tarahumara

Sierra Madres & Copper Canyon

Resistance to colonization by Spanish & Mexico

Syncretism Cultural Tourism Land Loss and Urbanization Several 1,000 in Cd Juarez Migrations into U.S.

Tohono O’Odham

Also known as the “Pima” (Papago) Agriculturalists and canal builders: descendents

of Hohokam Catholicism and Indigenous views Border cut in half their territory Mexican and U.S. members struggled for triple

citizenship Presently caught in cross-cutting pressures of a

post-9/11 world: immigration, Border Patrol, Homeland Security, Department of Interior

Tohono O’Odham Traditional Lands & Reservation

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo & Gadsden Purchase

Piro-Manso-Tiwa (Tortugas)

Multi-ethnic, multi-tribal group Spanish colonialism and

reduccion, missions, labor systems and 17th & 18th century demographic changes

Piro and Tiwa are descended from Puebloan groups who may have remained in the area after the Pueblo Revolt

Some migrated from Ysleta del Sur in the 19th and 20th century

Piro-Manso-Tiwa

Manso are indigenous to the region– Scant linguistic and historical information– Recognized by the Spanish around El Paso and west to

Las Cruces region By the 19th and 20th centuries, the group lived

beyond the purview of U.S. federal authorities, lacked treaties or other formal recognition

Today the whole group is filing for federal recognition and are high on the list of the Department of Interior

Conclusions and Comments

Contending views on the past Oral history and traditions Student engagement with sources Internet research Student identification with communities Problem solving Cultural awareness and embrace of differences Borders do not always have to separate us Indigenous views on the borderlands