Consultation in the Matter of U.S. Condemnation & Possession of CustomaryLipan Apache Lands in El Calaboz Ranchería

U.S. v. 26 Acres of Land, and Eloisa G. Tamez, et al, 1:08-cv-0351; U.S. v. .41 Acres of Land and Benavides, et al, 1:08-cv-309

Dr. Eloisa García Támez (Lipan Apache)El Calaboz RancheríaLower Rio Grande ValleyTexas-Mexico Border~~~~U.S. Department of Homeland Security,U.S. Customs Border Patrol, U.S. Army Corps EngineersApril 23, 2009

Preparer

Margo Támez (Lipan Apache, Jumano-Apache)Doctoral CandidateAmerican Studies ProgramWashington State University, Pullman, WA

Consultants

Daniel Castro Romero, Jr., (Lipan Apache)M.S.W.Council ChairLipan Apache Band of TexasDenise GilmanClinical ProfessorSchool of Law, University of Texas at AustinDr. Jeffrey SheperdAssistant ProfessorAmerican Indian and Western HistoryDepartment of History, University of Texas at El Paso

Introduction

:The FY08 Omnibus Appropriations Bill (H.R.2764), also known as the ConsolidatedAppropriations Act of 2008,

sponsored by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX), and signed into lawby former President George W. Bush, requires the Secretary of the U.S. Department of HomelandSecurity to consult each affected entity along the U.S.-Mexico border impacted by the fenceconstruction. Native American communities are specified as a group within the scope of those affected,and Congress set forth that the U.S. DHS Secretary must provide consultation "to minimize the impacton the environment, culture, commerce, and quality of life for the communities and residents locatednear" the construction of the fence. The bill provided for consultation prior to fence construction, and forthe Secretary to have discretion over the location of the fence.In the spirit of H.R. 2764 we are seeking direct, face-to-face consultation with representativesfrom the Department of Homeland Security per the stipulations of H.R. 2764 regarding Native Americanpopulations. Federal consultation with Native American populations is crucial to the larger consultationprocess with extant impacted communities because the unique cultural, environmental, and commercialneeds and rights of Indigenous peoples are frequently overlooked in the standard methods of generalconsultation. Such clarification is not viable within the context of a broad consultation process thatfailed to provide adequate time for preparation of concerns, lacked sufficient advertisement, and thatexcluded individuals who did not possess the resources to access public dialogues indicative of theconsultation procedures. Thus, direct, face-to-face consultation would facilitate explanation of the deephistorical and cultural ties between the landowner, Dr. Eloisa Garcia Tamez, and the El CalabozRancheria Community with the specific impacted area. This would objectively demonstrate the negativeand irreversible harm and burden of the construction of the fence as currently planned.

Eloisa García Támez, and nearby land owners also affected by immediate plans to constructborder fencing on their land, (RGV-HRL-5019 1:08-CV-309) are able to demonstrate the importance of consultation on Lipan Apache rights to culture, environment, economic livelihood and way of life in ElCalaboz Ranchería. As well, the impacted community members wish to express their concerns for theprotection of their rights to practice their heritage based upon lineal, genealogical occupation of customary lands pre-dating European immigration into the Americas, and lands titled to them throughSpanish Crown law.

Background

Eloisa García Támez, whose affected land is located in the traditional El Calaboz Ranchería, is alineal and genealogical descendent of Lipan Apache people, who are aboriginal to Texas, Coahuila,Tamaulipas, Chihuahua and New Mexico. Her lineal ties to pre-contact traditional Lipan Apaches

The Library of Congress, Thomas, at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:H.R.02764,(Accessed April 21, 2009).

Jeffrey Sheperd, University of Texas

—

El Paso, Department of History.

recognized in the region are through

her father‘s side, the Garcías. Her lineal ties to the Lipan Apache

Band of Texas are expressed through the admixture of Lipan Apaches with specific allied groups co-existing within Lipan customary territories during the Spanish colonial Vice-Royal period. Land grantand treaty-based Lipan Apache peoples inter-married with settlers and expanded their land holdingsthrough customary Spanish laws. These family ties are inherent in the Cavazos, Esparza, Villareal, andGarza lines, who are families of Dr. Támez, et al. Thus, El Calaboz Ranchería members, who aredirectly descendent from these genealogical and lineal lines, are direct descendents of Lipan Apache andBasque-Spanish, bi-racial Basque-Tlaxcalan, Basque-Huasteca, and bi-ethnic indigenous peoples, whosettled within Lipan Apache customary territories, through Spanish Crown title, established by the 1767Visita General and the conquistador, José de Escandón, who established the colony of NuevoSantander.

Because of her lineage, her age and experience and the fact that she has been able tomaintain possession of a small piece of traditional land, Dr. Támez is considered to be an elder andleader among the Lipan Apache community members living in El Calaboz and the Lower Rio GrandeValley. Her grandmother and grandfather, Andrea Cavazos García and Aniceto García initiated her in atraditional lightning ceremony when Dr. Támez was a young child, only performed by Lipan Apachecustomary groups, and this established her lineal rights to lead among traditional elders in El Calaboz.The Lipan Apaches of El Calaboz Ranchería are a traditional culture founded in aboriginal

traditions and belief systems, which are unique to the region‘s

heterogeneous histories of Indigenous,Spanish, and Anglo cultures. The lands of the affected El Calaboz Ranchería landowners wereconf

irmed by the State of Texas legislature on February 10, 1852. Known as the ―Bourland and Miller Report,‖ the original which is in the General Land Office,

the records show that the affected landscondemned and those remaining in the possession of the impacted families are registered in the TexasGeneral Land Office under the San Pedro de Carricitos Land Grant, #336.

According to anthropologists Morris E. Opler, Verne F. Ray, and Enrique Gilbert-MichaelMaestas, the majority of Lipan Apache lands in the United States have been lost to the Lipans and theirlineal and genealogical descendents. In the final statement to an extensive ethno-historical analysis of documents relating to the Apaches of Texas before and after the American period, Verne F. Raysummarily concluded

, ―the Lipan […] finally lost their tribal lands because they were dispossessed by

action of the United States through overwhelming force and dishonorable tactics, all in the interest of making the Apach

e lands available to white settlers.‖

This statement is a critical framework which hasa penetrating value and currency for the Támez-Benavidez struggles to maintain measures of controlover the cultural, environmental, and economic and quality of life issues on the impacted lands. Whilemost of the communal and traditional lands were taken from the Lipan Apache, some individual Lipan

Lawrence Francis Hill,

José de Escandón and the Founding of Nuevo Santander: A Study in Spanish Colonization

,(Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 1926), 17-20.

Texas General Land Office, Archives and Records Division, ―Guide to Spanish and Mexican Land Grants in South Texas,‖2003. ―336

, Villarreal

, Pedro ―San Pedro de Carricitos‖ 12, 730.

59 acres, Cameron County; Abstract C-26.

Verne F. Ray,

Apache Indians X: Ethnohistorical Analysis of Documents Relating to the Apache Indians of Texas