Native American tribes in Texas are the Native American tribes who are currently based in Texas and the Indigenous peoples of the Americas who historically lived in Texas.
Many individual Native Americans, whose tribes are headquartered in other states, reside in Texas. The Texas Historical Commission by law consulted with the three federally recognized tribes in Texas and as well as 26 other federally recognized tribes headquartered in surrounding states. [1]
In 1986, the state formed the Texas Commission for Indian Affairs, later renamed the Texas Indian Commission, [2] to manage trust lands and assist three federally recognized tribes headquartered in Texas. However, the commission was dissolved in 1989. [3]
Texas has three federally recognized tribes. [1] They have met the seven criteria of an American Indian tribe:
The three federally recognized tribes in Texas are:
These three tribes are served by the Southern Plains Regional Office of the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs located in Anadarko, Oklahoma. [6]
These are three Indian Reservations in Texas:
State-recognized tribes do not have the government-to-government relationship with the United States federal government that federally recognized tribes do. Texas has "no legal mechanism to recognize tribes," as journalists Graham Lee Brewer and Tristan Ahtone wrote. [7] The Texas Commission for Indian Affairs, later Texas Indian Commission, only dealt with the three federally recognized tribes and did not work with any state-recognized tribes before being dissolved in 1989. [2] Texas has no state-recognized tribes. [8]
Several groups have claimed to be state-recognized based on congratulatory resolutions; however, "Resolutions are statements of opinions and, unlike bills, do not have the force of law." [9] For example, the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas were honored in Texas Senate Resolution 438 in 2009 [10] and Texas State Concurrent Resolution 61 [11] and Texas House Concurrent Resolution 171, both in 2019. [12]
Texas Senate Bill 274 to formally recognize the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, introduced in January 2021, died in committee, [13] as did Texas Senate Bill 231 introduced in November 2022. [14] Texas Senate Bill 1479, introduced in March 2023, and Texas House Bill 2005, introduced in February 2023, both to state-recognize the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation also died in committee. [15] [16]
These are some of the tribes that have existed in what is now Texas. Many were forcibly removed to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, in the 19th century, and few to New Mexico or Louisiana. [1] Others no longer exist as tribes but may have living descendants.
Descendants of the tribes with historical ties to Texas that are now headquartered in surrounding states are:
More than 30 organizations claim to represent historic tribes within Texas; however, these groups are unrecognized, meaning they do not meet the minimum criteria of federally recognized tribes [5] and are not state-recognized tribes. [52] Some of these cultural heritage groups form 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.
The Kickapoo people are an Algonquian-speaking Native American and Indigenous Mexican tribe, originating in the region south of the Great Lakes. Today, three federally recognized Kickapoo tribes are in the United States: the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, and the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas. The Oklahoma and Texas bands are politically associated with each other. The Kickapoo in Kansas came from a relocation from southern Missouri in 1832 as a land exchange from their reserve there. Around 3,000 people are enrolled tribal members.
Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States government for the relocation of Native Americans who held original Indian title to their land as an independent nation-state. The concept of an Indian territory was an outcome of the U.S. federal government's 18th- and 19th-century policy of Indian removal. After the American Civil War (1861–1865), the policy of the U.S. government was one of assimilation.
Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people, who have lived in the Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European and African contact, they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and northern Mexico. Historically, they were the easternmost band of Apache.
The Wichita people, or Kitikiti'sh, are a confederation of Southern Plains Native American tribes. Historically they spoke the Wichita language and Kichai language, both Caddoan languages. They are indigenous to Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas.
Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains of North America. While hunting-farming cultures have lived on the Great Plains for centuries prior to European contact, the region is known for the horse cultures that flourished from the 17th century through the late 19th century. Their historic nomadism and armed resistance to domination by the government and military forces of Canada and the United States have made the Plains Indian culture groups an archetype in literature and art for Native Americans everywhere.
The Plains Apache are a small Southern Athabaskan tribe who live on the Southern Plains of North America, in close association with the linguistically unrelated Kiowa Tribe. Today, they are headquartered in Southwestern Oklahoma and are federally recognized as the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma. They mostly live in Comanche and Caddo County, Oklahoma.
The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe who now live in Oklahoma. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct, is a linguistic isolate.
State-recognized tribes in the United States are organizations that identify as Native American tribes or heritage groups that do not meet the criteria for federally recognized Indian tribes but have been recognized by a process established under assorted state government laws for varying purposes or by governor's executive orders. State recognition does not dictate whether or not they are recognized as Native American tribes by continually existing tribal nations.
The Shawnee Tribe is a federally recognized Native American tribe in Oklahoma. Formerly known as the Loyal Shawnee, they are one of three federally recognized Shawnee tribes. The others are the Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.
The Cherokee Nation, formerly known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Old Cherokee Nation who relocated, due to increasing pressure, from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who were forced to relocate on the Trail of Tears. The tribe also includes descendants of Cherokee Freedmen, Absentee Shawnee, and Natchez Nation. As of 2023, over 450,000 people were enrolled in the Cherokee Nation.
The history of Oklahoma refers to the history of the state of Oklahoma and the land that the state now occupies. Areas of Oklahoma east of its panhandle were acquired in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, while the Panhandle was not acquired until the U.S. land acquisitions following the Mexican–American War (1846–1848).
The Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma is the federally recognized Native American tribe of Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache in Oklahoma.
Teyas were a Native American people living near what is now Lubbock, Texas, who first made contact with Europeans was the 1541 Francisco Vásquez de Coronado Expedition.
Oklahoma Tribal Statistical Area is a statistical entity identified and delineated by federally recognized American Indian tribes in Oklahoma as part of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2010 Census and ongoing American Community Survey. Many of these areas are also designated Tribal Jurisdictional Areas, areas within which tribes will provide government services and assert other forms of government authority. They differ from standard reservations, such as the Osage Nation of Oklahoma, in that allotment was broken up and as a consequence their residents are a mix of native and non-native people, with only tribal members subject to the tribal government. At least five of these areas, those of the so-called five civilized tribes of Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole, which cover 43% of the area of the state, are recognized as reservations by federal treaty, and thus not subject to state law or jurisdiction for tribal members.
The Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas is a state-recognized tribe and nonprofit organization in Texas. Members of the tribe descend from the Lipan Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people. The Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas is headquartered in McAllen, Texas.
The Choctaw-Apache Tribe of Ebarb is a state-recognized tribe and nonprofit organization in Louisiana. The members of the tribe are the descendants of Choctaw and Lipan Apache people and are required to prove lineal descent as part of their state-approved membership process. The tribe is based in the towns of Zwolle, Louisiana and Ebarb, Louisiana, both of which are in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, where the group have lived since the early 18th century.
The Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas, Inc., is a cultural heritage organization of individuals who identify as descendants of the Comecrudo people. Also known as the Carrizo people, the Comecrudo were a historic Coahuiltecan tribe who lived in northern Tamaulipas, Mexico, in the 17th to 19th centuries.