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The Rediscovery of the Tiguas: Federal Recognition and Indianness in the Twentieth Century
Author(s): Jeffrey M. Schulze
Source: The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. 105, No. 1 (Jul., 2001), pp. 14-39
Published by: Texas State Historical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30240306
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The Rediscovery of the Tiguas: Federal Recognition
and Indianness in the Twentieth Century
JEFFREYM. SCHULZE*
N
THE MID--196S,
EL PASO ATTORNEY
TOM DIAMOND
APPROACHED
A
park ranger at Grand Quivira National Monument in New Mexico and
inquired about the "Tiwa" or "Tigua" Pueblo Indians, whose oral tradition held that the location of the monument was their tribe's birthplace.
The ranger replied, "I think you'll find the Tiwas of Ysleta del Sur no
longer exist," to which Diamond responded, "I know, but the Tiwas
don't know they no longer exist."' The residents of the "Barrio de los
Indios" in El Paso, Texas, had only very recently enlisted Diamond to
provide legal representation as the "tribe"fought state-imposed taxation
measures that threatened to dislocate the small community from its
"reservation." Diamond pursued the claim in good faith despite the
commonly held belief that the tribe had long since ceased to exist, and
ultimately found himself embroiled in the Tiguas' struggle for federal
acknowledgment and government protection, an effort that would span
nearly three decades.
When Tom Diamond and the Tiguas undertook the federal acknowledgment process, they did so with little in the way of precedent. In fact,
it was not until 1979 that the federal government had in place a comprehensive list of federally acknowledged tribes, an established set of
criteria for obtaining federal recognition, and a definition of ambiguous terms such as "recognize" and "acknowledge." This development in
federal Indian policy marks the culmination of what attorney William
Quinn Jr. has described as a gradual shift from cognitive to jurisdictional
tribal recognition, or a new emphasis on legal and political existence
*
Jeffrey M. Schulze currently resides in Dallas, Texas, where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in history at
Southern Methodist University. His interests include Native American, U.S.-Mexican borderlands,
and American western history. The author would like to acknowledge the efforts of Sherry L.
Smith, whose careful reading and thoughtful suggestions improved this article beyond measure.
1
"Prepared Statement of Ronald D. Coleman," Hearing Before the Select Committee on Indian
Affairs, U.S. Senate, 83rd Cong., 2nd sess., June 25, 1986, 29.
VOL. CV, No.
1
SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
JULY, 2001
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
16
July
rather than a simple acknowledgment of cultural or ethnic existence.2
Yet as Tom Diamond demonstrated with the Tigua recognition case,
one must prove the latter to obtain the former.
The importance placed upon federal acknowledgment is unique to
Indians among all the nation's ethnic categories. Historian Alexandra
Harmon asserts that "people who profess to be Indians have had to
defend their claim with a frequency and rigor seldom demanded of people in other ethnic or racial classes."3This is particularly apparent in the
context of twentieth-century federal recognition. The descriptive terms
"acknowledge" and "recognize" have the same implications within the
Bureau of Indian Affairs as they do in the State Department when used in
reference to foreign, sovereign nations. While only labels, they imply a significant measure of political power in relations with state and local governments. Federal tribal status also brings important financial, political,
and psychological benefits. Initially, however, Tom Diamond and the
Tiguas had more modest motives for undertaking the recognition process.
It began as an attempt to halt taxation on an already impoverished group,
and perhaps to reclaim a small parcel of tribal land, yet it came to represent much more. It became a battle for political, cultural, and ethnic legitimacy in the eyes of the community of El Paso, the state of Texas, the federal government, and perhaps even within the tribe itself.
This article will examine this complicated story by providing an analysis of the strategies Diamond and the Tiguas employed to obtain formal
recognition, as well as an examination of the broader implications of the
Tigua victory. What exactly was to be gained by state and later federal
recognition of the Tigua Pueblos? How did Diamond and the Tiguas
attempt
to define
"Indianness"
in the 196o0s and again in the 198os?
Finally, did the Tigua case mark a turning point in the history of federal
Indian policy away from termination and toward the late twentieth-century emphasis on recognition, sovereignty, and tribalism?
It is this article's assertion that the Tigua case, while not approaching
the level of national media extravaganza that several subsequent cases
would, had a decisive influence on the direction of federal Indian policy
and Native American law. The Tiguas' success did not go unnoticed in
the legal community or among the nation's Indian groups. While it is
difficult to substantiate Diamond's claim that the Tigua case was directly
2 William W. Quinn Jr., "Federal Acknowledgment
of American Indian Tribes: The Historical
Development of a Legal Concept," AmericanJournal of Legal History, 34, No. 4 (1990), 3333 Alexandra Harmon, Indians in the Making: Ethnic Relations and Indian Identities Around Puget
Sound (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 3. For a discussion of the legal problems
associated with Native American identity, see William T. Hagan, "Full Blood, Mixed Blood,
Generic, and Ersatz: The Problem of Indian Identity," Arizona and the West, 27 (Winter, 1985),
309-326.
2001
The Rediscovery of the Tiguas
17
responsible for the 1978 federal acknowledgment criteria and the subsequent rush for recognition among hundreds of Indian groups all over
the country, a case can be made for the fact that their success set certain
wheels in motion within both Congress and the legal community. Their
victory seems all the more significant when one considers the fact that
only a small handful out of what experts estimated to be more than one
hundred "lost," or unrecognized, tribes received federal recognition
prior to the formulation of the 1978 acknowledgment criteria.4 Widely
publicized or not, Diamond and the Tiguas set a major legal precedent,
one that encouraged hundreds of Indian groups all over the nation to
quickly follow suit and ultimately helped set the stage for a new and
unprecedented era in the history of federal Indian policy.
Native American law has no foundation without the concept of tribal
status. The legal exceptions enjoyed by many Indian groups, such as tax
and gaming law exemptions, could not exist without it. Though local
and state authorities, anthropologists, and all manner of El Pasoans had
long acknowledged the existence of an organized Indian group residing in the El Paso vicinity, the first inquiry as to their status with the federal government did not occur until 1961--more than four hundred
years after the tribe's first documented encounter with European
explorers and almost three hundred years after their arrival in El Paso.
When the city of El Paso, Texas, annexed Ysleta, Texas, on March 15,
1955, local authorities turned their attention to the impoverished
Indians living on the newly established fringes of the city. The annexation meant that Tigua families, who had presumably inhabited Ysleta
for centuries, were now subject to city property taxes amounting to
more than $1oo a year. With an average yearly income of less than $400
per family, the Tiguas were soon in debt to the city. This turn of events
and subsequent public interest prompted El Paso Mayor Ralph
Seitsinger to write to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1961. His letter
voiced his opinion that the Tiguas were entitled to the same rights, privileges, and protections that, by virtue of their ethnicity, other American
4 With Public Law 95-375,
passed in 1978, Congress granted the Pascua Yaqui Indians of
Arizona federally recognized status. For more on the Yaquis, see Edward H. Spicer, The Yaquis: A
Cultural History (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1980) and Mark E. Miller, "The Yaquis
Become American Indians: The Process of Federal Tribal Recognition," Journal of Arizona History,
35 (Summer, 1994), 183-204.
Similarly, Public Law 84-570, passed in 1956, granted the
Lumbees of North Carolina federally recognized status, but with significant restrictions. The act
made the Lumbees ineligible for any and all federal programs available to federally recognized
tribes, reflecting the government's reluctance to assume any new responsibilities in the area of
Indian affairs during this period. See Gerald M. Sider, LumbeeIndian Histories: Race, Ethnicity, and
Indian Identity in the Southern United States (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993). Finally,
Public Law 92-470 formally recognized the Payson Community of Yavapai-Apaches, more commonly known as the Tonto Apaches, as a tribe. The act also authorized the selection of a village
site to serve as their reservation.
18
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Indian tribes enjoyed, and insisted that the federal
action on their behalf.5 The Indian Bureau replied:
July
government
take
As for this Bureau's relationship with the group of Tigua or Tiwa Indians now
living in the city of El Paso, we should like to point out that the Federal
Government has with one exception never assumed responsibility for any Indian
group living in Texas. This is because the Republic of Texas entered the Union
in 1845 as a fully self-governing and responsible state and the Federal
Government has never had any Public Domain lands in Texas nor trust responsibility for Indians living on them. If Congress should see fit to legislate on behalf
of the Tigua band living in El Paso, we would, of course, be glad to give you
every service authorized by the legislature.6
Nevertheless,
many Tiguas maintained that the land on which they
had resided for centuries was part of a Spanish land grant and was
status. Local
exempt from taxation, as this would imply sovereign
authorities consequently began to doubt whether the city could legally
tax the Indians. The question then became: if they did indeed own the
could the
land, what was the nature of that ownership? Furthermore,
claim that they were descendants of the New Mexico Tigua Pueblo tribe
be substantiated in order to lend credence to their land claim? Tom
Diamond volunteered his services in the early 196os after learning of
the tribe's tax problems. He immediately filed for an injunction temporarily barring taxation on "Tigua" land in order to investigate the
the tribe in an
Tiguas' claim and soon found himself representing
formal
The
case
bid
for
quickly became a
unlikely
recognition.'
Tigua
as
learned
that
federal
Diamond
one,
acknowledgment
complicated
and the legal protection it would provide required a substantiation of
not only the Tiguas' land claim, but also their claim to cultural legitimacy, or, in other words, their "Indianness."
Not surprisingly, local authorities initially failed to associate the town
of Ysleta with the Ysleta Grant of 1751.8 King Ferdinand VI of Spain
made this grant, totaling I7,712 acres, to the Indians of Ysleta, along
with similar grants to various other Pueblos in New Mexico. The Spanish
would safeguard
hoped that a permanent and protected landholding
the Indians from threats posed by non-Indian encroachment
and afford
5 Benefits enjoyed by federally recognized tribes typically include federal funding for housing
and economic development, as well as participation in federally sponsored health care and education programs.
H. Minter, "The Tigua Indians at the Pueblo de Ysleta del Sur, El Paso County, Texas,"
6 Alan
West Texas Historical Association Yearbook,45 (1969), 30-31. The "one exception" that the BIA
refers to is the Alabama-Coushatta tribe.
7 Randy Lee Eickhoff, Exiled: The Tigua Indians of Ysleta del Sur (Plano: Republic of Texas Press,
1996), viii.
8
Minter, The Tigua Indians, 34-35-
2001
The Rediscoveryof the Tiguas
19
Pueblo governors some measure of authority and sovereignty.9 Shortly
after acquiring statehood, Texas appointed a commission to visit El Paso
County and investigate the Spanish land grants. Upon recommendation
of the commission,
the state legislature
enacted a series of
Relinquishment Acts between 1854 and 1858 formally recognizing these
grants. The acts confirmed that the town of Ysleta was indeed situated
upon the same land relinquished
by the king of Spain in 1751.10 The
1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the MexicanAmerican War, ensured the protection and continuation of all Spanish
land grants with the United States' agreement to honor all Mexican
and Spanish laws regarding private property. According to an 1849
report prepared by John S. Calhoun, the Indian agent for the territory
of New Mexico, the Ysleta Grant encompassed 46,240 acres. With the
grant confirmed by the 1854-1858 Relinquishment Acts and protected
by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the final step to ensure ownership
was the issuance of a patent title by the state. While the state of Texas
authorized the issuance of the title, its fate is unknown." Furthermore,
it is unlikely that the Indians were even aware of their rights under the
Relinquishment Acts or the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.'2 Taking
advantage of rare press coverage concerning the role of the Tiguas in
Texas's 1935 centennial celebration, tribal Cacique Manuel Ortega
told the El Paso Herald that in addition to a Spanish land grant of "15
square miles," the Spanish government gave the Tiguas what he
described as "all these plains that lie north of the valley." Ortega
lamented that the title to the land had been lost and stated, "Our
neighbors soon learned of the loss, and, denying our ownership, gradually usurped our rights."'3
Establishing the Tiguas' claim to the Ysleta Grant, however, was not the
immediate concern of Diamond, the Tigua tribe, and local authorities on
the eve of the Tigua recognition case. The impoverished Indians living
on the outskirts of El Paso sorely needed protection from city taxation,
and federal acknowledgment appeared to be the only available avenue.
Congress, however, had long been silent on the issue of recognition, so
neither Diamond nor the government had a precise idea of how the
Tiguas should proceed. Utterly lacking in precedent or clear federal
recognition criteria, the foundation of Diamond's case became proving
9 Raymond D. Apodaca, "Founding of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo," typescript,
Southwest Reference Room (El Paso Public Library, El Paso, Texas), 11.
10
Minter, The Tigua Indians, 35-36.
"
Apodaca, "Founding of Ysleta," 12.
12 Minter, The Tigua Indians,
36.
'3 El Paso Herald, Aug. 29, 1935-
March
1991,
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
20
July
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More than three hundred Pueblo Indians, many Tiguas from Isleta, migrated to
El Paso following the 168o Pueblo Revolt, and eventually founded the settlement of Ysleta del Sur on El Paso's outskirts. Note Gran Quivira, birthplace of
the Tiguas according to their oral tradition, to the southeast of Isleta Pueblo.
CourtesyBill Wrightand Texas WesternPress.
Tigua cultural and ethnic continuity from the moment of European contact to the present. Fortunately, the strength of the Tigua case seemed to
be the relative ease of proving such continuity, or the perpetuation of
ancient Pueblo customs and modes of tribal government,
among the
tribe.
Tom
Diamond
and
had
the
Thus,
Tigua
only to
Tiguas essentially
a
Indians
from
their
of
the
formal, comprehensive history
produce
Tigua
of
the
in
Isleta
Pueblo
New
Mexico
to
their
movement
down
occupation
the Rio Grande and residence there for centuries.
The story of the Tiguas' trek down the Rio Grande to El Paso began
with the arrival of Fray Francisco de Ayeta and newly appointed governor Don Antonio de Otermin in Isleta, New Mexico, in 1677 for missionary purposes."4 Following the Pueblo Revolt of 168o, which erupted
largely because of Spanish religious oppression of the Pueblo Indians
14 Russell L. Hawkins, "Fray Francisco de Ayeta in the Service of New Mexico,
(M.A. thesis, University of New Mexico, 1962), 30.
1673-1683"
2001
TheRediscoveryof the Tiguas
21
and claimed the lives of more than three hundred Spanish settlers and
missionaries, the rebellious Indians forced Governor Otermin to abandon Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, and flee to El Paso or face capture. The Spanish took with them some 315 christianized Indians, many
of whom were Tiguas from Isleta.15Why the Tiguas accompanied the
Spanish rather than participate in the revolt is not known. Perhaps they
were not notified of the revolt by Pope, who led the rebel Indians, and
were not prepared to participate. Perhaps they feared Spanish retaliation should the revolt prove unsuccessful. Or perhaps they simply chose
to remain neutral. More recently, when faced with assertions that their
ancestors were either traitors to the Pueblos or prisoners of the Spanish,
some Tiguas explained that they were not happy at Isleta and wanted
land of their own.16
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Tigua settlement at
Ysleta was fast becoming the last vestige of the once thriving Indian population in El Paso. All around El Paso Indians were becoming
"Mexicanized," speaking Spanish almost exclusively and acculturating to
the point that they often abandoned traditional modes of tribal government and sometimes their own community. Ysleta offered the only
refuge for those seeking to maintain some semblance of tribal
existence.17 Periodically throughout their three centuries of residence at
Ysleta, casual observers and anthropologists alike characterized the
Tiguas as having been "thoroughly Mexicanized," pronouncing them to
be "presumably extinct today in a cultural sense."'8When Tom Diamond
began inquiring about the history and status of the tribe in 1965, the
responses were predictable. One university professor wrote to Diamond,
"I have been told by several anthropologists in New Mexico-and by others-that the El Paso group [of Tiguas] was extinct."19Diamond initially
found little evidence to the contrary, aside from the claims of the
Indians themselves. The problem was that while Tigua culture had not
died out, it had changed and, most significantly, been kept hidden from
and perhaps ignored by the surrounding community. In its current form
it had much in common with the dominant Anglo and Hispanic cultures, which led many to conclude that the Tiguas as a distinct culture
no longer existed. This should not be surprising, since it was unrealistic
15 W. W. Newcomb Jr., The Indians of Texas: From Prehistoric to Modern Times (Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1961), 236.
16
Stan Steiner, The Tiguas: The Lost Tribe of City Indians (London: Collier Macmillan
Publishers, 1972), 30.
S7Apodaca, "Founding of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo," 7.
'"Newcomb, Indians of Texas, 24-25.
19Quotation in Steiner, The Tiguas, 18.
22
SouthwesternHistorical Quarterly
July
to expect the remaining Tiguas to emerge from more than four hundred years of European contact culturally unscathed. Rather, Tigua culture in the twentieth century evolved as an amalgamation of ancient
Pueblo tradition and Spanish colonial Catholicism, along with considerable bi-cultural influences owing to the Tiguas' geographic location
within the borderlands region. Further, making a distinct cultural connection between the Tiguas and the nineteen other Pueblos in New
Mexico and Arizona is problematic. Different Pueblo tribes traditionally
maintained separate governments, religious practices, irrigation systems,
and social and economic structures, sharing only defense alliances and
trade relationships.20
In 1965 Diamond was in the early stages of pursuing the Tigua claim
on the advice ofJack Salem, then the director of a local television station.
When Diamond first encountered the Tiguas he admittedly knew very little about Indians or Indian cultures. After visiting the tribe for the first
time, Diamond noted that the first Tiguas he encountered were "very
Indian looking," while another he observed later "could have passed for a
conquistador."2' He witnessed ancient, documented Pueblo customs,
though in considerably modified forms, still being practiced in the home
of the tribal cacique. For example, he spotted a small, makeshift cage in
the front yard that contained a small white rooster, which, as the cacique
later informed Diamond, served as a symbol of authority for the chief.
Diamond stated, "The other Pueblos used a caged eagle in front of the
home of the cacique to indicate that this is the chiefs house. That tradition is no longer practiced anywhere in New Mexico, but it was still being
practiced down here in Ysleta, only the eagle was a big white rooster."22
Inside of the house the cacique had small paper bags hung on nails,
which contained 'Yerba Buena." He informed Diamond that part of his
job as cacique was to provide medical care for tribal members, or, in
other words, to act as medicine man.2"Diamond soon learned that the
Tiguas maintained a very specific tribal government, which, in addition
to a cacique, consisted of a governor, lieutenant governor, war captain,
and several subordinate captains. They also perpetuated many customs
specific to themselves, though not necessarily characteristic of other
Pueblos. One of their oldest customs, and one that typically drew community-wide attention, was the annual Saint Anthony's Day celebration
on June 13. Deriving from Spanish Catholicism yet emphasizing tribal
2 Apodaca, "Founding of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo," 1.
21 Tom Diamond
to Francisco Hernandez, interview, Nov. 11, 1998 (Institute of Oral History,
University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas), 13.
22 Ibid., 15-16.
23 Ibid., 16.
2001
The Rediscovery of the Tiguas
23
dance, the Saint Anthony's Day celebration represented a fusion of two
cultural legacies into something unique, a process that had long typified
Tigua culture.24
These initial encounters convinced Diamond that the case was worth
pursuing further. Thus, in October 1966 Diamond took the first major
step in the fight for Tigua recognition by serving notice to W. W. Wilson,
city tax assessor-collector, and Charlie Terrazas, county tax assessor-collector, on behalf of the Tiguas stating that they "will no longer be responsible for payment of taxes to any local subdivision of government."25
Diamond based their refusal on the fact that the title to the Ysleta Grant
was recognized by the Texas Legislature in 1854 as being held by the
Tiguas, thereby exempting them from any and all tax liability.26
Local authorities were surprisingly cooperative and receptive of the
Tiguas' claim. The following day County AttorneyJack Fant announced his
decision that those who qualified as an "honest-to-goodness member of the
tribe" would be exempt from outstanding and future property taxes. He
further stated, "The County of El Paso most likely would not pursue a
delinquent tax foreclosure suit against the Tiguas if they prove their lineal
descent to the satisfaction of County Tax Collector Charles Terrazas and
myself."As for the question of how to prove lineal and legal descent to the
satisfaction of the tax attorneys, Fant added that birth, baptismal, death,
and family records that trace descent back to 1854 would all suffice for tax
purposes.27 Diamond had just won his first small victory in the fight for
Tigua formal recognition, and he was conveniently positioned to take their
bid to the next level. His term as El Paso County Democratic Chairman
acquainted him with political heavyweights such as Texas Gov. John
Connally, Sen. Ralph Yarborough, and Congressman Richard White. He
admittedly "had the contacts, politically, to get something done."28
Although Diamond and the Tiguas garnered the support of influential
local and state authorities for Tigua recognition relatively easily, it proved
to be only half the battle. On the federal level they had to contend not
only with the absence of formal recognition guidelines and precedents,
but also the troublesome legacy of termination. The termintation measures reflected the federal government's desire to relieve some of the
financial burden of Indian affairs by legislating the gradual withdrawal of
federal benefits and services from certain Indian reservations.
24 Rex E. Gerald, A History of the Tigua Indians of Ysleta del Sur, Texas (New York: Garland
Publishing Inc., 1974), 46.
2 El Paso
Times, Oct. 4, 1966.
26Ibid.
27
28
El Paso Times, Oct. 5, 1966.
Diamond to Hernandez, 23.
24
Southwestern
HistoricalQuarterly
July
After a decade of apparent inactivity in the area of Indian affairs in the
wake of the Indian Reorganization Act, Congress began the 1950s with
this policy, which proved to be an alarming legislative about-face in the
government's relationship with American Indian tribes. Between 1954
and 1962 Congress enacted twelve termination measures aimed at severing trust relationships between the federal government and Indian tribes
in Florida, New York, Texas, and California, as well as individual tribes
such as the Menominee, Klamath, Flathead, Chippewa, Ponca, and
Potawatomie, and continued passing termination legislation until 1962.
Despite the almost universalfailure of the legislation, existing termination measures were not repealed until the Nixon administration, and
even then the concept of restoringa terminated tribe to its previousfedThus, the threat of
erally protected statuswas still foreign to lawmakers.2"
termination loomed large in the minds of American Indians and continued to be a viablepolicy option for lawmakersfor yearsafterward.
Initiallyunawareof this trend in federal Indian policy, Tom Diamond
and the Tiguas undertook the formal recognition process in a climate of
policy turmoil and transition.Diamond quickly discoveredjust how formidable an obstacle the legacy of termination would be. After "voluminous" correspondence with the Bureau of Indian Affairs,it became clear
that he could not count on assistance at the federal level. The BIA
informed him that a tribe needed either a treaty,an executive proclamation, or an act of Congressto qualifyfor BIA trusteeship.When Diamond
informed the BIA that he intended to pursue formal recognition
through one of these means, they replied, "The President no longer
issues executive ordersrecognizingnew tribes. Congressno longer passes
laws recognizing Indian tribes. We don't make treaties with anyone
unless we are at war with them.""30
Nevertheless, Diamond continued to
seek out other options, the most promising of which was the possibilityof
establishing a trust relationshipwith the state of Texas rather than the
federal government, as the state already administered government programs to the recentlyterminatedAlabama-Coushattas.
On the heels of this initial setback, the Tigua case met with another
small victory.In Diamond's attempt to produce a comprehensive history
of the tribe, a 1966 University of Arizona-funded study of the Tiguas
29 Kenneth
R. Philip, "Termination: A Legacy of the New Deal," Western Historical Quarterly, 14
(Apr., 1983), 165. Generally, the termination policy targeted those tribes Congressjudged to be
more or less economically self-sufficient. However, Congress was often mistaken in its assessment of these tribes' economic situations. Many Indians whose tribes underwent termination
quickly lost their land, while many more eventually found themselves on welfare rolls. See also
Clayton R. Koppes, "From New Deal to Termination: Liberalism and Indian Policy, 1933-1953,"
Pacific Historical Review, 46 (Nov., 1977), 544-5553"Diamond to Hernandez, 23.
2001
The Rediscoveryof the Tiguas
25
prepared by anthropologist Nick Houser represented an invaluable contribution. Houser lived among the Tiguas in Ysleta for a short time, seeking not only to establish rapport with the tribe, but also to find out
which Tiguas most closely associated themselves with the tribe. In his
report, Houser began by detailing the experiences of the Tiguas from
the time of the Pueblo Revolt until the eve of the recognition movement. He provided a detailed description of the "Barrio de los Indios"
noting physical evidence of Pueblo influence, such as a "ramada," or
shaded area under which the Tiguas held tribal dances, and a "tusla," or
ceremonial chamber where the Tiguas stored tribal paraphernalia.31
Houser went on to detail the structure of the tribal government, which
included a cacique, or chief, along with a lieutenant cacique, or governor, an alguacil, or sergeant-at-arms, a war chief, and four captains.32
When discussing the issue of tribal identity, he wrote that formal membership required that an individual have at least one Tigua parent and
that they take an active part in tribal affairs. As for the issue of using
blood quantum to determine tribal membership, the Tiguas informed
him that "Tigua blood is stronger than Mexican blood."33
Above all, Houser found it remarkable that the Tiguas had managed to
retain their cultural identity and tribal organization considering their
often dire economic circumstances and extensive intermarriage with not
only other Indian groups but with Mexican Americans as well. He laid
out six traditions and customs that he believed contributed to keeping
the tribe culturally intact, which included the retention of their patron
saint, Saint Anthony, and the "tombe," or tribal drum, both symbols of
tribal unity; their Spanish-imposed system of government; original "Tiwa"
rituals and dances; and kinship ties. Additionally, Houser also pointed
out that discrimination and prejudice from the outside kept the Tiguas
united, especially since collectively "they have had a lot of things taken
away from them, such as their land." Also the fact that the Tiguas experienced no "catastrophic disruption" of the community, such as massacres
or epidemics, had kept the Tigua tribe functioning as a whole.34
In November 1966 the Texas State Historical Survey Committee
acknowledged the accuracy of the anthropological survey Houser prepared. It took the testimony of several experts on American Indian hisDr. Bernard Fontana from the
tory, among them anthropologist
31 Nicholas P. Houser, "A Description and Analysis of the Tiwa Community of Yselta, Texas,"
July 2o, 1966, photocopy of typescript, from the author's personal files, 8. For a published version see "The Tigua Settlement of Ysleta del Sur," The Kiva, 36, No. 2 (1970), 23-3932Ibid., 11.
33 Ibid., 14-15, 21.
34El Paso Times, Aug. 28, 1966.
26
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
July
Arizona State Museum, to convince the TSHSC that the Tiguas were
not culturally extinct, despite the commonly held belief that they had
disbanded, in a political sense, decades ago. The resolution issued by
the committee further stated that the Tiguas were entitled to "recognition, protection, and preservation." John Ben Shepperd, TSHSC president, attempted to explain the earlier oversight, "The Anglos thought
they were Mexicans and the Mexicans knew they were some kind of
Indians, but that was as far as their interest went." He added that the
rediscovery of the Tiguas illustrated their unerring devotion to their
Pueblo ancestors and their compulsion to "cling almost frantically to
their culture."35
Further adding to the momentum of Diamond and the Tiguas'
progress, the Tiguas' bid for recognition also won the endorsement of
the Isleta Pueblos of New Mexico, the tribe most closely associated with
the Ysleta Pueblos. Isleta Pueblo Gov. Andy Ayeta agreed to testify on
behalf of the Tiguas at an April 1967 delegation to Austin headed by
Tom Diamond. In addition to Diamond, Ayeta, and various members of
the Tigua tribe, Georgann Robinson, Osage Nation vice president from
the National Congress of American Indians, also participated in the delegation.36 At the hearing, the Tiguas, led by tribal Cacique Jose Granillo,
performed ceremonial songs and dances before the Texas Commission
for Indian Affairs. While Granillo spoke no English and Isleta Governor
Ayeta spoke no Spanish, Ayeta confirmed that the New Mexico Pueblos
regularly performed identical ceremonial songs to those performed by
the Tiguas. Georgann Robinson testified before the commission that the
National Congress of American Indians had investigated Diamond and
the Tiguas' claim and concluded that they were indeed "true Indians."
The appeal before the commission was a success, and the Tiguas'
request for recognition and trust status was well received, even if only at
the state level.37
A trip to Texas Attorney General Crawford Martin's office while in
Austin proved especially fruitful for Diamond and the Tiguas' case, as it
resulted in their first clear strategy. Though Martin favored the Tiguas'
bid, he informed Diamond that the federal constitution denied states
the right to assume responsibility for Indian groups. Taking the case to
the federal level was unavoidable. Thus, Diamond decided to do bothto "get a bill through the Texas Legislature recognizing the tribe and
agreeing to assume trust responsibility subject to getting a federal bill
through recognizing the tribe and transferring trust responsibility to the
3"El Paso Times, Nov. 23, 1966.
36El Paso Herald-Post, Apr. 10, 1967.
37 El Paso Herald-Post, Apr. 13, 1967.
2001
The Rediscoveryof the Tiguas
27
State of Texas."38This would be an attractive option from the perspective
of the BIA, since "this was the height of termination. They wanted to get
rid of Indians, not create Indians.""39
With the Texas Legislature's agreement to assume the financial burden of an additional trust relationship-the state had managed the Alabama-Coushatta tribe of East Texas
since its termination in 1953-the BIA had nothing to lose by recognizing the Tiguas' claim to legitimacy. Similarly, state trusteeship was the
sensible choice for the Tiguas at that time since the future path of federal Indian policy was uncertain and there was little reason to be optimistic. Although by 1968 termination had fallen out of favor with
Congress, at that time no one openly advocated its reversal.40Still, the
BIA was reluctant, as Diamond's idea was legally unprecedented.
Diamond's political contacts again helped the Tiguas prevail. Using his
"connections" within President Lyndon Johnson's office, Diamond was
able to persuade the White House to "pressure" the BIA into accepting
his proposition.41
On August 1, 1966, the House Committee on Indian Affairs, acting
with "rare speed," accepted the bill to formally recognize the Tigua
Indians of El Paso as an official Indian tribe. Present at the hearing were
Congressman Richard White, Tom Diamond, and three Tiguas, who "sat
solemnly behind Mr. Diamond almost without motion, their cheekbones
and noses painted with red ocher, each wearing a single headdress
feather."42To win favor with the committee, the witnesses, among them
Vine Deloria Jr., then the executive director of the National Congress of
American Indians, stressed the fact that the Tiguas would not seek BIA
assistance if they obtained formal recognition, and that the Texas
Legislature had already set aside $35,000 in emergency relief for the
Tiguas in case the bill passed.43When asked exactly what he wanted from
Congress, tribal Cacique Jose Granillo simply replied, "We need a water
connection at each house."'44
The chairman of the committee moved the bill directly to the Senate
floor, which, according to Diamond, rarely happened, since typically further discussion in executive session followed such a proposal. Before
38 Diamond
to Hernandez, 23-24.
Ibid., 24. While it was not the "height of termination" legislatively speaking, for Congress
passed the bulk of the termination measures in the early 1950s, it was perhaps the height of
Indian resistance to the policy.
40John R. Wunder, Retained by the People: A History of American Indians and the Bill of Rights (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 130.
41 Diamond to Hernandez, 24.
42El Paso Herald-Post, Aug. 1, 1967.
43 Ibid.
44 Diamond to Hernandez, 26-27.
39
28
SouthwesternHistorical Quarterly
July
reaching the Senate floor, however, the Tigua recognition bill ran into
yet another unexpected obstacle. To the surprise of all those involved,
New Mexico Sen. Clinton Anderson halted the bill's progress. After
spending a night discussing the matter with Senator Anderson over a
bottle of whiskey, Senator Yarborough finally persuaded Anderson to
confess why he was holding up the bill's passage. It turned out that the
other Pueblos in New Mexico, not including the Isletas, were pressuring
Anderson to block the recognition of the Tiguas, since many Pueblos
still maintained that the Tiguas had been allies of the Spaniards during
the Pueblo Revolt, and thus still regarded them as traitors. Their sudden
opposition was surprising, since Pueblo representatives had visited the
Tigua village in the early 196o0sin order to validate the Tiguas' claim to
"Indianness" for Yarborough and Diamond. While at Ysleta, Domingo
Montoya, chairman of the All Indian Pueblo Council, and Joe Sando,
the council's secretary, requested a firsthand demonstration of the
Tiguas' Pueblo heritage and culture. The Tiguas then performed several
dances, one of which the visiting Pueblos immediately recognized as a
Tiwa dance known as Ya-hayna. Montoya and Sando were convinced,
and later sent a report to Congress attesting to the fact that the Tiguas
still maintained Pueblo traditions, customs, and dances.45 Nevertheless,
despite the Pueblos' unexpected opposition, Yarborough and Anderson
eventually agreed that a centuries-old tribal grudge was not a sufficient
reason to prevent the Tiguas from receiving sorely needed economic
assistance. The bill went to the Senate floor the next day where it passed
unanimously.46 On April 13, 1968, President Johnson signed Public Law
90-287 recognizing the "Tiwa Indians of Ysleta, Texas" and establishing
a trust relationship with the state of Texas. It further states:
Nothing in this Act shall make such tribe or its members eligible for any services performed by the United States for Indians because of their status as
Indians nor subject the United States to any responsibility, liability, claim, or
demand of any nature to or by such tribe or its members arising out of their status as Indians, and none of the statutesof the United Stateswhich affect Indians
because of their statusas Indiansshall be applicable to the TiwaIndians of Ysleta
del Sur.47
The Texas Indian Commission, established during the 1950osto administer to the newly terminated Alabama-Coushattas, assumed responsibility
for the Tiguas. Though much smaller in scope, the programs the
4 Joe S. Sando, Pueblo Profiles: Cultural Identity Through Centuries of Change (Santa Fe: Clear
Light Publishers, 1998), 87.
46Diamond to Hernandez, 28-29.
47Public Law 9o-287, H.R. 10599, 90oth Cong., 2nd sess., Apr. 12, 1968.
200oo1
The Rediscovery of the Tiguas
29
commission offered were similar in objective to BIA-related programs.
Programs addressed such areas as healthcare, education, and on-reservation economic development. Still, the federal government was vehement
about the fact that the Tiguas were not to receive BIA-related benefits,
services, or appropriations under any condition. Indeed, the story of the
Tigua recognition movement during the 1960os seems to highlight at
every turn the reluctance of the federal government to assume even the
slightest new burden in the area of Indian affairs.
Unfortunately, state trusteeship was not kind to the Tiguas. While state
funding did allow the Tiguas to move from their adobe huts into multiroom, modern homes complete with electricity and running water, vastly
improving the standard of living on the reservation, they still had other
serious, persistent problems that the state did not address. In the early
197os, the Tiguas had a 90 percent high school dropout rate, 50 percent
of the tribe was unemployed, and alcoholism posed an increasing threat.
Diamond and the Tiguas were quick to learn that state human development programs targeting such areas as health care, education, alcohol
and substance abuse treatment, and services to infants, youth, and the
elderly were vastly inferior to federal ones. In fact, tribal governor Miguel
Pedraza described funds for these services as often "nonexistent."48
Further, the Texas Legislature had repeatedly failed to respond to funding requests for reservation economic development in areas such as
tourism, land purchases, and construction.49 Raymond D. Apodaca, executive director of the Texas Indian Commission and spokesman for the
Tigua tribe, described the nature of state appropriations between 1968
and 1980 as "erratic,"adding that although the amounts appeared quite
substantial at times, reservation operations were "buffeted by drastic
changes from one fiscal year to the next," with annual appropriations
"sometimes rising and plunging as much as 300 percent."50The tourist
center and restaurant established on the Tigua reservation with state
funding remained their only source of supplemental income and often
barely broke even.51During those years when state funding proved insufficient, the Tiguas had to rely on the meager funds generated by the
restaurant and tourist center to cover reservation utilities and salaries.52
48 "Prepared Statement of Miguel Pedraza, Governor of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, El Paso,
Texas," Hearing Before the Select Committee on Indian Affairs, U.S. Senate, 83rd Cong., 2nd sess.,
June 25, 1986, ioo.
49ElPaso Times,June 6, 1968.
of Raymond D. Apodaca, Executive
Director, Texas Indian
50 "Prepared Statement
Commission and Spokesman for Ysleta del Sur Pueblo," Hearing Before the Select Committee on
Indian Affairs, 62.
51'El Paso Herald-Post, Mar. 14, 1986.
52El Paso Herald-Post, May 20, 1987.
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
30
July
Put simply, the tribe began to receive less and less assistance as the state
"began to run out of money."53
However, a much more immediate problem soon replaced that previously posed by the state's, and thus the tribe's, financial woes. Their
push for financial recognition would attain a level of urgency perhaps
rivaling that of the state recognition movement in the wake of a controversial decision by Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox. In 1984, Mattox
ruled that under the Equal Rights Amendment
of the Texas
Indian
tribes
from
are
Constitution,
receiving any "special
prohibited
treatment" whatsoever. Mattox concluded that any special consideration
given to the Indians clearly violated the state ERA, and outside claims
that Indian tribes were political, not racial, organizations fell on deaf
ears. Though Mattox directed the decision specifically at the AlabamaCoushattas, the implications for the Tiguas were clear. If the courts
upheld the ruling, the Tiguas could stand to lose all state funding, which
annually
averaged
roughly
$250,000,
and would ultimately
lose their
land without protection from state taxation.54
Obtaining federal acknowledgment, this time with federal trust status
and its inherent benefits, looked like the Tiguas' only option. If left under
state control, the Tiguas potentially faced a collective fate akin to termination, except on a state rather than federal level. The Tiguas were justifiably concerned. However, with the decision to pursue federal acknowledgment, Diamond and the Tiguas faced a much more complicated undertaking than their earlier bid for state trusteeship. Diamond's strategy in
the 1960s had involved little more than consulting anthropologists, enlisting political heavy-hitters, and arousing public sentiment. Much had
changed since the 196os. More and more Indian groups were pursuing
similar claims, and the federal government had responded by attempting
to regulate and standardize the acknowledgment process through the
establishment of the 1978 acknowledgment procedures.55The chief goal
of the procedures was to provide a sort of checklist for the newly established petitioning process, thus providing unrecognized Indian groups
53 Diamond to Hernandez, 3754E1 Paso Herald-Post, Mar. 14, 1986.
55 Among these groups were the Passamaquoddy and Penobscott Indians, Maine tribes who
had been looking for an avenue through which to pursue land claims and chose federal recognition. The federal government quieted their claims by legislating substantial aid and recompense.
Their claim to Indianness went uncontested since they were generally, or cognitively, recognized
tribes with distinct communities. The question of whether or not the Indian group comprised a
tribe, as opposed to a collection of individuals of Indian biological descent, was not raised until
the Mashpee case of the late 197os. The Mashpee ultimately lost, since officials could find no evidence of an operative tribal government. See Sider, Lumbee Indian Histories, 17-19, and James
Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-CenturyEthography, Literature, and Art (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988), 277-346.
2001
The Rediscoveryof the Tiguas
31
the opportunity to pursue their claims to Indianness in a more systematic and controlled manner.
By the early 198os Congress had firmly established federal acknowledgment guidelines, an apparent advantage for a tribe interested in
obtaining federally recognized status and its inherent benefits. By 1985,
more than i oo Indian groups had filed petitions seeking formal recognition, and the BIA expected to eventually receive more than 150 additional petitions. By 1988, the BIA had approved only eight petitions
from the first hundred applicants.56 The demands of meeting the government's newly-established recognition criteria proved burdensome
and time consuming for many Indian groups, as meeting the criteria
required compiling a substantial amount of ethnohistorical and ethnographic data linking the Indian group's cultural origins and sociopolitical structure to that of a colonial Indian group. Once compiled and submitted, the evidence had to trace descent back to a historically identified
tribe or combination of tribes, show a history of self-government, and
provide proof of continuous tribal or communal relations.5'
Diamond and the Tiguas attempted to avoid the time and expense
required to meet the newly established recognition criteria by petitioning for "restoration" alongside the federally terminated AlabamaCoushattas, who also stood to be affected by Attorney General Mattox's
decision. The Alabama-Coushattas met with very little opposition to
their initial proposal for restoration, submitted jointly with the Tiguas in
the early 198os. They had previously enjoyed federally protected status,
and Congress now favored the restoration process for tribes that had
endured termination. The Tiguas' request for federal protection, however, met with opposition from within both the Bureau of Indian Affairs
and the Texas state government. The BIA's initial statement expressed
reluctance to bestow upon the Tiguas "a Federal status it never had" and
stated that "the issue of recognition would be best resolved by use of the
existing Federal acknowledgment criteria that we use in determining
whether any group should be acknowledged as a federally recognized
tribe."58In other words, the BIA opposed the Tiguas' attempt to attach
themselves to the Alabama-Coushatta restoration bill because the
Tiguas' legal standing prior to their status as wards of the state of Texas
was markedly different than that of the Alabama-Coushattas.
56Bruce G. Miller, "After the F.A.P.: Tribal Organization After Federal Recognition," Journal of
Ethnic Studies, 17, No. 2 (1989), 89.
and the Federal
"In Search of Lost Tribes: Anthropology
7 Susan D. Greenbaum,
Acknowledgment Process," Human Organization, 44 (Winter, 1985), 361, 364of Ross O. Swimmer, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian
58 "Prepared Statement
Affairs," Hearing Before the Select Committeeon Indian Affairs, 49.
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
32
July
The idea of restoration depended on the fact that a federal trust relationship existed in the first place, which meant that the Tiguas technically could not petition under the restoration pretext. Ultimately, however, the BIA made an exception in the Tiguas' case for several reasons.
First, the federal government had already acknowledged the Tiguas with
the 1968 act, if only for the purpose of state trusteeship. Despite the fact
that the 1968 act severely limited their rights as a federally acknowledged tribe, the BIA conceded that the Tiguas were indeed formally
recognized in 1968. Additionally, the BIA cited the fact that since 1968
the Tiguas had carried on a trust relationship with the state of Texas
through an Indian affairs commission very similar in nature to what they
would have experienced at the federal level. Finally, the acceptance of
the Tigua Pueblos by "the Federally acknowledged Pueblos of New
Mexico," which lawmakers considered to be "among the most traditional
of Indian tribes," also carried considerable weight in the BIA's decision
to accept the Tiguas' proposal.59
The BIA's acceptance of the Tiguas' bid, however, was not unconditional. Breaking markedly with the past policy of doling out services
based on tribal rolls formulated by the tribes themselves, the BIA for
The BIA
the first time imposed a blood quantum requirement.
designed the requirement, which they fixed at one-eighth degree of
descendancy, not to determine who could or could not be a tribal
member, as the tribes had the option of maintaining their own roster,
but to determine who was eligible for federal services and funding. This
solution addressed their concern of "having to provide services to
increasing numbers of tribal members." They also suggested that
Congress consider measures that would limit the potential service population of tribes that had a newly obtained federally acknowledged status, presumably in anticipation of problems with non-Indians somehow
receiving benefits.60 However, the rigorous nature of the acknowledgment process, which the Tiguas providentially found themselves
exempted from, as well as the extensive review process by the BIA following the submission of a proposal, makes it highly unlikely that a
fraudulent group or member could ever receive federal support services.61 The Tiguas accepted the blood quantum provision, as well as
other minor BIA revisions, and Diamond submitted the petition for
congressional approval. The Tigua and Alabama-Coushatta bill, coauthored by Reps. Ron Coleman and Charles Wilson, passed in the
59Ibid.,
50.
SIbid., 50-51.
61
Greenbaum, "In Search of Lost Tribes," 363.
2 oo 1
The Rediscoveryof the Tiguas
33
House in 1985 on a voice vote with no debate and was awaiting passage
in the Senate in early 1986.62
In March 1986, as the bill remained in limbo, Texas Gov. Mark White
proposed statewide spending cuts amounting to roughly 13 percent in
the wake of falling oil prices. According to Texas Indian Commission
Executive Director Ray Apodaca, the cuts were not feasible without
immediate layoffs on the Tigua reservation. With an administrative staff
of only sixteen employees, a cut in the Tiguas' budget "for all practical
purposes would shoot down the offices of the Tiguas."63White's proposal
served as an alarming reminder of how dire the federal recognition situation was becoming. Apodaca, along with Diamond, Coleman, Tigua
Gov. Miguel Pedraza, All Pueblo Indian Council Chairman Gilbert Pefia,
and Native American Rights Fund attorney Don Miller, appeared before
the Senate Select Committee in June 1986. Each testified before the
committee during a brief session in support of the recognition bill.
Pedraza, on behalf of the Tiguas, asked simply for "the same status as
other American Indian tribes," adding that "Texas is no longer willing to
be our trustee as it assured Congress it would be in 1968."64Don Miller
then pointed out that the recognition bill would "fulfill the central purposes of earlier acts of Congress," the 1968 act in particular, which were
to ensure the survival of the Tigua tribe through the establishment of a
trust relationship with the government. The 1985 bill would simply shift
that relationship from the state to the federal level.65
Each of the witnesses testifying on behalf of the Tiguas stressed their
concern that Attorney General Mattox's decision could have debilitating
effects on the Tigua tribe if the federal government failed to assume trust
responsibility. All echoed Pedraza's sentiment that the Mattox decision,
coupled with the erratic nature of the Tiguas' relationship with the Texas
Indian Commission, suggests that "the status of [Tigua] lands under state
trust is uncertain and the prospects for continuation of state funding in
the future does not look very bright either."66In July 1986, however, a U.S.
District Court in Austin tossed out Mattox's 1983 decision, and firmly
reestablished the trust relationship between the state of Texas and the
Tigua and Alabama-Coushatta tribes. Shortly after the 1983 decision,
Diamond, acting on behalf of all Texas Indians, had requested a summary
judgment that would recognize Indian tribes as political rather than racial
organizations. The court's decision in favor of his summary judgment,
62El Paso Times, Apr. 7, 1986.
63 El Paso Herald-Post, Mar. 3, 1986.
4 Hearing Before the Select Committeeon Indian Affairs, 2 2.
65Ibid., 23.
66"Prepared Statement of Miguel Pedraza," 102.
34
SouthwesternHistorical Quarterly
July
although perhaps a little late in 1986, was at least somewhat encouraging.
Still, Diamond was not convinced that the decision would have a significant impact on relations between the state and its Indians, stating, "We
have no confidence that the Texas Legislature will change its unsympathetic attitude toward the Indian cause."''67
The most formidable obstacle to Tigua federal recognition, however,
proved to be a single politician. Texas State Comptroller Bob Bullock,
according to Diamond, "opposed the bill because he was afraid that the
tribe was going to engage in gaming activities," and insisted that the legislation contain a clause forbidding gambling. 68Diamond described
Bullock as "the first out-and-out opponent" of Tigua recognition, adding,
69There was little danger of
"Why he had this attitude I'll never know."''
gambling spreading to other reservations, since the Alabama-Coushattas
controlled the only other reservation in Texas and had expressed strong
moral objections to gambling.70 Nevertheless, Sen. Phil Gramm refused
to send the bill to the floor of the Senate until it had Bullock's approval.
The El Paso Herald-Postreported that the future of the bill looked "dim."
Gramm's holdup occurred just one week before the Senate was scheduled to adjourn, thus dooming it for the current session.71
Though Diamond felt the gambling prohibition to be a form of "political blackmail," the Senate Select Committee redrafted the bill to include a
provision prohibiting gambling. The Tigua Tribal Council had no objection to this provision, and even went so far as to pass a resolution stating
that the tribe had no interest in bringing gambling to their reservation.
However, the bill in its present form prohibits "gambling where gambling
is prohibited in Texas." Since gambling is not expressly forbidden on any
federally recognized and controlled Indian reservation, this slight rewording left the Tiguas open to reconsider their stance on gambling at any
time. The Senate Select Committee, according to Diamond, "pulled a fast
one" on both Gramm and Bullock, as neither realized that the wording of
the bill had been altered.72
The Tigua and Alabama-Coushatta federal recognition bill passed in
August 1987. Less than two weeks later President Ronald Reagan
signed the bill, formally establishing the federal trust relationship for
the 1,124 Tiguas then on the tribal rolls and finally making the tribe
67El Paso Herald-Post, July 2 5, 1986.
8 Diamond to Hernandez, 38.
to Jeff Schulze, interview, Nov. 15, 1999 (Institute of Oral History, University
69 Tom Diamond
of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas), 1o.
70Diamond to Hernandez, 42.
71El Paso Herald-Post, Oct. 9, 1986.
72 Diamond to Hernandez, 38-39-
2001
The Rediscoveryof the Tiguas
35
eligible for federal appropriations for health services, education, and
highway improvement.73 But perhaps most significantly, the federal
trust relationship insured protection of Tigua land indefinitely. With
the Tigua and Alabama-Coushatta reservations firmly under federal
control, the Texas Legislature agreed to disassemble the Texas Indian
Commission in early 1989.74
On a national level reactions to the Tigua victory were practically
nonexistent, as the case went largely unnoticed outside of El Paso.
Local reactions were mixed. A 1985 El Paso Times editorial stated that
the Tiguas deserved recognition, as they had "come too far to withdraw support." The Tiguas had made significant progress in several
areas, such as tourism and education, and many agreed that "with assistance, the tribe might one day be able to reach the goal it wants: selfsufficiency."''75
Jay Ambrose, on behalf of the El Paso Herald-Post,submitted a letter to the Tigua tribal council expressing full support of
Diamond's and the Tiguas' efforts.76 Though the Tiguas initially
appeared to have community-wide support, immediately following
their victory dissident voices emerged. Author Randy Lee Eickoff in
Exiled: The Tigua Indians of Ysleta del Sur quoted one El Paso resident,
'You can't tell me those people are Indians. Those people down there
were broke and about to lose their homes, until someone decided,
'Hey! Let's pretend to be Indians and take advantage of the government that won't know any better!'"77One could argue that the Tiguas
owe their success to the fact that many of the legal issues surrounding
formal acknowledgment were still unresolved when they first undertook the recognition process. The concept was still relatively foreign to
lawmakers throughout the first half of the twentieth century. In a
sense, then, Diamond simply caught the federal government off guard.
It ultimately proved to be enough that Diamond and the Tiguas' bid
had widespread political support and that the continuous existence of
the Tiguas as a "tribe" could be easily documented. Few groups petitioning for formal acknowledgment in the wake of the Tigua victory
would be so lucky.
Recently Diamond was preparing to deliver a lecture at an Indian law
conference on what he called "the three legs of Indian law," an
approach to formal acknowledgment that he purportedly "learned the
hard way." Diamond laid out the so-called "three legs": familiarity with
73El Paso Herald-Post, Aug. 20, 1987.
74ElPaso Herald-Post, May 31, 1989.
75El Paso Times, May 9, 1985.
76 Hearing Before the Select Committeeon Indian Affairs, 42.
77Eickoff, Exiled, 10o7.
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
36
July
Tigua tribal council meeting in session. Note the presence of Tom Diamond,
seated against the wall to the far left. PhotographbyBill Wright,used withpermission.
Indian law, historical documentation,
and political connections.
in the way of strategy and
he
that
he
had
little
Though
acknowledged
absolutely no precedent to rely on in the 196os, this simple method
proved effective. He is not modest about the implications of the Tiguas'
victory. When queried about what effect the Tigua recognition movement had on Indian law, he stated, "I think the recognition of this tribe
led directly to the federal [acknowledgment] legislation," and added,
"We opened the door to everyone else [seeking recognition] in my opinion."'" It is difficult to gauge the impact of the Tiguas' victory on a
national level, as Diamond made a conscious effort to avoid publicity,
stating, "If you publicize it, you're going to bring out enemies."79
However, it is easy to gauge the impact on the legal community. Other
tribes seeking recognition have contacted Diamond-some
for advice,
others requesting his legal representation. Diamond has with few exceptions avoided embroiling himself in other recognition movements,
describing the task as time-consuming and expensive, while the chances
of success are slim. The Tigua case was a labor of love for Diamond; he
purportedly "didn't get a penny from [the Tigua] tribe for twenty-five
years." The Tiguas, however, continue to represent about half of
78
Diamond to Schulze, 11-12,
79Ibid., 16.
16-17.
The Rediscoveryof the Tiguas
2001
37
Diamond's caseload, and Diamond remains their sole attorney. Thus,
Diamond successfully "created a client.""80
Immediately following the Tiguas' legal victory the National Congress
of American Indians, representing more than one hundred Indian
tribes, honored the tribe and formally welcomed them into the fold of
other acknowledged tribes.81The Tiguas did ultimately decide to bring
gaming to their reservation, which proved to be a controversial decision.
However, the casino arguably affords the Tiguas one of the few opportunities available to a federally acknowledged tribe to insure self-sufficiency and guarantee the right to cultural and political self-determination
no matter the future path of federal Indian relations. When interviewed
in 1993, Tigua Gov. Julian Granillo responded to fears that gaming
could prove detrimental to tribal culture by concluding, "It is either we
become rich, or we stay poor. One of the two."82Perhaps the casino is
best viewed as simply another in a long series of cultural concessions
made in the long-term interests of the tribe as a whole. Tigua culture,
like every culture, is a work in progress, always changing and adapting by
necessity. However, only Indian groups are constantly put in a position
to defend their claims to legitimacy. Many El Paso residents have long
been of the opinion that the Tiguas are little more than "Mestizos with
good lawyers," while Diamond has often been accused of "creating" the
Tiguas.83Currently Congress is considering a bill that would change the
blood quantum requirement to one-sixteenth for the Tiguas. According
to Diamond, "The BIA doesn't like that bill," and for obvious reasons."4A
lower blood quantum level would, in essence, "create" new Indians
among those whose amount of blood dilution under the old standard
made them ineligible for BIA-related benefits and services.
Though at the time contested by many El Paso residents, the Tigua victories in the 196os and 198os were part of a larger, and perhaps
inevitable, trend in the history of federal Indian policy as guided by an
increasingly socially conscious nation. Indian policy in the second half of
the twentieth century sharply contrasts with all earlier policy, with the
exception of the Indian New Deal of the 1930s. Spearheaded by
Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier, the Indian New Deal, with
the Indian Reorganization Act as its centerpiece, more or less introduced
80Ibid., 18.
811 made an attempt to contact the Tigua tribal council to formally request an interview with a
tribal member, but was politely referred to their attorney. Tom Diamond explained that the
Tiguas are somewhat "gun shy" when it comes to granting interviews. Steiner, The Tiguas, 66.
82Bill Wright, The Tiguas: Pueblo Indians of Texas (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1993), 138.
8"Pamela Colloff, "The Blood of the Tiguas," Texas Monthly, 27 (Aug., 1999), 1 16.
84Diamond
to Hernandez,
56.
38
SouthwesternHistorical Quarterly
July
ideas of tribalism and government-sanctioned revivalism into federal discourse.85 While subsequent battles for formal acknowledgment have
reduced the recognition process to a sort of federal criteria checklist,
with a heavy reliance on precedent and the momentum of other successful bids for recognition, the Tigua case was different. The Tiguas have
never taken part in any larger Indian movement. They have throughout
history been seemingly immune to all federal policy initiatives by virtue of
their anonymity. While Diamond and many tribal members are convinced that the Tiguas will maintain their tribal identity and their religious and cultural traditions at all costs, they still suffer accusations that
formal recognition, federal protection, and a profitable casino have had
the collective effect of weakening the cultural ties that united the Tiguas
through three centuries of marginality.
In fact, as early as 1985 Tigua cohesion showed signs of erosion, as
the tribal council decided to cancel the three hundred-year-old tradition
of holding tribal elections on New Year's Eve. Dissident tribal members
disregarded the decision, and went on to elect their own tribal representatives. The disputing factions, however, quickly reached an agreement
and began holding elections on January 18 each year.86More recently,
an intra-tribal dispute resulted in the ousting of, among others, Tigua
War Captain Marty Silvas, who expressed very strong opinions about the
tribe in the wake of sudden wealth from their casino:
Our traditional way of life has disappeared. The elders can't speak their mind,
there is no respect for traditions, people are paid to dance. There was once a
connection between us because we were fighting for a just cause. Now we are
being ruined by greed.87
The fundamental problem here seems to be contrasting conceptions
of Indianness. The formal recognition process often requires petitioning groups to embrace and display their collective Indianness like never
before, and successful groups often find that formally recognized status
has a powerful legitimizing effect on these efforts. Though many accuse
the Tiguas of increasingly neglecting their Pueblo culture in favor of
the much more lucrative "casino culture," the Tiguas remain confident
in their role as the sole arbiters of Tigua authenticity. While Silvas views
modern Tigua culture as somehow less "traditional," other Tiguas may
feel their culture has adapted remarkably well to a dramatic change in
economic
circumstances. Less "traditional" does not necessarily mean
85
Koppes, "From New Deal to Termination," 550-552.
86 El Paso Herald-Post, Mar. 14, 1986.
87
Colloff, "Blood of the Tiguas," 115.
2001
The Rediscovery of the Tiguas
39
less "Tigua." The picture is complicated, however, by the federal government, which imposes its own standard of Tigua authenticity through
the blood quantum requirement. Thus, the tribe decides who is
"Tigua," but it is ultimately the federal government that decides which
individuals get to enjoy the financial benefits of an essentially arbitrary
standard of Indianness.
During the period between the Tigua state and federal recognition
movements, being an Indian became increasingly advantageous considering the improving policy climate and the federal benefits involved.
Indians also increasingly began undertaking a whole host of lucrative,
"nontraditional" business endeavors while claiming exemption from
state regulation, just as the Tiguas did with casino gambling. White conceptions of Indianness, however, crumble in the face of such cultural
expansion and evolution. An Indian group that is dynamic, well-connected, and wealthy ceases to be "Indian" in the eyes of many, since
within the American cultural landscape the popular imagination tends
to conceive of Indian cultures as stagnant, if not "vanishing." It can be
argued that Indian groups have survived for no other reason than their
refusal to conform to these conceptions.88
As for the Tiguas, the declaration that they are on the verge of cultural extinction has been repeated time and time again. Just prior to the
Tigua recognition movement of the 196os, student anthropological linguistJerry Gathings visited the tribe and observed, "I was witnessing the
final days of a moribund culture." A generation later the Tiguas are
turning a tax-free six million-dollar profit, and in the words of tribal
Gov. Victor Mufioz, suddenly "everyone wants to be a Tigua."89
88Clifford, The Predicament of Culture, 284, 309-3
89
10.
Colloff, "Blood of the Tiguas," 1 16 (first quotation),
112 (second quotation).
El Paso attorney Tom Diamond, who has provided legal representation for the
Tiguas for nearly four decades. PhotographcourtesyRandy Lee Eickoff