Supporting Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes
Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes—a Lipan Apache Tribe cemetery in Presidio, Texas.
Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes (Cemetery of the Lipan Neighborhood) is a sacred site to the Lipan Apache Tribe located in Presidio, Texas.
Big Bend Conservation Alliance partnered with the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas and family descendants to obtain a historical marker and have the land, which was owned by the City of Presidio and Presidio County, transferred back to the Lipan Apache Tribe. Today, our partnership continues and we are working on a project to protect the site, which will prevent erosion of the burial mound, create space for reflection, and teach about the area’s Indigenous history.
Protecting the site
Big Bend Conservation Alliance—in partnership with the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas and family descendants of those interred at the cemetery—have just completed a project to protect and preserve the cemetery.
MASS Design Group—an award-winning non-profit architecture and design firm whose mission is to research, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity—was commissioned to create a design for the site. Joseph Kunkel—a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation and the Director of MASS Design Studio’s Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab based in Santa Fe, New Mexico—is the project architect.
The design for Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes aims to instill acknowledgment of and respect for Indigenous presence in the Chihuahuan Desert by creating a place-specific design language that focuses on sacredness, gathering, and landback. The design creates an emotional journey with a path through the site which includes spaces for gathering and reflection. Video, Prescott Trudeau, MASS Design Group.
Video and rendering of the design showing how it protects and delineates the site by separating it from surrounding residential encroachment. Video and image courtesy MASS Design Group.
Aerial rendering of the design. The cemetery has witnessed hundreds of years of violence and erasure; the burial mound was once much larger than what we see today. The design supports the burial mound with a series of concentric gabion walls to prevent erosion and protect the site from further desecration. Image courtesy MASS Design Group.
About Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes
Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes is a sacred site to the Lipan Apache Tribe. It became the final resting place of Lipan Apaches beginning in the 1790s, when the Spanish colonial government named the area an establecimiento de paz (peace settlement). At that time, peace was offered to Apaches who moved to designated settlements close to a Spanish presidio (fort) in an attempt to end a long-standing war. The Lipans who settled here were part of the Little Breech Cloth and the Prairie Grass Bands, two of more than a dozen bands that made up the tribe at the time. Their descendants continue to live in the Big Bend region and the southern Rio Grande Valley on both sides of the US-Mexico border.
In 1880 the US Census referred to this neighborhood as Lipanes. Today the local community knows it as the barrio de los Lipanes (neighborhood of the Lipan). Forty-five graves have been identified within the cemetery with more lying in the outer perimeter.
Lipan Apaches are Southern Athabaskan Native Americans whose traditional territory once spanned from the Southern Great Plains to the Gulf of Mexico. The Lipan Apache Tribe is the southernmost of the ten surviving Apache tribes. Today most Lipans live in Texas. The name Lipan comes from the Athabaskan language phrase, lepa-inde, meaning Light Gray People, which commemorates their ancient journey to Texas from what is now north-central Canada.
Source: This text was authored by the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas and was submitted to the Texas Historical Commission for the historical marker in late 2020.
Press
Texas Monthly, “A Forgotten Burial Site in Presidio Tells the Story of a Disappearing Border History” by Sterry Butcher. July 2021
Marfa Public Radio, “Presidio Works To Preserve a Lipan Apache Cemetery And Tell Its Story” by Annie Rosenthal. August 13, 2021
Big Bend Sentinel, “County halts transferring ownership of Lipan Apache cemetery to historical commission” by Sachi McClendon. September 8, 2021
Big Bend Sentinel, “Push for historical marker at Lipan Apache Cemetery challenges who tells region’s history” by Sachi McClendon. September 22, 2021
Marfa Public Radio, “Presidio County approves plan for handing over historic cemetery to Lipan Apache Tribe” by Travis Bubenik. October 13, 2021
Big Bend Sentinel, “Presidio County moves to transfer ownership of cemetery to Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas” by Sam Karas. October 20, 2021.
Big Bend Sentinel, “Presidio County makes history by transferring ownership of cemetery to the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas” by Sam Karas. November 3, 2021.
CNN, "An Indigenous tribe in Texas is getting its sacred burial ground back” by Harmeet Kaur. November 5, 2021.
Texas Standard, “City of Presidio returns cemetery land to Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas” by Glorie Martinez. November 23, 2021.
Marfa Public Radio, “Lipan Apache tribal members gather in Presidio to celebrate historic land transfer” by Annie Rosenthal. November 30, 2021.
Big Bend Sentinel, “Celebration, reunion as Lipan Apache tribal council travels to Presidio from McAllen for special ceremony” by Sam Karas. December 1, 2021.
Big Bend Sentinel, “3-D modeling, ground penetrating radar to inform improvements at Lipan Cemetery” by Sam Karas. January 13, 2022.
Big Bend Sentinel, “Portraits from the Big Bend: Nakaya Flotte, advocate and student of traditional Lipan Apache culture” by Mary Cantrell. June 15, 2022
Marfa Public Radio, ““A sacred space”: Architects and tribal community share a plan to protect Presidio’s Lipan Apache cemetery” by Annie Rosenthal. October 20, 2022.
Marfa Public Radio, ““Un espacio digno”: Los arquitectos y la comunidad tribal comparten su plan para proteger el cementerio Lipan Apache de Presidio” by Annie Rosenthal. October 20, 2022.
Big Bend Sentinel, “City of Presidio approves architectural designs for Lipan Apache Cemetery” by Sam Karas. October 20, 2022.
Marfa Public Radio, “In Presidio, the effort to preserve an Indigenous cemetery is finally complete” by Annie Rosenthal. April 19, 2024.
Supporters
We are deeply grateful for the incredible generosity and support to protect this sacred site by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The project to protect Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes has also been supported by the many individuals who contributed to “Protect the Camposanto” campaign on GoFundMe, and through grants awarded by American Electric Power Foundation, Amerigroup, Cibolo Creek Ranch, City of Presidio, Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, Horizon Foundation, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Presidio Municipal Development District, Texas Historical Foundation, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Still Water Foundation, and Summerlee Foundation.