Quarai Pueblo and Mission, Torrence County

This page has some information about current tribal groups tthat are not federally recognized and communities that once had a strong presence in New Mexico but have been disbanded, destroyed, or displaced. This includes:

  • Sovereign Nation of the Chiricahua Apache Band

  • Ciyamungue

  • Genizaros

  • Jumanos

  • Opata

  • Piro & Tompiro

    • Piro/Manso/Towa Indian Tribe of the Pueblo of San Juan Guadalupe

    • Senecu del Sur

  • Tlaxcalans

These tribes have profile pages:

Chiricahua

This is a group in Sierra County that has filed as a nonprofit with the New Mexico Secretary of State multiple times, each time with a different name. They are currently named the Sovereign Nation of the Chiricahua Apache Band. They have also gone by the names:

  • Chiricahua Apache National Foundation

  • Chihene Nde Warm Springs Band of Chiricahua Apache

  • Chiricahua Apache National Order Mission and Alliance

  • Ojo Caliente Chiricahua Apache Band

  • Ojo Caliente Tcihene Chiricahua Apache Band

  • Ojo Caliente Tcihene Chiricahua Band of New Mexico

  • Chiricahua Apache Alliance

  • Chiricahua Apache Nation.

Sierra County

This group is distinct from the Fort Sill Apache, a federally recognized tribe that includes Chiricahua and White Springs Apache. This group have never petitioned the BIA for federal recognition. Their website does not list any in formation about their heritage or history.

Cuyamungue

The Cuyamungué Indians were of the Tewa language group. Cuyamungué is located approximately fifteen miles north of Santa Fe - northeast of Tesuque Pueblo. The Pueblo was situated higher up the Sangre de Cristo foothills, with an outcropping that allows a clear view south through the Rio Grande Valley. 

Very little is written about this tribe. There is reference to de Vargas killing eleven Tewa people at Cuyamungué in 1694. Cuyamungue was also described as highly involved in the Pueblo Revolt, working alongside Tesuque. The Cuyamungué Land Grant of 1872 notes the pueblo as being extinct. An archaeological excavation was done in 1952.

Santa Fe County

Genizaros

Genízaros are the descendants of enslaved Native Americans. They were a mix of Spaniards, Apaches, Navajos, Kiowas, Pawnees, Utes and Wichitas. Many lived in Abiquiu. Descriptions of the Genizaro often do not call them slaves or descendents of slaves, even though they were forced to do labor and they endured physical abuse and sexual assault. Instead the Spanish said the Genizaros “lost their tribal affiliation through warfare and captivity.”

Rio Arriba County

Jumanos

Jumanos were a tribe or several tribes, who inhabited a large area of western Texas, southeastern New Mexico, and northern Mexico. They lived in the Big Bend area in the mountain and basin region. Variant spellings of the name attested in Spanish documents include Jumana, Xumana, Humana, Umana, Xoman, and Sumana.

Spanish records from the 16th to the 18th centuries frequently refer to the Jumano Indians, and the French mentioned them as present in areas in eastern Texas, as well. During the last decades of the 17th century, they were noted as traders and political leaders in the Southwest. Contemporary scholars are uncertain whether the Jumano were a single people organized into discrete bands, or whether the Spanish used Jumano as a generic term to refer to several different groups, as the references spanned peoples across a large geographic area.

More info

Opata

The Opata live in the mountainous northeast and central part of the state of Sonora, Mexico. Anthropologists believe that the Opata started settling the river valleys of the deserts of modern-day Sonora and parts of the modern-day states of Arizona and New Mexico around 1300 AD.

Piro & Tompiro

Socorro County

The Piro were once one of the principal tribes of New Mexico, which, in the early part of the 17th century, comprised two divisions, one inhabiting the Rio Grande Valley in Socorro County. The other division, sometimes called Tompiro and Salinero, occupied an area east of the Rio Grande in the Salinas region, where they adjoined the eastern group of Tigua settlements on the south.

In June 1598, Oñate led a group of Spanish settlers through the Jornada del Muerto, an inhospitable patch of desert that ends just south of the present-day city of Socorro. As the Spaniards emerged from the desert, Piro Indians of the pueblo of Teypana gave the Spaniards food and water. Therefore, the Spaniards renamed this pueblo Socorro, which means “help” or “aid”. Later, the name “Socorro” would be applied to the nearby Piro pueblo of Pilabó.

Click to expand

In June 1598, Oñate led a group of Spanish settlers through the Jornada del Muerto, an inhospitable patch of desert that ends just south of the present-day city of Socorro. As the Spaniards emerged from the desert, Piro Indians of the pueblo of Teypana gave the Spaniards food and water. Therefore, the Spaniards renamed this pueblo Socorro, which means “help” or “aid”. Later, the name “Socorro” would be applied to the nearby Piro pueblo of Pilabó.

In 1601, Oñate, retaliated for the killing of two Spaniards by sending Spanish troops to destroy 3 villages in the Sandia Mountains. According to one Spanish account, 900 Tompiro Indians were killed.

They lived in several adobe villages east of the Rio Grande Valley in the Salinas region of New Mexico. Weakened by drought and disease and fractured by religious disputes, the Tompiros were also the closest and most vulnerable of the Pueblos to Apache raiders. The diminished Tompiros began to abandon their settlements to take refuge among their Piro relatives at Isleta Pueblo. Within a few years the Salinas Pueblos were all abandoned and the Tompiros had ceased to exist as a distinct people.

Doña Ana County

Piro / Manso / Tiwa Indian Tribe of the Pueblo of San Juan Guadalupe

This group has submitted a petition for federal recogniztion, which is still in process at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They constitute the only organized Piro and Manso Indian group remaining in the United States. Their ancestors are from the Piro Pueblos of Abo, Senecu, Gran Quivera, Tabira, Socorro, Alamillo and Sevilleta in central New Mexico.

Senecú del Sur, located near of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, was founded in 1682 by Piro Indians from Senecú, New Mexico, who fled south along with the Spanish after the Pueblo Revolt.

Senecú del Sur

Senecú del Sur (also called San Antonio de Senecu) is located near Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua, Mexico. It was founded in 1682 by Piro Indians from Senecú, New Mexico. They fled south with the Spanish after the Pueblo Revolt. They established their new pueblo downriver from Guadalupe del Paso and a little northwest of the Tigua Indians of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo.

Juarez, Mexico

Yselta del Sur

Ysleta del Sur is recognized by the All Pueblos Council. Learn about them on their profile page.

El Paso, Texas

Santa Fe County

Tlaxcalans / Tlaxcaltecs

The Tlaxcaltecs are a Nahua people who were from central and southern Mexico. They lived in the southern Mexican state of Tlaxcala and they were long-time enemies of the Aztec. The Tlaxcalans were allies of the Spanish. They furnished Cortez thousands of warriors to augment his small army of soldiers. They were instrumental in overthrowing the Aztec Empire and they frequently supported the Spaniards excursions into New Mexico. Because of their support in the Spanish conquest, the Tlaxcaltecs enjoyed exclusive privileges among the indigenous peoples of Mexico, including the right to carry guns, ride horses, hold noble titles, and to rule their settlements autonomously. This privileged treatment ensured Tlaxcallan loyalty to Spain over the centuries, even during the Mexican War of Independence.

In the late 1500s, many Tlaxcalans were recruited to colonize the northern frontier. No formal settlement of Tlaxcalans was established in New Mexico by the government, but many found their way into the province as servants of Spanish officials or as free laborers. The Tlaxcalans congregated in their own neighborhood in Santa Fe. It was (and is still) called the Barrio de Analco. “Analco” was a Nahuatl word that meant “on the other side of the river.” The barrio sits on the south side of the Rio de Santa Fe, while the north side was occupied by the Spanish settlers (at the Plaza and Palace of the Governors). Friars built San Miguel Chapel for the Tlaxcaltecs on what is now Gudalupe Street and Agua Fria.

They fled Santa Fe due to the Pueblo Revolt, but several returned with de Vargas and rebuilt the church.

Currently there is an open application for federal recognition from Tlaxcalteca Nation and Affiliated Tribes (based in Texas).