2025 Land Acknowledgment for Brownsville

The lower Río Grande Valley was originally home to more than 50 bands of what are collectively referred
to as the “Carrizo Cluster” of the regional Indigenous Coahuiltecan culture. These nearly 10,000 native American souls were joined by other groups displaced by colonial westward expansion, such as the Lipan Apache community near Brownsville called ”La Ranchería El Calabozo” by Spaniards. Many of these bands were massacred while others were absorbed into the mestizo Mexican population near Catholic missions, their descendants still living in the matamoros / Brownsville transnational community established in the late 1700s upon the stolen land of the Carrizo and Lipan Apache People. It is important that we admit that we are holding this ceremony on sovereign ground without the consent of the people who are rightfully its stewards. We must sit in the tension of celebrating amidst the wreckage of their decimation and loss.

And that loss is ongoing. The Carrizo Cluster Still exists. The Esto’k Gna or Comecrudo-Carrizo Tribe of Texas fights daily against the state and federal governments’ refusal to respect their ancestral home. The Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas is doing similar work. Both groups are engaged in the revival of their original languages, customs, and faiths. I urge you to consider supporting these Native nations and others across the state (donation links below, beneath the emblem of each tribe).

Acknowledging their unfathomable loss is one thing. Doing something about it is quite another.