Gathering Together, We Decide: Archives of Dispossession, Resistance, and Memory in Ndé Homelands

In 2007, the Department of Homeland Security began condemnation proceedings on the property of Dr. Eloisa Tamez, a Lipan Apache (Ndé) professor, veteran, and title holder to land in South Texas deeded to her ancestors under the colonial occupation and rule of King Charles III of Spain in 1761, during a time when Indigenous lands were largely taken and exploited by Spanish colonizers. Crown grants of lands to Indigenous peoples afforded them the opportunity to reclaim Indigenous title and control. The federal government wanted Tamez’s land to build a portion of the ＂border wall＂ on the U.S.-Mexico border. She refused. In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security sued her, but she countersued based on Aboriginal land rights, Indigenous inherent rights, the land grant from Spain, and human rights. This standoff continued for years, until the U.S. government forced Tamez to forfeit land for the wall.

In response, Dr. Eloisa Tamez and her daughter, Dr. Margo Tamez, organized a gathering of Lipan tribal members, activists, lawyers, and allies to meet in El Calaboz, South Texas. This gathering was a response to the appropriation of the Tamez family land, but it also provided an international platform to dispute the militarization of Indigenous territory throughout the U.S.-Mexico bordered lands. The gathering and years of ensuing resistance and activism produced an archive of scholarly analyses, testimonios, artwork, legal briefs, poetry, and other cultural productions.

This unique collection spotlights powerful voices and perspectives from Ndé leaders, Indigenous elders, settler-allies, Native youth, and others associated with the Tamez family, the Ndé defiance, and the larger Indigenous rights movement to document their resistance; expose, confront, and end racism and militarization; and to foreground Indigenous women-led struggles for justice.

Margo Tamez is an associate professor of Indigenous studies in the Community, Culture, and Global Studies Department, and affiliated in the MFA (Poetry) Program at the University of British Columbia in the unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan People.

Cynthia Bejarano is a regents professor of gender and sexuality studies and the College of Arts and Sciences Stan Fulton Endowed Chair at New Mexico State University. Her research and advocacy focus on embodied border experiences with violence at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Jeffrey P. Shepherd is a professor of history at the University of Texas at El Paso. His research and teaching focuses on Indigenous history, environmental history, borderlands history, public history, and extremist movements.