Juan Sabeata
Encyclopedia
Juan Sabeata was a Jumano Indian leader in present day Texas
who tried to forge an alliance with the Spanish
or French
to help his people fend off the encroachments of the Apaches on their territory.
in northern Mexico
. There, he was baptized a Catholic
as an adult and given the Christian name of Juan. When he first came to prominence in 1683 he was a leader of the Jumano Indians and their allies. Sabeata apparently did not speak Spanish well as he communicated through an interpreter.
of 1680, led by Popay, resulted in more than 400 Spanish deaths and their expulsion from New Mexico. The 2,000 survivors retreated to El Paso, Texas
Thus, when a delegation of friendly Indians, headed by Sabeata, came to El Paso in October 1683 the Spanish were welcoming.
Sabeata said that he lived at La Junta, the junction of the Rio Grande and Conchos near the present day town of Presidio, Texas
. He said he had been sent by several Indian nations to request that the Spanish establish Christian missions in their territory. He also requested Spanish aid to the Jumanos and their allies against the depredations of the Apaches. The majority of his tribe, he explained, lived eastward from La Junta and were menaced by the Apache who lived nearby. Sabeata said that the Jumanos had good trade relations with 36 different tribes. Among those he named which can be identified are the Tejas, the Caddo
an tribe that would give the state of Texas its name. Moreover, Sabeata mentioned that "other Spaniards" -- meaning the French—were trading with the Tejas
It was a masterful performance by Sabeata to excite Spanish interest in a potential harvest of souls among the Jumanos and their allies and to create Spanish concern about French encroachments on what they believed was Spanish territory. Sabeata went on to cement the interest of the Spanish by telling of a battle won by the Jumanos because of a cross that descended from heaven to protect them. He sent representatives to measure the church in El Paso, promising to build two similar churches at La Junta.
, probably downstream from present day Pecos, Texas
. Juan Sabeata had gone ahead to prepare the Indians to welcome the Spanish and they did so in grand style, firing several guns, including an arquebus fired by Sabeata himself—in violation of a Spanish prohibition against Indians owning guns.
Sabeata and the Indians then persuaded a reluctant Mendoza to assist them against the Apaches. The expedition, shepherded by large numbers of Indians, continued their march, now moving eastward toward the Concho River
and sending out patrols to look for Apaches. It appears that they saw no Apaches in the flesh, but several horses were stolen during an Apache raid. One of the interesting things in the narrative is that the Jumano owned horses at this time—one of the earlier mentions in the Spanish records of mounted Indians.
Relations between Mendoza and Sabeata deteriorated. On February 19, Mendoza accused Sabeata of lying about the threat posed of the Apaches. At the same time Sabeata had probably become aware that the Spanish were more interested in bison
hunting than fighting Apaches or spreading the gospel of Christianity. Sabeata departed the expedition along with some of the Jumano Indians, although many of the Indians remained with Mendoza. The Spanish and the remaining Indians continued their exploration eastward. Their route seems to have been down the Middle Fork of the Concho past the present day San Angelo, Texas
to the Colorado River
where they camped for almost two months to hunt bison. Their campsite may have been near present day Ballinger, Texas
. During the expedition, the Spanish and their Indian colleagues killed 5,156 bison, the Spanish carefully preserving the skins to sell on their return to New Mexico. The priests baptized hundreds of Indians.
Sabeata's assessment of the threat of the Apaches was apparently accurate, as the Spanish camp was raided on several occasions. A Spanish soldier was wounded and two Indians were killed. Mendoza, however, in his written account accused Sabeata of plotting to kill the Spanish and stated that he was in ill repute with the Indians. However, the opposite would seem to have been true as a grand council of Indian tribes planned by the Spanish never took place. Most of the Indians who accompanied Mendoza seem to have departed and he feared an Apache attack. It was a much depleted group that broke camp in May and returned quickly to New Mexico—along with thousands of valuable bison skins.
, Sabeata turned to the French. La Salle
had just established a colony in eastern Texas and in 1686 a Jumano leader, probably Sabeata, met with the French, declared himself an enemy of the Spanish, and requested French assistance against the Apache. The failure of the La Salle mission precluded this request from being granted.
Sabeata's activities included trading. With contacts both in the Indian and Spanish world, he and the Jumanos were intermediaries, bringing Spanish goods to Indians in eastern Texas, and exchanging them for Indian products, mostly buffalo hides. There were well-organized trade fairs all over Texas which no doubt pre-dated the Spanish.
In 1688, the wide-ranging traveler was back at La Junta. He was appointed a governor of the Indians there by the Spanish, his altercations with Mendoza apparently forgotten. A Captain Retana was ordered to collect a force of 90 Spanish harquebusiers and Indian allies and expel the French from east Texas. Sabeata was ordered to collect the Indian allies and await the arrival of the Spanish force at La Junta. With customary independence, however, Sabeata departed La Junta, carried out his own reconnaissance, and was able to report to Retana that the French settlement in eastern Texas had been destroyed by Indians and most of the French killed, only eight or nine survivors living among the Tejas.
Sabeata appears again in the Spanish records in 1690 when a Spanish priest working in newly-established Spanish mission among the Hasinai (Caddo) in east Texas asked him to carry a letter to Spanish authorities in El Paso and a year later he carried two more letters to the Governor of Coahuila
. The letters requested that soldiers be assigned to the missions to protect them from the French.
It appears that Sabeata, the Jumanos, and other Indian tribes now spent the winters living on the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas
and summers hunting buffalo in the Texas Hill Country near the Guadalupe River
, apparently pushed out of their homeland along the Concho River further north. Sabeata also apparently made frequent visits to Spanish authorities in El Paso and Parral.
In 1691, a Spanish expedition visited an encampment, estimated to number 3,000, of Jumanos and other tribes on the Guadalupe River. Sabeata organized a welcome that included a procession featuring a wooden cross (presumably the same that had descended from Heaven to assist the Jumanos in a battle with the Apaches a decade earlier). The chief of the Cibola tribe and his people displayed an image of the Our Lady of Guadalupe and the chef of the Catqueasa, who spoke good Spanish, kissed the hand of the Priest in Catholic fashion. It was "a splendid show of piety and devotion" and Sabeata followed up with a request once again that a Spanish mission be established among his people. The Spanish demurred saying the Jumano visited Spanish settlements yearly and had no need of missions among them. The Spanish detected an undercurrent of hostility among the Indians and declined to remain encamped with them.
In 1692, Sabeata organized a campaign against the Chisos Indians who had attacked the Indians at La Junta. This is the last notice of him in the Spanish records. He may have died or been killed in 1692 or 1693.
Much of what we know about the Texas Indians during this time comes from Sabeata filtered through the lens of the Spanish. He is known to have crisscrossed Texas on at least eight occasions and to have made numerous visits to El Paso, Parral, and other Spanish settlements in Texas and Mexico. He was accepted not only as a leader of the Jumanos, but also as a spokesman for the numerous Tonkawa
, Caddoan, and Coahuiltecan
bands and tribes that inhabited southern and central Texas. With the disappearance of Sabeata from the historical record in 1692, the Jumanos also soon disappeared as an independent tribe. In 1716, the Jumanos again appear in the Spanish records, but as allies of the former enemies, the Apaches, and in 1771 comes the last mention of them as an independent people.
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
who tried to forge an alliance with the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
or French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to help his people fend off the encroachments of the Apaches on their territory.
Life
Sabeata (also written Xaviata) was born after 1640 at Las Humanas, the Tompiro Pueblo now called Gran Quivira. Sabeata later made his way to the city of ParralParral, Chihuahua
Hidalgo del Parral, is a city and seat of the municipality of Hidalgo del Parral in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is located in the southern part of the state, 220 km from the state capital, the city of Chihuahua, Chih....
in northern Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. There, he was baptized a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
as an adult and given the Christian name of Juan. When he first came to prominence in 1683 he was a leader of the Jumano Indians and their allies. Sabeata apparently did not speak Spanish well as he communicated through an interpreter.
Meeting with the Spanish
In 1683, the Spanish on the northern frontier were vulnerable. The Pueblo RevoltPueblo Revolt
The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, or Popé's Rebellion, was an uprising of several pueblos of the Pueblo people against Spanish colonization of the Americas in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México.-Background:...
of 1680, led by Popay, resulted in more than 400 Spanish deaths and their expulsion from New Mexico. The 2,000 survivors retreated to El Paso, Texas
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
Thus, when a delegation of friendly Indians, headed by Sabeata, came to El Paso in October 1683 the Spanish were welcoming.
Sabeata said that he lived at La Junta, the junction of the Rio Grande and Conchos near the present day town of Presidio, Texas
Presidio, Texas
Presidio is a city in Presidio County, Texas, United States. It stands on the Rio Grande , on the opposite side of the U.S.-Mexico border from Ojinaga, Chihuahua. The population was 4,167 at the 2000 census....
. He said he had been sent by several Indian nations to request that the Spanish establish Christian missions in their territory. He also requested Spanish aid to the Jumanos and their allies against the depredations of the Apaches. The majority of his tribe, he explained, lived eastward from La Junta and were menaced by the Apache who lived nearby. Sabeata said that the Jumanos had good trade relations with 36 different tribes. Among those he named which can be identified are the Tejas, the Caddo
Caddo
The Caddo Nation is a confederacy of several Southeastern Native American tribes, who traditionally inhabited much of what is now East Texas, northern Louisiana and portions of southern Arkansas and Oklahoma. Today the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma is a cohesive tribe with its capital at Binger, Oklahoma...
an tribe that would give the state of Texas its name. Moreover, Sabeata mentioned that "other Spaniards" -- meaning the French—were trading with the Tejas
It was a masterful performance by Sabeata to excite Spanish interest in a potential harvest of souls among the Jumanos and their allies and to create Spanish concern about French encroachments on what they believed was Spanish territory. Sabeata went on to cement the interest of the Spanish by telling of a battle won by the Jumanos because of a cross that descended from heaven to protect them. He sent representatives to measure the church in El Paso, promising to build two similar churches at La Junta.
The Mendoza Expedition
In response to Sabeata's petitition, three Spanish priests and a large delegation of Indians left El Paso for La Junta where they found that the seven or more tribes clustered there had in fact built churches and houses for the missionaries. The priests were followed by 20 Spanish soldiers led by Captain Dominguez de Mendoza. On January 1, 1684 the soldiers reunited with the priests and with Sabeata and a large number of Indians the expedition left for the land of the Jumanos. It proved to be considerably more than six days away. On January 17, the expedition arrived at a settlement of the Cibolo Indians on the Pecos RiverPecos River
The headwaters of the Pecos River are located north of Pecos, New Mexico, United States, at an elevation of over 12,000 feet on the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Mora County. The river flows for through the eastern portion of that state and neighboring Texas before it...
, probably downstream from present day Pecos, Texas
Pecos, Texas
Pecos is the largest city in and the county seat of Reeves County, Texas, United States. It is situated in the river valley on the west bank of the Pecos River at the eastern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert and the Trans-Pecos region of west Texas and near the southern border of New Mexico...
. Juan Sabeata had gone ahead to prepare the Indians to welcome the Spanish and they did so in grand style, firing several guns, including an arquebus fired by Sabeata himself—in violation of a Spanish prohibition against Indians owning guns.
Sabeata and the Indians then persuaded a reluctant Mendoza to assist them against the Apaches. The expedition, shepherded by large numbers of Indians, continued their march, now moving eastward toward the Concho River
Concho River
The Concho River is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. It has three primary feeds: the North, Middle, and South Concho rivers. The North Concho River is the longest fork, starting in Howard County and traveling southeast for until merging with the South and Middle forks near Goodfellow Air...
and sending out patrols to look for Apaches. It appears that they saw no Apaches in the flesh, but several horses were stolen during an Apache raid. One of the interesting things in the narrative is that the Jumano owned horses at this time—one of the earlier mentions in the Spanish records of mounted Indians.
Relations between Mendoza and Sabeata deteriorated. On February 19, Mendoza accused Sabeata of lying about the threat posed of the Apaches. At the same time Sabeata had probably become aware that the Spanish were more interested in bison
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
hunting than fighting Apaches or spreading the gospel of Christianity. Sabeata departed the expedition along with some of the Jumano Indians, although many of the Indians remained with Mendoza. The Spanish and the remaining Indians continued their exploration eastward. Their route seems to have been down the Middle Fork of the Concho past the present day San Angelo, Texas
San Angelo, Texas
San Angelo is a city in the state of Texas. Located in West Central Texas it is the county seat of Tom Green County. As of 2010 according to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total population of 93,200...
to the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
where they camped for almost two months to hunt bison. Their campsite may have been near present day Ballinger, Texas
Ballinger, Texas
Ballinger is a small town in the heart of Texas. Ballinger holds itself as county seat of Runnels County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,243 at the 2000 census...
. During the expedition, the Spanish and their Indian colleagues killed 5,156 bison, the Spanish carefully preserving the skins to sell on their return to New Mexico. The priests baptized hundreds of Indians.
Sabeata's assessment of the threat of the Apaches was apparently accurate, as the Spanish camp was raided on several occasions. A Spanish soldier was wounded and two Indians were killed. Mendoza, however, in his written account accused Sabeata of plotting to kill the Spanish and stated that he was in ill repute with the Indians. However, the opposite would seem to have been true as a grand council of Indian tribes planned by the Spanish never took place. Most of the Indians who accompanied Mendoza seem to have departed and he feared an Apache attack. It was a much depleted group that broke camp in May and returned quickly to New Mexico—along with thousands of valuable bison skins.
Looking for an Ally
With the failure of his effort to get the Spanish involved in a useful manner in contesting the Apache advances onto the southern Great PlainsGreat Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
, Sabeata turned to the French. La Salle
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de LaSalle was a French explorer. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico...
had just established a colony in eastern Texas and in 1686 a Jumano leader, probably Sabeata, met with the French, declared himself an enemy of the Spanish, and requested French assistance against the Apache. The failure of the La Salle mission precluded this request from being granted.
Sabeata's activities included trading. With contacts both in the Indian and Spanish world, he and the Jumanos were intermediaries, bringing Spanish goods to Indians in eastern Texas, and exchanging them for Indian products, mostly buffalo hides. There were well-organized trade fairs all over Texas which no doubt pre-dated the Spanish.
In 1688, the wide-ranging traveler was back at La Junta. He was appointed a governor of the Indians there by the Spanish, his altercations with Mendoza apparently forgotten. A Captain Retana was ordered to collect a force of 90 Spanish harquebusiers and Indian allies and expel the French from east Texas. Sabeata was ordered to collect the Indian allies and await the arrival of the Spanish force at La Junta. With customary independence, however, Sabeata departed La Junta, carried out his own reconnaissance, and was able to report to Retana that the French settlement in eastern Texas had been destroyed by Indians and most of the French killed, only eight or nine survivors living among the Tejas.
Sabeata appears again in the Spanish records in 1690 when a Spanish priest working in newly-established Spanish mission among the Hasinai (Caddo) in east Texas asked him to carry a letter to Spanish authorities in El Paso and a year later he carried two more letters to the Governor of Coahuila
Coahuila
Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico...
. The letters requested that soldiers be assigned to the missions to protect them from the French.
It appears that Sabeata, the Jumanos, and other Indian tribes now spent the winters living on the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas
Eagle Pass, Texas
Eagle Pass is a city in and the county seat of Maverick County The population was 27,183 as of the 2010 census.Eagle Pass borders the city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, which is to the southwest and across the Rio Grande. The Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras Metropolitan Area is one of six...
and summers hunting buffalo in the Texas Hill Country near the Guadalupe River
Guadalupe River (Texas)
The Guadalupe River runs from Kerr County, Texas to San Antonio Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. The river is a popular destination for rafters and canoers. Larger cities along the river include New Braunfels, Kerrville, Seguin, Gonzales, Cuero, and Victoria...
, apparently pushed out of their homeland along the Concho River further north. Sabeata also apparently made frequent visits to Spanish authorities in El Paso and Parral.
In 1691, a Spanish expedition visited an encampment, estimated to number 3,000, of Jumanos and other tribes on the Guadalupe River. Sabeata organized a welcome that included a procession featuring a wooden cross (presumably the same that had descended from Heaven to assist the Jumanos in a battle with the Apaches a decade earlier). The chief of the Cibola tribe and his people displayed an image of the Our Lady of Guadalupe and the chef of the Catqueasa, who spoke good Spanish, kissed the hand of the Priest in Catholic fashion. It was "a splendid show of piety and devotion" and Sabeata followed up with a request once again that a Spanish mission be established among his people. The Spanish demurred saying the Jumano visited Spanish settlements yearly and had no need of missions among them. The Spanish detected an undercurrent of hostility among the Indians and declined to remain encamped with them.
In 1692, Sabeata organized a campaign against the Chisos Indians who had attacked the Indians at La Junta. This is the last notice of him in the Spanish records. He may have died or been killed in 1692 or 1693.
Importance
Sabeata is one of the few Indians who emerges from the myopic Spanish records as an individual. His appeals to the Spanish (and the French) to protect the Jumanos from their enemies failed. He lived at a time when the Spanish were weak and in retreat on their northern frontier and had few resources to extend their control beyond a few towns.Much of what we know about the Texas Indians during this time comes from Sabeata filtered through the lens of the Spanish. He is known to have crisscrossed Texas on at least eight occasions and to have made numerous visits to El Paso, Parral, and other Spanish settlements in Texas and Mexico. He was accepted not only as a leader of the Jumanos, but also as a spokesman for the numerous Tonkawa
Tonkawa
The Tickanwa•tic Tribe , better known as the Tonkawa , are a Native American people indigenous to present-day Oklahoma and Texas. They once spoke the now-extinct Tonkawa language believed to have been a language isolate not related to any other indigenous tongues...
, Caddoan, and Coahuiltecan
Coahuiltecan
Coahuiltecan or Paikawa was a proposed language family in John Wesley Powell's 1891 classification of Native American languages that consisted of Coahuilteco and Cotoname. The proposal was expanded to include Comecrudo, Karankawa, and Tonkawa...
bands and tribes that inhabited southern and central Texas. With the disappearance of Sabeata from the historical record in 1692, the Jumanos also soon disappeared as an independent tribe. In 1716, the Jumanos again appear in the Spanish records, but as allies of the former enemies, the Apaches, and in 1771 comes the last mention of them as an independent people.