Did You Know…?

Cultural Affiliation Study completed for Mission San Juan (Dupree 2002)

A cultural affiliation and lineal descent study on the native people of Mission San Juan has been completed. The study, which began in 1998, was contracted by San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. Its purpose is to provide information that will help the park with management decisions when implementing standards set by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). This act requires all federal entities to consult with federally recognized Native American groups in regards to human remains and associated funerary objects recovered on federal land.

The native people who lived in Texas prior to the founding of the missions came from a number of hunting and gathering bands known today as Coahuiltecans. These people moved into the missions when they were formed and became part of the functioning community that kept the missions alive. The study was prepared to see if there exists a descendant line from these people to the present day community of Mission San Juan.

The study was completed by the Center for Ecological Archaeology at Texas A & M University and concluded that while lineal descent from Coahuiltecans is probable, there is not enough data at this time for the lineal decent component of NAGPRA to be applicable. The researchers also concluded that cultural affiliation between segments of today's San Juan community and the inhabitants of the mission during the Spanish Colonial time period is probable.

While the current study does not definitively link the modern San Juan community to the Coahuiltecans, the National Park Service recognizes the continuity between the current San Antonio community and the inhabitants of the Spanish Colonial period. The park staff will carefully review the recommendations of the above study and will to the extent that funding is available, implement those recommendations that are consistent with the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park's General Management Plan and National Park Service Policy (Dupree 2002).

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Further reading: Thomas N. Campbell, "Coahuiltecans and Their Neighbors," in Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 10 (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1983). Thomas N. Campbell, The Indians of Southern Texas and Northeastern Mexico: Selected Writings of Thomas Nolan Campbell (Austin: Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, 1988).

NPS Ethnography Program