Native American tribes in Texas are the

Native American tribes In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, Indigenous tribe, or Tribal nation may be any current or historical tribe, band, or nation of Native Americans in the United States. Modern forms of t ...

who are currently based in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

and the

Indigenous peoples of the Americas In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

who historically lived in Texas. Many individual Native Americans, whose tribes are headquartered in other states, reside in Texas. The

Texas Historical Commission The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the U.S. state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas. The commission also identifies Recorded Texas Histor ...

by law consulted with the three

federally recognized This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes are legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States.

tribes in Texas and as well as 26 other federally recognized tribes headquartered in surrounding states. In 1986, the state formed the Texas Commission for Indian Affairs, later renamed the Texas Indian Commission, to manage trust lands and assist three federally recognized tribes headquartered in Texas. However, the commission was dissolved in 1989.

Federally recognized tribes

Texas has three

federally recognized tribes This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes are legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States.

. They have met the seven criteria of an American Indian tribe: # being an American Indian entity since at least 1900 # a predominant part of the group forms a distinct community and has done so throughout history into the present # holding political influence over its members # having governing documents including membership criteria # members having ancestral descent from historic American Indian tribes # not being members of other existing federally recognized tribes # not being previously terminated by the U.S. Congress. The three federally recognized tribes in Texas are: * Alabama–Coushatta Tribes of Texas, originally from Tennessee and Alabama *

Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas The Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, based in Eagle Pass, is a federally recognized tribe that uses revenue from its gaming and business operations to provide housing, education, and social services to its members. The tribe has been held as ...

, originally from the Great Lakes * Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo of Texas originally from New Mexico. These three tribes are served by the Southern Plains Regional Office of the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs located in

Anadarko, Oklahoma Anadarko is a city in and the county seat of Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States. The city is 50 miles (80.5 km) southwest of Oklahoma City. The population was 5,745 at the 2020 census. History Anadarko got its name when its post offic ...

American Indian reservations

These are three

Indian Reservations An American Indian reservation is an area of land land tenure, held and governed by a List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States#Description, U.S. federal government-recognized Native American tribal nation, whose gov ...

in Texas: * Alabama–Coushatta Reservation, in

Polk County, Texas Polk County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 50,123. Its county seat is Livingston. The county is named after President James K. Polk. The Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation of the f ...

* Kickapoo Reservation, in

Maverick County, Texas Maverick County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 57,887. Its county seat is Eagle Pass, Texas, Eagle Pass. The county was created in 1 ...

Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Ysleta del Sur Pueblo or Tigua Pueblo is a Native American Pueblo and federally recognized tribe in the Ysleta section of El Paso, Texas. Its members are Southern Tiwa people who had been displaced from Spanish New Mexico from 1680 to 1681 duri ...

, in

El Paso County, Texas El Paso County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 865,657, making it the ninth-most populous county in the state of Texas. Its county seat is the city of El Paso, the sixth-mos ...

State-recognized tribes

State-recognized tribes State-recognized tribes in the United States are Native American tribes or heritage groups that do not meet the criteria for federally recognized Indian tribes but have been recognized by state government through laws, governor's executive orders ...

do not have the government-to-government relationship with the

United States federal government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

that federally recognized tribes do. Texas has "no legal mechanism to recognize tribes," as journalists Graham Lee Brewer and Tristan Ahtone wrote. The Texas Commission for Indian Affairs, later Texas Indian Commission, only dealt with the three federally recognized tribes and did not work with any state-recognized tribes before being dissolved in 1989. Texas has no state-recognized tribes. Several groups have claimed to be state-recognized based on

congratulatory resolutions Courtesy resolution is a non- controversial resolution in the nature of congratulations on the birth of a child, celebration of a wedding anniversary, congratulations of an outstanding citizen achievement or a similar event. It is "a resolution exp ...

; however, "Resolutions are statements of opinions and, unlike bills, do not have the force of law." For example, the

Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas The Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas is a state-recognized tribe and nonprofit organization in Texas. Members of the tribe descend from the Lipan Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people. The Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas is headquartered in M ...

were honored in Texas Senate Resolution 438 in 2009 and Texas State Concurrent Resolution 61 and Texas House Concurrent Resolution 171, both in 2019. Texas Senate Bill 274 to formally recognize the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, introduced in January 2021, died in committee, as did Texas Senate Bill 231 introduced in November 2022. Texas Senate Bill 1479, introduced in March 2023, and Texas House Bill 2005, introduced in February 2023, both to state-recognize the

Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation The Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation is a cultural heritage organization of individuals who identify as lineal descendants of the Coahuiltecan people. They have a nonprofit organization, the American Indians in Texas-Spanish Colonial Missions, based ...

also died in committee.

Historical tribes of Texas

These are some of the tribes that have existed in what is now Texas. Many were forcibly removed to

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

, now

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

, in the 19th century, and few to

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. Others no longer exist as tribes but may have living descendants. *

Adai people The Adai were a Native American people of northwestern Louisiana and northeastern Texas. They were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands and part of the Caddo Confederacy. Name The name ''Adai'' derives from the Caddo word ''hada ...

, formerly eastern Texas *

Apache people The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan homelands in the north into th ...

, western Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma :*

Lipan Apache Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan languages, Southern Athabaskan Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people, who have lived in the Oasisamerica, Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European ...

, southwest :* Salinero, formerly west :* Teya, formerly Panhandle :*

Vaquero The ''vaquero'' (; , ) is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that has its roots in the Iberian Peninsula and extensively developed in what what is today Mexico (then New Spain) and Spanish Florida from a method brought to the Americ ...

, also

Querecho The Querecho Indians were an historical band of Apache people living on the Southern Plains. In 1541 the Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and his army journeyed east from the Rio Grande Valley in search of a rich land called Q ...

, formerly northwestern Texas, possible ancestral Apache people * Aranama, formerly southeast *

Atakapa The Atakapa Sturtevant, 659 or Atacapa were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, who spoke the Atakapa language and historically lived along the Gulf of Mexico in what is now Texas and Louisiana. They included several distinct b ...

, formerly Gulf Coast :*

Akokisa The Akokisa (also known as the Accokesaws, Arkokisa, or Orcoquiza) were an Indigenous tribe who lived on Galveston Bay and the lower Trinity and Sabine rivers in Texas, primarily in the present-day Greater Houston area. They were a band of the At ...

, formerly Galveston Bay, Gulf Coast :*

Bidai The Bidai, who referred to themselves as the Quasmigdo, were a tribe of American Indians from eastern Texas.Sturtevant, 659John Reed Swanton''The Indians of the Southeastern United States'' page 96. The name ''Bidai'' is Caddo language term for ...

, formerly Trinity River, Gulf Coast :*

Deadose The Deadose were a Native American tribe in present-day Texas closely associated with the Jumano, Yojuane, Bidai and other groups living in the Rancheria Grande of the Brazos River in eastern Texas in the early 18th century. Like other groups ...

, formerly southeast :* Patiri, formerly San Jacinto River *

Biloxi Biloxi ( ; ) is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. It lies on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast in southern Mississippi, bordering the city of Gulfport, Mississippi, Gulfport to its west. The adjacent cities ar ...

, formerly Neches River in the 19th century, now Louisiana *

Caddo The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language. The Caddo Confederacy was a network of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, who ...

, formerly eastern Texas, now Oklahoma :* Cacachau, formerly eastern, now Oklahoma :*

Eyeish The Eyeish were a Native American tribe from present-day eastern Texas. History The Eyeish were part of the Caddo Confederacy,Sturtevant, 616 although their relationship to other Caddo tribes was ambiguous, and they were often hostile to the Has ...