Choctaw-Apache Tribe of Ebarb

The Choctaw-Apache Community of Ebarb coalesced in the early 1700s, after the Spanish founded Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Los Adaes Presidio, a fort in the area defended by Mestizo and Spanish soldiers. They married or had unions with local Caddo, Adai, and formerly enslaved Lipan Apache women living in the area.[4][3]When the Spanish dissolved the fort in 1773 and ordered the soldiers to return to San Antonio, many remained behind with their families. They settled in the area of Zwolle and Ebarb.[3][6]

Following the Louisiana Purchase by the United States in 1803, bands of Choctaw began moving into this area in search of new hunting grounds.[3] Additional Choctaw were moved into the area by US Indian Agent John Sibley.[7][4] Twenty-one Choctaw families were listed in the 1870 Census for the area.[7]

In the 20th century, the people mostly worked in the timber and oil industries. They lived along the east bank of the Sabine River until the states of Texas and Louisiana created a project to dam it for flood control and power generation. The states claimed 180,000 acres of the ancestral land to create the Toledo Bend Reservoir. The people in the area were forced to move.[8][9]

The Ebarb community has traditionally spoken a dialect of Spanish dating from the establishment of Los Adaes.[10] Due to the community's history, their dialect is derived from Colonial-era Mexican Spanish of the late 18th century, and bears little resemblance to Isleño Spanish.[11] A similar dialect has been spoken around Moral, west of Nacogdoches, on the other side of the Toledo Bend Reservoir, which also derives from the Los Adaes settlement. This dialect is very endangered; as of the 1980s, there were no more than 50 fluent speakers on either side of the Sabine River.[12]

In 2008 the group reports they had 2,300 enrolled members living in the area, and additional members in other regions.[7]

The group formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 1977, with the mission "to assist tribe members and obtain federal recognition. Continued to work on member documentation needed for federal recognition."[1]

The Choctaw-Apache Community of Ebarb received state recognition as a tribe by the state of Louisiana in 1978 by legislative action (also reported as 1977).[7][3]

In 1978, Raymond Ebarb called for federal recognition. The US Department of the Interior;[13] converted the request to a letter of intent to petition. A preliminary petition was filed in 1994 by Tommy Bolton, however, the organization has not yet submitted a completed petition for federal recognition under the revised regulations.[14]

The group hosts an annual powwow in mid-April in Noble, Louisiana.[15]

• Abernathy, Francis (1976). "The Spanish on the Moral". The Bicentennial Commemorative History of Nacogdoches. Nacogdoches: Nacogdoches Jaycees. pp. 21–33.
• Kniffen, Fred B.; Gregory, Hiram F.; Stokes, George A. (1987). The Historic Indian Tribes of Louisiana. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. pp. 303–305. ISBN 978-0-8071-1963-1.
• Lipski, John M. (1987). "El dialecto español de Río Sabinas: vestigios del español mexicano en Luisiana y Texas". Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica (in Spanish). 35 (1): 111–28. doi:10.24201/nrfh.v35i1.624. JSTOR 40298730.
• Lipski, John M. (2008). Varieties of Spanish in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. ISBN 9781589012134.

• Official website