Lepai Ndé

The Lepai Ndé are the Lipan Apache, the easternmost of the Apache bands, whose name in their Southern Athabaskan language means the light gray people. Their ancestors were encountered by Coronado's expedition in 1541 and possibly included the Teya.

They had acquired Spanish horses by 1608 and became nomadic buffalo hunters and raiders; the Acho branch joined the Taos and Picuris Pueblos in the revolt of 1680 that drove the Spanish from New Mexico for twelve years. By 1700 Lipan bands were spread across southern Texas and into Coahuila.

They raided San Antonio from 1718 and signed peace with Spain there in 1749. Their missions on the San Sabá River were burned by Comanche and Wichita in 1757; smallpox in 1764 left them exposed, and in 1767 the Spanish frontier adopted a policy of extermination against them.