Telkondaha - "Wild Goose People" of the Lipan Apache

[ouroboros]

Wild Goose Band (Telkondaha or - to be specfic - Te c lkóndahän)

Probably, the “Wild Goose People” of the Lipan Apache produced the most formidable warriors of all Apache peoples. There are some information on them, and I thought a small tread will pay an honour to this excellent warriors and horsemen.

One of the best specialist in the field of the history of the Lipans - Nancy McGown Minor, The Light Gray People: An Ethno-History of the Lipan Apaches of Texas and Northern Mexico, on p. 95 describes them as follows

The band name was rooted in the Lipan word for wild goose (te c l) and is reminiscent of a Lipan myth, “The Battle with the Wild Geese”. In this myth, a group of Lipan Riders came upon a camp of people who had been troubled by attacks of wild geese. These geese enjoyed fighting—“dancing up and down”, brandishing their wings as shields and “they could kill with their pecking” (Opler, 1940: 46-47). The name of this Lipan band was probably based on particular style of battle, using shields and arrows to “flap” and “peck at” the enemy. The Wild Goose band inhabited territory west of Ft. Griffin and were known as “renowned fighters”. Gatschet commented that “they fight all the time.” In the late eighteenth century, it is possible that this band was incorporated with the Prairie Men band, forming a combined Llanero group.

[ouroboros]

Karl Schlesier presented his idea on the formation of the Llaneros (Karl Schleiser, RETHINKING THE DISMAL RIVER ASPECT AND THE PLAINS ATHAPASKANS, A.D. 1692 - 1768, "Plains Anthropologist", Vol. 17, No. 56 (May 1972), pp. 101-133, at p. 129):

The Carlana became the nucleus around which other die-hard bands of former Kansas Apache and Guhlkainde assembled to form the "Llanero" of the Llano Estacado, the one division which successfully contested Peneteka and
Kwahadi occupation of southeastern New Mexico.

He argues also that:

In Cordero's 1796 description of the Apache he explains the Llanero group of the Llano Estacado not as a single band but as a mixed group of some strength (Matson and Schroeder 1957:354-355).

Schlesier is right here, since Cordero claims that the Llaneros are "divided into three parts, that is to say: Natajes, Lipiyanes and Llaneros". It seems that it gives a good argument to claim that the Telkondaha maintained their separate identity within the larger mixed grouping called Llanero.

[ouroboros]

I am not convinced that the "Wild Goose People" were incorporated with the Prairie Men forming a combined group, since they are mentioned in late XIX century. I will post on this issue further.

In 1894 a Lipan Apache whose name was Caje, who was probably one of the last member of the Telkondaha band, joined the Lipan reservation. He appears on the census with his family, along with Antonio Apache, his wife and family, plus Antonio's sister and child, and Stella Lester and two sons.

So in 1894 Lipans still claimed membership of the Telkondaha band. Therefore the term "incorporation" is clearly wrong.