Summary and Recommendations Our contract with the NPS called for
us to identify federally recognized tribes with possible ties to
the lands of the Amistad NRA (see Figure 1) in Val Verde County,
Texas. This study was undertaken as part of a long-term
commitment of the NPS to manage its resources with care as well
as with respect for the communities having historical
associations with those resources. However, because Native
American communities left these lands long ago, and because our
knowledge of the tribes that once occupied those lands is, at
best, imperfect, the study focused on the data contained in
Spanish and English hand written documents. These documents are
far from unbiased descriptions of the past; we tried to be
mindful of the pitfalls of such research (cf. Galloway
1992:178-195). Despite those problems, the information contained
in primary documents is important, relevant, and unique, and,
therefore, critical to understanding which tribes might have
historical ties to the recreation area. Publ