PRESIDIO — This Saturday, all are invited to a series of events marking the completion of the restoration project at the Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes (Lipan Apache Cemetery) in Presidio — a project decades in the making.
The People of La Junta for Preservation will be hosting an early morning prayer followed by a “run/march” through the Presidio Sandhills. The group will gather at the water tower at 7 a.m. for a moment of contemplation and will then greet the day with a run or walk through the desert.
At 10 a.m., the Big Bend Conservation Alliance will be hosting a blessing and celebration in conjunction with the People of La Junta, the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas and MASS Design Group. Market Street will be blocked off for the event in honor of the community’s Indigenous past and Indigenous future.
The Lipan Apache Cemetery is a remnant of a much larger cemetery that was lost to city development in the 1970s. The descendants of the interred — part of a migratory Indigenous group that came to La Junta during Spanish rule — have worked over the past few decades to protect the cemetery from further development.
In 2021, Christina Hernandez — a descendant of the Lipan Aguilar family — led the charge to return ownership of the land from the city and county of Presidio to the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas. The Big Bend Conservation Alliance (BBCA) then began a major project to stabilize the site and install interpretive materials with the help of MASS Design Group, an Indigenous-led firm.
BBCA has worked with Presidio ISD in the past few weeks to teach local youth about the significance of the cemetery.
The program started in February with an assembly for high school students led by Arian Velázquez-Ornelas about Presidio’s native history. She encouraged students to get curious about their own families — but also to preserve the histories of others. “I want you to think, ‘I’m going to honor these people. I may not be related to them, but I still want to tell their story.’”
The students also got creative: both high school and middle school students sat down to make invitations for friends and family to the opening celebration. PHS graduate and Sul Ross Professor Ramon Deanda made a special visit to the elementary school, where students were encouraged to make art and engage with Native storytelling.
The program capped off in early March with a series of site visits by middle school students. Sixth-grader Brianna Ramirez, who had helped make community invitations for the event, was honored to be a part of the process and was grateful to learn the story behind the cemetery. “It felt good to help their resting place be more beautiful,” she said.