largely unnoticed for most of the 20th century. It wasn’t until 1965, when El Paso started proceedings to recover back taxes from the individuals where the Tigua had ‘once’ lived, that they drew the attention of attorney Tom Diamond. Tax foreclosures threatened to destroy the last remnants of the Tigua. Diamond became interested in them and began their fight for survival. In the summer of 1966 anthropologist Nick Houser spent three months studying the Tigua. In October of that same year the Tigua refused to pay taxes. Diamond filed suit on behalf of the Tigua against the city. He claimed that the original grant had been recognized by Texas, and therefore the land belonged to them as a sovereign nation and could not be taxed. At this time the Tigua were the only Indian group not recognized by the U.S. government. This all began to change on November 23rd of 1966, when the Texas State Historical Survey Committee passed a resolution recognizing the tribe based on Nick Houser’s reports. In April of 1967 their call for recognition was again answered after much work by Tom Diamond. The Sixtieth Texas Senate Legislature recognized the Tiguas’ existence as a tribe in House Bill 888. One year later in 1968 the Congressional Record sated: “Considering how many other tribes and bands of Indians in this country have been recognized by the United States, it is virtually impossible to explain how the Tigua have been missed up to this time…” In July of 1967 the Tiguas received their first allocated funds totaling $35,000. In August the same year The House Indian Affairs Subcommittee approved a bill to designate the Tigua Indians of El Paso as an official Indian tribe. In February of 1968 after much prodding by Diamond and after a visit to Ysleta revealed the poverty of the Tiguas there stipend was increased to $146,424 a year. In April of 1968, one year after Texas had recognized the Tigua, President di...
