In response to drought and military pressure, after 1786 thousands of Ndé, or Apaches, settled near Spanish presidios in a system of reservation-like establecimientos, or settlements, stretching from Laredo to Tucson. Although a small number of Ndé and Spaniards reached an enduring accommodation, the majority of Ndé who settled on Spanish reservations did so only to fulfill temporary needs. Demonstrating minimal signs of acculturation and dependence, they circumvented the overambitious incorporation efforts of Spanish and Mexican officials through a variety of adaptive and resistive strategies, including gambling away their rations and gifts, forging interband and intertribal alliances, and continuing to hunt, gather, and raid. As a result of these efforts, Apaches de paz worked together with independent Ndé groups to reassert control of their homeland after the collapse of the establecimientos in 1832 and would eventually draw on this prior experience to negotiate conquest more shrewdly on U.S. reservations.
Meet Matthew Babcock, Ph.D.
Matthew Babcock is an Associate Professor of History at UNT Dallas and earned his Ph.D. at Southern Methodist University, his M.A. at the University of New Mexico, and his B.A. at Dartmouth College. His research focuses on the history of North American borderlands, Native Americans, and the colonial Southwest. He is the author of Apache Adaptation to Hispanic Rule (Cambridge University Press, 2016), and he is currently working on a book project, "Frontiers of War and Peace: Antonio Cordero and Hispanic-Indigenous Relations in the Southwest."
Hear more about the annual event at the historic Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River.
Meet Tom Ashmore
Tom spent 22 years in the Air Force as a special intelligence analyst. After retiring from active duty, he taught special intelligence skills for another five years worldwide and then 15 years at the Air Force Intelligence School at Goodfellow AFB, Texas. He completed a book in 2019, updated in 2024, on his Butterfield Trail investigations, entitled The Butterfield Trail through the Concho Valley and West Texas. He completed a second book in 2025 on the 3-year study on Camp Meyers Spring, Texas. He is currently the president of the West Texas Archeological Society and a board member of the Southwest Federation of Archeological Societies.
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Hear more about Texas Ranger burial locations.
Meet William E. Moore
William E. Moore is a retired professional archaeologist and former sole proprietor of Brazos Valley Research Associates (BVRA) in Bryan, Texas, where he currently lives. He is the author of several books including The Texas Calaboose and Other Forgotten Jails (Texas A&M University Press, 2019), as well as articles and national magazines. He is the sole living member of the Houston Archeological Society.
Hear about women on the Sante Fe Trail. Details to come.
Meet Michelle M. Martin, Ph.D.
Dr. Michelle M. Martin is a Michigander by birth and a Kansan and Oklahoman by choice. Martin is a historian who earned her doctorate at the University of New Mexico in May 2022. She earned her B.A. and M.A. degrees in history at Western Michigan University. After graduating from Western Michigan University Martin embarked on a nearly twenty-year career in academic and public history. For eleven years she taught full and part time at the two and four year college level in Kansas and Oklahoma. She also worked in the television and film industry for nearly ten years as a researcher, script writer, and field producer. Projects she has contributed to have aired on PBS, A&E, History Channel, Investigation Discovery, and at National Park Service units in Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas. For several years Martin worked as a museum director and has served on numerous museum boards and has provided consulting services for small museums in Kansas and Oklahoma. She is most proud of her volunteer service as a living history interpreter for the National Part Service at Fort Scott National Historic Site.
Martin has lectured on various historical topics across the country for museums, state and national historic sites, and educational institutions. From 2023-2025 she was an Assistant Professor of History and the Coordinator of the Public History Certificate in the Department of History at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Currently Martin is an adjunct faculty in the Department of Social Science at Mesa Community College and in 2026 will be a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University. She is a member of P.E.O. Chapter CZ in Tempe, Arizona and is active in helping raise funds for young women to pursue their college education.
Martin lives in Mesa, Arizona and is a proud cat mamma to Josie. Her husband, Dr. Donald Fixico (Mvskoke/Semvnole/Shawnee/Sac and Fox) is a Distinguished Foundation and Regents' Professor of History at Arizona State University. When not working Michelle enjoys hiking, travel, photography, documenting severe weather, watching college and professional football, and volunteering as a living history interpreter at various state and national historic sites.