Review of \u3ci\u3eThe Lipan Apaches: People of the Wind and Lightning\u3c/i\u3e by Thomas A. Britten

The Lipan Apaches is the first comprehensive study of a people who were important, integral actors in the history of the Southern Plains, most especially the history of Texas. Rather than casting the Lipans as the victims of Spanish or later American conquest, this meticulously researched work brings to life Lipan history, one steeped in a tradition of adaptation and cultural reinvention that of necessity was constantly responding to new and often painful shifting social realities. Britten poses these questions: Who were the Lipan Apaches and under what circumstances did a tribal identity emerge ? To what extent did they have control over their destiny