Lipan

American  

[li-pahn] / lɪˈpɑn /

noun

Lipans, plural Lipan plural

1. a member of an Apache group that comprises several Apache bands, living in the southwestern United States east of the Rio Grande.

2. the Athabascan language of the Lipan.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Lipan
  plural
• Lipans
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Lipan

First recorded in 1845–50; from Spanish Lipán, from Lipan self-designation Hleh-pai Ndé or Lépai-Ndé “Light Gray People” (a reference to the migration history of the Lipan)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Lipan Lipans

Pastor Robert Soto was decked out in full garb as a feather dancer and member of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

For the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, live bison are part of a program that teaches Indigenous youth about the animal, said the organization’s founder, Lucille Contreras of the Lipan Apache tribe.

From New York Times ● Jul. 4, 2023

Darcie Little Badger’s “A Snake Falls to Earth” is based in part on Lipan Apache storytelling traditions.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2021

By some accounts, Vanderwal wouldn’t be there if not for Lerma - the self-described “pedophile hunter,” data resource manager and Lipan Apache tribal member who moonlights as a Facebook personality and NRA-certified firearms instructor.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 28, 2018

All right, colonel," responded Joe; "but when that young Lipan rid in last night I begun to wish I was back in the Alamo.

From The Lost Gold of the Montezumas A Story of the Alamo by Stoddard, William O.

The southern branch includes the nomadic Apaches, the industrious Navajos, and a small remnant of Lipans in Texas, numbering, in all, over 20,000.

From Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of North American Indians by Jackson, W. H.

The Lipans are on the other side and we can find them.

From The Lost Gold of the Montezumas A Story of the Alamo by Stoddard, William O.

There had been, as Tetzcatl had reported, a sharp brush between the Lipans and a party of Comanches.

From The Lost Gold of the Montezumas A Story of the Alamo by Stoddard, William O.

If this, however, were the Hacienda Dolores, and if Castro's Lipans were there, they had raised over the largest of the adobe structures the eagle flag of Mexico.

From The Lost Gold of the Montezumas A Story of the Alamo by Stoddard, William O.

There is more danger in them than in the Lipans.

From The Lost Gold of the Montezumas A Story of the Alamo by Stoddard, William O.