1692) was a Jumano Indian leader in present day Texas who tried to forge an alliance with the Spanish or French to help his people fend off the encroachments of the Apaches on their territory.
Sabeata said that he lived at La Junta, the junction of the Rio Grande and Conchos rivers near the present day town of Presidio, Texas.
Sabeata went on to cement the interest of the Spanish by telling of a battle won by the Jumanos because of a cross that descended from heaven to protect them.
[4] In response to Sabeata's petition, three Spanish priests and a large delegation of Indians left El Paso for La Junta where they found that the seven or more tribes clustered there had in fact built churches and houses for the missionaries.
On January 1, 1684 the soldiers reunited with the priests and with Sabeata and a large number of Indians the expedition left for the land of the Jumanos.
The expedition, shepherded by large numbers of Indians, continued their march, now moving eastward toward the Concho River and sending out patrols to look for Apaches.
One of the interesting things in the narrative is that the Jumano owned horses at this time—one of the earlier mentions in the Spanish records of mounted Indians in the United States.
At the same time Sabeata had probably become aware that the Spanish were more interested in bison hunting than fighting Apaches or spreading the gospel of Christianity.
Their route seems to have been down the Middle Fork of the Concho past the present day San Angelo, Texas to the Colorado River where they camped for almost two months to hunt bison.
Mendoza, however, in his written account accused Sabeata of plotting to kill the Spanish and stated that he was in ill repute with the Indians.
[8] With the failure of his effort to get the Spanish involved in a useful manner in contesting the Apache advances onto the southern Great Plains, Sabeata turned to the French.
Juan de Retana was ordered to collect a force of 90 Spanish harquebusiers and Indian allies and expel the French from east Texas.
On his march northward he decided to attack the Toboso people who were fighting against the Spanish primarily in reaction to slaving raids.
[14] It appears that Sabeata, the Jumanos, and other Indian tribes now spent the winters living on the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas and summers hunting buffalo in the Texas Hill Country near the Guadalupe River, apparently pushed out of their homeland along the Concho River further north.
Sabeata organized a welcome that included a procession featuring a wooden cross (presumably the same that had descended from Heaven to assist the Jumanos in a battle with the Apaches a decade earlier).
The chief of the Cibola tribe and his people displayed an image of the Our Lady of Guadalupe and the chef of the Catqueasa, who spoke good Spanish, kissed the hand of the Priest in Catholic fashion.
He was accepted not only as a leader of the Jumanos, but also as a spokesman for the numerous Tonkawa, Caddoan, and Coahuiltecan bands and tribes that inhabited southern and central Texas.