Chisos

A people

The Rio Grande flowing into Santa Elena Canyon between roughly 1,500-foot limestone walls at Big Bend National Park.
P. Hughes · CC BY 4.0

Background

The Chisos were a loosely organised group of nomadic hunters and gatherers who probably practised limited agriculture. The name Chiso, or Chizo, originally referred to a single band, also called the Cauitaome or Taquitatome, and Spanish writers extended it to cover at least six closely associated bands. NPS records that their origin is not known, that they were associated with the Concho-speaking peoples of northeastern Chihuahua and northwestern Coahuila, and that their language is a variation of Uto-Aztecan. Around 1700 the Mescalero Apache entered the Big Bend region and eventually displaced or absorbed the Chisos.

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Parks on its homelands

The Rio Grande flowing into Santa Elena Canyon between roughly 1,500-foot limestone walls at Big Bend National Park.Big Bend National Park

The name Chiso, or Chizo, began as a single band, the Cauitaome, also called the Taquitatome, and the Spaniards widened it to cover at least six closely associated bands of nomadic hunters and gatherers. NPS associates them with the Concho-speaking peoples of northeastern Chihuahua and northwestern Coahuila and places their language in the Uto-Aztecan family. Source

Sources

Checked September 2026.

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