S.A. forms new plan on burial grounds at Alamo
As part of a project ‘reset,’ the city says work to find sites will involve an archaeology committee as well as descendant groups
SAN ANTONIO — With the $450 million private-public plan to restore Alamo Plaza again moving forward, city leaders have committed to identifying the locations of mission-era cemeteries.
As part of a project “reset” announced March 1 by Mayor Ron Nirenberg, the city said last week that officials would conduct an archival investigation and form an archaeology committee to offer guidance on interpretation of cemeteries of Mission San Antonio de Valero and the Alamo fort.
A human remains treatment protocol, separate from one in place at the state-owned Alamo, will be developed for handling any bone fragments, coffins, shrouds or other burial remnants unearthed in the city-owned portion of the plaza.
The city wants to work with the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, whose members trace their lineage to the indigenous families who lived, worked and were buried at the Spanish missions, including the Alamo.
Ramón Vásquez, an executive member of Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, believes the city’s commitment to pinpoint the location of cemeteries is a step forward but something that should have been pursued in the mid-1990s, when the city last considered a major plaza makeover.
“I am moving through this reset very cautiously and carefully. But I am open to rebuilding those relationships,” said Vásquez, who sits on the 30-member Alamo Citizen Advisory Committee and is executive director of Tap Pilam’s fundraising arm, the American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions.
A map produced by Pape-Dawson Engineers was submitted in 2019 to the Texas Historical Commission as part of Tap Pilam’s proposal to have the area named a Historic Texas Cemetery.
The Pape-Dawson map identified three areas where remains are most likely to be found: the north end of the plaza, below and near the front of the Hipolito F. Garcia Federal Building; beneath and around the Alamo church; and on the south end of the grounds.
The historical commission last year granted a permit for the Alamo Trust to exhume four burials found during excavations aimed at preserving the nearly 300-yearold structure.
Tap Pilam asked the commission last year to recognize part of the plaza as an “unverified cemetery” — a place with evidence of human burials but no verification by an expert. But the historical commission decided evidence for the designation was “not sufficient at this time.”
The prospect of finding remains in the plaza reopens a debate on DNA testing. The Alamo Trust’s protocol rules out “destructive analysis,” which is viewed as offensive to many Native American groups. Some experts have said it’s costly and ineffective.
But not all indigenous people oppose DNA testing. Some descendants and archaeologists have argued that testing should be an option, particularly because Catholic and non-Catholic cemeteries at the mission would have been a resting place not only for indigenous people but also Canary Islanders, Tejanos, freed or enslaved Blacks, Anglos and others.
Vásquez said the Texas Health and Safety Code gives descendants a right to ask for DNA testing.
“If we were talking about a 100 percent known Indian burial ground, we would not be talking about DNA,” Vásquez said. “But the fact that this is not an Indian burial ground, and that this is a Catholic cemetery, and that there are non-Indians buried in this cemetery, potentially Alamo defenders, lineal descendants under the law have a right to ask for that (testing).”
Descendant groups have begun collecting DNA samples of their members. Lee Spencer White, president of the Alamo Defender Descendants Association, said her group has started a “DNA database” from living Alamo and mission descendants.
Tap Pilam has committed to cofund a DNA study with Texas A&M University and has collected at least 100 samples, Vásquez said. He said the local project leaders need to negotiate with the Land Office and Alamo Trust.
Tap Pilam, he said, is “a proponent of this project in terms of telling the stories of the entire site.”
“We want to see it happen, because we don’t believe we’ll ever have a chance in our lifetime to ever see something like this again,” he said. “But it’s got to be done right.”