NOVRACH INDIANS. In 1683–84 Juan DomÃnguez de Mendoza led an exploratory expedition from El Paso eastward into the western part of the Edwards Plateau. When he was somewhere in the general vicinity of present Junction, Texas, he listed the names of thirty-seven Indian groups, including the Novrach (later copied as Nobrach and Nohorach) Indians, from whom he was expecting to receive delegations. Nothing further is known of the Novrachs. Since the thirty-seven groups named in this document include peoples from across the Rio Grande in northern Mexico as well as from farther east in Texas, it is now impossible to identify their aboriginal range.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Herbert Eugene Bolton, ed., Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542–1706 (New York: Scribner, 1908; rpt., New York: Barnes and Noble, 1959). Carlos E. Castañeda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1936–58; rpt., New York: Arno, 1976). Charles W. Hackett, ed., Pichardo's Treatise on the Limits of Louisiana and Texas (4 vols., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1931–46).
