SACUACHE INDIANS. In 1693, while traveling from Coahuila to eastern Texas, Gregorio de Salinas Varona visited two Sacuache encampments. The first was at a water hole between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River, and the second was just east of the Nueces River. At this time the Sacuaches were evidently ranging over parts of the area of present-day Dimmit, Zavala, and Frio counties. It is clear that the Sacuache Indians were not the same people as the Pacuaches or the Tepacuaches, who were also reported by Salinas Varona as living in the same area. Damián Massanet's observations of 1691 on languages spoken in this area suggest that the Sacuaches spoke the language now known as Coahuilteco. As Salinas Varona was the only European to record an encounter with the Sacuache Indians, it seems likely that shortly after 1693 these Indians lost their ethnic identity by merging with some larger group, possibly the Pacuaches. No Sacuaches are listed as having entered Spanish missions at San Antonio or along the Rio Grande.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lino Gómez Canedo, ed., Primeras exploraciones y poblamiento de Texas, 1686–1694 (Monterrey: Publicaciones del Instituto Technológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, 1968).
