Abau Indians
Thomas N. Campbell
General Entry
The similarity in the names Abau and Aba suggests that they may be variants of the same Indian group name, but this is contradicted by the fact that both Abau and Aba appear on the same list of Indian groups recorded by Juan Domínguez de Mendoza in 1683–84, when he was in the western part of the Edwards Plateau. If Mendoza's Abas were the same as the Hapes, then it is also likely that the Abaus were the same as the Xiabus, who in other Spanish sources of the same time are identified with the Rio Grande just downstream from the site of modern Eagle Pass, Texas. In both cases it is possible to argue for Coahuiltecan affiliation and conclude that the ethnic identities were lost early in the eighteenth century.
