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Aieli Indians https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/aieli-indians

Exploration of the Aielis Tribe by Juan Domínguez de Mendoza

By: Thomas N. Campbell

Published: 1976

Updated: June 1, 1995

In 1683–84 Juan Domínguez de Mendoza led an exploratory expedition from El Paso as far eastward as the junction of the Concho and Colorado rivers east of the site of present San Angelo. In his itinerary he listed the names of thirty-seven Indian groups, including the Aielis (Ayeles), from whom he expected to receive delegations. Nothing further is known about the Aielis, who seem to have been one of the many Indian groups of north central Texas that were swept into oblivion by the southward thrust of the Lipan Apache and Comanche Indians in the eighteenth century.

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Bibliography:

Herbert Eugene Bolton, ed., Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542–1706 (New York: Scribner, 1908; rpt., New York: Barnes and Noble, 1959). Charles W. Hackett, ed., Pichardo's Treatise on the Limits of Louisiana and Texas (4 vols., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1931–46).

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

Thomas N. Campbell, “Aieli Indians,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed April 11, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/aieli-indians.

TID: BMA13

Original Publication Date:
1976
Most Recent Revision Date:
June 1, 1995