The Apache () are a group of culturally related
Native American tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...
s in the
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...
, which include the
Chiricahua
Chiricahua ( ) is a band of Apache Native Americans.
Based in the Southern Plains and Southwestern United States, the Chiricahua (Tsokanende ) are related to other Apache groups: Ndendahe (Mogollon, Carrizaleño), Tchihende (Mimbreño), Sehende ...
,
Jicarilla
Jicarilla Apache (, Jicarilla language: Jicarilla Dindéi), one of several loosely organized autonomous bands of the Eastern Apache, refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Atha ...
,
Lipan,
Mescalero
Mescalero or Mescalero Apache ( apm, Naa'dahéńdé) is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-cen ...
, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or
Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño and Janero),
Salinero
IPS Salinero (formerly ''Keltec'' Salinero and ''Gestion'' Salinero; 6 May 1994 – December 2022) was a horse ridden by the Dutch equestrian Anky van Grunsven in the sport of dressage.
When Sjef Janssen noticed the potential the hors ...
,
Plains
In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands.
In ...
(Kataka or Semat or "
Kiowa-Apache
The Plains Apache are a small Southern Athabaskan group who live on the Southern Plains of North America, in close association with the linguistically unrelated Kiowa Tribe. Today, they are centered in Southwestern Oklahoma and Northern Texas and ...
") and
Western Apache
The Western Apache live primarily in east central Arizona, in the United States. Most live within reservations. The Fort Apache Indian Reservation, San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Tonto Apache, and the Fort McDowe ...
(
Aravaipa,
Pinaleño,
Coyotero
The Fort Apache Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation on the border of New Mexico and Arizona, United States, encompassing parts of Navajo, Gila, and Apache counties. It is home to the federally recognized White Mountain Apache Tribe of ...
,
Tonto
Tonto is a fictional character; he is the Native American (either Comanche or Potawatomi) companion of the Lone Ranger, a popular American Western character created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker. Tonto has appeared in radio and televi ...
). Distant cousins of the Apache are the
Navajo
The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.
With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
, with whom they share the
Southern Athabaskan languages
Southern Athabaskan (also Apachean) is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken primarily in the Southwestern United States (including Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah) with two outliers in Oklahoma and Texas. The language is spoken to a ...
. There are Apache communities in
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
and
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, and
reservations in
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
and
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
. Apache people have moved throughout the United States and elsewhere, including urban centers. The Apache Nations are politically autonomous, speak several different languages, and have distinct cultures.
Historically, the Apache homelands have consisted of high mountains, sheltered and watered valleys, deep canyons, deserts, and the southern
Great Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
, including areas in what is now Eastern Arizona,
Northern Mexico
Northern Mexico ( es, el Norte de México ), commonly referred as , is an informal term for the northern cultural and geographical area in Mexico. Depending on the source, it contains some or all of the states of Baja California, Baja California ...
(
Sonora
Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
and
Chihuahua Chihuahua may refer to:
Places
*Chihuahua (state), a Mexican state
**Chihuahua (dog), a breed of dog named after the state
**Chihuahua cheese, a type of cheese originating in the state
**Chihuahua City, the capital city of the state
**Chihuahua Mun ...
) and
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
,
West Texas
West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio.
No consensus exists on the boundary betwee ...
, and
Southern Colorado
South-Central Colorado is a region of the U.S. state of Colorado. It can be roughly defined by Chaffee County in the northwest, El Paso County in the northeast, Las Animas County in the southeast, and Conejos County in the southwest. Some notable ...
. These areas are collectively known as
Apacheria
Apachería was the term used to designate the region inhabited by the Apache people. The earliest written records have it as a region extending from north of the Arkansas River into what are now the northern states of Mexico and from Central Texa ...
.
The Apache tribes fought the
invading Spanish and Mexican peoples for centuries. The first Apache raids on
Sonora
Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
appear to have taken place during the late 17th century. In 19th-century confrontations during the
American-Indian wars, the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
found the Apache to be fierce
warrior
A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste.
History
Warriors seem to have been p ...
s and skillful strategists.
Contemporary tribes
![Apachean present](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Apachean_present.png)
The following Apache tribes are
federally recognized
This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...
:
*
Apache of Oklahoma["Tribal Governments by Area: Southern Plains."](_blank)
''National Congress of American Indians.'' Retrieved 7 March 2012.
*
Fort Sill Apache
The Fort Sill Apache Tribe is the Federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Native American tribe of Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache in Oklahoma.
Government
The Fort Sill Apache Tribe is headquartered in Apache, Oklahoma. Tribal member enro ...
,
Oklahoma
*
Jicarilla Apache
Jicarilla Apache (, Jicarilla language: Jicarilla Dindéi), one of several loosely organized autonomous bands of the Eastern Apache, refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Athab ...
,
["Tribal Governments by Area: Southwest."](_blank)
''National Congress of American Indians.'' Retrieved 7 March 2012. New Mexico
*
Mescalero
Mescalero or Mescalero Apache ( apm, Naa'dahéńdé) is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-cen ...
,
New Mexico
*
San Carlos Apache
The San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation ( Western Apache: Tsékʼáádn), in southeastern Arizona, United States, was established in 1872 as a reservation for the Chiricahua Apache tribe as well as surrounding Yavapai and Apache bands removed fr ...
,
["Tribal Governments by Area: Western."](_blank)
''National Congress of American Indians.'' Retrieved 7 March 2012. Arizona
*
Tonto Apache
The Tonto Apache (Dilzhę́’é, also Dilzhe'e, Dilzhe’eh Apache) is one of the groups of Western Apache people and a federally recognized tribe, the Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona. The term is also used for their dialect, one of the three di ...
,
Arizona
*White Mountain Apache of the
Fort Apache Reservation, Arizona
*
Yavapai-Apache, of the Camp Verde Reservation, Arizona
The Jicarilla are headquartered in
Dulce, New Mexico
Dulce ( or ; apj, Lóosi)
is a census-designated place (CDP) in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 2,743 at the 2010 census, almost entirely Native American. It is the largest community and tribal headquarters of ...
,
while the
Mescalero
Mescalero or Mescalero Apache ( apm, Naa'dahéńdé) is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-cen ...
are headquartered in
Mescalero, New Mexico
Mescalero ( apm, Mashgal) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Otero County, New Mexico, United States, located on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. The population was 1,338 at the 2010 census.
History
The settlement was originally calle ...
. The Western Apache, located in Arizona, is divided into several reservations, which crosscut cultural divisions. The Western Apache reservations include the
Fort Apache Indian Reservation
The Fort Apache Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation on the border of New Mexico and Arizona, United States, encompassing parts of Navajo, Gila, and Apache counties. It is home to the federally recognized White Mountain Apache Tribe of th ...
,
San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation
The San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation (Western Apache: Tsékʼáádn), in southeastern Arizona, United States, was established in 1872 as a reservation for the Chiricahua Apache tribe as well as surrounding Yavapai and Apache bands removed fro ...
,
Yavapai-Apache Nation and
Tonto-Apache Reservation.
The Chiricahua were divided into two groups after they were released from being
prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold priso ...
. The majority moved to the Mescalero Reservation and form, with the larger Mescalero political group, the
Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, along with the
Lipan Apache
Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people, who have lived in the Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European and African contact, they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and ...
. The other Chiricahua are enrolled in the
Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma
The Fort Sill Apache Tribe is the federally recognized Native American tribe of Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache in Oklahoma.
Government
The Fort Sill Apache Tribe is headquartered in Apache, Oklahoma. Tribal member enrollment, which requires a mi ...
, headquartered in
Apache, Oklahoma
Apache is a town in Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,444 at the 2010 census.
History
Before opening the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Reservation on August 1, 1901, for unrestricted settlement by non-Indians, Land Lott ...
.
The
Plains Apache
The Plains Apache are a small Southern Athabaskan group who live on the Southern Plains of North America, in close association with the linguistically unrelated Kiowa Tribe. Today, they are centered in Southwestern Oklahoma and Northern Texas an ...
are located in Oklahoma, headquartered around
Anadarko, and are federally recognized as the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma.
Name
The people who are known today as ''Apache'' were first encountered by the
conquistador
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...
s of the
Spanish crown
, coatofarms = File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Spanish_Monarch.svg
, coatofarms_article = Coat of arms of the King of Spain
, image = Felipe_VI_in_2020_(cropped).jpg
, incumbent = Felipe VI
, incumbentsince = 19 Ju ...
, and thus the term ''Apache'' has its roots in the Spanish language. The Spanish first used the term (Navajo) in the 1620s, referring to people in the
Chama region east of the
San Juan River. By the 1640s, they applied the term to southern Athabaskan peoples from the Chama on the east to the San Juan on the west. The ultimate origin is uncertain and lost to Spanish history.
Modern Apache people use the Spanish term to refer to themselves and tribal functions, and so does the US government. However, Apache language speakers also refer to themselves and their people in the Apache term meaning 'person' or 'people'. Distant cousins and Apache subgroup, the Navajo, in their language refer to themselves as the .
The first known written record in Spanish is by in 1598. The most widely accepted origin theory suggests ''Apache'' was borrowed and transliterated from the
Zuni word meaning "Navajos" (the plural of "Navajo").
[Other Zuni words identifying specific Apache groups are "White Mountain Apache" and "San Carlos Apache" (Newman, pp. 32, 63, 65; de Reuse, p. 385). ]J. P. Harrington
John Peabody Harrington (April 29, 1884 – October 21, 1961) was an American Linguistics, linguist and ethnologist and a specialist in the indigenous peoples of California. Harrington is noted for the massive volume of his documentary output, mo ...
reports that can also be used to refer to the Apache in general.
Another theory suggests the term comes from
Yavapai
The Yavapai are a Native American tribe in Arizona. Historically, the Yavapai – literally “people of the sun” (from ''Enyaava'' “sun” + ''Paay'' “people”) – were divided into four geographical bands who identified as separate, i ...
meaning "enemy". The Zuni and Yavapai sources are less certain because Oñate used the term before he had encountered any Zuni or Yavapai.
[de Reuse, p.385] A less likely origin may be from Spanish , meaning "raccoon".
The fame of the tribes' tenacity and fighting skills, probably bolstered by
dime novel
The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term ''dime novel'' has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, r ...
s, was widely known among Europeans. In early 20th century Parisian society, the word ''Apache'' was adopted into French, essentially meaning an outlaw.
The term ''Apachean'' includes the related
Navajo people
The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.
With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
.
Difficulties in naming
![Kathy Kitcheyan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Kathy_Kitcheyan.jpg)
Many of the historical names of Apache groups that were recorded by non-Apache are difficult to match to modern-day tribes or their subgroups. Over the centuries, many Spanish, French and English-speaking authors did not differentiate between Apache and other semi-nomadic non-Apache peoples who might pass through the same area. Most commonly, Europeans learned to identify the tribes by translating their
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
, what another group whom the Europeans encountered first called the Apache peoples. Europeans often did not learn what the peoples called themselves, their
autonym
Autonym may refer to:
* Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym
* Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name
See also
* Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...
s.
![William S](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/William_S._Soule_-_Pacer.jpg)
While
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
s agree on some traditional major subgrouping of Apaches, they have often used different criteria to name finer divisions, and these do not always match modern Apache groupings. Some scholars do not consider groups residing in what is now Mexico to be Apache. In addition, an Apache individual has different ways of identification with a group, such as a
band
Band or BAND may refer to:
Places
*Bánd, a village in Hungary
*Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
*Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania
* Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...
or
clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship
and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning ...
, as well as the larger tribe or language grouping, which can add to the difficulties in an outsider comprehending the distinctions.
In 1900, the US government classified the members of the Apache tribe in the United States as
Pinal Coyotero Pinal may refer to:
People
*Pinal or Pinaleño, a band of the Native American Apache tribe
*Silvia Pinal (born 1931), Mexican actress
*Pinal Shah (born 1987), Indian World Cup wicket-keeper
Places
*Pinal County, Arizona, United States
**Pinal ...
,
Jicarilla
Jicarilla Apache (, Jicarilla language: Jicarilla Dindéi), one of several loosely organized autonomous bands of the Eastern Apache, refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Atha ...
,
Mescalero
Mescalero or Mescalero Apache ( apm, Naa'dahéńdé) is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-cen ...
,
San Carlos,
Tonto
Tonto is a fictional character; he is the Native American (either Comanche or Potawatomi) companion of the Lone Ranger, a popular American Western character created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker. Tonto has appeared in radio and televi ...
, and
White Mountain Apache. The different groups were located in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
In the 1930s, the anthropologist
Greenville Goodwin Grenville Goodwin, born Greenville Goodwin (1907–1940), is best known for his participant observation, participant-observer ethnology work among the Apache, Western Apache in the 1930s in the American Southwest. Largely self-taught as an anthropol ...
classified the Western Apache into five groups (based on his informants' views of
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
and cultural differences): White Mountain, Cibecue, San Carlos, North Tonto, and South Tonto. Since then, other anthropologists (e.g.
Albert Schroeder
The Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses is the ruling council of Jehovah's Witnesses, based in the denomination's Warwick, New York, headquarters. The body formulates doctrines, oversees the production of written material for publications and ...
) consider Goodwin's classification inconsistent with pre-reservation cultural divisions.
Willem de Reuse finds linguistic evidence supporting only three major groupings: White Mountain, San Carlos, and Dilzhe'e (Tonto). He believes San Carlos is the most divergent dialect, and that Dilzhe'e is a remnant, intermediate member of a dialect continuum that previously spanned from the Western Apache language to the Navajo.
John Upton Terrell
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
classifies the Apache into western and eastern groups. In the western group, he includes Toboso, Cholome, Jocome, Sibolo or Cibola, Pelone, Manso, and Kiva or Kofa. He includes Chicame (the earlier term for Hispanized
Chicano
Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American ident ...
or New Mexicans of Spanish/
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...
and Apache descent) among them as having definite Apache connections or names which the Spanish associated with the Apache.
In a detailed study of
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
Catholic Church records, David M. Brugge identifies 15 tribal names which the Spanish used to refer to the Apache. These were drawn from records of about 1000 baptisms from 1704 to 1862.
List of names
The list below is based on Foster and McCollough (2001), Opler (1983b, 1983c, 2001), and de Reuse (1983).
The term ''Apache'' refers to six major Apache-speaking groups: Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Plains Apache, and Western Apache. Historically, the term was also used for
Comanche
The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...
s,
Mojaves,
Hualapai
The Hualapai (, , yuf-x-wal, Hwalbáy) is a federally recognized Native American tribe in Arizona with about 2300 enrolled members. Approximately 1353 enrolled members reside on the Hualapai Reservation, which spans over three counties in Nort ...
s, and
Yavapai
The Yavapai are a Native American tribe in Arizona. Historically, the Yavapai – literally “people of the sun” (from ''Enyaava'' “sun” + ''Paay'' “people”) – were divided into four geographical bands who identified as separate, i ...
s, none of whom speak Apache languages.
Chiricahua – Mimbreño – Ndendahe
*
Chiricahua
Chiricahua ( ) is a band of Apache Native Americans.
Based in the Southern Plains and Southwestern United States, the Chiricahua (Tsokanende ) are related to other Apache groups: Ndendahe (Mogollon, Carrizaleño), Tchihende (Mimbreño), Sehende ...
historically lived in Southeastern Arizona. Chíshí (also Tchishi) is a
Navajo
The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.
With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
word meaning "Chiricahua, southern Apaches in general".
**Ch'úúkʾanén, true Chiricahua (Tsokanende, also Č'ók'ánéń, Č'ó·k'anén, Chokonni, Cho-kon-nen, Cho Kŭnĕ́, Chokonen) is the Eastern Chiricahua band identified by
Morris Opler
Morris Edward Opler (May 3, 1907 – May 13, 1996), American anthropologist and advocate of Japanese American civil rights, was born in Buffalo, New York. He was the brother of Marvin Opler, an anthropologist and social psychiatrist.
Morris O ...
. The name is an
autonym
Autonym may refer to:
* Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym
* Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name
See also
* Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...
from the
Chiricahua language
Chiricahua (also known as Chiricahua Apache) is a Southern Athabaskan language spoken by the Chiricahua people in Chihuahua and Sonora, México and in Oklahoma and New Mexico. It is related to Navajo and Western Apache and has been described in ...
.
**Gileño (also Apaches de Gila, Apaches de Xila, Apaches de la Sierra de Gila, Xileños, Gilenas, Gilans, Gilanians, Gila Apache, Gilleños) referred to several different Apache and non-Apache groups at different times. ''Gila'' refers to either the
Gila River
The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of n ...
or the
Gila Mountains. Some of the Gila Apaches were probably later known as the Mogollon Apaches, a Central Apache sub-band, while others probably coalesced into the Chiricahua proper. But, since the term was used indiscriminately for all Apachean groups west of the Rio Grande (i.e. in southeast Arizona and western New Mexico), the reference in historical documents is often unclear. After 1722, Spanish documents start to distinguish between these different groups, in which case ''Apaches de Gila'' refers to the Western Apache living along the Gila River (synonymous with ''Coyotero''). American writers first used the term to refer to the Mimbres (another Central Apache subdivision).
*
Mimbreño are the Tchihende, not a ''Chiricahua'' band but a central Apache division sharing the same language with the Chiricahua and the Mescalero divisions, the name being referred to a central Apache division improperly considered as a section of Opler's "''Eastern Chiricahua'' band", and to Albert Schroeder's ''Mimbres'', or ''Warm Springs'' and ''Copper Mines'' "Chiricahua" bands in southwestern New Mexico.
**
Copper Mines Mimbreño (also Coppermine) were located on upper reaches of Gila River, New Mexico, having their center in the Pinos Altos area. (See also ''Gileño'' and ''Mimbreño''.)
**
Warm Springs Mimbreño (also Warmspring) were located on upper reaches of Gila River, New Mexico, having their center in the Ojo Caliente area. (See also ''Gileño'' and ''Mimbreño''.)
*
Ndendahe were a division comprising the Bedonkohe (Mogollon) group and the Nedhni (Carrizaleño and Janero) group, incorrectly called, sometimes, ''Southern Chirichua''.
**
Mogollon was considered by Schroeder to be a separate pre-reservation Chiricahua band, while Opler considered the Mogollon to be part of his ''Eastern Chiricahua'' band in New Mexico.
**
Nedhni were the southernest group of the Central Apache, having their center in the Carrizal (Carrizaleño) and Janos (Janero) areas, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
Jicarilla
Jicarilla
Jicarilla Apache (, Jicarilla language: Jicarilla Dindéi), one of several loosely organized autonomous bands of the Eastern Apache, refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Atha ...
primarily live in Northern New Mexico, Southern Colorado, and the
Texas Panhandle
The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a square-shaped area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. It is adjacent to ...
. The term ''jicarilla'' comes from the Spanish word for "little gourd."
*
Carlana (also Carlanes, Sierra Blanca) is
Raton Mesa
Raton Mesa is the collective name of several mesas on the eastern side of Raton Pass in New Mexico and Colorado. The name Raton Mesa or Mesas has sometimes been applied to all the mesas that extend east for along the Colorado-New Mexico border f ...
in Southeastern
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
. In 1726, they joined the
Cuartelejo and Paloma, and by the 1730s, they lived with the Jicarilla. The Llanero band of the Jicarilla or the Dáchizh-ó-zhn Jicarilla (defined by
James Mooney
James Mooney (February 10, 1861 – December 22, 1921) was an American ethnographer who lived for several years among the Cherokee. Known as "The Indian Man", he conducted major studies of Southeastern Indians, as well as of tribes on the Gr ...
) might descendants of the Carlana, Cuartelejo, and Paloma. Parts of the group were called Lipiyanes or Llaneros. In 1812, the term ''Carlana'' was used to mean Jicarilla. The Flechas de Palo might have been a part of or absorbed by the Carlana (or Cuartelejo).
Lipan
Lipan (also Ypandis, Ypandes, Ipandes, Ipandi, Lipanes, Lipanos, Lipaines, Lapane, Lipanis, etc.) live in Western Texas today. They traveled from the Pecos River in Eastern New Mexico to the
upper Colorado River,
San Saba River
The San Saba River is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. It is an undeveloped and scenic waterway located on the northern boundary of the Edwards Plateau.
Course
The river begins in two primary branches. The North Valley Prong runs east throu ...
and
Llano River
The Llano River ( ) is a tributary of the Colorado River (Texas), Colorado River, about long, in Texas in the United States. It drains part of the Edwards Plateau in Texas Hill Country northwest of Austin, Texas, Austin.
Two spring-fed tributa ...
of central Texas across the Edwards Plateau southeast to the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
. They were close allies of the Natagés. They were also called Plains Lipan (Golgahį́į́, Kó'l kukä'ⁿ, "Prairie Men"), not to be confused with ''Lipiyánes'' or ''Le Panis'' (French for the
Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language:
* Pawnee people
* Pawnee language
Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States:
* Pawnee, Illinois
* Pawnee, Kansas
* Pawnee, Missouri
* Pawnee City, Nebraska
* ...
). They were first mentioned in 1718 records as being near the newly established town of
San Antonio, Texas
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_t ...
.
*
Pelones ("Bald Ones") lived far from San Antonio and far to the northeast of the Ypandes near the
Red River of the South
The Red River, or sometimes the Red River of the South, is a major river in the Southern United States. It was named for its reddish water color from passing through red-bed country in its watershed. It is one of several rivers with that name ...
of North-Central Texas, although able to field 800 warriors, more than the ''Ypandes'' and ''Natagés'' together, they were described as less warlike because they had fewer horses than the Plains Lipan, their population were estimated between 1,600 and 2,400 persons, were the ''Forest Lipan'' division (''Chishį́į́hį́į́'', ''Tcici'', ''Tcicihi'' – "People of the Forest", after 1760 the name Pelones was never used by the Spanish for any Texas Apache group, the Pelones had fled for the Comanche south and southwest, but never mixed up with the Plains Lipan division – retaining their distinct identity, so that
Morris Opler
Morris Edward Opler (May 3, 1907 – May 13, 1996), American anthropologist and advocate of Japanese American civil rights, was born in Buffalo, New York. He was the brother of Marvin Opler, an anthropologist and social psychiatrist.
Morris O ...
was told by his Lipan informants in 1935 that their tribal name was "People of the Forest")
Mescalero
Mescalero
Mescalero or Mescalero Apache ( apm, Naa'dahéńdé) is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-cen ...
s primarily live in Eastern New Mexico.
*
Faraones
Mescalero or Mescalero Apache ( apm, Naa'dahéńdé) is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-c ...
(also Apaches Faraone, Paraonez, Pharaones, Taraones, or Taracones) is derived from Spanish ''Faraón'' meaning "Pharaoh." Before 1700, the name was vague. Between 1720 and 1726, it referred to Apache between the
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico.
The length of the Rio G ...
, the
Pecos River
The Pecos River ( es, Río Pecos) originates in north-central New Mexico and flows into Texas, emptying into the Rio Grande. Its headwaters are on the eastern slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Mora County north of Pecos, New Mexico ...
, the area around
Santa Fe, and the
Conchos River
The Río Conchos (Conchos River) is a large river in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It joins the Río Bravo del Norte (known in the United States as the Rio Grande) at the town of Ojinaga, Chihuahua.
Description
The Rio Conchos is the main riv ...
. After 1726, ''Faraones'' only referred to the groups of the north and central parts of this region. The Faraones like were part of the modern-day Mescalero or merged with them. After 1814, the term ''Faraones'' disappeared and was replaced by ''Mescalero''.
*
Sierra Blanca Mescalero
Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" and "saw", from Latin '' serra'') may refer to the following:
Places Mountains and mountain ranges
* Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico
* Sierra de las Nieves, a mountain range i ...
s were a northern Mescalero group from the Sierra Blanca Mountains, who roamed in what is now eastern New Mexico and western Texas.
*
Sacramento Mescaleros were a northern Mescalero group from the Sacramento and Organ Mountains, who roamed in what is now eastern New Mexico and western Texas.
*
Guadalupe Mescaleros. were a northern Mescalero group from the Guadalupe Mountains, who roamed in what is now eastern New Mexico and western Texas.
*
Limpia Mescaleros were a southern Mescalero group from the Limpia Mountains (later named as Davis Mountains) and roamed in what is now eastern New Mexico and western Texas.
*
Natagés
Mescalero or Mescalero Apache ( apm, Naa'dahéńdé) is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-ce ...
(also ''Natagees'', ''Apaches del Natafé'', ''Natagêes'', ''Yabipais Natagé'', ''Natageses'', ''Natajes'') is a term used from 1726 to 1820 to refer to the Faraón, Sierra Blanca, and Siete Ríos Apaches of southeastern New Mexico. In 1745, the Natagé are reported to have consisted of the Mescalero (around
El Paso
El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...
and the
Organ Mountains
The Organ Mountains (also known as La Sierra de los Órganos) are a rugged mountain range in southern New Mexico in the Southwestern United States. Organ Mountains–Desert Peaks National Monument was declared a national monument on May 21, 2014 ...
) and the
Salinero
IPS Salinero (formerly ''Keltec'' Salinero and ''Gestion'' Salinero; 6 May 1994 – December 2022) was a horse ridden by the Dutch equestrian Anky van Grunsven in the sport of dressage.
When Sjef Janssen noticed the potential the hors ...
(around
Rio Salado), but these were probably the same group, were oft called by the Spanish and Apaches themselves ''true Apaches'', had had a considerable influence on the decision making of some bands of the Western Lipan in the 18th century. After 1749, the term became synonymous with Mescalero, which eventually replaced it.
Ethnobotany
A full list of documented plant uses by the Mescalero tribe can be found at http://naeb.brit.org/uses/tribes/11/ (which also includes the Chiricahua; 198 documented plant uses) and http://naeb.brit.org/uses/tribes/12/ (83 documented uses).
Plains Apache
Plains Apache
The Plains Apache are a small Southern Athabaskan group who live on the Southern Plains of North America, in close association with the linguistically unrelated Kiowa Tribe. Today, they are centered in Southwestern Oklahoma and Northern Texas an ...
(Kiowa-Apache, Naisha, Naʼishandine) are headquartered in Southwest Oklahoma. Historically, they followed the
Kiowa
Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and eve ...
. Other names for them include Ná'įįsha, Ná'ęsha, Na'isha, Na'ishandine, Na-i-shan-dina, Na-ishi, Na-e-ca, Ną'ishą́, Nadeicha, Nardichia, Nadíisha-déna, Na'dí'į́shą́ʼ, Nądí'įįshąą, and Naisha.
*
Querechos
The Querechos were a Native American people.
In 1541 the Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and his army journeyed east from the Rio Grande Valley in search of a rich land called Quivira. Passing through what would later be the ...
referred to by Coronado in 1541, possibly Plains Apaches, at times maybe Navajo. Other early Spanish might have also called them Vaquereo or Llanero.
Western Apache
Western Apache
The Western Apache live primarily in east central Arizona, in the United States. Most live within reservations. The Fort Apache Indian Reservation, San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Tonto Apache, and the Fort McDowe ...
include Northern Tonto, Southern Tonto, Cibecue, White Mountain and San Carlos groups. While these subgroups spoke the same language and had kinship ties, Western Apaches considered themselves as separate from each other, according to Goodwin. Other writers have used this term to refer to all non-Navajo Apachean peoples living west of the Rio Grande (thus failing to distinguish the Chiricahua from the other Apacheans). Goodwin's formulation: "all those Apache peoples who have lived within the present boundaries of the state of Arizona during historic times with the exception of the Chiricahua, Warm Springs, and allied Apache, and a small band of Apaches known as the Apache Mansos, who lived in the vicinity of
Tucson
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
."
*
Cibecue
Cibecue ( apw, Dishchiiʼ Bikoh "Horizontally Red Valley/Canyon") is a census-designated place (CDP) in Navajo County, Arizona, United States, on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. The population was 1,713 in the 2010 United States Census.
The c ...
is a Western Apache group, according to Goodwin, from north of the
Salt River between the Tonto and White Mountain Apache, consisting of Ceder Creek, Carrizo, and Cibecue (proper) bands.
*
San Carlos. A Western Apache group that ranged closest to Tucson according to Goodwin. This group consisted of the Apache Peaks, Arivaipa, Pinal, San Carlos (proper) bands.
**
Arivaipa (also Aravaipa) is a band of the San Carlos Apache. Schroeder believes the Arivaipa were a separate people in pre-reservation times. ''Arivaipa'' is a Hispanized word from the
O'odham language
The O'odham peoples, including the Tohono O'odham, the Pima or Akimel O'odham, and the Hia C-ed O'odham, are indigenous Uto-Aztecan peoples of the Sonoran desert in southern and central Arizona and northern Sonora, united by a common heritage ...
. The Arivaipa are known as ''Tsézhiné'' ("Black Rock") in the
Western Apache language
The Western Apache language is a Southern Athabaskan language spoken among the 14,000 Western Apaches in Mexico in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua and in east-central Arizona. There are approximately 6,000 speakers living on the San Carlos Re ...
.
**
Pinal (also ''Pinaleño''). One of the bands of the San Carlos group of Western Apache, described by Goodwin. Also used along with ''Coyotero'' to refer more generally to one of two major Western Apache divisions. Some Pinaleño were referred to as the ''Gila Apache''.
*
Tonto
Tonto is a fictional character; he is the Native American (either Comanche or Potawatomi) companion of the Lone Ranger, a popular American Western character created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker. Tonto has appeared in radio and televi ...
. Goodwin divided into Northern Tonto and Southern Tonto groups, living in the north and west areas of the Western Apache groups according to Goodwin. This is north of Phoenix, north of the Verde River. Schroeder has suggested that the Tonto are originally Yavapais who assimilated Western Apache culture. Tonto is one of the major dialects of the Western Apache language. Tonto Apache speakers are traditionally bilingual in Western Apache and
Yavapai
The Yavapai are a Native American tribe in Arizona. Historically, the Yavapai – literally “people of the sun” (from ''Enyaava'' “sun” + ''Paay'' “people”) – were divided into four geographical bands who identified as separate, i ...
. Goodwin's Northern Tonto consisted of Bald Mountain, Fossil Creek, Mormon Lake, and Oak Creek bands; Southern Tonto consisted of the Mazatzal band and unidentified "semi-bands".
*
White Mountain are the easternmost group of the Western Apache, according to Goodwin, who included the Eastern White Mountain and Western White Mountain Apache.
**
Coyotero
The Fort Apache Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation on the border of New Mexico and Arizona, United States, encompassing parts of Navajo, Gila, and Apache counties. It is home to the federally recognized White Mountain Apache Tribe of ...
refers to a southern pre-reservation White Mountain group of the Western Apache, but has also been used more widely to refer to the Apache in general, Western Apache, or an Apache band in the high plains of Southern Colorado to
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
.
Ethnobotany
*A full list of 134 ethnobotany plant uses for Western Apache can be found at http://naeb.brit.org/uses/tribes/14/.
*A full list of 165 ethnobotany plant uses for White Mountain Apache can be found at http://naeb.brit.org/uses/tribes/15/.
*A full list of 14 ethnobotany plant uses for the San Carlos Apache can be found at http://naeb.brit.org/uses/tribes/13/.
Other terms
*
Llanero
A (, ‘plainsman’) is a South American herder. The name is taken from the Llanos grasslands occupying eastern Colombia and western-central Venezuela.
During the Spanish American wars of independence, lancers and cavalry served in both ar ...
is a Spanish-language borrowing meaning "plains dweller". The name referred to several different groups who hunted buffalo on the
Great Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
. (See also ''Carlanas''.)
*
Lipiyánes
Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan languages, Southern Athabaskan Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people, who have lived in the Oasisamerica, Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of Europe ...
(also Lipiyán, Lipillanes). A coalition of splinter groups of Nadahéndé (Natagés), Guhlkahéndé, and Lipan of the 18th century under the leadership of Picax-Ande-Ins-Tinsle ("Strong Arm"), who fought the Comanche on the Plains. This term is not to be confused with ''Lipan''.
History
Entry into the Southwest
![Western or chiri apache playing cards NMAI](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Western_or_chiri_apache_playing_cards_NMAI.jpg)
The Apache and
Navajo
The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.
With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
tribal groups of the North American Southwest speak related languages of the
Athabaskan
Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific C ...
language family.
Other Athabaskan-speaking people in North America continue to reside in
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
, western
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, and the
Northwest Pacific Coast.
[ Anthropological evidence suggests that the Apache and Navajo peoples lived in these same northern locales before migrating to the Southwest sometime between AD 1200 and 1500.][
The Apaches' nomadic way of life complicates accurate dating, primarily because they constructed less substantial dwellings than other Southwestern groups. Since the early 21st century, substantial progress has been made in dating and distinguishing their dwellings and other forms of material culture. They left behind a more austere set of tools and material goods than other Southwestern cultures.
The Athabaskan-speaking group probably moved into areas that were concurrently occupied or recently abandoned by other cultures. Other Athabaskan speakers, perhaps including the Southern Athabaskan, adapted many of their neighbors' technology and practices in their own cultures. Thus sites where early Southern Athabaskans may have lived are difficult to locate and even more difficult to firmly identify as culturally Southern Athabaskan. Recent advances have been made in the regard in the far southern portion of the American Southwest.
There are several hypotheses about Apache migrations. One posits that they moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In the mid-16th century, these mobile groups lived in tents, hunted ]bison
Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised.
Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...
and other game, and used dogs to pull travois
A travois (; Canadian French, from French , a frame for restraining horses; also obsolete travoy or travoise) is a historical frame structure that was used by indigenous peoples, notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America, to drag loads ov ...
loaded with their possessions. Substantial numbers of the people and a wide range were recorded by the Spanish in the 16th century.
In April 1541, while traveling on the plains east of the Pueblo
In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...
region, Francisco Coronado
Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''.
Nicknames
In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco (name), Paco". Francis of Assisi, San Francisco de Asís was known as '' ...
referred to the people as "dog nomad
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...
s." He wrote:
The Spanish described Plains dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
s as very white, with black spots, and "not much larger than water spaniels."[Henderson] Plains dogs were slightly smaller than those used for hauling loads by modern Inuit and northern First Nations people in Canada. Recent experiments show these dogs may have pulled loads up to 50 lb (20 kg) on long trips, at rates as high as two or three miles per hour (3 to 5 km/h). The Plains migration theory associates the Apache peoples with the Dismal River culture
The Dismal River culture refers to a set of cultural attributes first seen in the Dismal River area of Nebraska in the 1930s by archaeologists William Duncan Strong, Waldo Rudolph Wedel and A. T. Hill. Also known as Dismal River aspect and Dism ...
, an archaeological culture
An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of types of artifacts, buildings and monuments from a specific period and region that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between thes ...
known primarily from ceramics and house remains, dated 1675–1725, which has been excavated in Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
, eastern Colorado, and western Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
.
Although the first documentary sources mention the Apache, and historians have suggested some passages indicate a 16th-century entry from the north, archaeological data indicate they were present on the plains long before this first reported contact.
A competing theory posits their migration south, through the Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
, ultimately reaching the American Southwest by the 14th century or perhaps earlier. An archaeological material culture assemblage identified in this mountainous zone as ancestral Apache has been referred to as the "Cerro Rojo complex". This theory does not preclude arrival via a plains route as well, perhaps concurrently, but to date the earliest evidence has been found in the mountainous Southwest. The Plains Apache have a significant Southern Plains cultural influence.
When the Spanish arrived in the area, trade between the long established Pueblo peoples and the Southern Athabaskan was well established. They reported the Pueblo exchanged maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
and woven cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
goods for bison meat, and hides and materials for stone tools. Coronado observed the Plains people wintering near the Pueblo in established camps. Later Spanish sovereignty over the area disrupted trade between the Pueblo and the diverging Apache and Navajo groups. The Apache quickly acquired horses, improving their mobility for quick raids on settlements. In addition, the Pueblo were forced to work Spanish mission lands and care for mission flocks; they had fewer surplus goods to trade with their neighbors.
In 1540, Coronado reported that the modern Western Apache area was uninhabited, although some scholars have argued that he simply did not see the American Indians. Other Spanish explorers first mention "Querechos" living west of the Rio Grande in the 1580s. To some historians, this implies the Apaches moved into their current Southwestern homelands in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Other historians note that Coronado reported that Pueblo women and children had often been evacuated by the time his party attacked their dwellings, and that he saw some dwellings had been recently abandoned as he moved up the Rio Grande. This might indicate the semi-nomadic Southern Athabaskan had advance warning about his hostile approach and evaded encounter with the Spanish. Archaeologists are finding ample evidence of an early proto-Apache presence in the Southwestern mountain zone in the 15th century and perhaps earlier. The Apache presence on both the Plains and in the mountainous Southwest indicate that the people took multiple early migration routes.
Conflict with Mexico and the United States
In general, the recently arrived Spanish colonists, who settled in villages, and Apache bands developed a pattern of interaction over a few centuries. Both raided and traded with each other. Records of the period seem to indicate that relationships depended on the specific villages and bands: a band might be friends with one village and raid another. When war occurred, the Spanish would send troops; after a battle both sides would "sign a treaty" and go home.
The traditional and sometimes treacherous relationships continued after the independence of Mexico in 1821. By 1835 Mexico had placed a bounty on Apache scalps (see scalping
Scalping is the act of cutting or tearing a part of the human scalp, with hair attached, from the head, and generally occurred in warfare with the scalp being a trophy. Scalp-taking is considered part of the broader cultural practice of the tak ...
), but certain villages still traded with some bands. When Juan José Compà
''Juan'' is a given name
A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members ...
, the leader of the Copper Mines Mimbreño Apaches, was killed for bounty money in 1837, ''Mangas Coloradas
Mangas Coloradas or Mangus-Colorado (La-choy Ko-kun-noste, alias "Red Sleeve"), or Dasoda-hae ("He Just Sits There") (c. 1793 – January 18, 1863) was an Apache tribal chief and a member of the Mimbreño (Tchihende) division of the Central ...
'' (Red Sleeves) or ''Dasoda-hae'' (He just sits there) became the principal chief and war leader; also in 1837 Soldado Fiero (a.k.a. Fuerte), leader of the Warm Springs Mimbreño Apaches, was killed by Mexican soldiers near Janos, and his son ''Cuchillo Negro
Baishan, Spanish name Cuchillo Negro (Black Knife) (c. 1796 – May 24, 1857), was a Tchihende ( Mimbres) Apache chieftain, of the Warm Springs Apache Band during the 1830s to 1850s.
Apache war-leader and chief
Baishan ("Knife"), son of the ...
'' (Black Knife) became the principal chief and war leader. They (being now Mangas Coloradas the first chief and Cuchillo Negro the second chief of the whole Tchihende or Mimbreño people) conducted a series of retaliatory raids against the Mexicans. By 1856, authorities in horse-rich Durango
Durango (), officially named Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Durango; Tepehuán: ''Korian''; Nahuatl: ''Tepēhuahcān''), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in ...
would claim that Indian raids (mostly Comanche and Apache) in their state had taken nearly 6,000 lives, abducted 748 people, and forced the abandonment of 358 settlements over the previous 20 years.
When the United States went to war against Mexico in 1846, many Apache bands promised U.S. soldiers safe passage through their lands. When the U.S. claimed former territories of Mexico in 1846, ''Mangas Coloradas'' signed a peace treaty with the nation, respecting them as conquerors of the Mexicans' land. An uneasy peace with U.S. citizens held until the 1850s. An influx of gold miners into the Santa Rita Mountains
The Santa Rita Mountains (O'odham language, O'odham: To:wa Kuswo Doʼag), located about 65 km (40 mi) southeast of Tucson, Arizona, extend 42 km (26 mi) from north to south, then trending southeast. They merge again southeastw ...
led to conflict with the Apache. This period is sometimes called the Apache Wars
The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States Army and various Apache tribal confederations fought in the southwest between 1849 and 1886, though minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. After the Mexic ...
.
United States' concept of a reservation had not been used by the Spanish, Mexicans or other Apache neighbors before. Reservations were often badly managed, and bands that had no kinship relationships were forced to live together. No fences existed to keep people in or out. It was common for a band to be allowed to leave for a short period of time. Other times a band would leave without permission, to raid, return to their homeland to forage, or to simply get away. The U.S. military usually had forts nearby to keep the bands on the reservations by finding and returning those who left. The reservation policies of the U.S. caused conflict and war with the various Apache bands who left the reservations for almost another quarter century.
War between the Apache peoples and Euro-Americans has led to a stereotypical focus on certain aspects of Apache cultures. These have often been distorted through misunderstanding of their cultures, as noted by anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
Keith Basso
Keith Hamilton Basso (March 15, 1940 – August 4, 2013) was a cultural and linguistic anthropologist noted for his study of the Western Apaches, specifically those from the community of Cibecue, Arizona. Basso was professor emeritus of anthropolo ...
:
Forced removal
In 1875, United States military forced the removal of an estimated 1500 Yavapai
The Yavapai are a Native American tribe in Arizona. Historically, the Yavapai – literally “people of the sun” (from ''Enyaava'' “sun” + ''Paay'' “people”) – were divided into four geographical bands who identified as separate, i ...
and Dilzhe'e Apache (better known as ''Tonto Apache'') from the Rio Verde Indian Reserve and its several thousand acres of treaty lands promised to them by the United States government. At the orders of Indian Commissioner L.E. Dudley, U.S. Army troops made the people, young and old, walk through winter-flooded rivers, mountain passes and narrow canyon trails to get to the Indian Agency at San Carlos, away. The trek killed several hundred people. The people were interned there for 25 years while white settlers took over their land. Only a few hundred ever returned to their lands. At the San Carlos reservation, the Buffalo soldiers
Buffalo Soldiers originally were members of the 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, formed on September 21, 1866, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This nickname was given to the Black Cavalry by Native American tribes who fought in t ...
of the 9th Cavalry Regiment
The 9th Cavalry Regiment is a parent cavalry regiment of the United States Army. It is not related to the 9th Kansas Cavalry Regiment of the Union Army. Historically, it was one of the Army's four segregated African-American regiments and was pa ...
—replacing the 8th Cavalry who were being stationed to Texas—guarded the Apaches from 1875 to 1881.
Beginning in 1879, an Apache uprising against the reservation system led to Victorio's War
Victorios War, or the Victorio Campaign, was an armed conflict between the Apache followers of Chief Victorio, the United States, and Mexico beginning in September 1879. Faced with arrest and forcible relocation from his homeland in New Mexico t ...
between Chief Victorio's band of Apaches and the 9th Cavalry.
Defeat
Most United States' histories of this era report that the final defeat of an Apache band took place when 5,000 US troops forced Geronimo
Geronimo ( apm, Goyaałé, , ; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a prominent leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache ba ...
's group of 30 to 50 men, women and children to surrender on September 4, 1886, at Skeleton Canyon
Skeleton Canyon, called Cañon Bonita by the Mexicans, is located northeast of the town of Douglas, Arizona, in the Peloncillo Mountains, which straddle the modern Arizona and New Mexico state line, in the New Mexico Bootheel region.
This can ...
, Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
. The Army sent this band and the Chiricahua scouts who had tracked them to military confinement in Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
at Fort Pickens
Fort Pickens is a pentagonal historic United States military fort on Santa Rosa Island in the Pensacola, Florida, area. It is named after American Revolutionary War hero Andrew Pickens. The fort was completed in 1834 and was one of the few ...
and, subsequently, Ft. Sill
Fort Sill is a United States Army post north of Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles (136.8 km) southwest of Oklahoma City. It covers almost .
The fort was first built during the Indian Wars. It is designated as a National Historic Landmark ...
, Oklahoma.
Many books were written on the stories of hunting and trapping during the late 19th century. Many of these stories involve Apache raids and the failure of agreements with Americans and Mexicans. In the post-war era, the US government arranged for Apache children to be taken from their families for adoption by white American
White Americans are Americans who identify as and are perceived to be white people. This group constitutes the majority of the people in the United States. As of the 2020 Census, 61.6%, or 204,277,273 people, were white alone. This represented ...
s in assimilation programs.
Pre-reservation culture
Social organization
All Apache peoples lived in extended family units (or ''family clusters''); they usually lived close together, with each nuclear family in separate dwellings. An extended family generally consisted of a husband and wife, their unmarried children, their married daughters, their married daughters' husbands, and their married daughters' children. Thus, the extended family is connected through a lineage of women who live together (that is, matrilocal residence), into which men may enter upon marriage (leaving behind his parents' family).
When a daughter married, a new dwelling was built nearby for her and her husband. Among the Navajo, residence rights are ultimately derived from a head mother. Although the Western Apache usually practiced matrilocal residence, sometimes the eldest son chose to bring his wife to live with his parents after marriage. All tribes practiced sororate and levirate
Levirate marriage is a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obliged to marry his brother's widow. Levirate marriage has been practiced by societies with a strong clan structure in which exogamous marriage (i.e. marriage out ...
marriages.
Apache men practiced varying degrees of "avoidance" of his wife's close relatives, a practice often most strictly observed by distance between mother-in-law and son-in-law. The degree of avoidance differed by Apache group. The most elaborate system was among the Chiricahua, where men had to use indirect polite speech toward and were not allowed to be within visual sight of the wife's female relatives, whom he had to avoid. His female Chiricahua relatives through marriage also avoided him.
Several extended families worked together as a "local group", which carried out certain ceremonies, and economic and military activities. Political control was mostly present at the local group level. Local groups were headed by a chief
Chief may refer to:
Title or rank
Military and law enforcement
* Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force
* Chief of police, the head of a police department
* Chief of the boa ...
, a male who had much influence due to his effectiveness and reputation. The position was not hereditary
Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic inform ...
, and was often filled by members of different extended families. The chief's influence was as strong as he was evaluated to be—no group member was obliged to follow the chief. Western Apache criteria for a good chief included: industriousness, generosity, impartiality, forbearance, conscientiousness, and eloquence in language.
Many Apache peoples joined several local groups into " bands". Banding was strongest among the Chiricahua and Western Apache, and weak among the Lipan and Mescalero. The Navajo did not organize into bands, perhaps because of the requirements of the sheepherd
A shepherd or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. ''Shepherd'' derives from Old English ''sceaphierde (''sceap'' 'sheep' + ''hierde'' ' herder'). ''Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations, ...
ing economy. However, the Navajo did have "the outfit", a group of relatives that was larger than the extended family, but smaller than a local group community or a band.
On a larger level, Western Apache bands organized into what Grenville Goodwin
Grenville W. "Gren" Goodwin (1898 – 27 August 1951) was Mayor of Ottawa for several months in 1951. His hometown was Prescott, Ontario and he was an optometrist by profession. He moved to Ottawa in 1911. He served in France during World ...
called "groups". He reported five groups for the Western Apache: Northern Tonto, Southern Tonto, Cibecue, San Carlos, and White Mountain. The Jicarilla grouped their bands into " moieties", perhaps influenced by the northeastern Pueblo
In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...
. The Western Apache and Navajo also had a system of matrilineal
Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's Lineage (anthropology), lineage – and which can in ...
"clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship
and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning ...
s" organized further into ''phratries
In ancient Greece, a phratry ( grc, φρᾱτρῐ́ᾱ, phrātríā, brotherhood, kinfolk, derived from grc, φρᾱ́τηρ, phrā́tēr, brother, links=no) was a group containing citizens in some city-states. Their existence is known in most I ...
'' (perhaps influenced by the western Pueblo).
The notion of "tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...
" in Apache cultures is very weakly developed; essentially it was only a recognition "that one owed a modicum of hospitality to those of the same speech, dress, and customs." The six Apache tribes had political independence from each other and even fought against each other. For example, the Lipan once fought against the Mescalero.
Kinship systems
The Apache tribes have two distinctly different kinship term
Kinship terminology is the system used in languages to refer to the persons to whom an individual is related through kinship. Different societies classify kinship relations differently and therefore use different systems of kinship terminology; ...
systems: a ''Chiricahua type'' and a ''Jicarilla type.'' The Chiricahua-type system is used by the Chiricahua, Mescalero, and Western Apache. The Western Apache system differs slightly from the other two systems, and has some similarities to the Navajo system.
The Jicarilla type, which is similar to the Dakota
Dakota may refer to:
* Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux
** Dakota language, their language
Dakota may also refer to:
Places United States
* Dakota, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Dakota, Illinois, a town
* Dakota, Minnesota, a ...
–Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
kinship systems, is used by the Jicarilla, Navajo, Lipan, and Plains Apache. The Navajo system is more divergent among the four, having similarities with the Chiricahua-type system. The Lipan and Plains Apache systems are very similar.
=Chiricahua
=
The Chiricahua language has four words for grandparent
Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually-reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a maximum of four genetic gra ...
: ''-chú''[All kinship terms in Apache languages are inherently possessed, which means they must be preceded by a possessive ]prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...
. This is signified by the preceding hyphen. "maternal grandmother", ''-tsúyé'' "maternal grandfather", ''-chʼiné'' "paternal grandmother", ''-nálé'' "paternal grandfather". Additionally, a grandparent's siblings are identified by the same word; thus, one's maternal grandmother, one's maternal grandmother's sisters, and one's maternal grandmother's brothers are all called ''-chú''. Furthermore, the grandchild terms are reciprocal, that is, one uses the same term to refer to their grandchild. For example, a person's maternal grandmother is called ''-chú'' and that grandmother also calls that granddaughter ''-chú'' (i.e. ''-chú'' can mean the child of either your own daughter or your sibling's daughter.)
Chiricahua cousins are not distinguished from sibling
A sibling is a relative that shares at least one parent with the subject. A male sibling is a brother and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child.
While some circumstances can cause siblings to be raised separat ...
s through kinship terms. Thus, the same word refers to either a sibling or a cousin
Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, " ...
(there are not separate terms for parallel-cousin
In discussing consanguineal kinship in anthropology, a parallel cousin or ortho-cousin is a cousin from a parent's same-sex sibling, while a cross-cousin is from a parent's opposite-sex sibling. Thus, a parallel cousin is the child of the father's ...
and cross-cousin
In discussing consanguineal kinship in anthropology, a parallel cousin or ortho-cousin is a cousin from a parent's same-sex sibling, while a cross-cousin is from a parent's opposite-sex sibling. Thus, a parallel cousin is the child of the father's ...
). The terms depend on the sex of the speaker (unlike the English terms ''brother'' and ''sister''): ''-kʼis'' "same-sex sibling or same-sex cousin", ''-´-ląh'' "opposite-sex sibling or opposite-sex cousin". This means if one is a male, then one's brother is called ''-kʼis'' and one's sister is called ''-´-ląh''. If one is a female, then one's brother is called ''-´-ląh'' and one's sister is called ''-kʼis''. Chiricahuas in a ''-´-ląh'' relationship observed great restraint and respect toward that relative; cousins (but not siblings) in a ''-´-ląh'' relationship may practice total ''avoidance''.
Two different words are used for each parent according to sex: ''-mááʼ'' "mother", ''-taa'' "father". Likewise, there are two words for a parent's child according to sex: ''-yáchʼeʼ'' "daughter", ''-gheʼ'' "son".
A parent's siblings are classified together regardless of sex: ''-ghúyé'' "maternal aunt or uncle (mother's brother or sister)", ''-deedééʼ'' "paternal aunt or uncle (father's brother or sister)". These two terms are reciprocal like the grandparent/grandchild terms. Thus, ''-ghúyé'' also refers to one's opposite-sex sibling's son or daughter (that is, a person will call their maternal aunt ''-ghúyé'' and that aunt will call them ''-ghúyé'' in return).
Ethnobotany
A list of 198 ethnobotany plant uses for the Chiricahua can be found at http://naeb.brit.org/uses/tribes/11/, which also includes the Mescalero.
=Jicarilla
=
Unlike the Chiricahua system, the Jicarilla have only two terms for grandparents according to sex: ''-chóó'' "grandmother", ''-tsóyéé'' "grandfather". They do not have separate terms for maternal or paternal grandparents. The terms are also used of a grandparent's siblings according to sex. Thus, ''-chóó'' refers to one's grandmother or one's grand-aunt (either maternal or paternal); ''-tsóyéé'' refers to one's grandfather or one's grand-uncle. These terms are not reciprocal. There is a single word for grandchild (regardless of sex): ''-tsóyí̱í̱''.
There are two terms for each parent. These terms also refer to that parent's same-sex sibling: ''-ʼnííh'' "mother or maternal aunt (mother's sister)", ''-kaʼéé'' "father or paternal uncle (father's brother)". Additionally, there are two terms for a parent's opposite-sex sibling depending on sex: ''-daʼá̱á̱'' "maternal uncle (mother's brother)", ''-béjéé'' "paternal aunt (father's sister).
Two terms are used for same-sex and opposite-sex siblings. These terms are also used for parallel-cousin
In discussing consanguineal kinship in anthropology, a parallel cousin or ortho-cousin is a cousin from a parent's same-sex sibling, while a cross-cousin is from a parent's opposite-sex sibling. Thus, a parallel cousin is the child of the father's ...
s: ''-kʼisé'' "same-sex sibling or same-sex parallel cousin (i.e. same-sex father's brother's child or mother's sister's child)", ''-´-láh'' "opposite-sex sibling or opposite parallel cousin (i.e. opposite-sex father's brother's child or mother's sister's child)". These two terms can also be used for cross-cousin
In discussing consanguineal kinship in anthropology, a parallel cousin or ortho-cousin is a cousin from a parent's same-sex sibling, while a cross-cousin is from a parent's opposite-sex sibling. Thus, a parallel cousin is the child of the father's ...
s. There are also three sibling terms based on the age relative to the speaker: ''-ndádéé'' "older sister", ''-´-naʼá̱á̱'' "older brother", ''-shdá̱zha'' "younger sibling (i.e. younger sister or brother)". Additionally, there are separate words for cross-cousins: ''-zeedń'' "cross-cousin (either same-sex or opposite-sex of speaker)", ''-iłnaaʼaash'' "male cross-cousin" (only used by male speakers).
A parent's child is classified with their same-sex sibling's or same-sex cousin's child: ''-zhácheʼe'' "daughter, same-sex sibling's daughter, same-sex cousin's daughter", ''-gheʼ'' "son, same-sex sibling's son, same-sex cousin's son". There are different words for an opposite-sex sibling's child: ''-daʼá̱á̱'' "opposite-sex sibling's daughter", ''-daʼ'' "opposite-sex sibling's son".
Housing
Apache lived in three types of houses. Teepee
A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan, and in use in Dakhótiyapi, Lakȟó ...
s were common in the plains. Wickiups
A wigwam, wickiup, wetu (Wampanoag), or wiigiwaam (Ojibwe, in syllabics: ) is a semi-permanent domed dwelling formerly used by certain Native American tribes and First Nations people and still used for ceremonial events. The term ''wickiup'' ...
were common in the highlands; these were framed of wood held together with yucca fibers and covered in brush. If a family member died, the wickiup would be burned. Apache of the desert of northern Mexico lived in hogan
A hogan ( or ; from Navajo ' ) is the primary, traditional dwelling of the Navajo people. Other traditional structures include the summer shelter, the underground home, and the sweat house. A hogan can be round, cone-shaped, multi-sided, or sq ...
s, an earthen structure for keeping cool.
Below is a description of Chiricahua wickiups recorded by anthropologist Morris Opler:
Recent research has documented the archaeological remains of Chiricahua Apache wickiups as found on protohistoric and at historical sites, such as Canon de los Embudos where C.S. Fly photographed Geronimo, his people, and dwellings during surrender negotiations in 1886, demonstrating their unobtrusive and improvised nature."
Food
Apache people obtained food from four main sources:
* hunting wild animals,
* gathering wild plants,
* growing domesticated plants
* trading with or raiding neighboring tribes for livestock and agricultural products.
Particular types of foods eaten by a group depending upon their respective environment.
Hunting
Hunting was done primarily by men, although there were sometimes exceptions depending on animal and culture (e.g. Lipan women could help in hunting rabbits and Chiricahua boys were also allowed to hunt rabbits).
Hunting often had elaborate preparations, such as fasting
Fasting is the abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (see " Breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after ...
and religious rituals performed by medicine men
A medicine man is a traditional healer and spiritual leader among the indigenous people of the Americas.
Medicine Man or The Medicine Man may also refer to:
Films
* ''The Medicine Man'' (1917 film), an American silent film directed by Clifford S ...
before and after the hunt. In Lipan culture, since deer were protected by Mountain Spirits, great care was taken in Mountain Spirit rituals to ensure smooth hunting. Slaughter follows religious guidelines (many of which are recorded in religious stories) prescribing cutting, prayers, and bone disposal. Southern Athabascan hunters often distributed successfully slaughtered game. For example, among the Mescalero a hunter was expected to share as much as half of his kill with a fellow hunter and needy people at the camp. Feelings of individuals about this practice spoke of social obligation and spontaneous generosity.
The most common hunting weapon before the introduction of European guns was the bow and arrow
The bow and arrow is a ranged weapon system consisting of an elastic launching device (bow) and long-shafted projectiles ( arrows). Humans used bows and arrows for hunting and aggression long before recorded history, and the practice was comm ...
. Various hunting techniques were used. Some involved wearing animal head masks as a disguise. Whistles were sometimes used to lure animals closer. Another technique was the relay method where hunters positioned at various points would chase the prey in turns in order to tire the animal. A similar method involved chasing the prey down a steep cliff.
Eating certain animals was taboo. Although different cultures had different taboos, common examples included bears, peccaries, turkeys, fish, snakes, insects, owls, and coyotes. An example of taboo differences: the black bear was a part of the Lipan diet (although less common as buffalo, deer, or antelope), but the Jicarilla never ate bear because it was considered an evil animal. Some taboos were a regional phenomenon, such as fish, which was taboo throughout the southwest (e.g. in certain Pueblo cultures like the Hopi
The Hopi are a Native American ethnic group who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, there are 19,338 Hopi in the country. The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation within the Unite ...
and Zuni) and considered to resemble a snake (an evil animal) in physical appearance.
Western Apache hunted deer and pronghorn
The pronghorn (, ) (''Antilocapra americana'') is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed, hoofed) mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American a ...
s mostly in the ideal late fall. After the meat was smoked into jerky around November, they migrated from the farm sites in the mountains along stream banks to winter camps in the Salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...
, Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
, Gila river
The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of n ...
and even the Colorado River valleys.
The Chiricahua mostly hunted deer followed by pronghorn. Lesser game included cottontail rabbit
Cottontail rabbits are the leporid species in the genus ''Sylvilagus'', found in the Americas. Most ''Sylvilagus'' species have stub tails with white undersides that show when they retreat, giving them their characteristic name. However, this ...
s (but not jack rabbit
Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live Solitary animal, solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are precociality, able to fend for themselves ...
s), opossum
Opossums () are members of the marsupial order Didelphimorphia () endemic to the Americas. The largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, it comprises 93 species in 18 genera. Opossums originated in South America and entered North ...
s, squirrels, surplus horses, surplus mules, ''wapiti'' (elk), wild cattle and wood rat
''Wood Rat'' is the 1st combination of the sexagenary cycle of the Chinese zodiac.
Years of the Wood Rat
The year in which the Western calendar year is divided by 60 and the year with an excess of 4 is the year of the Wood Rat.
Overview
It ...
s.
The Mescalero primarily hunted deer. Other game includes: bighorn sheep
The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of sheep native to North America. It is named for its large horns. A pair of horns might weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subspec ...
, buffalo (for those living closer to the plains), cottontail rabbits, elk, horses, mules, opossums, pronghorn, wild steers and wood rats. Beavers, minks, muskrats, and weasels were hunted for their hides but body parts but were not eaten.
The Jicarilla primarily hunted bighorn sheep, buffalo, deer, elk and pronghorn. Other game included beaver, bighorn sheep, chief hares, chipmunks, doves, ground hogs, grouse, peccaries, porcupines, prairie dogs, quail, rabbits, skunks, snow birds, squirrels, turkeys and wood rats. Burros and horses were only eaten in emergencies. Minks, weasels, wildcats and wolves were not eaten but hunted for their body parts.
The Lipan ate mostly buffalo with a three-week hunt during the fall and smaller hunts until the spring. The second most utilized animal was deer. Fresh deer blood was drunk for health. Other animals included beavers, bighorns, black bears, burros, ducks, elk, fish, horses, mountain lions, mourning doves, mules, prairie dogs, pronghorns, quail, rabbits, squirrels, turkeys, turtles and wood rats. Skunks were eaten only in emergencies.
Plains Apache hunters hunted primarily buffalo and deer. Other game were badgers, bears, beavers, fowls, geese, opossums, otters, rabbits and turtles.
Clothing
Influenced by the Plains Indians, Western Apaches wore animal hide decorated with seed beads for clothing. These beaded designs historically resembled that of the Great Basin Paiute and is characterized by linear patterning. Apache beaded clothing was bordered with narrow bands of glass seed bead
Seed beads or rocailles are uniformly shaped, spheroidal beads ranging in size from under a millimeter to several millimeters. ''Seed bead'' is also a generic term for any small bead. Usually rounded in shape, seed beads are most commonly used fo ...
s in diagonal stripes of alternating colors. They made buckskin shirts, ponchos, skirts and moccasins and decorated them with colorful beadwork.
Undomesticated plants and other food sources
The gathering of plants and other food was primarily done by women. The men's job was usually to hunt animals such as deer, buffalo, and small game. However, men helped in certain gathering activities, such as of heavy agave
''Agave'' (; ; ) is a genus of monocots native to the hot and arid regions of the Americas and the Caribbean, although some ''Agave'' species are also native to tropical areas of North America, such as Mexico. The genus is primarily known for ...
crowns. Numerous plants were used as both food and medicine and in religious ceremonies. Other plants were used for only their religious or medicinal value.
In May, the Western Apache baked and dried agave crowns pounded into pulp and formed into rectangular cakes. At the end of June and beginning of July, saguaro
The saguaro (, ) (''Carnegiea gigantea'') is a tree-like cactus species in the monotypic genus ''Carnegiea'' that can grow to be over tall. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains a ...
, prickly pear, and cholla fruits were gathered. In July and August, mesquite
Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus ''Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas.
They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under grou ...
beans, Spanish bayonet fruit, and Emory oak acorn
The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'' and '' Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally
two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne ...
s were gathered. In late September, gathering was stopped as attention moved to harvesting cultivated crops. In late fall, juniper berries
A juniper berry is the female seed cone produced by the various species of junipers. It is not a true berry, but a cone with unusually fleshy and merged scales, which gives it a berry-like appearance. The cones from a handful of species, especial ...
and pinyon nuts were gathered.
The most important plant food for the Chiricahua was the Century plant
''Agave americana'', common names century plant, maguey, or American aloe, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to Mexico and the United States in Texas. It is cultivated worldwide as an ornamental plant, and has b ...
(also known as mescal or agave). The crowns (the tuberous
Tubers are a type of enlarged structure used as storage organs for nutrients in some plants. They are used for the plant's perennation (survival of the winter or dry months), to provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing s ...
base portion) were baked in large underground ovens and sun-dried. The shoots were also eaten. Other plants used by the Chiricahua include: agarita (or algerita) berries, alligator juniper berries, anglepod seeds, banana yucca (or datil, broadleaf yucca) fruit, chili pepper
Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli), from Nahuatl '' chīlli'' (), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for ...
s, chokecherries
''Prunus virginiana'', commonly called bitter-berry, chokecherry, Virginia bird cherry, and western chokecherry (also black chokecherry for ''P. virginiana'' var. ''demissa''), is a species of bird cherry (''Prunus'' subgenus ''Padus'') nat ...
, cota (used for tea), currants, dropseed grass seeds, Gambel oak
''Quercus gambelii'', with the common name Gambel oak, is a deciduous small tree or large shrub that is widespread in the foothills and lower mountains of western North America. It is also regionally called scrub oak, oak brush, and white oak.
...
acorns, Gambel oak bark (used for tea), grass seeds (of various varieties), greens (of various varieties), hawthorne
Hawthorne often refers to the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Hawthorne may also refer to:
Places
Australia
*Hawthorne, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane
Canada
* Hawthorne Village, Ontario, a suburb of Milton, Ontario
United States
* Hawt ...
fruit, Lamb's-quarters
Lamb's quarter, lambsquarters, and similar terms refer to any of various edible species of herbaceous plants otherwise known by the common names goosefoot or pigweed.
There are numerous variations, with or without hyphens and apostrophes, using on ...
leaves, lip ferns (used for tea), live oak
Live oak or evergreen oak is any of a number of oaks in several different sections of the genus ''Quercus'' that share the characteristic of evergreen foliage. These oaks are not more closely related to each other than they are to other oaks.
...
acorns, locust
Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstanc ...
blossoms, locust pods, maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
kernels (used for tiswin
Tiswin (also known as Tesgüino and Tejuino in Mexico) is an alcoholic beverage brewed from corn. Tiswin is also the sacred saguaro wine of the Tohono O'odham, a group of aboriginal Americans who reside primarily in the Sonoran Desert of the south ...
), and mesquite beans.
Also eaten were mulberries
''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 identif ...
, narrowleaf yucca blossoms, narrowleaf yucca stalks, nipple cactus fruit, one-seed juniper berries, onions, pigweed Pigweed can mean any of a number of weedy plants which may be used as pig fodder:
* ''Amaranthus'' species
** '' Amaranthus albus'', white pigweed, tumble pigweed
** ''Amaranthus blitoides'', prostrate pigweed
** ''Amaranthus californicus'', Calif ...
seeds, pinyon nuts, pitahaya
A pitaya () or pitahaya () is the fruit of several different cactus species indigenous to the Americas. Pitaya usually refers to fruit of the genus ''Stenocereus'', while pitahaya or dragon fruit refers to fruit of the genus '' Selenicereus'' ...
fruit, prickly pear fruit, prickly pear juice, raspberries, screwbean
''Prosopis pubescens'', commonly known as screwbean mesquite, is a species of flowering shrub or small tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is native to the southwestern United States (Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, southern Nevada a ...
(or tornillo) fruit, saguaro fruit, spurge
''Euphorbia'' is a very large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae. "Euphorbia" is sometimes used in ordinary English to collectively refer to all members of Euphorbiaceae (in deference to t ...
seeds, strawberries, sumac
Sumac ( or ), also spelled sumach, is any of about 35 species of flowering plants in the genus ''Rhus'' and related genera in the cashew family (Anacardiaceae). Sumacs grow in subtropical and temperate regions throughout the world, including Eas ...
(''Rhus trilobata'') berries, sunflower seed
The sunflower seed is the seed of the sunflower ('' Helianthus annuus''). There are three types of commonly used sunflower seeds: linoleic (most common), high oleic, and sunflower oil seeds. Each variety has its own unique levels of monounsat ...
s, tule
''Schoenoplectus acutus'' ( syn. ''Scirpus acutus, Schoenoplectus lacustris, Scirpus lacustris'' subsp. ''acutus''), called tule , common tule, hardstem tule, tule rush, hardstem bulrush, or viscid bulrush, is a giant species of sedge in the pl ...
rootstock
A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to a ...
s, tule shoots, pigweed tumbleweed seeds, unicorn plant
''Proboscidea'' is a genus of flowering plant in the family Martyniaceae, some of whose species are known as devil's claw, devil's horn, ram's horn, or unicorn plant. The plants produce long, hooked seed pods. The hooks catch on the feet of ani ...
seeds, walnuts, western yellow pine inner bark (used as a sweetener), western yellow pine nuts, whitestar potatoes (''Ipomoea lacunosa''), wild grapes, wild potato Wild potato may refer to:
* Several species belonging to the genus ''Solanum'' section '' Petota'', such as ''Solanum jamesii'', ''Solanum berthaultii'', etc.
* '' Thladiantha dubia'' (not related to potato)
* '' Hedysarum alpinum'', a species of fl ...
es (''Solanum jamesii''), wood sorrel
''Oxalis'' ( (American English) or (British English)) is a large genus of flowering plants in the wood-sorrel family Oxalidaceae, comprising over 550 species. The genus occurs throughout most of the world, except for the polar areas; species di ...
leaves, and yucca
''Yucca'' is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. Its 40–50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish flo ...
buds (unknown species). Other items include: honey from ground hives and hives found within agave, sotol
Sotol is a distilled spirit from the Chihuahuan desert northern Mexico, western Texas sourced from the family of Asparagaceae; the genus Dasylirion and several species, most commonly: ''Dasylirion wheeleri'', Dasylirion durangense, ''Dasylirio ...
, and narrowleaf yucca plants.
The abundant agave (mescal) was also important to the Mescalero,[The name ''Mescalero'' is, in fact, derived from the word ''mescal'', a reference to their use of this plant as food.] who gathered the crowns in late spring after reddish flower stalks appeared. The smaller sotol crowns were also important. The crowns of both plants were baked and dried. Other plants include: acorns, agarita berries, amole stalks (roasted and peeled), aspen
Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus.
Species
These species are called aspens:
*'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China ...
inner bark (used as a sweetener), bear grass
''Xerophyllum tenax'' is a North American species of plants in the corn lily family. It is known by several common names, including bear grass, soap grass, quip-quip, and Indian basket grass.
Ecology
''Xerophyllum tenax'' has flowers with si ...
stalks (roasted and peeled), box elder
''Acer negundo'', the box elder, boxelder maple, Manitoba maple or ash-leaved maple, is a species of maple native to North America. It is a fast-growing, short-lived tree with opposite, compound leaves. It is sometimes considered a weedy or inva ...
inner bark (used as a sweetener), banana yucca fruit, banana yucca flowers, box elder sap (used as a sweetener), cactus fruits (of various varieties), cattail
''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in A ...
rootstocks, chokecherries, currants, dropseed grass seeds (used for flatbread
A flatbread is a bread made with flour; water, milk, yogurt, or other liquid; and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened, although some are leavened, such as pizza and pita bread.
Flatbreads ran ...
), elderberries
''Sambucus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae. The various species are commonly called elder or elderberry. The genus was formerly placed in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, but was reclassified as Adoxaceae due to ge ...
, gooseberries (''Ribes leptanthum
''Ribes leptanthum'' is a spiny-stemmed, small-leaved species of gooseberry in the genus ''Ribes'' commonly called trumpet gooseberry. It is native to Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah, where it is usually found in high-altitude ...
'' and '' R. pinetorum''), grapes, hackberries, hawthorne fruit, and hops
Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant ''Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to whi ...
(used as condiment).
They also used horsemint (as a condiment), juniper berries, Lamb's-quarters leaves, locust flowers, locust pods, mesquite pods, mint (as a condiment), mulberries, pennyroyal (as a condiment), pigweed seeds (for flatbread), pine inner bark (as a sweetener), pinyon pine nuts, prickly pear fruit (dethorned and roasted), purslane Purslane is a common name for several mostly unrelated plants with edible leaves and may refer to:
* Portulacaceae, a family of succulent flowering plants, and especially:
** ''Portulaca oleracea'', a species of ''Portulaca'' eaten as a leaf vegeta ...
leaves, raspberries, sage
Sage or SAGE may refer to:
Plants
* ''Salvia officinalis'', common sage, a small evergreen subshrub used as a culinary herb
** Lamiaceae, a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint or deadnettle or sage family
** ''Salvia'', a large ...
(as a condiment), screwbeans, sedge
The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...
tubers, shepherd's purse
''Capsella bursa-pastoris'', known as shepherd's purse because of its triangular flat fruits, which are purse-like, is a small annual and ruderal flowering plant in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). It is native to eastern Europe and Asia minor, ...
leaves, strawberries, sunflower seeds, tumbleweed seeds (for flatbread), vetch
''Vicia'' is a genus of over 240 species of flowering plants that are part of the legume family (Fabaceae), and which are commonly known as vetches. Member species are native to Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa. Some other ...
pods, walnuts, western white pine
Western white pine (''Pinus monticola''), also called silver pine and California mountain pine, is a species of pine in the family Pinaceae. It occurs in mountain ranges of northwestern North America. It is the state tree of Idaho.
Description ...
nuts, western yellow pine nuts, white evening primrose
''Oenothera'' is a genus of about 145 species of herbaceous flowering plants native to the Americas. It is the type genus of the family Onagraceae. Common names include evening primrose, suncups, and sundrops. They are not closely related to ...
fruit, wild celery Wild celery is a common name for several plants. It can refer to:
* Wild growing forms of celery, ''Apium graveolens''
* ''Angelica archangelica'', cultivated as a vegetable and medicinal plant
* Lovage, ''Levisticum officinale'', sometimes known a ...
(as a condiment), wild onion Wild onion can refer to
* any uncultivated species in the genus ''Allium'', especially:
**''Allium bisceptrum''
** ''Allium canadense''
** ''Allium tricoccum''
** ''Allium validum''
** ''Allium vineale''
* ''Asphodelus tenuifolius''
* ''Cyperus bulb ...
(as a condiment), wild pea pods, wild potatoes, and wood sorrel leaves.
The Jicarilla used acorns, chokecherries, juniper berries, mesquite beans, pinyon nuts, prickly pear fruit, yucca fruit, and many other kinds of fruits, acorns, greens, nuts, and seed grasses.
The Lipan heavily used agave (mescal) and sotol. Other plants include agarita, blackberries, cattails, devil's claw, elderberries, gooseberries, hackberries, hawthorn, juniper, Lamb's-quarters, locust, mesquite, mulberries, oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
, palmetto, pecan, pinyon, prickly pears, raspberries, screwbeans, seed grasses, strawberries, sumac, sunflowers, Texas persimmons, walnuts, western yellow pine, wild cherries, wild grapes, wild onions, wild plums, wild potatoes, wild roses, yucca flowers, and yucca fruit. Other gathered food includes salt obtained from caves and honey.
The Plains Apache gathered chokecherries, blackberries, grapes, prairie turnip
''Psoralea esculenta'', common name prairie turnip or timpsula, is an herbaceous perennial plant native to prairies and dry woodlands of central North America, which bears a starchy tuberous root edible as a root vegetable. The plant is als ...
s, wild onions, and wild plums, and many other fruits, vegetables, and tuberous roots.
Ethnobotany of Apache
This is a list of 54 ethnobotany plant uses for the uncategorized Apache. http://naeb.brit.org/uses/tribes/10/.
Crop cultivation
The Navajo practiced the most crop cultivation, the Western Apache, Jicarilla, and Lipan less. The one Chiricahua band (of Opler's) and the Mescalero practiced very little cultivation. The other two Chiricahua bands and the Plains Apache did not grow any crops.
Trade, raids, and war
Interchanges between the Apache and European-descended explorers and settlers included trading. The Apache found they could use European and American goods.
Unlike Europeans and Euro-Americans, Apaches distinguished raiding from war. Raiding was done in small parties with a specific economic purpose. War was waged in large parties (often clan members), usually to achieve retribution. Raiding was traditional for the Apache, but Mexican settlers objected to their stock being stolen. As tensions grew between the Apache and settlers, the Mexican government passed laws offering cash rewards for Apache scalps.
Religion
Apache religious stories relate to two culture hero
A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group ( cultural, ethnic, religious, etc.) who changes the world through invention or discovery. Although many culture heroes help with the creation of the world, most culture heroes are imp ...
es (one of the Sun/fire:"Killer-Of-Enemies/Monster Slayer", and one of Water/Moon/thunder: "Child-Of-The-Water/Born For Water") who destroy several creatures harmful to humankind.[Opler 1983a, pp.368–369]
Another story is of a hidden ball game, where good and evil animals decide whether or not the world should be forever dark. Coyote
The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...
, the trickster
In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwi ...
, is an important being that often has inappropriate behavior (such as marrying his own daughter, etc.) in which he overturns social convention. The Navajo, Western Apache, Jicarilla, and Lipan have an emergence or Creation Story, while this is lacking in the Chiricahua and Mescalero.
Most Southern Athabascan gods are personified natural forces that run through the universe. They may be used for human purposes through ritual ceremonies. The following is a formulation by the anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
Keith Basso
Keith Hamilton Basso (March 15, 1940 – August 4, 2013) was a cultural and linguistic anthropologist noted for his study of the Western Apaches, specifically those from the community of Cibecue, Arizona. Basso was professor emeritus of anthropolo ...
of the Western Apache's concept of ''diyí:
The term ''diyí refers to one or all of a set of abstract and invisible forces which are said to derive from certain classes of animals, plants, minerals, meteorological phenomena, and mythological figures within the Western Apache universe. Any of the various powers may be acquired by man and, if properly handled, used for a variety of purposes.
Medicine men
A medicine man is a traditional healer and spiritual leader among the indigenous people of the Americas.
Medicine Man or The Medicine Man may also refer to:
Films
* ''The Medicine Man'' (1917 film), an American silent film directed by Clifford S ...
learn the ceremonies, which can also be acquired by direct revelation to the individual. Different Apache cultures had different views of ceremonial practice. Most Chiricahua and Mescalero ceremonies were learned through the transmission of personal religious visions, while the Jicarilla and Western Apache used standardized rituals as the more central ceremonial practice. Important standardized ceremonies include the puberty ceremony (Sunrise Dance) of young women, Navajo chants, Jicarilla "long-life" ceremonies, and Plains Apache "sacred
Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...
-bundle" ceremonies.
Certain animals - owls, snakes, bears, and coyotes - are considered spiritually evil and prone to cause sickness to humans. .
Many Apache ceremonies use masked representations of religious spirits. Sandpainting
Sandpainting is the art of pouring coloured sands, and powdered pigments from minerals or crystals, or pigments from other natural or synthetic sources onto a surface to make a fixed or unfixed sand painting. Unfixed sand paintings have a long es ...
is an important ceremony in the Navajo, Western Apache, and Jicarilla traditions, in which healers create temporary, sacred art from colored sands. Anthropologists believe the use of masks and sandpainting are examples of cultural diffusion
In cultural anthropology and cultural geography, cultural diffusion, as conceptualized by Leo Frobenius in his 1897/98 publication ''Der westafrikanische Kulturkreis'', is the spread of cultural items—such as ideas, styles, religions, technologi ...
from neighboring Pueblo
In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...
cultures.[Opler 1983a, pp. 372–373]
The Apaches participate in many religious dances, including the rain dance, dances for the crop and harvest, and a spirit dance. These dances were mostly for influencing the weather and enriching their food resources.
Languages
The five Apache languages are Apachean languages
Southern Athabaskan (also Apachean) is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken primarily in the Southwestern United States (including Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah) with two outliers in Oklahoma and Texas. The language is spoken to a ...
, which in turn belong to the Athabaskan
Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific C ...
branch of the Eyak-Athabaskan language family.[ All Apache languages are ]endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...
. Lipan is reported extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
.
The Southern Athabascan branch was defined by Harry Hoijer
Harry Hoijer (September 6, 1904 – March 11, 1976) was a linguist and anthropologist who worked on primarily Athabaskan languages and culture. He additionally documented the Tonkawa language, which is now extinct. Hoijer's few works make up the ...
primarily according to its merger
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...
of stem
Stem or STEM may refer to:
Plant structures
* Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang
* Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure
* Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...
-initial consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
s of the Proto
Proto or PROTO may refer to:
Language
* Proto-, an English prefix meaning "first"
Media
* ''Proto'' (magazine), an American science magazine
* Radio Proto in Cyprus
Music
* ''Proto'' (Holly Herndon album), 2019
* ''Proto'' (Leo O'Kelly ...
-Athabascan series ' and ' into ' (in addition to the widespread merger of ' and ' into ' also found in many Northern Athabascan
Northern Athabaskan is a geographic sub-grouping of the Athabaskan language family spoken by indigenous peoples in the northern part of North America, particularly in Alaska (Alaskan Athabaskans), Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. The Northe ...
languages).
Hoijer (1938) divided the Apache sub-family into an eastern branch consisting of Jicarilla, Lipan, and Plains Apache and a Western branch consisting of Navajo, Western Apache (San Carlos), Chiricahua, and Mescalero based on the merger of Proto-Apachean ' and ' to ''k'' in the Eastern branch. Thus, as can be seen in the example below, when the Western languages have noun or verb stems that start with ''t'', the related forms in the Eastern languages will start with a ''k'':
:
He later revised his proposal in 1971 when he found that Plains Apache did not participate in the ' merger to consider Plains Apache as a language equidistant from the other languages, now called Southwestern Apachean. Thus, some stems that originally started with ''*k̯'' in Proto-Athabascan start with ''ch'' in Plains Apache while the other languages start with ''ts''.
:
Morris Opler (1975) has noted cultural similarities of Jicarilla and Lipan with Eastern Apache language speakers and differences from Western Apache speakers, supporting Hojier's initial classification. Other linguists, particularly Michael Krauss (1973), have noted that a classification based only on the initial consonants of noun and verb stems is arbitrary and when other sound correspondence
In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor and then extrapolating backwards ...
s are considered the relationships between the languages appear more complex.
Apache languages are tonal. Regarding tonal development, all Apache languages are ''low-marked'', which means that stems with a "constricted" syllable rime
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
in the proto-language developed low tone while all other rimes developed high tone. Other Northern Athabascan languages are ''high-marked'': their tonal development is the reverse. In the example below, if low-marked Navajo and Chiricahua have a low tone, then the high-marked Northern Athabascan languages, Slavey
The Slavey (also Slave and South Slavey) are a First Nations indigenous peoples of the Dene group, indigenous to the Great Slave Lake region, in Canada's Northwest Territories, and extending into northeastern British Columbia and northwestern ...
and Chilcotin, have a high tone, and if Navajo and Chiricahua have a high tone, then Slavey and Chilcotin have a low tone.
:
Notable historic Apache
Contemporary Apache people are listed under their specific tribes.
*Mangas Coloradas
Mangas Coloradas or Mangus-Colorado (La-choy Ko-kun-noste, alias "Red Sleeve"), or Dasoda-hae ("He Just Sits There") (c. 1793 – January 18, 1863) was an Apache tribal chief and a member of the Mimbreño (Tchihende) division of the Central ...
, Chief
*Cochise
Cochise (; Apache: ''Shi-ka-She'' or ''A-da-tli-chi'', lit.: ''having the quality or strength of an oak''; later ''K'uu-ch'ish'' or ''Cheis'', lit. ''oak''; June 8, 1874) was leader of the Chihuicahui local group of the Chokonen and principa ...
, Chief
*Victorio
Victorio (Bidu-ya, Beduiat; ca. 1825–October 14, 1880) was a warrior and chief of the Warm Springs band of the Tchihendeh (or Chihenne, often called Mimbreño) division of the central Apaches in what is now the American states of Texas, New ...
, Chief
*Geronimo
Geronimo ( apm, Goyaałé, , ; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a prominent leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache ba ...
, Leader
* Chatto, scout
*Dahteste
Dahteste (circa 1860–1955) was a Chokonen Apache woman warrior.
Family
Dahteste was the sister of Ilth-goz-ay, the wife of Chihuahua (also known as Kla-esh), chief of the Chokonen local group of the Chokonen band of the Chiricahua.
Career ...
, female warrior
*Gouyen
Gouyen (in Mescalero ''Góyą́ń'', "the one who is wise") (c. 1857-1903), was a 19th-century Apache woman noted for her heroism.
Early life and education
''Góyą́ń'' (Gouyen) was born circa 1857 into Chief Victorio's Warm Springs Apache o ...
, female warrior
*Lozen
Lozen (c. 1840 – June 17, 1889) was a warrior and prophet of the Chihenne Chiricahua Apache. She was the sister of Victorio, a prominent chief. Born into the Chihenne band during the 1840s, Lozen was, according to legends, able to use her ...
, female warrior
*Loco
Loco or El Loco may refer to:
Places United States
* Loco, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Loco, Oklahoma, a village
* Loco, Texas, an unincorporated community
* Loco Mountain (Labinero, Montana), a mountain peak of the Crazy Mountains i ...
, Chief
*Naiche
Chief Naiche ( ; –1919) was the final hereditary chief of the Chiricahua band of Apache Indians.Johansen, Bruce E"Naiche (ca. 1857–1919)." ''Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.'' (retrieved 25 Sept 2011 ...
, Chief
*Nana
Nana, Nanna, Na Na or NANA may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Nana (given name), including a list of people and characters with the given name
* Nana (surname), including a list of people and characters with the surname
* Nana ( ...
, Chief
*Taza
Taza ( ber, ⵜⴰⵣⴰ, ar, تازة) is a city in northern Morocco occupying the corridor between the Rif mountains and Middle Atlas mountains, about 120 km east of Fez and 150 km west of Al hoceima. It recorded a population of 148 ...
, Chief
*Eleven Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor. ...
recipients: ''see List of Native American Medal of Honor recipients
This is a list of Native Americans awarded the nation's highest military decoration — the Medal of Honor. The Medal of Honor is bestowed "for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty, in ...
''.
See also
* Athabascan languages
Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific C ...
* Battle of Apache Pass
The Battle of Apache Pass was fought in 1862 at Apache Pass, Arizona, in the United States, between Apache warriors and the Union volunteers of the California Column as it marched from California to capture Confederate Arizona and to reinforc ...
* Battle of Cieneguilla
The Battle of Cieneguilla (pronounced sienna-GEE-ya; English: small swamp) was an engagement of the Jicarilla War involving a group of Jicarilla Apaches, possibly their Ute allies, and the American 1st Cavalry Regiment on March 30, 1854 near ...
* Camp Grant massacre
* Chiricahua
Chiricahua ( ) is a band of Apache Native Americans.
Based in the Southern Plains and Southwestern United States, the Chiricahua (Tsokanende ) are related to other Apache groups: Ndendahe (Mogollon, Carrizaleño), Tchihende (Mimbreño), Sehende ...
* '' Fort Apache'', a movie in the genre of historical fiction
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...
about encounters between the US Army and Cochise
Cochise (; Apache: ''Shi-ka-She'' or ''A-da-tli-chi'', lit.: ''having the quality or strength of an oak''; later ''K'uu-ch'ish'' or ''Cheis'', lit. ''oak''; June 8, 1874) was leader of the Chihuicahui local group of the Chokonen and principa ...
's band
* Jicarilla Apache
Jicarilla Apache (, Jicarilla language: Jicarilla Dindéi), one of several loosely organized autonomous bands of the Eastern Apache, refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Athab ...
* Lipan Apache people
Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people, who have lived in the Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European and African contact, they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and ...
* Mescalero
Mescalero or Mescalero Apache ( apm, Naa'dahéńdé) is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-cen ...
* Native American tribe
In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, tribal nation, or similar concept is any extant or historical clan, tribe, band, nation, or other group or community of Native Americans in the Unit ...
* Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans, also known as American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Americans, and other terms, are the Indigenous peoples of the mainland United States ( Indigenous peoples of Hawaii, Alaska and territories of the United State ...
* Navajo people
The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.
With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
*''Neoapachella
''Neoapachella'' is a monotypic taxon, monotypic genus of North American Mygalomorphae, mygalomorph trapdoor spiders in the family Euctenizidae containing the single species, ''Neoapachella rothi''. It was first described by Jason Bond & B. D. Op ...
'', a monotypic
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
n mygalomorph
The Mygalomorphae, or mygalomorphs, are an infraorder of spiders, and comprise one of three major groups of living spiders with over 3000 species, found on all continents except Antarctica. Many members are known as trapdoor spiders due to the ...
spiders in the Euctenizidae
The Euctenizidae (formerly Cyrtaucheniidae subfamily Euctenizinae) are a family of mygalomorph spiders. They are now considered to be more closely related to Idiopidae.
Etymology
The name comes from the Greek prefix (''eu-''), meaning "valuabl ...
named in their honor.
* Plains Apache
The Plains Apache are a small Southern Athabaskan group who live on the Southern Plains of North America, in close association with the linguistically unrelated Kiowa Tribe. Today, they are centered in Southwestern Oklahoma and Northern Texas an ...
* Southern Athabascan languages
Southern Athabaskan (also Apachean) is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken primarily in the Southwestern United States (including Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah) with two outliers in Oklahoma and Texas. The language is spoken to a ...
* Western Apache
The Western Apache live primarily in east central Arizona, in the United States. Most live within reservations. The Fort Apache Indian Reservation, San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Tonto Apache, and the Fort McDowe ...
Citations
Explanatory notes
General bibliography
*Soledad, Nell David S (2009). "Eastern Apache Wizardcraft", ''Mythical papers of the University of Cebu
The University of Cebu (UC) ( ceb, Unibersidad sa Sugbo; fil, Pamantasan ng Cebu) is a private, non-sectarian, coeducational basic and higher education institution in Cebu City, Philippines. It was founded in 1964 offering preschool, grade schoo ...
'' (No.14). Philippines: University Of Cebu Press,
* Basso, Keith H. (1969). "Western Apache witchcraft", ''Anthropological papers of the University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
'' (No. 15). Tucson: University of Arizona Press,
*
* Brugge, David M. (1983). "Navajo prehistory and history to 1850", in A. Ortiz (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest'' (Vol. 10, pp. 489–501). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
.
*Cordell, Linda S. ''Ancient Pueblo Peoples''. St. Remy Press and Smithsonian Institution, 1994. .
* Etulain, Richard W. ''New Mexican Lives: A Biographical History'', University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...
Center for the American West, University of New Mexico Press
The University of New Mexico Press (UNMP) is a university press at the University of New Mexico. It was founded in 1929 and published pamphlets for the university in its early years before expanding into quarterlies and books. Its administrative ...
, 2002.
* Foster, Morris W; & McCollough, Martha. (2001). "Plains Apache", in R. J. DeMallie (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians: Plains'' (Vol. 13, pp. 926–939). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
*Gatewood, Charles B. (Edited by Louis Kraft). ''Lt. Charles Gatewood & His Apache Wars
The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States Army and various Apache tribal confederations fought in the southwest between 1849 and 1886, though minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. After the Mexic ...
Memoir.'' University of Nebraska Press 2005. .
*
* Gunnerson, James H. (1979). "Southern Athapaskan archeology", in A. Ortiz (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest'' (Vol. 9, pp. 162–169). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
* Haley, James L. ''Apaches: A History and Culture Portrait''. University of Oklahoma Press
The University of Oklahoma Press (OU Press) is the publishing arm of the University of Oklahoma. Founded in 1929 by the fifth president of the University of Oklahoma, William Bennett Bizzell, it was the first university press to be established i ...
, 1997. .
* Hammond, George P., & Rey, Agapito (Eds.). (1940). ''Narratives of the Coronado Expedition 1540–1542.'' Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press
The University of New Mexico Press (UNMP) is a university press at the University of New Mexico. It was founded in 1929 and published pamphlets for the university in its early years before expanding into quarterlies and books. Its administrative ...
.
* Henderson, Richard. (1994). "Replicating dog 'travois' travel on the northern plains", ''Plains Anthropologist'', ''39'', 145–59.
* Hodge, F. W. (Ed.). (1907). ''Handbook of American Indians''. Washington.
* Hoijer, Harry. (1938). "The southern Athapaskan languages", ''American Anthropologist'', ''40'' (1), 75–87.
* Hoijer, Harry. (1971). "The position of the Apachean languages in the Athapaskan stock", in K. H. Basso & M. E. Opler (Eds.), ''Apachean culture history and ethnology'' (pp. 3–6). Anthropological papers of the University of Arizona (No. 21). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
* Huld, Martin E. (1983). "Athapaskan bears", ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''49'' (2), 186–195.
* Krauss, Michael E. (1973). "Na-Dene", in T. A. Sebeok (Ed.), ''Linguistics in North America'' (pp. 903–978). ''Current trends in linguistics'' (Vol. 10). The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
: Mouton. (Reprinted 1976).
* Landar, Herbert J. (1960). "The loss of Athapaskan words for fish in the Southwest", ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''26'' (1), 75–77.
* Miles, General Nelson Appleton. (1897). ''Personal Recollections and Observations of General Nelson A. Miles embracing a brief view of the Civil War, or, From New England to the Golden Gate : and the story of his Indian campaigns, with comments on the exploration, development and progress of our great western empire''. Chicago: The Werner Company
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
.
* Newman, Stanley. (1958). ''Zuni dictionary''. Bloomington: Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universit ...
.
* Newman, Stanley. (1965). ''Zuni grammar''. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
* Opler, Morris E. (1936a). "A summary of Jicarilla Apache culture", ''American Anthropologist'', ''38'' (2), 202–223.
* Opler, Morris E. (1936b). "The kinship systems of the Southern Athapaskan-speaking tribes", ''American Anthropologist'', ''38'' (4), 620–633.
* Opler, Morris E. (1941). ''An Apache life-way: The economic, social, and religious institutions of the Chiricahua Indians''. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...
.
* Opler, Morris E. (1975). "Problems in Apachean cultural history, with special reference to the Lipan Apache", ''Anthropological Quarterly'', ''48'' (3), 182–192.
* Opler, Morris E. (1983a). "The Apachean culture pattern and its origins", in A. Ortiz (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest'' (Vol. 10, pp. 368–392). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
* Opler, Morris E. (1983b). "Chiricahua Apache", in A. Ortiz (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest'' (Vol. 10, pp. 401–418). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
* Opler, Morris E. (1983c). "Mescalero Apache", in A. Ortiz (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest'' (Vol. 10, pp. 419–439). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
* Opler, Morris E. (2001). "Lipan Apache", in R. J. DeMallie (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians: Plains'' (Vol. 13, pp. 941–952). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
* Plog, Stephen. (1997). ''Ancient peoples of the American Southwest.'' London: Thames and London, LTD. .
* Reuse, Willem J., de. (1983). "The Apachean culture pattern and its origins: Synonymy", in A. Ortiz (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest'' (Vol. 10, pp. 385–392). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
* Schroeder, Albert H. (1963). "Navajo and Apache relationships west of the Rio Grande", ''El Palacio'', ''70'' (3), 5–23.
* Schroeder, Albert H. (1974a). "A study of the Apache Indian: Parts 1–3", in ''American Indian ethnology: Indians of the Southwest''. New York: Garland.
* Schroeder, Albert H. (1974b). "A study of the Apache Indian: Parts 4–5", ''American Indian ethnology: Indians of the Southwest''. New York: Garland.
* Schroeder, Albert H. (1974c). "The Jicarilla Apache", ''American Indian ethnology: Indians of the Southwest''. New York: Garland.
* Seymour, Deni J. (2004) "A Ranchería in the Gran Apachería: Evidence of Intercultural Interaction at the Cerro Rojo Site", ''Plains Anthropologist'' 49(190):153–192.
* Seymour, Deni J. (2009a) "Nineteenth-Century Apache Wickiups: Historically Documented Models for Archaeological Signatures of the Dwellings of Mobile People", ''Antiquity'' 83(319):157–164.
* Seymour, Deni J.(2009b) "Evaluating Eyewitness Accounts of Native Peoples along the Coronado Trail from the International Border to Cibola", ''New Mexico Historical Review'' 84(3):399–435.
* Seymour, Deni J. (2010a) "Contextual Incongruities, Statistical Outliers, and Anomalies: Targeting Inconspicuous Occupational Events", ''American Antiquity'' 75(1):158–176.
* Seymour, Deni J. (2010b) "Cycles of Renewal, Transportable Assets: Aspects of Ancestral Apache Housing", ''Plains Anthropologist'' (Spring or Summer issue)
* Sweeney, Edwin R. (1998). ''Mangas Coloradas: Chief of the Chiricahua Apaches''. University of Oklahoma Press.
* Terrell, John Upton. (1972). ''Apache chronicle''. World Publishing. .
* Tiller, Veronica E. (1983). "Jicarilla Apache", in A. Ortiz (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest'' (Vol. 10, pp. 440–461). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
* Witherspoon, Gary. (1983). "Navajo social organization", in A. Ortiz (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest'' (Vol. 10, pp. 524–535). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
* Worcester, Donald E. (1992). ''The Apaches: Eagles of the Southwest', University of Oklahoma Press.
Further reading
*
External links
Tribal websites
Apache Tribe of Oklahoma
archive of official website
Fort Sill Apache Tribe
official website
Jicarilla Apache Nation
official website
Mescalero Apache Tribe
official website
official website
White Mountain Apache Tribe
official website
Yavapai-Apache Nation
official website
Other external links
Apache
Museum of Northern Arizona
Apache Indians
Texas State Historical Association
Apache Tribe of Oklahoma
Oklahoma Historical Society
Apache, Fort Sill
Oklahoma Historical Society
Apache, Lipan
Oklahoma Historical Society
Tonto Apache Tribe
Inter Tribal Council of Arizona
{{authority control
Native American tribes in Arizona
Native American tribes in Colorado
Native American tribes in New Mexico
Native American tribes in Oklahoma
Native American tribes in Texas