Apache

• CULTURE AREA: Southwest
• LANGUAGE GROUP: Athapaskan
• PRIMARY LOCATION: Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma
• POPULATION SIZE: 2018-2022 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

The Apache people are part of the Athapaskan linguistic group, believed to be the last group to have crossed over to North America from Asia. Most of the Athapaskan speakers spread out into northern Canada and down the Pacific coast, but ancestors of the Apache pursued a more interior route, probably moving south along the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains. At some point, the group that would become the Navajo split off, although retaining enough linguistic similarity to enable Navajo and Apache speakers to converse. The Apache people spread out in the Southwest, inhabiting primarily the areas now known as Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and northern Mexico. They were driven west from the southern Plains in the eighteenth century by the Comanche people.

Traditional Culture

They called themselves “Tin-ne-áh,” or “the people,” as many Indigenous American groups did in their own languages. The origin of the name “Apache” is widely disputed but is agreed to have been given to them by their enemies. The Apache separated into two broad groups, Western and Eastern. The Eastern Apache were the Plains groups, the Jicarilla and the Lipan, whose culture showed the influence of contact with other Plains tribes. To the west were three main divisions: the Mescalero, the Chiricahua, and the Western Apache. Five major groups made up the Western Apache. The White Mountain, which had a Western and an Eastern (often called Coyotero) band, held the largest territory. The remaining four Western groups were the San Carlos or Gileño, Cibicue, and the Southern and Northern Tonto peoples. These bands were further subdivided into smaller, extended family groups that supported their highly mobile existence, each designated by its own particular name, often associated with a favorite haunt. Defining early Apache bands is made difficult by the Spanish practice of naming a band for the location where they were encountered, or after a powerful chief.

Life in the deserts of the Southwest was harsh, and the Apache way of life prepared its members for survival with a rich and meaningful culture. Folktales involving Coyote and other animal spirits illustrated proper as well as improper behavior and its consequences. Spirituality was inherent in every aspect of life, and great care was taken to observe rituals and taboos. The number four was important, and the east was favored as the most holy direction.

Although bands were small and children were valued highly, a crying baby could betray the entire group to extinction by enemies. Thus, from early infancy, the Apache child was trained in self-control. The ability to remain motionless and to be quiet for long periods of time, a skill learned in the cradleboard, served the grown warrior well as he hunted or waited in ambush for an enemy.

The most important time in an Apache child’s life occurred at puberty. For girls, this was marked by the onset of menses and celebrated by a puberty ceremony that lasted four days, involving blessings with sacred pollen and culminating in the girl’s run to the east. During the four days, the girl assumed the identity of White Painted Woman, a supernatural figure of the Apache creation myth. An Apache boy was inducted into manhood by serving an apprenticeship to raiding warriors. The novice was required to observe certain taboos and carry special equipment on four raids, and was required to perform camp tasks such as gathering wood and cooking for the warriors.

Adult Apache men and women had clear, gender-defined tasks. Women were responsible for gathering and processing wild foods, cooking what they gathered as well as any meat brought in by the men and boys, and the manufacture of all necessary camp equipment, clothing, and personal effects—except weapons. Women also constructed the family dwelling. Although some of the Plains Apache used the tipi, camps were usually composed of the brush-covered wickiups, easy to construct and then abandon. A man’s primary task while in camp was to make weaponry, and arrow-making took up most of his time. His other responsibilities were hunting and raiding or war. A married man became an economic contributor to his wife’s family.

Contact and Resistance

The earliest contact the Apache people had with European explorers is believed to have occurred in the sixteenth century. The Spanish were pushing north from New Spain (Mexico), and several parties encountered bands whose description matched that of Apache. Raiding for supplies was an important part of Apache life, leading inevitably to conflict with Europeans. The earliest known violence involved Gaspar Castano de Sosa, whose party set out for adventure and were raided by a band of Apache, who captured some stock and killed an Indigenous man with Castano’s party. Men were sent to punish the raiders; they killed and captured several of the raiding party.

As colonization progressed, Spanish soldiers were accompanied by Catholic priests eager to convert any subdued Indigenous peoples. The converts were used as ready labor, often enslaved, to build missions and rancherias in the vast new country of the Southwest. In the seventeenth century, the Pueblo Revolt on the northeastern frontier sent the Spanish south, with Eastern Apache attacking the Spaniards as they fled. The Spanish returned, however, and by 1697, once again occupied the region.

When the Mexicans won their freedom from Spain in 1824, peace agreements made with various Apache groups were abandoned. Raiding, which had never stopped, increased as the new government could not field any force to match the Apache. Trouble on the Santa Fe Trail, which was established in 1822, led to a bounty being placed on Apache scalps. By the time the area passed into United States control after the Mexican-American War, Apache people had a reputation as fearsome enemies.

Apache and American relations were frustrating for both sides. The Apache people found that farming, which the United States government expected them to embrace as their new livelihood, did not always provide for their families, and they could not understand why the Americans opposed their continued raids into Mexico for supplies. Treaties made by the United States government were often broken for political expediency. Apache leaders were lured with promises of peace, then arrested and sometimes killed. Army officers would spend years establishing peaceful relations with key Apache leaders, only to see their efforts destroyed by a single party of drunken vigilantes bent on exterminating any Apache people they could find, these generally being helpless women and children.

The course of the Apache Wars is a tangled story of capitulation, betrayal, and outbreaks of tribes believed to have been “pacified.” One by one, the Apache bands were subdued as the US military moved relentlessly west. Treaties settled the Jicarilla and Mescalero on reservations, but occasional outbreaks occurred. After they made peace, some of the Lipan served as army scouts, as did Apache from other groups.

There is some evidence that hostilities were prolonged by the machinations of a secret group known only as the “Tucson Ring” or “Indian Ring”; for a time, the only lucrative business for White people in Arizona was supplying the troops who were fighting the Apache. To the west, the Mimbreños Apache of the Chiricahua led by Mangas Coloradas clashed openly with the Americans over matters of justice and harassment by settlers. Cochise, another Chiricahua leader, was provoked into war by the treachery of military authorities involving a White boy who had been captured by a different Apache group.

The peace sought by a band of Arivaipa Apache people led by Eskiminzin was broken by an attack on their farming settlement. One hundred twenty-five sleeping men, women, and children at Camp Grant were killed by a mob of civilians from Tucson, who had taken advantage of the absence of the fort’s main garrison. Among the last Chiricahua holdouts were the famous Geronimo and Naiche, last hereditary chief of the Chiricahua. More effective fighting on foot in the rugged hills of their familiar country in both Mexico and the United States, these Apache managed to fight and elude army troops for years, surrendering only when they could no longer escape the Apache scouts used to hunt them.

Following their military defeat, various groups of Apache were settled on reservations in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. The Fort Apache and San Carlos reservations in Arizona were established jointly in 1871 for Arivaipa (Nnēē), Chiricahua, Coyotero, Mimbreño (Tchihende), Mogollon, Puraleno, and Tsiltaden Apache. This reservation was partitioned in 1897. Also in Arizona are the Fort McDowell, Tonto Apache, and Yavapai Apache reservations. The Jicarilla and Mescalero are both federally recognized Apache with reservations in New Mexico. The Mescalero Apache Reservation is in southern central New Mexico, and the Jicarilla Apache Reservation is in northern central New Mexico, extending northward into Colorado. In Oklahoma, there is the Fort Sill Apache Reservation.

Modern Apache

Far from being vanishing Americans, Apache people had grown in population to about 191,823 by 2022 according to the American Community Survey; 73,085 of these identified as Apache alone, while the rest were of mixed heritage. Most Apache live on reservations. Some groups have been fortunate in the availability of natural resources; others have continued to struggle at subsistence-level poverty, assisted by government programs designed to help them with their specific needs.

The Jicarilla Apache Tribe is a member of the Council of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT), founded in 1975; it obtains income from the production of coal, natural gas, oil, and geothermal energy.

The San Carlos Apache Tribe is governed by a Tribal Council of elected officials serving four-year terms. The population of the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation is about 15,000 people. Located approximately 100 miles east of Phoenix, Arizona, the reservation has three distinct terrains: desert highlands, mountain ridges covered in grass and trees, and forested mountains abundant in wild game. The tribe has adopted an Integrated Resources Management Plan to exploit a stable economy. Timber, recreation and wildlife, agriculture, and ranching bring in revenue for the tribe and are being actively developed.

The White Mountain Apache Tribe, whose reservation is contiguous with the San Carlos, also governed by a Tribal Council. They, too, benefit from the availability of exploitable natural resources, including an 800,000-acre ponderosa pine forest that supports the Fort Apache Timber Company. The tribe operates a ski resort which boasts the best ski runs in the southwestern United States and provides scenic campgrounds. Apache Enterprises operates businesses such as gas stations and restaurants throughout the reservation.

The Tonto Apache of Arizona are among the smallest groups of Apache, with 140 people living on the reservation, 110 of whom are enrolled members. They are also governed by a Tribal Council. Their reservation has the smallest land base of any in Arizona, and more space is needed for housing and other development. The tribe operates the Mazatzal Casino and sells baskets and beadwork.

Bibliography

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