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Apache
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Apache is the collective name for several
culturally related nations of
Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans,
aboriginal inhabitants of
North America, who speak a
Southern Athabaskan languages. The modern term excludes the related
Southern Athabaskan languages. The modern term excludes the related
Navajo people.
The origin of the name
Apache is uncertain. It may derive from the
Yavapai word
epache, meaning "people". The origin has also been claimed to be the
Zuni word
apachu, meaning "enemy" (but this may have been the Zuni name for the
Navajo people) or an unspecified
Quechan word meaning "fighting-men".
The Apaches formerly ranged over southeastern
Arizona and north-western
Mexico. The chief divisions of the Apaches were the Arivaipa,
Chiricahua, Coyotero, Faraone Gileno, Llanero, Mescalero, Mimbreno, Mogollon, Naisha, Tchikun and Tchishi. They were a powerful and warlike tribe, constantly at enmity with the
whites. The final
surrender of the tribe took place in 1886, when the Chiricahuas, the division involved, were deported to Florida and Alabama, where they underwent military imprisonment. The U.S. Army, in their various confrontations, found them to be fierce warriors and skillful strategists. The Apaches are now in reservations in Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, and number between 5,000 and 6,000.
Entry into the Southwest
The Apache and Navajo (Diné) tribal groups of the American Southwest speak related
languages of the language family referred to as
Athabaskan. Southern Athabaskan peoples in North America fan out from west-central
Canada where some Southern Athabaskan-speaking groups still reside.
Linguistic similarities indicate the Navajo and Apache were once a single
ethnic group.
Archaeological and historical evidence suggests a recent entry of these people into the American Southwest, with substantial numbers not present until the early 1500s.
Southern Athabaskan speakers probably moved into the Southwest from the
Great Plains where 16th-century
Spanish accounts identified them as “
dog nomads.� These mobile groups lived in tents, hunted
bison and other game, and used dogs to pull
travois loaded with their possessions. In April 1541, while traveling on the plains east of the
Pueblo region,
Francisco Coronado wrote:
:
After seventeen days of travel, I came upon a rancheria of the Indians who follow these cattle (bison). These natives are called Querechos. They do not cultivate the land, but eat raw meat and drink the blood of the cattle they kill. They dress in the skins of the cattle, with which all the people in this land clothe themselves, and they have very well-constructed tents, made with tanned and greased cowhides, in which they live and which they take along as they follow the cattle. They have dogs which they load to carry their tents, poles, and belongings. (See Hammond and Rey.)
The Spaniards described Plains dogs as very white, with black spots, and “
not much larger than water spaniels.� Plains dogs were slightly smaller than those used for hauling loads by modern northern Canadian peoples. Recent experiments show these dogs may have pulled loads up to 50
Pound (weight) (20
Pound (weight) (20
kg)_on long trips, at rates as high as two or three
miles an hour (3 to 5 km/h). (See Henderson)
Although there is some evidence Southern Athabaskan peoples may have visited the Southwest as early as the 13th century AD, most
scientists believe they arrived permanently only a few decades before the Spanish. The Southern Athabaskan nomadic way of life complicates accurate dating, primarily because they constructed less-substantial dwellings than other Southwestern groups. They also left behind a more austere set of tools and material goods. Sites where early Southern Athabaskans may have lived are difficult to locate, and even more difficult to firmly identify as culturally Southern Athabaskan.
Trade between the long established Pueblo peoples and the Southern Athabaskans become important to both groups by the mid-16th century. The Pueblos exchanged
maize and woven
cotton goods for bison meat, hides and material for stone tools. Coronado observed Plains people wintering near the Pueblos in established camps. In 1540, Coronado reported the modern
Western Apache area as uninhabited and other Spaniards first mention Apache living west of the
Rio Grande in the 1580s. Therefore it is likely that the Apaches moved into their current southwestern homelands in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Southern Athabaskans expanded their range through the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblos peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navajo) in the 1620s, referring to people in the Chama region east of the
San Juan River. By the 1640s, the term was applied to Southern Athabaskan peoples from the Chama on the east to the San Juan on the west.
Apache groups
The major Apache groups include the
Jicarilla and
Mescalero of
New Mexico, the
Chiricahua of the Arizona-New Mexico border area, and the
Western Apache of
Arizona. Other groups were the
Lipan Apache of south-western
Texas and the
Plains Apache of
Oklahoma. The White Mountain Apache Tribe is located in the east central region of Arizona, 194 miles northeast of
Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix.
The Chiricahua Apaches were removed from their
reservation in 1876 and sent to prison in 1886. Subsequently, some Chiricahua relocated to Oklahoma and some joined the Mescalero Apaches.
Some Apaches live on or near the Yavapai-Apache Nation Reservation southwest of
Flagstaff, Arizona which they share with the Yavapai. There is a visitor center in Camp Verde, Arizona and at the end of February an Exodus Days celebration with an historic re-enactment and a
pow wow.
The Tonto Apache Reservation was created in 1972 near Payson in eastern
Arizona. Within the
Tonto National Forest northeast of
Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix it consists of 85
acres (344,000 m²) and serves about 100 tribal members. The tribe operates a
casino.
Apache children were taken for adoption by white Americans in programs similar in nature to those involving the
Stolen Generation of Australia.
One famous Apache is
Geronimo.
References
- Hammond, George P. and Rey, Agapito (editors). Narratives of the Coronado Expedition 1540-1542. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1940.
- Henderson, Richard. “Replicating Dog Travois Travel on the Northern Plains.� Plains Anthropologist, V39:145-59, 1994.
- Plog, Stephen. Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. Thames and London, LTD, London, England, 1997. ISBN 0-500-27939-X.
- Handbook of American Indians, ed. F. W. Hodge, (Washington, 1907)
- Online Etymology Dictionary
- Inde (Apache) Literature
- External links
- [http://www.culturecourt.com/F/Westerns/Ulzana.htm] (A Lawrence Russell review of the 1972 Robert Aldrich film, which relates the compelling multi-perspective story of Ulzana’s Raid, launched by discontented Apache warriors from a US government Indian Agency or “Reservation�, in the late 1800s Arizona. The Cavalry is soon in pursuit. Then the superb tactical skill of the Apache War-Chief, Ulzana, is matched against that of two Army Scouts, one of whom is Ulzana’s Brother-in-Law.)
- American Indian Language Development Institute (has children's video of Catcus Boy story in Western Apache)
- Apache Times (San Carlos)
- Tonto Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council)
- Yavapai-Apache Nation (Arizona Intertribal Council)
- White Mountain Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council)
- San Carlos Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council)
- official Yavapai-Apache Nation website
- Post-Contact Social Organization of Three Apache Tribes
- about San Carlos Apache
- White Mountain Apache photographs
- photos, facts, opinions on White Mountain Apaches & the Fort Apache Reservation
- Puberty Ceremony of White Mountain Apaches (information & photo)
- US government's plan to exterminate Apaches
- Apache Language Sample
- a nice bibliography from Kevin Reeve
- Indians of Arizona (from History of Arizona)
- The Apache (from History of Arizona)
- Apache myths & texts
- Grenville Goodwin's preface to Myths and Tales of the White Mountain Apache
- The Handbook of Texas Online: Apache IndiansCategory:Apache tribes
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