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Apache is the collective name for several culturally related groups of Native Americans, aboriginal inhabitants of North America, who speak a Southern Athabaskan (Apachean) language. The modern term excludes the related Navajo people. However, the Navajo (once known as Apaches de Nabajó) and the other Apache groups are clearly related through culture and language and thus are considered Apachean. Apachean peoples formerly ranged over eastern Arizona, north-western Mexico, New Mexico, parts of Texas, and a small group on the plains.

There was no political unity among the Apachean groups. The groups spoke 7 different languages. The current division of Apachean groups includes the Navajo, Western Apache, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan, and Plains Apache (formerly Kiowa-Apache).

The Apachean tribes were powerful, constantly at enmity with the whites. The final surrender of an Apachean 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. Apache groups are now in Oklahoma and Texas and on reservations in Arizona and New Mexico. The Navajo reside on a large reservation that spans over northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah, and northwestern New Mexico and also on smaller reservations in eastern New Mexico.

Name and synonymy

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 written term Apache was first used by Don Juan de Onate in 1598. 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.

Many historical names of Apachean are difficult to match to modern-day tribes. Additionally, many authors of the historical records did not distinguish between Apachean and other semi-nomadic non-Apachean peoples.

The other names of Apache divisions were Arivaipa, Coyotero, Faraone Gileno, Llanero, Mimbreno, Mogollon, Naisha, Tchikun and Tchishi.

History

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.

There are two hypotheses concerning Apachean migrations. One posits that they 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 lb (20 kg) on long trips, at rates as high as two or three miles an hour (3 to 5 km/h). (See Henderson.) This Plains migration theory associates Apachean peoples with the Dismal River aspect, an archaeological culture dated 1675-1725 excavated in Nebraska, eastern Colorado, and western Kansas (much of it ceramics and house remains).

The other competing theory posits a migration through the mountains ultimately reaching the Southwest. Only the Plains Apache have any significant Plains cultural influence while all tribes have distinct Athabaskan characteristics. The descriptions of peoples such as the Mountain Querechos and the Apache Vaqueros are vague and could apply to many other Plains tribes and the specific traits of these groups do not seem particularly Apachean. Additionally, Harry Hoijer's classification of Plains Apache as an Apachean language has been disputed.

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 became 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 "Querechos" 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.

Conflict with Mexico and the United States

The Apache were a powerful and warlike people, anxious to defend their territory and constantly at enmity with the whites. In the 1820s and 1830s, the Apaches' chief enemy was the Mexicans, who had gained their independence from Spain in 1821. By 1835 Mexico had placed a bounty on Apache scalps. When Juan Jose Compas, the leader of the Mimbreno Apaches, was killed for bounty money in 1837, Mangas Coloradas or Dasoda-hae (Red Sleeves) became principal chief and war leader and began a series of retaliatory raids against the Mexicans.

When the United States went to war against Mexico, the Apache promised U.S. soldiers safe passage through Apache lands. When the U.S. claimed former territories of Mexico in 1846, Mangas Coloradas signed a peace treaty, respecting them as conquerors of the hated Mexican enemies. An uneasy peace between the Apache and the United States held until the 1850s, when an influx of gold miners into the Santa Rita Mountains led to conflict. In 1851, near Pinos Altos mining camp, Mangas was personally attacked by a group of miners who tied him to a tree and severely beat him. Similar incidents continued in violation of the treaty, leading to Apache reprisals. In December, 1860, thirty miners launched a surprise attack on an encampment of Bedonkohes Apache on the west bank of the Mimbres River. According to historian Edwin R. Sweeney, the miners "...killed four Indians, wounded others, and captured thirteen women and children." Retaliation by the Apache again followed, with raids against U.S. citizens and property. The U.S. Army, in their various confrontations, found them to be fierce warriors and skillful strategists.

In early February 1861, Lieutenant George N. Bascom and U.S. troopers lured Cochise, principal chief of the Chokonen Apache, his family and several warriors into a trap at Apache Pass, in southeastern Arizona. Cochise managed to escape but his family and warriors remained in captivity. Negotiations were unsuccessful and fighting erupted. The "Bascom Affair" ended with Cochise’s brother and five other warriors being hung from trees. Later in 1861, Mangas Coloradas and Cochise, his son-in-law, struck an alliance, agreeing to drive all Anglo-Americans out of Apache territory. They were joined in their effort by the chief Juh and the famous warrior Geronimo. Although the goal was never achieved, the Anglo American population was greatly reduced for a few years during the American Civil War.

In the summer of 1862, after recovering from a bullet wound in the chest, Mangas Coloradas met with an intermediary to call for peace with the Americans. In January of 1863, he decided to personally meet with U.S. military leaders at Fort McLane, near present-day Hurley in southwestern New Mexico. Mangas arrived under a white flag of truce to meet with Brigadier General Joseph Rodman West, an officer of the California militia and a future senator from Louisiana. Armed soldiers took him into custody and West is reported to have given an execution order to the sentries. That night Mangas was tortured, shot and killed, as he was "trying to escape." The following day, U.S. soldiers cut off his head, boiled it and sent the skull to the Smithsonian Institute. The mutilation of Mangas' body only increased the hostility between the Apaches and the United States, with war continuing for almost another quarter century.

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.

Modern Apache groups

The major modern Apache groups include the Jicarilla and Mescalero of New Mexico, the Chiricahua of the Arizona-New Mexico border area, the Western Apache of Arizona, the Lipan Apache of southwestern Texas, and the Plains Apache of Oklahoma. There undoubtedly existed other Apache groups which are not as well-known by modern anthropologists and historians.

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. The Oklahoma Chiricahuas form the Fort Sill Apache Tribe. The New Mexico Chiricahuas are subsumed under the larger Mescalero political group on the Mescalero Indian Reservation.

Western Apaches are the Apache group that remains within Arizona. The group is divided into a number of reservations that cross-cut cultural divisions. Grenville Goodwin divided the Western Apaches into five groups: White Mountain, Cibecue, San Carlos, North Tonto, and South Tonto. Other anthropologists consider with Goodwin's classification inconsisent with pre-reservation cultural divisions. Willem de Reuse (2003, 2005, 2006) finds linguistic evidence supporting three major groupings: White Mountain, San Carlos, and Dilze’eh (Tonto) with San Carlos as the most divergent dialect and Dilze’eh as a remnant intermediate member of a dialect continuum previously existing between the Western Apache language and Navajo. The Western Apache reservations include the Fort Apache White Mountain reservation, the San Carlos reservation, the Yavapai-Apache reservation, the Tonto-Apache reservation, the Fort McDowell Mohave-Apache reservation. There are also Apaches on the Yavapai-Prescott reservation and off-reservation in Arizona and throughout the United States. The White Mountain Apache Tribe is located in the east central region of Arizona, 194 miles northeast of Phoenix. The Tonto Apache Reservation was created in 1972 near Payson in eastern Arizona. Within the Tonto National Forest northeast of Phoenix it consists of 85 acres (344,000 m²) and serves about 100 tribal members. The tribe operates a casino. The Yavapai-Apache Nation Reservation southwest of Flagstaff, Arizona is shared with the Yavapai. There is a visitor center in Camp Verde, Arizona and at the end of February an Exodus Days celebration with a historic re-enactment and a pow wow.

Apache children were taken for adoption by white Americans in programs similar in nature to those involving the Stolen Generation of Australia.

Culture

Social organization

All Apachean peoples lived in extended family units (or family clusters) that 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 that live together (that is, matrilocal residence), into which men may enter upon marriage (leaving behind his parents' family). When a daughter was married, a new dwelling was built nearby for her and her husband. Among the Navajo, residence rights are ulimately 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 Apachean men practiced varying degrees of avoidance of his wife's close relatives — often strictest between mother-in-law and son-in-law. The degree of avoidance differed in different Apachean groups. The most elaborate system was among the Chiricahua where men must use indirect polite speech toward and were not allowed to be within visual sight of his relatives that he was in an avoidance relationship with. His female Chiricahua relatives also did likewise to him.

Several extended families worked together as a local group, which carried out certain ceremonies, and economic and military activies. Political control was mostly present at the local group level. Local groups were headed by a chief, a male who had considerable influence over others in the group due to his effectiveness and reputation. The chief was the closest societal role to a leader in Apachean cultures. The office was not hereditary and often filled by members of different extended families. The chief's leadership was only as strong as he was evaluated to be — no group member was ever obliged to follow the chief. Many Apachean peoples joined together several local groups into bands. Band organization was strongest among the Chiricahua and Western Apache, while in the Lipan and Mescalero it was weak. The Navajo did not organize local groups into bands perhaps because of the requirements of the sheepherding economy. However, the Navajo did have the outfit, a group of relatives that was larger than the extended family, but not as large as a local group community or a band.

On the larger level, the Western Apache organized bands into what Grenville Goodwin 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 due to influence from northeastern Pueblos. Additionally the Western Apache and Navajo had a system of matrilineal clans that were organized further into phratries (perhaps due to influence from western Pueblos). The notion of tribe in Apachean cultures is very weakly developed essentially being only a recognition of similar speech and culture. In fact, not all Apaches recognize the existence of tribes within their cultures. The seven Apachean tribes had no political unity and often were enemies of each other — no different from, for example, the Lipan and the Comanche.

Kinship terms

Religion

Apachean religious stories relate two culture heros (one of the sun/fire, Killer-Of-Enemies/Monster Slayer, and one of water/moon/thunder, Child-Of-The-Water/Born For Water) that destroy a number of creatures that are harmful to humankind. 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 trickster, is an important being that usually has inappropriate behavior (such as marrying his own daughter, etc.). The Navajo, Western Apache, Jicarilla, and Lipan have an emergence story while this is lacking in the Chiricahua, Mescalero, and Plains Apache religions.

Languages

All Apachean peoples speak seven Southern Athabascan languages. The Southern or Apachean branch of this family was defined by Harry Hoijer according to its merger of stem-initial consonants of the Proto-Athabascan series and into (in addition to the widespread merger of and into also found in many Northern Athabascan languages). Hoijer (1938) divided the Apachean sub-family into an Eastern branch consisting of Jicarilla, Lipan, and Plains Apache and a Western brach consisting of Navajo, Western Apache (San Carlos), Chiricahua, and Mescalero based on the merger of Proto-Apachean and to k in the Eastern branch. He later revised his proposal when he found that Plains Apache did not participate in the merger to consider Plains Apache as a language equi-distant from the other languages, now called Southwestern Apachean. The new Southwestern branch was subdivided into the same Western branch and an Eastern branch consisting of only Jicarilla and Lipan. Other linguists, particulary Michael Krauss, have noted that a classification based only on the initial consonants of noun and verb stems is arbitrary and when other sound correspondences are considered the relationships between the languages appear to be more complex. Additionally, it has been pointed out by Martin Huld that since Plains Apache does not merge Proto-Athabascan , Plains Apache cannot be considered an Apachean language as defined by Hoijer.

References

  • Etulain, Richard W. New Mexican Lives: A Biographical History. University of New Mexico Center for the American West, University of New Mexico Press, 2002. ISBN 0826324339
  • Haley, James L. Apaches: A History and Culture Portrait. University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. ISBN 0806129786.
  • 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.
  • Hodge, F. W., editor. Handbook of American Indians, Washington, 1907.
  • Plog, Stephen. Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. Thames and London, LTD, London, England, 1997. ISBN 0-500-27939-X.
  • Sweeney, Edwin R. Mangas Coloradas: Chief of the Chiricahua Apaches. University of Oklahoma Press , 1998. ISBN 0806130636

External links

Apache tribes

أباتشي (قبيلة) | Apatxe | Apačové | Apache | Inde (Volk) | Apache (etnia) | Apaches | Apaisigh | Apači | Tribù Apache | Apačai | Apache (volk) | アパッチ族 | Apasje | Apacze | Nação Apache | Апачи | Апачи | Apassit | Apacher | อะแพชี | 阿帕契族

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Apache".

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