A major Native American tribe widely known for its affiliation with the famous Navajo tribe, the Apaches ranks as one of the noteworthy American Indian tribes in current-day America.
With its rich history, and cultural heritage, that points to a lifestyle of excellence, the Apache have held onto the rudiments that forged the foundations of their heritage.
We review the historic events, culture, and facts of the Native American tribe.
Apache Tribe History
Early History – European Contact and Migration Theories
The Apache, alongside the Navajos, are of the Athapaskan-speaking people, and anthropological record points to both tribes residing together.
The tribes resided in other regions of North America before migrating to Southwestern America between 1200 – 1500 AD.
Though the tribe resides in the southwest, it is hard to accurately date the various historical happenings in the tribe due to their nomadic lifestyle.
The nomadic lifestyle of the tribe, who migrated alongside their Navajo cousins to Southwestern America, saw them build fewer residences than other tribes.
However, in locations where the tribe briefly inhabited, they left behind material hooks and tools, which provides a bit of insight into the tribe’s historical movement.
Like the Navajos, the tribe were known for quickly adopting technologies borrowed from neighboring tribes.
The ability to effectively adopted technologies also extended to the practices of surrounding tribes.
Hence while it is known that the tribe lived in territories previously occupied by other tribes or concurrently with other tribes, the adoption of technologies and practices of other tribes by the Apaches presents significant hurdles in accurately identifying sites where they may have thrived.
However, multiple postulations have been made about the migration of the native american tribe. Some believe the tribe moved from the Great Plains to Southwestern America.
The postulations reflect the tribe’s first interaction with the Europeans. In the early days before contact with the Europeans, the tribe hunted bison, resided in tents, and utilized dogs for pulling travois, which contained their possessions.
One account that points to the tribes’ contact with the Europeans was narrated by Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, who narrated that after 17 days of travel through the eastern plains of the Pueblo region, in April 1541, he came across the ‘rancheria’ who were with bison.
These Indians were referred to as Querechos by the natives, and they were raw meat and consumed the blood of the bison they killed.
They did not cultivate the land and were dressed with the skin of cattle and resided in firmly constructed tents. The Indians were said to possess dogs that carried their tents, belongings, and poles.
Despite these accounts and the commonly held belief that the tribe migrated to Southwestern America in the 16th Century, archeological data points to the tribe thriving in the region way before the record account of Francisco Coronado.
Another theory states that the Apache tribe migrated through the Rocky Mountains to southwestern America as far back as the 14th Century or even much earlier.
This theory is supported by the “Cerro Rojo complex,” which includes multiple archeological cultural materials found in the mountainous region known to have been occupied by the Apaches.
The theory does not rule out the migration of the Apaches through the plains at the same time as their migration through the Rocky Mountains.
But the earliest archeological evidence that points to migration to Southwestern America has been located in the mountainous region.
However, while we do not know how the Apaches arrived in the southwest part of America, their contact with the Spanish soon resulted in trading.
However, the dominion the Spanish exerted on the region soon caused friction in trade between the Pueblo people and the Apaches and Navajos, who at this point were already splitting into the two different tribes known today.
Through trade, horses became part of the Apache tribe lifestyle and were used during raids on rival tribes’ settlements.
One notable thing to note is that Francisco Coronado, who recorded the earliest account of European contact with the tribe, pointed out that the Western Apache area in modern times was uninhabited in 1540.
Historians dispute this as some insist Francisco Coronado did not see the tribe.
Add to that the first time the term “Querechos” was mentioned about inhabitants in the western part of Rio Grande by other Spanish explorers was in the 1580s.
Historians have interpreted this to mean that the indigenous people tribe moved to the Southwestern part of the US, where they reside in the current day as far back as the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
This theory is supported by accounts of Coronado, where he stated that Pueblo women and children had been evacuated and some settlements abandoned when he and his party attacked settlements in the Rio Grande.
This indicates that the Southern Athabaskan had fire-warning of the impending attack of the Spanish attack and had fled.
More evidence is being unearthed that indicates the presence of the tribe in the Southwestern mountainous zone as early as the 15th Century or far back.
However, while the time of arrival in the Southwestern US is often disputed, one fact remains clear about the tribe’s migration to the southwestern US – they migrated by multiple routes.
Interaction with Mexico and US (18th Century)
The tribe’s dealings with Spanish colonists showed a pattern of trade, conflicts, and raids.
This continued from the periods of Spanish contact down to the 18th Century.
Relationships between the Spanish and the Apaches depended on bands and villages.
A Spanish band may be friends with an Apache village while going on to raid another of the tribe’s village.
When war broke out, as often as it did, both parties fought, but it soon concluded with signing of treaties by both sides.
This continued until the Independence of Mexico, with whom the tribe had a strenuous relationship, resulting in Mexico placing bounties on tribe members scalps (human heads) in 1835.
This led to a period of indirect conflicts between Mexico and the tribe, resulting in the bounty killings of several of the tribe leaders.
The tribe, in cahoots with other tribes, also proved to be disturbing to the Mexicans.
In 1856, the state of Durango claimed the Indian raids (the Apache and Comanche were majorly behind these raids) had cost the state 6,000 lives, abduction of 748 people, and led to the abandonment of 358 settlements in about 20 years.
During the Mexico-US war, the tribe allowed the Americans to pass through their lands, and in the 1850s, the tribe had a period of delicate peace with the Americans.
However, the peace came crashing down following the arrival of gold miners in the Santa Rita Mountains.
This soon degenerated into the Apache Wars.
Another cause of major conflict between the tribe and the US was the foreign concept of reservations, which the tribe’s neighbors or the Mexicans had never used.
The bad management of reservations and the forced communal living of hands of the tribes with no kinship relation was one of the reasons why the tribe was dissatisfied with the concept of reservation.
These policies cause war between the US and the Apache tribe.
By 1875, the tribe was forcefully removed from their territories by the Americans. About 1500 Toto Apaches (Yavapai and Dilzhe’e Apache) were removed from their treaty lands and Rio Verde Indian Reserve.
The US military made the tribe, including the young and old men, women, and children, walk mountain passes, canyon trails, and winter-flooded rivers, a distance of 180 miles to the San Carlos Indian Agency.
The journey led to the death of many. The tribe remained in the Indian Agency for 25 years, with only a few returning to their original settlements.
These continued to be the dynamics of the relationship between US-Apache relationships.
After the post-war era, the American government oversaw an assimilation program of white family adoption of tribe’s children who were taken from their families.
In the 20th Century, the tribe gained acceptance in the US with the passing of civil rights policies, and they continue to thrive in southwestern America down to this day.
The tribe’s acceptance into modern-day America follows the progress made by all Native American tribes in the 20th Century.
Apache Tribe Culture
Religion
The tribe’s religion is based on two cultural heroes; either one of the Moon/Thunder/Water: “Born For Water/Child-Of-The-Water” and Sun/fire: “Slayer/Monster/Enemies .”
The spirit beings destroy all creations that present harm to humans.
Another story told in the culture that points to its religious beliefs is a story of a hidden ball game, where the good and bad animals decide if the world should be in darkness forever or not.
The coyote is regarded as a trickster and acts inappropriately (the coyote married his daughter)and thus breaks social conventions.
While their distant cousins, the Navajos, and the Apache tribe, also believe in a Creation story. Like most Southern Athabascans, the gods of the Apache tribes are often natural forces in the universe (The Mescalero and Chiricahua Apaches do not believe in Creation Story).
Human ceremonies often make these gods serve human purposes.
Medicine men often learn ceremonies in the tribe, and some ceremonies are learned by direct revelation to individuals.
Different bands of the tribe had different perceptions of ceremonies.
The Mescalero and Chiricahua learned their ceremonies through individual religious visions, as opposed to the Western Apache or Jicarilla Apaches, who had standardized ritual ceremonies such as the Sunrise Dance or puberty ceremony of young women.
Other standardized ceremonies celebrated by tribe include the Plains Apache “sacred-bundle” ceremonies and the “long-life” ceremonies celebrated by the Jicarilla.
The tribe also regarded certain animals, such as bears, coyotes, owls, and snakes, as spiritually evil and capable of causing human sickness.
Religious spirits are known to take the form of masked representations in Apache ceremonies.
The western Apaches and the Jicarilla had traditions involving the use of colored sands in the creation of temporary sacred arts. Religious dances are also a common occurrence in Apache culture.
Dances for religious purposes include dances for crop and harvest, spirit dances, and rain dances.
The tribe mostly dances to appease their gods, enrich their food resources and influence the weather positively.
Clothing
Clothing in the tribe’s society was one of the attributes incorporated by surrounding dung tribes.
The Western Apache wore seed beads decorated with animal hides, which they adopted from the Plain Indians.
The design followed the linear pattern and resembled the Great Basin Paiute.
Glass seed beads arranged in different colors in diagonal stripes bordered beaded Clothings wire by the Apaches.
Other Clothing worn by the tribe included moccasins, ponchos, buckskin shirts, and skirts.
Articles of Clothing were decorated with cornered seed beads
Hunting
Depending on the animals to be hunted, exceptions were often made.
Hunting in Apache tribe culture was a task reserved for men.
In Chiricahua and Lipan cultures, boys and women, respectively, could hunt rabbits.
Before hunting, massive preparations such as fasting and religious rites were required, and sometimes after the hunt. In the Lipan culture, before hunting deer, which was believed to be guided by Mountain Spirits, great effort was put into appeasing the Mountain Spirits.
When slaughtering a game, strict religious guidelines are adhered to, which involve praying, cutting, and disposing of the bones.
In the Mescalero culture, a hunter must share up to half of his game with fellow hunters and needy people.
The use of bows and arrows was the most common tool for hunting, but that changed with the arrival of the Europeans.
Techniques for hunting varied, ranging from hunters positioning at different spots to chase an animal until it tired out, the use of animal disguise, to whistling to attract prey.
Depending on the Apache tribe, killing certain animals was considered taboo, and this varied from tribe to tribe. Sometimes all of the tribes in a region believed certain animals were never to be consumed.
An example reflecting this can be found in Jicarilla and Lipan cultures.
The Jicarilla Apache clan believed bears were evil animals and thus never consumed bears, but the Lipa tribe frequently consumed black bears.
Numerous southwestern American Native American tribes considered consuming fish taboo as it looked similar to a snake in physical form.
Other animals thoughts to be taboo to kill and consume by the majority of the tribe bands include insects, owls, turkeys, snakes, coyotes, fish, peccaries, and bears.
All the tribes generally hunted deer and bighorn sheep, but often tribes had preferences in the animals they killed.
The Jicarilla favored consuming opossums, beavers, and buffalo, while the Chiricahua ate squirrels, woodrats, and wild cattle.
Hunting was also done for body parts and not food.
A clear instance indicating this is the Jicarilla, who hunted wildcats, wolves, weasels, and minks for body parts.
Houses
They resided in teepees, wickiups, and hogans.
The Teepees were mainly resided in by the Plain Apaches, the wickiups by the highland Apaches(the wickiups get burned when a family member dies), and the Apaches of the desert northern Mexico mainly used hogan.
Apache Tribe Facts
1. There are 13 Apache tribes scattered across the United States.
The Apache tribes now exist in five different tribes across three US states.
Five tribes can be found in New Mexico, five in Arizona, and three in Oklahoma.
The tribes in Arizona and New Mexico reside in reservations of their own.
These reservations remain under their control with their laws, but still under the laws of the United States.
The Apaches in Oklahoma reside in trust lands.
2. The tribe speak English.
The majority of Apache tribe members today speak English.
The tribe, however, has its tribal language, the Apache language, similar to the Navajos language.
The language is complex, with various tones and vowel sounds.
3. The tribes name “enemy.”
The name Apache “uh-PAH-chee” means “enemy” in the tongue of their neighbor, the Zuni.
The tribe did not refer to themselves as Apache but as Ndee or Nde, which means “the people”.
However, in recent years, the tribe has embraced the name and does not think much about the native translations as it bears little implication on their activities.
4. The tribe gained US citizenship in 1924.
With the passing of the Indian Citizenship Acts in 1924, the Apaches, as with other Native Americans, gained US Citizenship.
Other historic milestones integral to the tribe’s culture include the American Indian Religious Freedom Act passed in 1978, which allowed them to practice their Native religion.
The 1966 Indian Civil Rights Act allowed various measures of sovereignty to be restored to the tribe.
Conclusion
Apache tribe history is one intertwined with relations with the Mexicans and Americans.
Though the tribe faced experiences slightly different from other Native American tribes located in midwestern America, they still struggled to overcome many of the hurdles and challenges posed by conflict with Mexico and the US.
But despite this, the tribe strived hard to keep the burning flames of their tradition alive.
