Description
The Apache migrated from the Athabascan homelands in the north into the Southwest between 1000 and 1500 CE. Apache bands include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreno, Salinero, Plains, and Western Apache. Today, Apache tribes and reservations are headquartered in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. Historically, the Apache homelands have consisted of high mountains, sheltered and watered valleys, deep canyons, deserts, and the southern Great Plains, including areas in what is now Eastern Arizona, Northern Mexico and New Mexico, West Texas, and Southern Colorado. These areas are collectively known as Apacheria. The Apache tribes fought the invading Spanish and Mexican peoples for centuries. The first Apache raids on Sonora appear to have taken place during the late 17th century. In 19th-century confrontations during the American Indian Wars, the U.S. Army found the Apache to be fierce warriors and skillful strategists.
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.
Culture
The strongest headman of a band was recognized as an informal chief, and several bands might be united under one leader. Chieftainship was thus an earned privilege rather than a hereditary one. Once the Apache had moved to the Southwest, they developed a flexible subsistence economy that included hunting and gathering wild foods, farming, and obtaining food and other items from Pueblo villages via trade, livestock hunts, and raiding. The proportion of each activity varied greatly from tribe to tribe. The Jicarilla farmed fairly extensively, growing maize and other vegetables, and also hunted bison extensively. The Lipan of Texas, who were probably originally a band of Jicarilla, had largely given up farming for a more mobile lifestyle. The Mescalero were influenced by the Plains tribes’ corn- and bison-based economies, but their chief food staple was the mescal plant (hence the name Mescalero).