Tribe: Apache, a loose confederation of Apachean tribes that includes the Navajo, Western Apache, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan, Plains Apache, and many others.)
Meaning of Name: The word "Apache" is Zuni for "Enemy" and Yuman for "fighting men." The Apache refer to themselves as "Dine" or "Inde," meaning "Person."
Location: One theory is that the Apache originally came from Athabascan-speaking Western Canada between 1000 AD and 1500 AD and moved down to the warmer climes of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Northern Mexico, Colorado, and the Great Plains. The Apache themselves say that they started in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Northern Mexico, Colorado and the Great Lakes, and then some of them moved north into Western Canada and Alaska. The truth is probably a combination of the two, that they started off in Alaska and Western Canada, went south, developed Southern Athabascan, and then some of them returned north. Many Apache now live in Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico.
Original Language: Southern Athabascan.
Tribal Affiliations: The Navajo and Pueblo for the purposes of acquiring produce.
Traditional Enemies: The Zuni, the Comanche, and later, the Spanish and Mexican people and authorities, and still later, the United States and other Apachean groups.
Traditional Style of Housing: Teepees, wigwams or wickiup (grass house) or a more permanent hogan (dirt house), depending on location. All houses were made and decorated by the women, and probably owned by them as well. For a picture of a wigwam or wickiup (because everybody knows what a teepee looks like), go to http://nativeamericans.mrdonn.org/wickiup.html.
Traditional Style of Clothing: The men wore intricately-beaded and fringed buckskin shirts, breechcloths, leggings, high moccasin boots and headbands worn across the forehead. They later adopted the cotton pants, tunics and vests of the Mexican peasants, and later the outfits of the American military (especially after skirmishes in which they were successful.) The women wore fringed and beaded buckskin dresses and ponchos over high moccasin boots, and then later switched to cotton gingham dresses.
Traditional Foods: Depending on where they lived, the Apache men hunted deer, rabbit, bison, opossums, surplus horses, surplus mules, squirrels, elk, cattle, wood rats, beavers, minks, musk rats, weasels and other large wild rodents, doves, quail, duck, wild boar and snow birds. The Apache women grew or gathered saguaro fruit, prickly pears, chollo buds, yucca, wild onions, squash, beans, melons, chilies, corn, ironwood seeds, mesquite seed pods, palo verde seeds, nopal cacti, corn, watermelons, pecans, sweet potatoes, hot peppers, herbs, tomatillo, mustard greens, pumpkins, tomatoes, sweet peppers, potatoes, green beans, Jerusalem artichokes, blackberries, mulberries, hackberries, barberries, crabapples, pawpaws, persimmons, cherries, fiddleheads, nettles, ramps, service berries, chokecherries, currants, elderberries, raspberries, gooseberries, grapes, plums, strawberries, and acorns, pinions and sunflower seeds which could be ground into flour for bread. People were expected to share half of the slaughtered animals with less-fortunate members of the group. Forbidden foods included bear, snakes, fish, peccaries, turkeys, insects, owls, coyotes, dogs, depending on the mores and religion of the group.
Position of Women: High, matrilineal, with matrilocal residence. Apache mothers held the families and the tribes together. The Apache husband moved in with his wife and her mother, father and grandparents, and if his wife should predecease him, he would continue to live with his late wife's family, who would arrange for him to have a new wife, probably from within that family's extended reach. Otherwise, he was not allowed to look at or speak to his mother-in-law. If the Apache husband should predecease his wife, his family would arrange for her to get a new husband, usually from within that family's extended reach. Otherwise, the wives and mothers did the cooking, the cleaning, the meat-and-hide processing, the beading, the gardening, the quill-work, and put up and took down their homes which they owned.
Apache Courtship: Young women were considered marriageable after their second year of puberty and pulled out their eyebrows to indicate their willingness to marry. Virginity was deeply valued, as was faithfulness in marriage. Whether or not a man's horse is fed and watered by the woman he is courting depends completely on the woman in question. If she does not want him, she won't water his horse. The more horses a young man offers for the bride, the better, but the choice of whether or not she accepts his suit, or his horse, is entirely up to her. Taking more than one wife was considered okay since many men were killed off during skirmishes and war, which means that the widows and their children needed protection and financial support.
Interesting Tidbits: The Apache claim to have been the second Native Americans who learned how to ride horses from the Spanish. The first were the Pueblo.... The Jicarilla Apache, who lived in northern Colorado, were raiders who attacked Spanish camps and stole dogs, horses, and anything else they desired....The Chiricahua Apache lived in brush wickiups in New Mexico, Arizona and Northern Mexico. They ate, drank and used fibers from the mescal cactus.... The Mescalero Apache lived east of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, and probably used the mescal cactus, too, for food, drink and fiber clothing.... When girls reached puberty, they had to undergo a torturous four-day endurance test called the Sunrise Dance, which is supposed to teach them the Apache values of language, food, love, Apache culture, prayers, respect, wisdom, cooperation, appreciation and endurance... There were apparently has never been a form of centralized Apache government, or Apache Chiefs, per se, just headsmen of the local tribe who was free to make peace or not, without consulting other headsmen.
Traditional Religion: Traditional tribal religion and Christianity.
Slavery and the Apache: Were not mentioned as having owned slaves, but the Apache, along with other Native Americans, were used as slaves in Spanish missions.
Current Population: There are more than 50,000 registered Apache.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Crafts, tourism, trade stores, small businesses, and casinos in Arizona and New Mexico.
Famous Apaches: Geronimo and Cochise
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