Apache (tribe) - Definition and Overview

This article is about the Native American tribe, for other uses of the word see Apache (disambiguation).

Apache is the collective name given to several culturally related tribes of Native Americans, aboriginal inhabitants of North America, who speak an Apachean language (excluding Navajo). The Apache peoples migrated from the Northern Plains into the Southwest relatively recently. Noted leaders have included Cochise, Mangas Coloradas, and Geronimo. The U.S. Army found them to be fierce warriors and skillful strategists.

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.

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 southeastern Arizona. Within the Tonto National Forest about halfway between Tucson and Phoenix it consists of 85 acres (344,000 m²) and serves about 100 tribal members. The tribe operates a casino.

Similar programs, such as the Stolen Generation of Australia, were undertaken in the United States of America. Apache children were taken for adoption by white Americans.

External links

• Tonto Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) (http://www.itcaonline.com/tribes_tonto.html)
• Yavapai-Apache Nation (Arizona Intertribal Council) (http://www.itcaonline.com/tribes_campverd.html)
• White Mountain Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) (http://www.itcaonline.com/tribes_whitemtn.html)
• San Carlos Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) (http://www.itcaonline.com/tribes_sancarl.html)
• official Yavapai-Apache Nation website (http://www.yavapai-apache.org/)
• about San Carlos Apache (http://www.geocities.com/~zybt/apache.htm)
• White Mountain Apache photographs (http://www.geocities.com/coqrico/apachealbum1.html)
• photos, facts, opinions on White Mountain Apaches & the Fort Apache Reservation (http://www.geocities.com/coqrico/)
• Puberty Ceremony of White Mountain Apaches (information & photo) (http://www.geocities.com/coqrico/apachedance.html)
• US goverment's plan to exterminate Apaches (http://www.geocities.com/coqrico/apachewren1.html)
• Apache Language Sample (http://www.language-museum.com/a/apache.php)
• a nice bibliography from Kevin Reeve (http://koransky.com/Trackers/Other/Apache.html)
• Indians of Arizona (from History of Arizona) (http://southwest.library.arizona.edu/hav7/body.1_div.1.html)
• The Apache (from History of Arizona) (http://southwest.library.arizona.edu/hav7/body.1_div.2.html)
• Apache myths & texts (http://apache-texts.co.nr)
• Grenville Goodwin's preface to Myths and Tales of the White Mountain Apache (http://apache-texts.co.nr/Goodwin/GoodwinPref.html)