Apaches

The Apache (from a Zuni word meaning "enemy") are a North American Indian people of the Southwest. Their name for themselves is Inde, or Nde ("the people"). Together with the Navajo, they are classified as belonging to the Southern Athapascan linguistic family. The Apache were composed of six regional groups: the Western Apache, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan, and Kiowa Apache. Each group was made up of numerous localized bands.

On marriage, men customarily took up residence with their wives' kin. Maternal clans existed among the Western Apache, who depended more on cultivation than did other groups. All Apache relied primarily on hunting of wild game and gathering of cactus fruits and other wild plant foods. The Western Apache (Coyotero) traditionally occupied most of eastern Arizona and included the White Mountain, Cibuecue, San Carlos, and Northern and Southern Tonto bands. The Chiricahua occupied southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and adjacent Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora. The Mescalero (Faraon) lived east of the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico, with the Pecos River as their eastern border. The Jicarilla (Tinde) ranged over southeastern Colorado, northern New Mexico, and northwest Texas, with the Lipan occupying territory directly to the east of the Jicarilla. By 1750, Comanche pressure forced the Jicarilla and Lipan south toward the Rio Grande. The Kiowa Apache (Gataka), long associated with the Kiowa, a Plains people, ranged over the southern plains of Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas.

By 1688 the Apache groups customarily supplemented their hunting and cultivating economies with raids on settlements of the Spanish and, later, on the westward-migrating American settlers. They attained their greatest fame as guerrilla fighters defending their mountainous homelands under the Chiricahua leaders Cochise, Geronimo, Mangas Coloradas, Victorio, and Juh. The surrender of Geronimo and Juh in 1886 marked the end of Apache resistance. Today the Apache occupy reservations in New Mexico and Arizona, with some Chiricahua, Lipan, and Kiowa Apache in Oklahoma. In 1680 the Apache population was estimated at 5,000; in 1989 it was estimated at about 30,000, of whom most lived on reservations. While accommodating to changed economic conditions, the Apache on reservations have maintained much of their traditional social and ritual activities.