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1500L

Apache
Date: 2023
From: Gale U.S. History Online Collection
Publisher: Gale, part of Cengage Group
Document Type: Topic overview
Length: 1,171 words
Content Level: (Level 5)
Lexile Measure: 1500L

Full Text:
Once largely nomadic hunter-gatherers, the Apache are a group of Native American tribes that spoke variations of the Athapascan, or
Apachean, language and called themselves Inde Nde, or Tinde, meaning "people." Their traditional homeland was a vast area called
the Gran Apacheria, which extended from present-day Arizona in the west to Texas in the east and from Mexico in the south to
Colorado in the north.

Beginning in the 1500s, the Apache came into conflict with the Spanish, who came to colonize much of their homeland and whose
presence eventually led to a long period of fighting, first against Spain, then against Mexico, and finally against the United States,
which acquired a large part of the Mexican territory in 1848. The war with the U.S. government ended with the Apache tribes being
subdued and forcibly relocated to reservations, where most have remained into the 21st century.

Main Ideas
The Apache are a group of formerly nomadic, buffalo-hunting Native American tribes that traditionally occupied what is now
the vast American southwest.
From the 1500s to the 1800s, the Apache engaged in fighting, first with the Spanish colonizers of their homeland, then with
the newly independent Mexicans, and finally with the United States, which took control of Apache territory.
The latter half of the 1800s saw the Apache battling the United States as they defended their historic homelands, before
finally being forced to surrender and relocate to designated reservations.

Precolonial Apache
The Chiricahua, Jicarillo, Lipan, Mescalero, Western Apache, and Plains (or Kiowa) Apache are the main Apache tribes that
traditionally occupied a vast region of the American southwest, stretching across present-day New Mexico and Arizona, west Texas,
south Colorado, western Oklahoma, south Kansas, and into northern Mexico. The Apache lived in groups consisting of extended
family members, with the most able leader in each group designated as chief. The groups were not politically united but instead acted
independently of one another.

The Apache slept in temporary huts called wickiups, which were covered with bark or brush, or in movable tents called teepees,
which consisted of wooden poles covered with animal hide. The teepees were foldable, allowing the Apache to bring them along as
they followed herds of buffalo, which they hunted for meat and hide.

Armed with bows and arrows, Apache men also hunted bison, deer, and rabbits while women cooked, wove baskets, and gathered
berries, nuts, and fruits. Women also planted and harvested crops, including beans, squash, and maize (corn), which was the staple
food of the Apache, and made clothes and shoes from animal skin, which they trimmed with fringes, feathers, beads, and shells.

Spanish Encounter
Around the mid-1500s, Spanish explorers started venturing into the southwest region of what became the United States in search of
gold and silver. Their initial encounters with the Apache, whom they called Querechos, were friendly, but in the late 1590s, the
Spaniards moved into present-day New Mexico, in areas occupied by another group of Native Americans known as the Pueblos. The
Apache had long been trading partners with the Pueblos, who exchanged corn, cotton goods, and pottery for buffalo hide and dried
meat.
With the entry of the Spaniards into New Mexico, which became a Spanish colony in 1598, the trade between the Apache and the
Pueblos was disrupted, and by the 1600s, the relationship between the Spanish and the Apache had become increasingly hostile.
Spanish enslavers would carry out raids to take captives, whom they forced to work in silver mines in Mexico, while Apache bands
would attack Spanish and Pueblo settlements to take cattle, horses, firearms, and prisoners. Such raids were a common practice
among the Apache, who gained a reputation as fierce warriors.

Apache-Mexico Wars
By the 1700s, Apache raids had extended into Mexico, which was also under Spanish control, and the Spaniards had started building
forts and sending more troops into the territory. The hostilities, called the Apache-Mexico Wars, were at their fiercest in the 1770s but
decreased in the following decades when the Spanish started giving out food rations to the Apache.

The conflict resumed after Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821 and the rations stopped. Because the Spanish forts were
weakened, Apache bands went back to raiding villages, and by the 1830s, the fighting had grown so intense that the Mexican
government offered a cash reward for the killing of Apaches, with the scalps of victims serving as proof of the killing.

Apache Wars
During the 1840s, increasing numbers of white settlers moved further southwest, especially after the discovery of gold in California.
The encroachment into their homeland, along with the building of U.S. military forts, angered the Apache. Violent encounters began
to take place between Americans, both civilians and soldiers, and various Apache tribes. By 1861, the United States was engaged in
the Apache Wars.

This war was characterized by fierce fighting, often taking place as ambushes and raids rather than open battles, and the conflicts
spread across a vast area, from southern Arizona to New Mexico and even across the border into Mexico. For much of the war, the
American forces had a tough time battling the Apache, famously led by able warriors, including Cochise (1805-1874) and Geronimo
(1829-1909) of the Chiricahua tribe. Finally, the U.S. military decided to convince some Apache to join them as scouts who would
help find and fight their brethren, a strategy enabled the military to gain the upper hand in the war at the same time that the country
was breaking out into a Civil War of its own between the North and the South.

Forced Relocation
Over the next decades, the Apache fought fiercely for their homeland and freedom and against all attempts by the U.S. government
to relocate them to established reservations, but the long war gradually wore down the Apache’s resistance. By the late-1870s, most
of the tribes had been subdued and forcibly relocated into designated reservations in Arizona and New Mexico.

The last hostile band of Apache, led by Geronimo, surrendered in 1886 after being pursued for more than a year by thousands of
U.S. troops, Mexican soldiers, and Apache scouts. Geronimo and his group were sent to Florida and then to Alabama before finally
being imprisoned in Oklahoma, with their capture marking the end of the Apache Wars.

Contemporary Period
The U.S. government granted federal recognition to the Apache tribes in the 1900s, acknowledging their tribal sovereignty and their
right to self-government. In the 21st century, the Apache lifestyle is a mix of traditional beliefs and rituals, including mountain spirit
dances and modern U.S. cultural influences.

In addition to cattle herding, farming, and lumber milling, some tribes own and operate tourism-related businesses, such as resorts
and casinos. The tribes reside in various reservations: the Jicarilla and the Mescalero in New Mexico, the Chiricahua and Western
Apache in Arizona, the Lipan in Texas, and the Apache in Oklahoma.

Critical Thinking Questions

How did the Spanish colonization affect trade between Apache and Pueblo tribes?
What effect do you think the recruitment of Apache scouts as aides to the U.S. military had on tribal members?
How did America's acquisition of southwest lands affect the Apache?

Further Reading

"The Apache Wars Part I: Cochise." National Park Service. August 19, 2018. Available at
https://www.nps.gov/chir/learn/historyculture/apache-wars-cochise.htm.

Birchfield, D. L. "Apaches." Countries and their Cultures. September 26, 2019. Available at https://www.everyculture.com/multi/A-
Br/Apaches.html.

Terrell, John Upton. Apache Chronicle: The Story of the People. World Publishing. 1972.

Trimble, Stephen. The People: Indians of the American Southwest. School of American Research Press. 1993.
Weiser, Kathy. "Apache – The Fiercest Warriors in the Southwest." Legends of America. June, 2017. Available at
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-apache/2/.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2025 Gale, part of Cengage Group

Source Citation (MLA 9th Edition)
"Apache." Gale U.S. History Online Collection, Gale, 2023. Gale In Context: U.S. History,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/MDQZIZ501039018/UHIC?u=wausauwhs&sid=bookmark-UHIC&xid=ac3dfc73. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.
Gale Document Number: GALE|MDQZIZ501039018