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Apache is the collective name for several Culturally related nations of Native Americans , Aboriginal inhabitants of North America , who speak a Southern Athabaskan Language . The modern term excludes the related Navajo people. The origin of the name ''Apache'' is uncertain. It may derive from the Yavapai word ''epache'', meaning "people". The origin has also been claimed to be the Zuni word ''apachu'', meaning "enemy" (but this may have been the Zuni name for the Navajo People ) or an unspecified Quechan word meaning "fighting-men". The Apaches formerly ranged over southeastern Arizona and north-western Mexico . The chief divisions of the Apaches were the Arivaipa, Chiricahua , Coyotero, Faraone Gileno, Llanero, Mescalero, Mimbreno, Mogollon, Naisha, Tchikun and Tchishi. They were a powerful and warlike tribe, constantly at enmity with the Whites . The final Surrender of the tribe took place in 1886, when the Chiricahuas, the division involved, were deported to Florida and Alabama, where they underwent military imprisonment. The U.S. Army, in their various confrontations, found them to be fierce warriors and skillful strategists. The Apaches are now in reservations in Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, and number between 5,000 and 6,000. ENTRY INTO THE SOUTHWEST The Apache and Navajo (Diné) tribal groups of the American Southwest speak related Language s of the language family referred to as Athabaskan . Southern Athabaskan peoples in North America fan out from west-central Canada where some Southern Athabaskan-speaking groups still reside. Linguistic similarities indicate the Navajo and Apache were once a single Ethnic Group . Archaeological and historical evidence suggests a recent entry of these people into the American Southwest, with substantial numbers not present until the early 1500s. Southern Athabaskan speakers probably moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains where 16th-century Spanish accounts identified them as “ Dog Nomads .” These mobile groups lived in tents, hunted Bison and other game, and used dogs to pull Travois loaded with their possessions. In April 1541, while traveling on the plains east of the Pueblo region, Francisco Coronado wrote: After seventeen days of travel, I came upon a rancheria of the Indians who follow these Cattle (bison). These natives are called Querechos. They do not Cultivate the land, but eat raw meat and drink the blood of the cattle they kill. They dress in the skins of the cattle, with which all the people in this land clothe themselves, and they have very well-constructed tents, made with tanned and greased cowhides, in which they live and which they take along as they follow the cattle. They have dogs which they load to carry their tents, poles, and belongings. The Spaniards described Plains dogs as very white, with black spots, and “''not much larger than water Spaniels .” '' Plains dogs were slightly smaller than those used for hauling loads by modern northern Canadian peoples. Recent experiments show these dogs may have pulled loads up to 50 Lb (20 Kg ) on long trips, at rates as high as two or three Mile s an hour (3 to 5 km/h). (See Henderson) Although there is some evidence Southern Athabaskan peoples may have visited the Southwest as early as the 13th century AD, most Scientist s believe they arrived permanently only a few decades before the Spanish. The Southern Athabaskan nomadic way of life complicates accurate dating, primarily because they constructed less-substantial dwellings than other Southwestern groups. They also left behind a more austere set of tools and material goods. Sites where early Southern Athabaskans may have lived are difficult to locate, and even more difficult to firmly identify as culturally Southern Athabaskan. Trade between the long established Pueblo peoples and the Southern Athabaskans become important to both groups by the mid-16th century. The Pueblos exchanged Maize and woven Cotton goods for bison meat, hides and material for stone tools. Coronado observed Plains people wintering near the Pueblos in established camps. In 1540, Coronado reported the modern Western Apache area as uninhabited and other Spaniards first mention "Querechos" living west of the Rio Grande in the 1580s. Therefore it is likely that the Apaches moved into their current southwestern homelands in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Southern Athabaskans expanded their range through the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblos peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The written term Apache was first used by Don Juan De Onate in 1598. The Spanish first mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navajo) in the 1620s, referring to people in the Chama region east of the San Juan River . By the 1640s, the term was applied to Southern Athabaskan peoples from the Chama on the east to the San Juan on the west. CONFLICT WITH MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES The Apache were a powerful and warlike people, anxious to defend their territory and constantly at enmity with the Whites . In the 1820s and 1830s, the Apaches' chief enemy was the Mexicans, who had gained their independence from Spain in 1821. By 1835 Mexico had placed a bounty on Apache scalps. When Juan Jose Compas , the leader of the Mimbreno Apaches, was killed for bounty money in 1837, Mangas Coloradas or Dasoda-hae (Red Sleeves) became principal chief and war leader and began a series of retaliatory raids against the Mexicans. When the United States went to war against Mexico, the Apache promised U.S. soldiers safe passage through Apache lands. When the U.S. claimed former territories of Mexico in 1846, Mangas Coloradas signed a peace treaty, respecting them as conquerors of the hated Mexican enemies. An uneasy peace between the Apache and the United States held until the 1850s, when an influx of gold miners into the Santa Rita Mountains led to conflict. In 1851, near Pinos Altos mining camp, Mangas was personally attacked by a group of miners who tied him to a tree and severely beat him. Similar incidents continued in violation of the treaty, leading to Apache reprisals. In December, 1860, thirty miners launched a surprise attack on an encampment of Bedonkohes Apache on the west bank of the Mimbres River. According to historian Edwin R. Sweeney, the miners ''"...killed four Indians, wounded others, and captured thirteen women and children."'' Retaliation by the Apache again followed, with raids against U.S. citizens and property. The U.S. Army, in their various confrontations, found them to be fierce warriors and skillful strategists. In early February 1861, Lieutenant George N. Bascom and U.S. troopers lured Cochise , principal chief of the Chokonen Apache, his family and several warriors into a trap at Apache Pass, in southeastern Arizona . Cochise managed to escape but his family and warriors remained in captivity. Negotiations were unsuccessful and fighting erupted. The "Bascom Affair" ended with Cochise’s brother and five other warriors being hung from trees. Later in 1861, Mangas Coloradas and Cochise, his son-in-law, struck an alliance, agreeing to drive all Anglo-Americans out of Apache territory. They were joined in their effort by the chief Juh and the famous warrior Geronimo . Although the goal was never achieved, the Anglo American population was greatly reduced for a few years during the American Civil War . In the summer of 1862, after recovering from a bullet wound in the chest, Mangas Coloradas met with an intermediary to call for peace with the Americans. In January of 1863, he decided to personally meet with U.S. military leaders at Fort McLane, near present-day Hurley in southwestern New Mexico . Mangas arrived under a white flag of truce to meet with Brigadier General Joseph Rodman West , an officer of the California militia and a future senator from Louisiana . Armed soldiers took him into custody and West is reported to have given an execution order to the sentries. That night Mangas was tortured, shot and killed, as he was "trying to escape." The following day, U.S. soldiers cut off his head, boiled it and sent the skull to the Smithsonian Institute . The mutilation of Mangas' body only increased the hostility between the Apaches and the United States, with war continuing for almost another quarter century. The final Surrender of the tribe took place in 1886, when the Chiricahuas, the division involved, were deported to Florida and Alabama, where they underwent military imprisonment. MODERN APACHE GROUPS 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 eastern Arizona . Within the Tonto National Forest northeast of Phoenix it consists of 85 Acres (344,000 m²) and serves about 100 tribal members. The tribe operates a Casino . Apache children were taken for adoption by white Americans in programs similar in nature to those involving the Stolen Generation of Australia. REFERENCES
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